The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes

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View books by Adrian Conan Doyle, John Dickson Carr.

A curious incident of stories - Rated
There is a long and honoured tradition among mystery writers and fans of the Sherlock Holmes tales of writing one's own mystery. This can take one of several starting points - to take a detail in the canonical stories and develop it more fully (there are a lot of dangling pieces in there), to take the characters of Holmes and Watson (and perhaps others) and involve them in completely new fictional scenarios, or involve the characters in actual historical events. Adrian Conan Doyle, youngest son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, teamed with veteran mystery writer John Dickson Carr to produce a series of short stories developing themes that came out of the official canon of 56 short stories and four novels.

The background information tells us that these stories were written at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own desk, so there is a sense of tactile succession from the official stories to these extra-canonical offerings. Well written, they sometimes lack the same smooth character of the better of the official stories (but then again, some of the official stories vary from the high standard of the better of them to a great degree).

This collection of a dozen stories picks up on details out of 'The Speckled Band', 'Silver Blaze', and many others. One of the glories of the Holmes canon is the in the details - those who love the stories spend hours reading and re-reading to catch new ideas and insights, and will likely be thrilled with the way in which Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr have worked in many pieces here.

Half the stories were written by Adrian Conan Doyle himself; the other half were written as a collaboration. I think this is an excellent volume as an extra-canonical addition to the stories. It maintains in good faith the same character of Holmes, Watson, Lestrade and others from the canon; while putting them in new situations, it does not create new personalities or identities or quirks about them, which sometimes prove distracting in some offerings.

The typical fan of Holmes will be pleased, and those new to Holmes will not be misled, and likely be inspired to further reading.

A curious incident of stories - Rated
There is a long and honoured tradition among mystery writers and fans of the Sherlock Holmes tales of writing one's own mystery. This can take one of several starting points - to take a detail in the canonical stories and develop it more fully (there are a lot of dangling pieces in there), to take the characters of Holmes and Watson (and perhaps others) and involve them in completely new fictional scenarios, or involve the characters in actual historical events. Adrian Conan Doyle, youngest son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, teamed with veteran mystery writer John Dickson Carr to produce a series of short stories developing themes that came out of the official canon of 56 short stories and four novels.

The background information tells us that these stories were written at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own desk, so there is a sense of tactile succession from the official stories to these extra-canonical offerings. Well written, they sometimes lack the same smooth character of the better of the official stories (but then again, some of the official stories vary from the high standard of the better of them to a great degree).

This collection of a dozen stories picks up on details out of 'The Speckled Band', 'Silver Blaze', and many others. One of the glories of the Holmes canon is the in the details - those who love the stories spend hours reading and re-reading to catch new ideas and insights, and will likely be thrilled with the way in which Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr have worked in many pieces here.

Half the stories were written by Adrian Conan Doyle himself; the other half were written as a collaboration. I think this is an excellent volume as an extra-canonical addition to the stories. It maintains in good faith the same character of Holmes, Watson, Lestrade and others from the canon; while putting them in new situations, it does not create new personalities or identities or quirks about them, which sometimes prove distracting in some offerings.

The typical fan of Holmes will be pleased, and those new to Holmes will not be misled, and likely be inspired to further reading.

Not for fans of the original stories - Rated
Of the twelve stories, six were written by Adrian Conan Doyle alone and six were written with the American novelist John Dickson Carr.

The stories themselves go a little way to re-creating the feel of Sir Arthur's original 60 stories. They use references to unexplored cases within the original books as a departure point for creating new stories - the so called "unsolved cases" from the original stories.

The six co-written with Carr are definitely the superior, but the further one reads in to the 12 the less comfortable one feels with the use of the Sherlock Holmes brand.

Ultimately, there are 3 complaints that caused me to reject the book outright:
- Of little importance, but annoying nonetheless, it appears from one of the stories that Adrian is unware that "infer" and "imply" have different meanings and should not be confused. The original stories use the word "infer" quite liberally. However, Sir Arthur never confused the use of the word "infer" with the word "imply" - Holmes always inferred from clues that implied. I would guess that Adrian was attempting to keep the feel of the originals by throwing in "infer" whenever he could.
- Of more importance, it should be noted that the phrase "elementary, my dear Watson" is maligned amongst Sherlock Holmes fans for the simple reason that it does not ever appear in the original stories. It was invented as a catchphrase by playwrights writing their own Holmes material during Sir Arthur's life and never adopted for use by the man himself. Adrian's faux pas in having this hackneyed cliche appear is unforgiveable.
- Of absolute importance, by the time the 12th story appears Adrian appears to have run out of ideas. Instead, he sews together elements that have appeared in original Holmes stories and presents it as new story. The main thread of the plot and the method of solving the case is lifted straight from "The Valley of Fear" with no signficant changes. The "mind reading" trick is also a recycled element from the original stories. One wonders if a writer not in the family would have been sued for copyright infringements had they attempted the same in 1954.

After reading all of the original stories, I came to this volume hoping that the family connection would mean I would read something true to the original and with merits of its own. Ultimately, this is merely yet another knock-off that is a shadow of the original stories, together with some terrible annoyances that make me regret ever reading it.

Do yourself a favour and re-read the originals instead of wasting your time on this.

Wonderful Stories Captures Spirit of Original Holmes Tales! - Rated
This collection of stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyles youngest son, Adrian Conan Doyle, in collaboration with American mystery writer John Dickson Carr, are a wonderful treat for anyone who loves the originals! The twelve stories here refer to cases that Doyle made teasing reference to in the original series but never made available to the reading public. The stories are filled with black hearted villians, damsels in distress, atmosphere, and above all, the friendship between Holmes and Watson that have made them the most famous characters in the history of literature. Several stories like "The Adventure of the Deptford Horror" and "The Adventure of the Red Widow" are dark tales of murder; while others such as "The Aventure of the Wax Gamblers" and "The Aventure of the Highgate Miracle" will make you smile. What I enjoyed the most is that the authors have tried to stay true to the characters and didn't try to change them as other writers have done. The stories seem to have been written with one goal in mind, to fill the reader with delight! Originaly written in the early 1950s and out of print for many years, I am happy that Random House has released this once again, and in a Hardbound edition. Come dear reader,"the games afoot!"