The Perils of Sherlock Holmes by Loren D. Estleman
Review by Matt B. (buffalosavage)
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, fearing a bad pastiche. The author of 70-some mysteries and historical westerns, Estleman has been a hardcore Holmes fan and re-reader of the stories since his adolescence in the Seventies.
Estleman is a master of the Victorian idiom: the prose sounds like Conan Doyle. However, he gives the stories his own imaginative 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 inventive stories with a smile on my face. Just amazing work, I can’t recommend it more highly.
