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The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By: John Joseph Adams - editor
Narrated by: Simon Vance, Anne Flosnik
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About this listen

A modern short-story collection featuring the great detective. Stories included:

"A Sherlockiana Primer", © 2009 by Christopher Roden
"The Horror of the Many Faces", © 2003 by Tim Lebbon
"The Case of the Bloodless Sock", © 2001 by Anne Perry
"The Adventure of the Other Detective", © 2003 by Bradley H. Sinor
"A Scandal in Montreal", © 2008 by Edward D. Hoch
"The Adventure of the Field Theorems"; © 1995 Vonda N. McIntyre
"The Adventure of the Death-Fetch", © 1994 by Darrell Schweitzer
"The Shocking Affair of the Dutch Steamship Friesland", © 2005 by Mary Robinette Kowal
"The Adventure of the Mummy's Curse", © 2006 by H. Paul Jeffers
"The Things That Shall Come Upon Them", © 2008 by Barbara Roden
"Murder to Music", © 1989 by Anthony Burgess
"The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor", © 1997 Stephen Baxter
"Mrs. Hudson's Case", © 1997 Laurie R. King
"The Singular Habits of Wasps", © 1994 by Geoffrey A. Landis
"The Affair of the 46th Birthday"; © 2009 by Amy Myers
"The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey", © 2001 by Peter Tremayne
"The Vale of the White Horse"; © 2003 by Sharyn McCrumb
"The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger", © 1993 by Michael Moorcock
"The Adventure of the Lost World", © 2004 by Dominic Green
"The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece"; © 2003 by Barbara Hambly
"Dynamics of a Hanging", © 2005 by Tony Pi
"Merridew of Abominable Memory" © 2008 by Monkeybrain, Inc.
"Commonplaces" © 2008-2009 by Naomi Novik
"The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil's Cape", © 2009 by Rob Rogers
"The Adventure of the Green Skull", © 2008 by Mark Valentine
"The Human Mystery", © 1999 by Tanith Lee
"A Study in Emerald", © 2003 by Neil Gaiman
"You See But You Do Not Observe", © 1995 by Robert J. Sawyer.

©2010 John Joseph Adams (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Detective Fantasy Fiction Mystery Science Fiction Traditional Detectives Adventure Sherlock Holmes Murder Crime

Critic reviews

"For the most part, this volume of short Sherlock Holmes pastiches - a mix of straightforward imitations and parodies - delivers on its goal of presenting the best of such work from the last 30 years....Barbara Roden's "The Things That Shall Come Upon Them" riffs cleverly on M.R. James's "Casting the Runes". Perhaps the highlight is Peter Tremayne's "The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey", which offers a plausible explanation for a classic untold tale in which a man disappears from the face of the earth after returning home to fetch an umbrella." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
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each tale captures the spirit of Holmes whilst adding a fresh twist to the genre

very enjoyable

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Perhaps unsurprisingly,the quality here varies wildly. Some stories evoke Doyle brilliantly, while others demonstrate the poorer instincts of fanfiction: Watson's American nephew will turn up as a Mary Sue for the (US) author or dialogue will be peppered with Americanisms followed by "-as our American cousins would say".



Enjoyment depends a bit on familiarity with the Doyle stories. Some authors seem to use crib-sheets of clichés, rather than canon. Thus Irene Adler is the *only* thing able to coax Holmes out of retirement (to America, naturally), and Watson still reels in surprise at basic deductions, despite decades of friendship with Holmes. Comically, a third of the stories make painstaking reference to Holmes filling his pipe from a Persian slipper - a detail only actually mentioned once by Doyle.



Yet other stories are wonderful, a superb melding of Doyle's style with the weird. Most fall into the format of "Holmes+": Holmes+Lovecraft, Holmes+Time Travel, etc. The best work both as satisfying detective stories as well as genre tales, and the worst at least maintain your interest for the genre-mashing. A highlight combines Holmes with psychic detective Flaxman Low: they investigate in tandem, providing parallel solutions (one natural, one supernatural) and the listener must make his/her mind up.



The only sour note is the continual presence of the Editor, who introduces each story... often badly. "This story involves parallel universes," he says. Well that's the solution to that one then.



Simon Vance is on excellent form, with a very traditional Holmes and Watson that grounds the pastiches nicely before they fly off into stranger realms. Flosnik, though able, is less successful. She reads those stories with female narrators (good plan), but then parades through Italian, Scottish, and Somerset accents with little success.



At 22 hours and over 30 stories, treat this as a lucky dip. Variable quality, but worth it for the highlights.

A Mixed Bag, but an Enjoyable One

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The stories are improbable, but some of them are also very entertaining and in the style of Conan Doyle. What is difficult to take is the reading of the link man between the first few stories, who seems to have never read Sherlock Holmes and persists in calling Moriaty, Holmes arch enemy ' Morierity' Surely someone doing such a job should at least get the pronunciation of a charector right.!!! On the whole a good listen, if in places a tad too improbable.

Improbable is right.

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Great stories and great production. Each one was well told and chapters were not too long.

A different light on Holmes.

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I ordered this book with some hesitations as I was concerned these improbable stories would be far too fantastical or futuristic to be anywhere like the 'old' Holmes stories and while one or two made me groan with annoyance generally I loved these stories. The narrators Watson voice is really good and much like the old TV version.

I too found the introductions of the authors grating but eventually decided to use the time of the intros to settle down for a good listen afterwards without missing the initial and relevant start to the stories. Also rather grating is the US pronounciation of Moriarty (US add an extra i to make it Moriarity every time they say it and I have no idea why).

If authors can continue to write Sherlock Holmes stories similar to the bulk of these then I will continue to read/listen to them so please keep adding pen to paper.

Sally

Keep Writing these Sherlock Stories.....

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