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A review by libra17
Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon by Leslie S. Klinger, Laurie R. King
3.0
This was an interesting read overall, although I only really liked a few of the stories. As far as I'm concerned, the stars of the collection were:
- "Holmes on the Range" by John Connolly: I really liked the idea of highly popular/influential characters becoming real and someone trying to covertly deal with it. Bringing in Conan Doyle and other elements of real life (the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes after his supposed death) was a nice touch. The concept is creative and the story itself is written well.
- "Irregular" by Meg Gardiner: This story flips the script of the Holmes brothers in a way I thought was really cool. The owner of the agency, Michael Croft, deliberately shaped his security agency to be pseudo-Holmesian, right down the employment of a street team of minors that aren't officially employed by the company. When one of these irregulars, a teenage girl, accidentally discovers the culprit behind a data breach and murder by noticing a clue that no one else did, Sharon Hill is the one to maneuver the murderer into a corner. I liked that this story took liberties with features of the characters while taking care to keep their core characterization true to established mythos. Mike Croft (Mycroft) is still brilliant, detached, and sometimes misses important things because of it. Sharon Hill (choosing to go by Shar Locke by the end of the story, to be better fit with the "Baker Street aura" of Croft Security) is observant, obstinate, and caring beneath a somewhat gruff exterior. This was an entertaining little mystery.
- "Raffa" by Anne Perry: This story follows an actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes after a little girl whose mother has been kidnapped approaches him and begs him for help. The situational setup here is fairly realistic (I've certainly read worse justifications for no police help in fiction, even if I'm pretty sure cops in real life would still send someone to check out a reported kidnapping no matter how sure some desk sergeant is that the report is a publicity stunt), and care is taken not to let the plot get overly complicated or stretch the suspension of disbelief too much (for example, the actor, his coactor, and the girl trade the flash drive demanded as ransom to the kidnappers rather than refusing to hand it over or trying some inevitably terrible rescue attempt). I like how the story is from the actor's point of view, so we - readers - first know him as a reluctant Sherlock Holmes, complaining grumpily in his head that his Holmesian acting is not Macbeth, and later as a someone who understands why Holmes is such a beloved figure of so many. This story is probably my favorite out of the entire collection.
As with the vast, vast majority of all anthologies, this was just okay, overall. Some of the stories were interesting, but not ones that I liked or would reread, more than a few were so dull I nearly skipped them, and there were these few that I really liked. I can't really say I'd recommend the entire collection, especially not if someone wasn't interested in reading Holmesian-type stories, but it is at least okay to someone who's interested in that topic, especially since the collection is available for free with Audible Plus.
- "Holmes on the Range" by John Connolly: I really liked the idea of highly popular/influential characters becoming real and someone trying to covertly deal with it. Bringing in Conan Doyle and other elements of real life (the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes after his supposed death) was a nice touch. The concept is creative and the story itself is written well.
- "Irregular" by Meg Gardiner: This story flips the script of the Holmes brothers in a way I thought was really cool. The owner of the agency, Michael Croft, deliberately shaped his security agency to be pseudo-Holmesian, right down the employment of a street team of minors that aren't officially employed by the company. When one of these irregulars, a teenage girl, accidentally discovers the culprit behind a data breach and murder by noticing a clue that no one else did, Sharon Hill is the one to maneuver the murderer into a corner. I liked that this story took liberties with features of the characters while taking care to keep their core characterization true to established mythos. Mike Croft (Mycroft) is still brilliant, detached, and sometimes misses important things because of it. Sharon Hill (choosing to go by Shar Locke by the end of the story, to be better fit with the "Baker Street aura" of Croft Security) is observant, obstinate, and caring beneath a somewhat gruff exterior. This was an entertaining little mystery.
- "Raffa" by Anne Perry: This story follows an actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes after a little girl whose mother has been kidnapped approaches him and begs him for help. The situational setup here is fairly realistic (I've certainly read worse justifications for no police help in fiction, even if I'm pretty sure cops in real life would still send someone to check out a reported kidnapping no matter how sure some desk sergeant is that the report is a publicity stunt), and care is taken not to let the plot get overly complicated or stretch the suspension of disbelief too much (for example, the actor, his coactor, and the girl trade the flash drive demanded as ransom to the kidnappers rather than refusing to hand it over or trying some inevitably terrible rescue attempt). I like how the story is from the actor's point of view, so we - readers - first know him as a reluctant Sherlock Holmes, complaining grumpily in his head that his Holmesian acting is not Macbeth, and later as a someone who understands why Holmes is such a beloved figure of so many. This story is probably my favorite out of the entire collection.
As with the vast, vast majority of all anthologies, this was just okay, overall. Some of the stories were interesting, but not ones that I liked or would reread, more than a few were so dull I nearly skipped them, and there were these few that I really liked. I can't really say I'd recommend the entire collection, especially not if someone wasn't interested in reading Holmesian-type stories, but it is at least okay to someone who's interested in that topic, especially since the collection is available for free with Audible Plus.