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A review by uncle_bunkle
Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes by Charles Prepolec, J.R. Campbell
2.0
A volume dedicated to the supernatural adventures of Sherlock Holmes seems like a contradiction in terms. Holmes is course the arch rationalist who can be relied upon to comprehensively debunk ghosts, vampires, devil dogs and other manifestations of the uncanny. In fairness, editor Charles Prepolec’s introductory essay does a good job of planting Holmes squarely in the gothic tradition and makes a persuasive case for the great detective taking on the eerie and unearthly.
Sadly much of the essay’s good work is undone by the quality of the stories. Two in particular are atrociously written: Mark A Latham’s “The Cuckoo’s Hour” descends into incomprehensible wibbling about secret tunnels, hidden doors, clocks that strike thirteen that leaves the reader enervated and ultimately underwhelmed by the final supposedly horrific pay off. Angela Slatter’s “A Matter of Light” is even worse, a miserable attempt to insert the author’s own Mary Sue character into what reads like a bad “Twilight” fanfic. Shockingly bad.
None of the other stories approach the sheer ineptitude of Latham and Slatter’s but there’s often an irritating gimmicky quality to them e.g. walk ons by created by other authors. Thus we have Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll showing up in “The Strange Case of Dr Sacker and Mr Hope” and Edgar Alan Poe’s Dupin in “Father of the Man”. Poe himself also appears as it’s revealed that he and Dupin are in fact one and the same! He and Holmes team up to catch a globe trotting serial killer who turns out to be...wait for it…Jack the Ripper! Despite chucking in everything but the kitchen sink author Stephen Volk strangelyfails to explain what Holmes is hanging about with someone he is on record as regarding as a “very inferior fellow.”
Other stories start out promisingly but fizzle out in welter of unconvincing exposition. “The Strange Case of Mary Holder” by Nancy Holder (presumably no relation) is a case in point. An intriguing set up bogs down in unconvincing magical flummery whose workings are dictated by the exigencies of the plot. There’s also the outing of the true villain of the piece which, while not entirely unexpected, is presented to the reader as a fait accompli with no real evidence to back it up, they’re a creature of “unimaginable evil” and that’s it.
Of the better stories Lyndsay Faye’s “The Song of a Want” scores points for its social realist depiction of one of the children who became The Baker Street irregulars. He assists Holmes in the investigation of genuinely bizarre and unsettling crime. I can’t help feeling that Holmes’s adopted nom de guerre of Scott Williamson smacks slightly of a tin ear on Faye’s part though.
Best story of the lot is “The Lizard Lady of Pemberton Grange” by Mark Morris which is a fine attempt at reproducing Conan Doyle’s style and plotting. It’s a rather gory affair but there’s nothing eerie or eldritch about it. The motivations of the villains are utterly human, and realistically banal. Ironic that this should be the standout tale in a volume devoted to pitting Holmes against the “weird, supernatural and the uncanny”.
Sadly much of the essay’s good work is undone by the quality of the stories. Two in particular are atrociously written: Mark A Latham’s “The Cuckoo’s Hour” descends into incomprehensible wibbling about secret tunnels, hidden doors, clocks that strike thirteen that leaves the reader enervated and ultimately underwhelmed by the final supposedly horrific pay off. Angela Slatter’s “A Matter of Light” is even worse, a miserable attempt to insert the author’s own Mary Sue character into what reads like a bad “Twilight” fanfic. Shockingly bad.
None of the other stories approach the sheer ineptitude of Latham and Slatter’s but there’s often an irritating gimmicky quality to them e.g. walk ons by created by other authors. Thus we have Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll showing up in “The Strange Case of Dr Sacker and Mr Hope” and Edgar Alan Poe’s Dupin in “Father of the Man”. Poe himself also appears as it’s revealed that he and Dupin are in fact one and the same! He and Holmes team up to catch a globe trotting serial killer who turns out to be...wait for it…Jack the Ripper! Despite chucking in everything but the kitchen sink author Stephen Volk strangelyfails to explain what Holmes is hanging about with someone he is on record as regarding as a “very inferior fellow.”
Other stories start out promisingly but fizzle out in welter of unconvincing exposition. “The Strange Case of Mary Holder” by Nancy Holder (presumably no relation) is a case in point. An intriguing set up bogs down in unconvincing magical flummery whose workings are dictated by the exigencies of the plot. There’s also the outing of the true villain of the piece which, while not entirely unexpected, is presented to the reader as a fait accompli with no real evidence to back it up, they’re a creature of “unimaginable evil” and that’s it.
Of the better stories Lyndsay Faye’s “The Song of a Want” scores points for its social realist depiction of one of the children who became The Baker Street irregulars. He assists Holmes in the investigation of genuinely bizarre and unsettling crime. I can’t help feeling that Holmes’s adopted nom de guerre of Scott Williamson smacks slightly of a tin ear on Faye’s part though.
Best story of the lot is “The Lizard Lady of Pemberton Grange” by Mark Morris which is a fine attempt at reproducing Conan Doyle’s style and plotting. It’s a rather gory affair but there’s nothing eerie or eldritch about it. The motivations of the villains are utterly human, and realistically banal. Ironic that this should be the standout tale in a volume devoted to pitting Holmes against the “weird, supernatural and the uncanny”.