A couple of visits to the CAE library back I ran into what I jokingly thought of as “The Cult of Holmes”. These are books that carry on the grand traditon set by Conan Doyle (if not the standards). But after a bit of investgation it turns out theres tons of ’em.
The weirdest one I have read so far is where Holmes acquires a girlfriend to replace Watson. Don’t believe it? Check out not The Beekeeper’s Apprentice(Or On the Segregation of the Queen) by Laurie R King (The first book in the Mary Russell series).
Here is the blurb
Set in 1914, a young woman, Mary Russell meets a retired beekeeper. His name is Sherlock Holmes, and he sees a fellow intellect in 15-year-old Mary, so takes her as his apprentice. Together, they tackle crimes and investigations, as Sherlock becomes Mary’s mentor and friend.
I ask you?
Here is another, this the blurb for Sherlock Holmes and the Railway Maniac by Barrie Roberts
Now in his third year of retirement, the celebrated master detective Sherlock Holmes announces his firm resolve to stay well out of the affairs of others to his old friend and colleague, Dr John Watson. But this emphatic sentiment is to be short lived. At the behest of his enigmatic brother, Mycroft, Holmes is persuaded to investigate two unexplained, catastrophic train derailments which have caused the death of more than forty people. Why would a criminal wreck an express train? As the clues accumulate – a strange astronomer, the German Intelligence Service, a Russian yacht in the port of Aberdeen – the most homicidal lunatic in Britain remains at large. Can even the strenuous efforts of Sherlock Holmes avert an international calamity and bring to justice this evil assassin? All is revealed in a tale that even the late Conan Doyle would have been proud of.
So? Well it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, Conan Doyle would have had kittens rather than pride I suspect.
Go to Fantastic Fiction and type Sherlock in to the Search Books bit and stroll through the 120+ books that it will turn up. I should also mention that Fantastic fiction is a great site for figuring out in which order to read book series.
Please don’t get me wrong I am chasing these down and reading them because it’s fun seeing just how twisted this can all get. (The girlfriend series is winning so far).
“The Cult of Holmes” is pretty widespread. For example, while tracking down a PDF created by Douglas Johnston ( he runs the DIY Planners project ) I noticed that he had a site about Holmes (Well spotted, as they say) called A Study in Sherlock listed.
Oh no!!! Yep you guessed it nnother fan. It’s a great site though, it covers the books, the movies, the pop culture (Baker Street – The Musical) and a bunch of stuff besides. There went another hour or so. Still I found a few books that might be worth looking up next time I am at the library. I’m not so sure about the musical.