The Scotsman Abroad | Holmes for the Holidays

As much to my surprise as anyone else's, I enjoyed the new Sherlock Holmes novel by Alex Rider writer Anthony Horowitz... well, immensely. You can read my review of The House of Silk in full here, but suffice it to say Horowitz's novel so endeared the great detective to me that I immediately laid waste to my little library, the better to see what other contemporary pastiches I could read to tide me over till the imminent second season of the exemplary BBC series.

Fast-forward to the present - though 2012 still sounds like the far-flung future to me - and I may have read more Sherlock Holmes stories in the last month than ever before -- not just to satisfy my own appetites, either, because a while ago I heard how the overlords in charge of Tor.com were intending to keep the site ticking on over through Christmas and New Year.

The result - Holmes for the Holidays - has been running since a bit before the big day, and it's been brilliant. Lots of fun, and indubitably interesting. If you aren't following along already, I'd wholeheartedly recommend you pop on over to the index and catch up if you can.

For my part, I contributed two short articles, both of which have now had their official unveiling. In the first, I looked at an old one-shot Caliber Comics put out in the mid-90s: namely The Sussex Vampire, a short graphic adaptation of the original Conan Doyle story masterminded by none other than Warren effing Ellis.

'The Sussex Vampire' is an excellent adaptation of a sterling Sherlock Holmes story, fittingly illustrated and ably scripted by an author since risen to renown, whose early work – up to and including this superb single issue – deserves a great deal more attention than it gets. Warren Ellis and Craig Gilmour make for fine co-conspirators, and while 'The Sussex Vampire' isn’t as easy to find these days as it was for me, way back when – at least, not by legal means – if you can: do.

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And I couldn't very well let a celebration of all things Sherlock Holmes pass by without a tip of the trilby - ahem - to Neil Gaiman, whose stunning 'A Study In Emerald' entangled the mythos of everyone's favourite consulting detective together with that - of all things - of H. P. Lovecraft.

Then, in the process of researching 'A Study In Emerald,' I realised Gaiman had recently written a second Sherlock Holmes story, so I got myself a copy of the new anthology out of Titan Books - that is to say A Study in Sherlock - and endeavoured to write about these two weird tales together.

'The Case of Death and Honey' occurs in the mysterious twilight years of the great detective's career, but is also alludes to what might have happened to our man after his retirement. Given that 'A Study In Emerald' so evoked 'A Study in Scarlet' - which is to say the very first Sherlock Holmes story - this, I think, is particularly fitting. A sort of closing of the circle; though it isn't giving the game away to stress, a second time, that appearances can be... deceiving.

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Never mind the various other stories it contains, A Study in Sherlock is worth the price of admission for 'The Case of Death and Honey' alone. It's the sort of short story that reminds you what short stories are for. 

Anyway, I will of course be glued to the telly tonight, when the first feature-length episode of the second season of the BBC's Sherlock series premieres. If there's a better way to ring in 2012, no-one's mentioned it to me!

I'm almost afraid to ask, but you guys are as psyched as I am, right?

As to A Game of Shadows, in case you were wondering: no, I haven't seen it yet... but I am hoping to make it to the movies in the imminent. For this, do you think? Or should I wait to rent it on Blu-ray, and see something better?

The Scotsman Abroad | Horowitz Is At Holmes

This interview with Anthony Horowitz did not make me want to read The House of Silk.

The House of Silk, for those of you who don't know, is the new Sherlock Holmes novel. No, really: there's a new Sherlock Holmes novel. Is that such a surprise? Given, for instance, the "lost" volume of Gormenghast that came out earlier in 2011? Never mind the renewed interest in the character and the canon as a result of the BBC TV series, which in my eyes can't come back soon enough, and the new movie franchise, which can, and indeed shall in a few short weeks.

Anyway, for the first time since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's death, the estate who hold the copyright on the great detective has invited a new author to step into Sherlock's shoes: namely Anthony Horowitz, who writes the Alex Rider series, and seems - to put it politely - pretty sure of himself.

The result? Actually a pretty terrific addition to the mythos:

"Call it revisionist literary history, call it po-faced pastiche, call it whatever you damn well please — and no doubt a certain camp will call The House of Silk a cold-blooded cash-grab, and worse — but be assured, whatever your position going in: it is from first to last a worthy Sherlock Holmes story, and there can be no more persuasive testament to its faithfulness, if not necessarily its greatness, than the fact that the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have claimed it as canon... though I would suggest, with the greatest respect, that they do so at their own peril.

"You see, insofar as The House of Silk pays fond homage to the Sherlock Holmes stories we have adored before, over and over, in the same breath Horowitz’s all-too-short sidequel of sorts also serves to shine new light on those things that made the great detective great, not least his ensemble support and the city his stories are set against. We see Holmes guided for once by instinct over intellect; we meet an Inspector Lestrade much improved over the hapless fool of Conan Doyle’s stories; meanwhile the Scots author’s well-to-do London seems in retrospect a positively pleasant place next to the ominous underbelly Horowitz represents so authentically." 

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The House of Silk is respectful but not slavishly so, darker than the Sherlock Holmes stories we're used to but not so insidious as to scare anyone off. Ultimately it's just a bit of fun, and I rather doubt it'll ever figure in to the complex chronologies Conan Doyle devotees like to put together to pick apart... but fun is fun. I like fun.

Don't you?