From the son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and one of America's greatest mystery writers, John Dickson Carr, comes twelve riveting tales based on incidents or elements of the unsolved cases of Sherlock Holmes. The plots are all new, with painstaking attention to the mood, tone, and detail of the original stories. Here is a fascinating volume of mysteries for new Sherlock fans, as well as for those who have read all the classics and crave more!
Adrian Malcolm Conan Doyle was the youngest son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his second wife Jean, Lady Doyle or Lady Conan Doyle. He had two siblings, sister Jean and brother Denis, as well as two half-siblings, sister Mary and brother Kingsley. Adrian Conan Doyle has been depicted as a race-car driver, big-game hunter, explorer, and writer. He married Danish-born Anna Andersen, and was his father's literary executor after his mother died in 1940. He founded the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Foundation in Switzerland in 1965. On his death, his sister Jean Conan Doyle took over as their father's literary executor.
This collection of apocryphal Sherlockiana has a special status: the stories herein are the first "authorised" pastiches that came out after the demise of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The rarest of rare collection og pastiches & parodies, edited by Ellery Queen, had been ruthlessly suppressed by Adrian Conan Doyle. Perhaps to amend the situation, or more accurately, perhaps to encash upon the public demand for more Holmes stories, he had collaborated with one of the greatest writers of mystery: John Dickson Carr, justly famous for his locked-room mysteries, to come up with these stories. The strong points that shout in the favour of the stories are: Holmes is true to canon, Watson is authentic, the settings and the characters don't create any discord with those of the canon, and the plots are tight (if not somewhat gimmicky, which takes away some of the re-read value. The stories are:
1) The Adventure of The Seven Clocks: Why does a nobleman keeps on smashing clocks? 2) The Adventure of The Gold Hunter: Can Holmes catch a murderer on the basis of his observations of a watch? 3) The Adventure of The Wax Gamblers: Was it a mistake on the part of the old watchmen, or have the two wax statues of gamblers really started playing cards? 4) The Adventure of The Highgate Miracle: What happened to the gentleman who, after rushing back to his house to collect his umbrella, had vanished from the face of earth? 5) The Adventure of The Black Baronet: There lies a dead man, and there is the suspect at hand who has some motive, but where is the knife that had killed the man? 6) The Adventure of The Sealed Room: Doors closed, windows closed, no intruder apparent, two shots fired accounting for the only two persons present in the room; but why is Holmes sure that this is cold-blooded murder and not just suicide? 7) The Adventure of The Foulkes Rath: The person who had qaurreled with the murdered person is found dazed near the body, holding the murder weapon, sleeves soaked in blood; but why is Holmes looking elsewhere for the murderer? 8) The Adventure of The Abbas Ruby: Who stole the ruby, or more importantly, who had got rid of the Camelias first? 9) The Adventure of The Dark Angels: When death sends its messenger, can Holmes save the doomed man? 10) The Adventure of The Two Women: Holmes & Watson risk all their honour & respectability to destroy the web of blackmail spun by a mastermind, but do they succeed? 11) The Adventure of The Deptford Horror: For years the members of the Wilson family are succumbing to heart conditions, then why does Holmes suspect diabolical shrewdness behind these deaths, and what can he do to save the girl who is now living in the shadow? 12) The Adventure of The Red Widow: a murder has taken place, the suspect is also not unknown, but what has the suspect done to the head of the murdered man?
The stories purloin (or should I say: draw inspiration) from some of the most well-known canonical tricks, or simply re-enginner them to suit the present needs. But many of the themes are distinctly darker and much more disturbing than anything Sir Arthur might have liked. Recommended.
Si eres fan de Sherlock Holmes pero ya has le铆do todos los relatos originales, esta colecci贸n escrita por el hijo de Conan Doyle y John Dickinson Carr, es un muy buen complemento.
Escrita con gran fidelidad y respeto a los originales, desarrolla casos que el doctor Watson mencion贸 en sus diarios pero no lleg贸 a narrar.
Excelente ambientaci贸n y buenas historias. Recomendable.
I must confess that when I read this collection of short stories over 30 years ago, I missed out on one tiny little detail. These stories weren鈥檛 written by Arthur Conan Doyle they were written by his son Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr. This was during the period where I was reading four or five novels a week. So when I read this book, I felt that it was okay, but nothing special. Before the short stories there is a section called 鈥淎lways Holmes鈥�, if I read that section, this book would have never lasted as long as it did on my bookshelf. The following quote should be illuminating: 鈥淎drian Conan Doyle uses the very desk on which his father wrote. He is surrounded by the same objects that his father handled, and he has in every way endeavored to recreate each particle of atmosphere that formed Sir Author鈥檚 environment.鈥�
The only thing missing is that he wasn鈥檛 a genius like his father. A lot of people can write a novel or short story. Few can make their main character such an icon that over a hundred years later many people swear that he was a live person. If you are like me and hooked on Holmes then you will want to read this book just to see how it compares with the original Holmes鈥� books. I am not an expert on deconstructing fiction so I can鈥檛 explain why I think this collection looks like but doesn鈥檛 quite match the original. Maybe another reader will make a comment and explain why I am or am not wrong.
Cada a帽o surgen cientos de pastiches holmesianos (o sherlockianos), pero muy pocos alcanzan el nivel de excelencia esperado. Sin embargo, en los a帽os 50 del pasado siglo, Adrian Conan Doyle, hijo menor de Sir Arthur y conocedor de su manera de escribir, y John Dickson Carr, famoso escritor de novelas de misterio y polic铆acas y gran seguidor de Sherlock Holmes, unieron fuerzas para escribir algunos relatos a la forma de Conan Doyle padre. Los amplios conocimientos de ambos, y su obsesi贸n por los detalles en cuanto a l茅xico, vocabulario, estilo y dem谩s, hacen de estos relatos una de las mejores aproximaciones a la obra de Conan Doyle. La manera de expresarse de Holmes y Watson, los misterios presentados y la ambientaci贸n victoriana, logran que el lector se olvide por un momento de que no est谩 leyendo una de las historias escritas por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Estos son los seis relatos incluidos en esta edici贸n de Valdemar de 鈥楲as haza帽as de Sherlock Holmes鈥�:
La aventura de los siete relojes. Celia Forsythe consulta a Holmes sobre el inexplicable miedo a los relojes por parte de Charles Hendon, que llega a aplastarlos.
La aventura del hacendado de Trelawney. El reverendo James Appley acude a Holmes por la muerte, aparentemente debida a causas naturales, del terrateniente John Trelawney.
La aventura de los jugadores de cera. Holmes, convaleciente de un esguince de tobillo, recibe la visita de Eleanor Baxter y de su abuelo, Sam Baxter, vigilante nocturno en el Museo de Cera de Madame Taupin. Resulta que las cartas de unos jugadores de cera aparecen movidas.
La aventura del milagro de Highgate. La irritante Gloria Cabpleasure acude con un intrigante problema a Holmes: su marido est谩 obsesionado con un paraguas.
La aventura del baronet atezado. Gregson encuentra a Holmes y Watson en su retiro de vacaciones en Sussex y los lleva a Lavington Court, donde el coronel Dalcy, un invitado de Sir Reginald Lavington, ha aparecido apu帽alado.
La aventura de la habitaci贸n cerrada. Cora Murray acude al doctor Watson con el fin de que la lleve hasta Holmes, y ambos puedan ayudarla con su problema. Resulta que el coronel Warburton y su esposa, con los que vive, han aparecido muertos en una habitaci贸n cerrada. Se cree que el coronel asesin贸 a su esposa para posteriormente suicidarse.
Exploits or Exploitation? First published in 1954, this collection features the first officially-sanctioned Sherlock Holmes pastiches (stories starring the Great Detective not written by his creator, ) written by ACD's son with some help from and who knows who else. There are some clever mysteries here, although none are truly memorable, but the writing merely mimics that of Arthur Conan Doyle rather than finding its own stride, and the characters seem a bit off as well. Holmes in particular seems to change personalities from one story to the next, and is overly influenced by his own media depictions - wearing a cape and a deerstalker hat and using phrases like "The game is afoot!" and "Elementary my dear Watson" - which never really appeared in the original Holmes canon.
The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr is collection of Holmesian short stories that felt incredibly authentic. I guess that makes sense with Adrian Conan Doyle on the job since he's the youngest son of Arthur Conan Doyle and everything. I loved their take on the untold adventures - you know, the ones that are only just referenced in the original stories. I would love to read more from Adrian Conan Doyle in the future.
Years ago, I read Adrian Conan Doyle's "Tales of Love and Hate" and I was appalled at the lack of talent of the son of such a gifted writer. I hoped that Dickson Carr, a wonderful mystery writer,would add the necessary talent to these Sherlockian pastiches. I was wrong. The stories are not badly written but they betray the Holmesian spirit in more than one way. Watson is minimized as a vehicle more than as a friend; Holmes' misogyny, which did not despise women but feared and respected them, in this case portrays ladies as puppets of their emotions... and the whodunit side (the Agatha Christie side) is favoured against development of characters and atmospheres. There have been better pastiches and there will be.
This was probably the first anthology of Sherlock Holmes pastiches that I ever read back in the dim and murky past when dinosaurs walked the Earth in mortal terror of Doug McClure. Basil Rathbone was still my main source of Holmes with most of Conan Doyle senior's stories still not having a place on my bookshelves. So now that all those brilliant works by dear Arthur are all indelible features of my memory, perhaps it's time I revisited his son's attempts to recreate his father's style with the help of his dad's old desk and of collaborator John Dickson Carr. Only the first two are full on collaborations with perhaps one of them, The Seven Clocks, being the best story in the collection. It's got a suitably bizarre fellow in it who goes in for some full on random clock smashing but it's the spot on atmosphere that makes the tale. The other being the rather poor The Gold Hunter. Carr's The Wax Gamblers is like one of those old school friends you bump into every five years or so, turning up in various anthologies. It has a very humorous tone and features boxing, an injured Holmes and Watson getting the butt of the jokes but saving the day anyway. Good story. Unfortunately Carr steps over the line too much in the farcical Highgate Miracle. Carr has almost no involvement in the very forgettable Black Baronet but must surely have loaned Conan Doyle some expertise to craft The Sealed Room. Carr is regarded as one of the greatest to pen the sub-genre of the locked room and one of his stories was voted the all time best by his peers. Conan Doyle's father also penned a story of the same name. What results is also quite a good story and another that pops up from time to time. From here on in Conan Doyle junior is left to his own devices as illness took a toll on Carr. What follows are six very derivative stories, mostly dull, with many of the right elements but no finished shine. The pick of them is The Debtford Horror, deeply derivative of The Speckled Band, but quite atmospheric with a nice frisson of creepiness to accompany one of the most creative methods of bumping off unwanted family members ever seen. Though thanks to Conan Doyle senior for sewing the seed by first mentioning in Black Peter the arrest of Wilson the notorious canary-trainer. Although Wilson is not arrested in the story Conan Doyle junior lays the blame at Watson's feet calling it 'a typical Watson error.' Holmes quite uncharacteristically spouts proverbs throughout. Fun though. What always occurs to me after reading a Sherlock Holmes anthology, and the number is legion, is that no matter how closely the writers mimic Conan Doyle senior's style, or how many Holmsian elements are included, none of them come close to performing the alchemy that Arthur Conan Doyle did. In many ways the formula to the literary alchemy of the perfect Victorian Sherlock Holmes story is lost to time because no one has first hand experience of the Victorian era nor the acquaintance of the men the great detective was based upon.
Adrian Conan Doyle has done nothing to demonstrate that he has inherited his father's intellect. The stories are unexceptional and quite mediocre. Every single story has the following elements ever present that make reading quite monotonous: 1. Holmes observing people and thus figuring out their profession or there earlier whereabouts followed by Watson and any other person in their company giving a 'start'. Mind you it's always a start. It's never amazement or shock or fascination. It's always a start. Watson unlike later in the original stories continues to assume that Holmes is making stuff up until Holmes explains to him, his chain of thought. 2. There's an irritatingly excessive use of the word 'Tut' by Holmes. I don't remember Holmes really 'Tutting' people so much in the original stories. 3. Lestrade keeps going on about Holmes being a theoretical person and he himself being a practical one in every single story he appears in.
There are many other such examples which I grow weary of and hence will not list out any further. Read the book if you simply want to read some new Sherlock Holmes stories but don't expect them to be of the same standard as the original ones or you'll be bitterly disappointed.
A collection of twelve short stories. I watched a movie about Sherlock Holmes and decided to read something about him. I think the book is interesting, and You can read :)
The stories were quite mediocre overall, which is the case with Sherlock Holmes pastiches more often than not. I cannot help but compare Adrian's work to his father's, and conclude with disappointment the lack of original, creative ideas, captivating plot and character descriptions which made Sir Arthur's work so exceptional. It was not a bad reading though. There was a repetitiveness in the stories' structure and character interactions, yet I did not regret the time spent on discovering how a legendary writer's son tries to follow his father's legacy.
A very well written Holmes pastiche. The language is admirably similar to the senior Doyle and the descriptions are equally detailed and succeeds in creating the atmosphere.The quality of the stories are closer to the late originals .In other words they are not in the same bracket as the stories from first 3 Holmes compilations . However,the atmosphere and period details are immaculate and the stories are enjoyable if not very remarkable except a couple. They do not touch the lofty standards of late Arthur but Adrian is no slouch either .
These stories are very authentic in tone and plot, and the characters remain as Doyle created them. I did find it jarring to revisit that world and that style, and as good as they are, I wasn't ready for a journey that far into the past and didn't finish the book. I recommend it for true blue fans.
Pastiche is kind of a double-edged sword: if you鈥檙e too faithful, it鈥檚 boring, and if you鈥檙e too innovative, you鈥檙e no longer doing pastiche. I tend to prefer the latter problem, since I鈥檓 usually perfectly happy with all of the authentic versions of stories, and any 鈥渃ontinuations鈥� generally seem pale and lifeless to me.
The Holmes stories seem to have the most continuations out there, of varying quality. I have enjoyed many that I鈥檝e read鈥攊ncluding this book鈥攂ecause I like Holmes and it鈥檚 all very comfortable. But when it鈥檚 too faithful, like this book, you start comparing to the originals鈥攁nd honestly, compared to the best Arthur Conan Doyle stories, all of these are only OK.
My favorites in this volume are the one that reminds me of 鈥淭he Speckled Band,鈥� and the one that reminds me of 鈥淪ilver Blaze.鈥� But the best ones are probably 鈥淭he Sealed Room鈥� and 鈥淭he Highgate Miracle,鈥� which are much more like John Dickson Carr.
Since you asked, my favorite written Holmes pastiches are the ones by Anthony Horowitz, the early Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie, and the Solar Pons stories by August Derleth.
The first half of the book are stories by Adrian Conan Doyle WITH John Dickson Carr. These stories I really didn't like. The deductions employed by Holmes in these stories were so ridiculous as to invoke images of pulling a white rabbit out of a hat. I wondered *why* I had ever liked Sherlock Holmes stories as they seemed so far-fetched, so manipulated, so deus ex machine. I considered quitting the book -something I rarely ever do!
But, the second half of the book contains stories written solely by Adrian Conan Doyle and *these* were stories so reminiscent of the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories that I immediately felt the connection. I remembered *why* I loved the original stories, the warmth between Holmes and Watson, the connection Holmes had to others - his gentleness, his frailties, his humanity. The Holmes in the first half was a caricature, the Holmes in the second half was a beloved and well-known character.
The second half of this book is definitely worth the time!
2.5 Stars This book is an imitation game. It's written like Sir Doyle's work,but without much of the original's magic. There are some stories which came close to great but is overshadowed by the rest of short stories which are either derivative or poorly executed.
Rather than exploits of sherlock holmes, some stories felt like exploiting of Sherlock Holmes !
Personal Favorite: Adventure of highgate miracle and Adventure of sealed Room
Ce dont je suis certain 脿 pr茅sent, apr猫s avoir lu ces douze nouvelles, 茅crites par John Dickson Carr, et Adrian Conan Doyle (fils de sir Arthur), c'est que les connaissances litt茅raires sont loin de suffire pour reproduire ce qu'avait Arthur Conan Doyle accompli avec le personnage de Sherlock Holmes. Ce travail n'a pas ramen茅 de neuf sinon la preuve irr茅futable du g茅nie de son cr茅ateur.
This book, written mostly by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's son, Adrian, was entertaining. The mysteries were interesting. However, Adrian lacks his father's polish. Holmes uses the same catch phrases in several stories, and the plot is solely the mystery at hand. There is no character growth.
Kudos to Adrian Conan Doyle for this lively collection of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson capers. The language is brilliant and his tone has stayed true to his father, Sr Arthur Conan Doyle's original tales.
There are clever little notes at the end of each tale, so we readers can discover how the younger Doyle wrote his tales based upon short references in Sri Arthur's tales. For example, this passage, "At the present instant one of the most revered names in England is being besmirched by a blackmailer and only I can stop a disastrous scandal" from "The Hound of the Baskervilles is used by Adrian Doyle to write "The Adventure of the Two Women."
Two Women" is one of my favorite capers in the collection of "exploits" written by Adrian Doyle. The first six Doyle co-authored with John Dickson Carr, while the last six Doyle alone writes; his language usage is noteworthy. "My watch showed me that is was after eleven o'clock when our hansom deposited us at the corner of Charles II Street. It was a moist, chill night with a hint of fog in the air that hung round the street-lamps in dim yellow haloes and glistened on the cape of the policeman who slowly passed us by, switching his bull's-eye lantern into the porticoes of the dark silent houses." Do not these words take you there on that night in London in 1886?
"Above the rays of the oil-lamp, I beheld an ivory-tinted face with dark, sombre eyes and a beautiful, scarlet, remorseless mouth." With this character description, we can see right off what kind of woman this character will be.
The more I read the more I appreciate the craft of writing in the hands of those like Adrian Conan Doyle. It's not only an engaging storyline or meaningful theme but the language usage that holds my interest.
Pick it up at your local library or used books store, for as far as I know, its last publication date was 1976.
The apple not only fell far from the tree, but it rolled down the hill and pretty much out of sight. While Adrian, Arthur's son, perfectly captures the period--the hansom cabs, the dottles of tobacco in the numerous pipes, the reliable wonderment of Dr. Watson, and the cool, analytical intellect of Sherlock Holmes, the exciting climaxes of Holmes's deductions kind of left me with an "oh, I guess I sort of get it" feeling rather than the "amazing! How did he do it?" feeling that I have always gotten from reading Arthur's original stories. When the curtain is pulled away, Oz is a tiny logician desperately putting clues (or clews) together to see if he can get them to stand up under scrutiny. For me, most of them didn't.
These stories are written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's son using the notes his father left behind. Although he did an impressive job of imitating his father's writing style, there was something missing in the how the details of each mystery came together.
Nevertheless, a nice treat for fans of Sherlock Holmes.
I'm so torn about this. The Victorian gothic imagary is perfect but the writing frankly sucks. Making massive jumps based on tiny bits of evidence simply isn't believeable. Also some of the conclusions are down right stupid. I wish I could have just gone with it and enjoyed it like a game of Cluedo but it felt more believable than a game of Operation.