Gaslight Grimoire: Featuring the Tales of Sherlock Holmes
Edited by J R Campbell and Charles Prepolec
Take a mixture of Sherlock Holmes stories; add a pinch of HP Lovecraft or other horror master; chill, and you have this book!
“The Lost Boy” by Barbara Hamley: Told through the narration of a dying Mary Watson, this story brings the dream world together with reality. In that dream world, Peter Pan is seeking the great detective to clear his name on kidnapping charges.
There is a haunting beauty to this story, and I cannot give it less than five stars out of five!
“His Last Arrow” by Cristopher Sequeira: This story has a dark tone and a twist that I refuse to even allude to. With Holmes temporarily out when Gregson calls, Doctor Watson, recently returned to Baker Street with the failure of his marriage steps in. A man has been killed by an arrow from a crossbow, apparently self-inflicted. A mysterious photo lies on the floor. Labeled: “The Shaman asks for mercy on his Death-bed.”
When Holmes arrives, a stranger named Faroukhan has already been there seeking him. And the rest of this five stars out of five story you must read for yourself! It is wonderful, if twisted!
“The Things that Shall Come upon Them” by Barbara Roden: When strange things occur in Lufford Abbey, Warwickshire, Holmes finds himself contacted by the lady of the house, Mrs. John Fitzgerald to solve the problem. However, her husband has contacted Flaxman Low, as he believes the problem to be supernatural.
Basically they have a haunted room. Their house was once owned by a man named Julian Karsewell, a student of the black arts who died when a stone from a church tower fell on his head.
Now begins the battle of science versus the paranormal, as two widely differing detectives take their own personal views of the problem. This story is excellent, and worth five stars out of five!
“The Finishing Stroke” by MJ Elliot: People who buy the art of a certain Algernon Redfern dies under mysterious circumstances, one just after a visit from Holmes and Watson. Holmes has to think way outside the box for this adventure. How can art kill?
The story is well written and well paced. I will give it the five stars out of five it deserves.
“Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World” by Martin Powell: Holmes and Watson are bade by the Prime Minister himself to undertake the case of the missing Professor George Challenger. Mr. Powell has made a master stroke by combining two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creations into one story. Accompanied by Challenger’s daughter, herself a Professor; they set of for the Lost World.
This is nothing short of literature magic, and worth five stars out of five!
“The Grantchester Grimoire” by Chico Kidd & Rick Kennett: Grantchester Abbey has a “chained library” of occult material. When the owner falls into a coma inside the library and remains comatose; his wife calls in Sherlock Holmes. A manuscript from the library is missing, assumed stolen. Holmes doesn’t like it when Carnacki the Ghost Finder also becomes involved. But events quickly move beyond Holmes’ comfort zone and more into that of Carnacki.
The authors have blended the world of Holmes very well with the world of Carnacki. Both experts are needed to solve the puzzle. This makes for a great five stars out of five story!
“The Steamship Friesland” by Peter Calamari: The Holmes aficionados will recognize the title as one of the unwritten cases Walton alludes to in the cannon. A ghostly presence alerts Holmes to things about the disappearance of this vessel that the papers cannot, for they do not know.
The blend of the ghostly into the rational is subtlety done. The readers of the Holmes Cannon will quickly remember the name of the ghost and the circumstances of his death when the name is revealed. This is definitely five stars out of five writing!
“The Entwined” by JR Campbell: This is out and away my favorite story in this book. A woman in a insane asylum confesses to the murders of several men. The snag is that she was locked up tight when these took place, often at great distances from the asylum. Yet she has the details correct.
She begins to speak of her “other” and her “rider” and tells of a world under a red sun where she is a fearsome creature. This mixture of fantasy, horror, and Holmes is a cocktail Holmes fans will find intoxicating! A must read five out of five stars story!
“Merridew of Abominable Memory” by Chris Roberson: Again, those knowledgeable of the Holmes Cannon will recognize another case Watson alluded to but did not write. An elderly Watson is convalescing in a sanatorium when he begins to reminisce about a case he had with Holmes long ago.
A serial murderer known as “The Dissembler” is leaving gory bodies around London. The work is certainly not that of Jack the Ripper. The dead are servants of the rich and powerful, and all have been replaced by an American. The man appears somewhat addled, but Holmes recognizes him as a mentalist he met years before in America known as Merridew.
Could you imagine the horror behind never being able to forget? This is the talent of Merridew, useful to a daring criminal, and ultimately the bane of Merridew’s existence. I happily give this story five stars out of five! Best in the book, I believe!
“Red Sunset” by Bob Madison: Written Sam Spade style, this story teams a hard-boiled detective with a century old Sherlock Holmes. A rash of disappearances in Santa Monica leads Holmes to suspect that perhaps Van Helsing wasn’t as successful as he reported in the case of Count Dracula.
I loved the mix of hard-boiled and Holmes like a great chef’s amuse-bouche. Bob Madison, I salute you, Sir, with five stars out of five.
“The Red Planet League” by Kim Newman: This is actually a Professor Moriarty tale written by Colonel Sebaistan Moran. Sir Nevil Aiery Stent takes great joy in tearing Professor Moriarty’s great work, The Dynamics of an Asteroid, apart in a public forum, right in Moriarty’s face. Of course the Professor isn’t going to take this lying down. There is a touch of the diabolical worthy of Fu Manchu in the Professor’s revenge.
And so we end this book with one more five stars out of five story. This is a fantastic collection the pickiest fan would find to be at the least interesting!
Quoth the Raven…
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