Thursday, December 24, 2015

Mount TBR #53

I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over at My Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2015. The challenge is to read books that you already own.

The Perils of Sherlock Holmes – Loren Estleman

This short story collection was authorized and licensed by the estate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the world’s greatest consulting detective. A discerning reader need not be wary of a bad pastiche. The author is 70-some mysteries and historical westerns, Estleman has been a hardcore Holmes fan since adolescence but he doesn’t write fanfic.

Estleman is a master of the Victorian idiom: the prose sounds like Conan Doyle. However, he gives the stories his own stamp by taking our favorite duo to both the UK and US basing characters on real-life figures such Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and Sax Rohmer (the creator of Fu Manchu). There is even a story that takes Holmes and Watson to mansion formerly owned by Scrooge and now owned by grown up and successful Tiny Tim.

All in all, I read these stories with a smile on face. Just amazing work, I can’t recommend it more highly.

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