Sherlock Continued

 

Titan Books recently began releasing several titles in a series they call "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,"  all pastiches written by different authors that were published years ago but were out of print. There will eventually be about ten in all, with the first four debuting in November of last year and two more coming up in February. Titan certainly had its share of Holmes-inspired books to choose from for this collection: Sherlockian scholar Philip K. Jones maintains a database of more than 8,000.

Here's a rundown of the six offerings in the Titan series released thus far:

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : War of the Worlds  by Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman (father and son). Manly Wade Wellman was best known for his scifi, horror and fantasy. War of the Worlds was co-authored by Wellman and his son and taken from six short stories later combined into a novel length work. The idea came about after a viewing of the film A Study In Terror, (Holmes taking on Jack The Ripper) inspired Wade Jr. to think about what would happen if Holmes had taken on the Martians in H.G. Welles classic tale. Thus the premise of this work was born in which Sherlock Holmes, Professor George Challenger (another Doyle creation) and Dr. Watson find themselves in the middle of a prolonged alien invasion that decimates London, as they try to get to the bottom of the nature and intent of the attack.

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Veiled Detective by David Stuart Davies. Davies actually wrote six different Holmes pastiches, as well as an award-winning one-man play. In The Veiled Detective, a young Sherlock Holmes arrives in London to begin his career as a private detective, and catches the eye of the master criminal, Professor James Moriarty, who wants to find a way to control Holmes. Enter Dr. Watson, newly returned from Afghanistan, soon to make history as Holmes' companion. The premise turns the classic relationship between the two on its head, namely, what if everything you knew about Holmes and companions was actually orchestrated by none other than Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty? 

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Ectoplasmic Man by Daniel Stashower. Stashower is also a magician and has been fascinated with both Houdini and Holmes throughout his career, writing books and articles on both, including the relationship between contemporaries Holmes and Houdini. In Stashower's very first novel, The Ectoplasmic Man, he has Harry Houdini framed and jailed for espionage. When Sherlock Holmes vows to clear his name, the two join forces to take on blackmailers who have targeted the Prince of Wales in a case people are calling "The Crime of the Century."

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Scroll of the Dead by David Stuart Davies. Davies is another author who has written extensively about Holmes and Conan Doyle, both in fiction and nonfiction. In his novel The Scroll of the Dead, Holmes attends a seance to unmask Sebastian Melmoth, an impostor posing as a medium. He soon finds Melmoth is a mad man hell-bent on obtaining immortality after the discovery of an ancient Egyptian papyrus, and it's up to Holmes and Watson to stop him and avert disaster as their quest takes them to Norfolk and Cumberland in England's Lake District.

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Man From Hell by Barrie Roberts. Barrie, who died in 2007, was a freelance journalist, folksinger and a criminal lawyer who still found time to pen ten Holmes pastiches in all. In his The Man From Hell, wealthy philanthropist Lord Backwater is found beaten to death on the grounds of his estate. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have to get to the bottom of a 40-year-old secret to unravel the mystery which pits them against a ruthless new enemy and takes them across the globe in search of the killer.

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Stalwart Companions by  H. Paul Jeffers. Jeffers (who died in December 2009) wrote extensively on history topics, including a biography on Teddy Roosevelt. He also penned The Forgotten Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a book of stories based on the original radio plays by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green. The Stalwart Companion, which is "written" as if by future President Theodore Roosevelt (and "recently discovered" in the basement of the New York Police Department), is set long before Holmes' first encounter with Dr Watson, when the detective visits America to solve a most violent and despicable crime, the most taxing of his brilliant career.