Addy Zhuang has a job many of us would kill for. He’s been hired to answer Sherlock Holmes’ mail. Well, the messages that people send to 221B Baker Street, one of the most famous addresses of all time. Sherlock’s Secretary is a present-day mystery novel that begins when someone steals some of Sherlock’s letters. Addy and true crime podcaster (and object of Addy’s crush) Zabel Carvalho follow the clues to find out who’s behind the theft and why. Along the […]

There have been many Sherlock Holmes stories and pastiches set in both the classic (1890–1910, or thereabouts) and modern eras. A Study in Crimson: Sherlock Holmes 1942 takes a different approach, with a setting inspired by the 1940s Universal Pictures film series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. As told by Robert J. Harris, someone calling himself “Crimson Jack” is recreating the murders of Jack the Ripper. The book beautifully sets the stage with a minor case that introduces us […]

In Sherlock Holmes and the Molly-Boy Murders, Margaret Walsh manages quite the feat: she combines the traditional feel of a classic Holmes pastiche with a modern sensibility when it comes to characters and motivations, enlivened with flashes of dry humor. Someone is killing and mutilating young men who dress as women. The variety of characters include a well-meaning woman who runs a safe house for young men of this type, a young baronet and his private secretary, and a medical […]

(I have begun reviewing Sherlock Holmes books for the website belonging to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, the premier Sherlock Holmes podcast. This review originally appeared there.) Sherlockians know that “playing the game” means considering Arthur Conan Doyle’s role as Dr. John Watson’s literary agent. Doyle couldn’t have been the author, as Watson, of course, wrote those stories about his friend Sherlock Holmes. In Sherlock Holmes: Playing the Game , Cenarth Fox takes this approach to ludicrous but amusing extremes. […]