Archive for the 'Sherlock Holmes'

• As I mentioned here last week, April 2013 brings the fifth anniversary of the Web-wide “forgotten books” series, initiated by Detroit short-story writer Patti Abbott. To celebrate, both The Rap Sheet and Abbott’s Pattinase blog will be hosting new entries in that popular series. And on top of that, Abbott will post some entries from years past. Offered today is a look back at a work outside the crime-fiction realm, Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, reviewed by Julie Hyzy, author of the White House Chef Mystery series.

• April 1 also begins “30 Days of the 5-2,” a blog tour highlighting the diverse works of verse published in Gerald So’s The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly. Today’s entry is a new piece, “Criminal Foolishness,” by Jerry House. Click here to see what else is in store over the next 29 days, or to participate in this blog tour yourself.

• And what would the first of any month be without a new “Getting Away with Murder” column from British author-boulevardier Mike Ripley? His latest collection of witty tidbits for Shots covers Christopher Landon’s largely unheralded Harry Kent private-eye series, publisher Penguin’s new e-book policy, Michael Crichton’s pseudonymously published novel, Overkill (1970), Christopher Fowler’s forthcoming memoir, Film Freak (“the confessions of a film nut determined to get into the British film industry at precisely the wrong time”), and the proverbial much, much more.

• Some books try a little too hard to grab your attention.

• Well, this is excellent news! A 2010 non-fiction book to which I contributed--Following the Detectives: Real Location in Crime Fiction, edited by Maxim Jakubowski--has been shortlisted for the CrimeFest Non-Fiction Award. The list of contenders for that commendation is fairly intimidating, but my fingers are crossed that Jakubowski’s exceptional volume will walk away with the prize.

• I knew that the literary character Ellery Queen had appeared in several issues of the comic book Crackajack Funnies during the 1940s, but I’d never seen any of those magazines. Fortunately, Evan Lewis has put some of them on display here.

• Meanwhile, a full Queen comic yarn--this one published in the 1962 edition of Ellery Queen: Detective--can be enjoyed here.

• Just a month and a half ago, I questioned whether the crime-fiction e-zine Mysterical-E was still a going concern, after having failed to produce an issue since the one dated Spring/Summer 2012. But now I see that a new, Fall 2012/Winter 2013 edition has finally been posted. It contains short stories by John M. Flood, Craig W. Steele, Patti Abbott, Dorothy Francis, and others, as well as Patrick Ohl’s latest column about Sherlock Holmes and Gerald So’s suggestions of some TV- and movie-themed gift ideas (which I suspect were intended to run before this last Christmas).

• It appears the blog Murderati really is closing up shop after producing seven years’ worth of valuable posts.

• Which actor performed best as Sherlock Holmes? Nick Cardillo asks that question in his fine blog, The Consulting Detective. You can read his write-ups about three contenders for that honor--Jeremy Brett, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Cushing (what, no Roger Moore?)--and then vote for your favorite in his site’s poll.

• Remembering editor Jacques Barzun.

• Finally, if you’re looking for some reading material this April Fool’s Day, see Janet Rudolph’s list of crime fiction linked to this holiday.

Buddy2Blogger reminds me that, according to American journalist-editor Christopher Morley, founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, today marks the 159th anniversary of Sherlock Holmes’ birth. Since I have written before on this page about Holmes’ natal day (and also the birthday of Dr. John H. Watson), I shan’t dwell at length on this matter, but only hope that the ghost of the Great Detective is enjoying a pipe and a bit of violin practice somewhere in the hereafter.

This season holds particular significance for followers of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. It was 125 years ago, in 1887, that Holmes and his chronicler, Doctor John Watson, made their first appearances in A Study in Scarlet, a novel published in the paperback magazine Beeton’s Christmas Annual. That yarn had previously been called A Tangled Skein and featured sleuth Sherrinford Holmes, who shared rooms at 221B Upper Baker Street in London with a character called Ormond Sacker. However, author Arthur Conan Doyle, at the time a physician with a not terribly successful practice in Portsmouth, England, changed all of those names prior to publication. Thank goodness.

Conan Doyle was paid a remarkably modest £25 for his work, which appeared again a year later in book form, complete with illustrations by the author’s father. Favorably reviewed by the prominent newspapers in Scotland, A Study in Scarlet would be followed by three more Holmes novels and 56 short stories, and help make Conan Doyle one of the world’s best-selling crime novelists.

If you’ve never read A Study in Scarlet ... first of all, shame on you! But if you would like to at least hear it being read, an audio recording of the book is available on YouTube. Click here for Chapter One.

READ MORE: “Sherlock at 125,” by Les Blatt (Classic Mysteries).

We’re approaching the 125th anniversary of Sherlock Holmes’ introduction to the reading world. His first adventure, in A Study in Scarlet, was serialized in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in late 1887. Gregory McNamee commemorates this occasion with a short piece for the Kirkus Reviews Web site. It begins:

It was an inspired but utterly accidental moment when Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish doctor struggling to establish himself both as a physician and as a writer in late Victorian London, drew upon the habits of an irascible medical school mentor to concoct a character that he pegged as a “consulting detective,” an utterly newfangled job description.

You can enjoy the full article here.