Steve Emecz's Blog: Musings of a Sherlockian Publisher, page 5

Review of Sherlock Holmes and The Folk Tale Mysteries Volume 1

“These adventures of Sherlock Holmes are set in similar situations to Folk Tales such as 'The Three Little Pigs' or 'Red Riding Hood.' Placing Holmes in this world makes for some terrific stories.

This isn’t the world of Fairy Tales. The stories are not full of magical beings fairy godmothers, or The Wizard of Oz. The author states that the stories do not contain this element because 'magic is illogical.' And yet there is an undercurrent of people and events that could be interrupted as 'magical.'

Folk Tales were invented to make children aware of dangers in the world. There was a true fear of wolves, witches, devils, demons and such. To let children remember the danger, stories were written, often with a moral, to teach caution.

These tales are meant to teach people about Sherlock Holmes!…

Logic and deduction take the place of magic and heroes. And it all is well written and great fun.

I give this volume of stories five stars…”

Reviewed by Raven’s Reviews

Sherlock Holmes and The Folk Tale Mysteries - Volume 1 is available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine,  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UKand for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nookand Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

Review of The Final Tales of Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 - Sherlock Holmes and The Musical Murders

“Normally, the part I like least about a Sherlock Holmes pastiche is the inevitable “how I found the manuscript” story. Many of them are so farfetched as to be ludicrous. That is not the case here. The story is believable once the nature of the tale is discovered. It is indeed one that might have been totally inappropriate for the day and age. Having them hidden in 221B is a plus as well as being marked “REJECT” from the Strand magazine! Brilliant!…

I give the book five stars plus, and look forward to more by this author!”

Reviewed by Raven’s Reviews

Sherlock Holmes and The Musical Murders is available from all good bookstores includingThe Strand Magazine,  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Amazon Kindle,  Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

Review of Golem’s Shadow: The Fall of Sherlock Holmes

“The story builds nicely and is well plotted and written. The final reveal was a bit of a shock, but that means the author has succeeded in his effort to conceal the mystery until just the right moment! I will give this excellent work five stars!”

Reviewed by Raven’s Reviews

Golem’s Shadow is available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine,  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository .In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

Sherlock Holmes Was Really A Woman

My Dear Watson is a very unusual book for two reasons. Firstly, its an award winning Sherlock Holmes novel that was written by an American writer but published first in Japanese - then many years later published in English, and generated so much interest back in Japan again that it was re-published once more in Japanese….

Secondly, it is pretty controversial. The title ‘My Dear Watson’ explains why Holmes’ never married or had romantic engagements by revealing that Sherlock Holmes was in fact a woman.

Whilst this didn't go down too well with traditionalists, the societies and critics felt that Margaret had done a great job;

“Margaret Park Bridges takes an even more revisionist approach in her novel My Dear Watson. The detective’s secret is disclosed at the very start of the book, and it’ll do no harm to reveal it here: Sherlock Holmes was a woman. It’s not a new idea but it’s handled here with great skill and confidence, and it has a purpose, to account for much of Holmes’ personality as described by Dr. Watson.’’ The Sherlock Holmes Society

As pastiches go, it's one of the most interesting ones we have published. As far as how it came to us via Japan it's certainly an unusual story with an even more unusual story. My Dear Watson

Review of Lives Beyond Baker Street

“A book worth waiting for!

This solid volume, subtitled “A Biographical Companion of Sherlock Holmes’s Contemporaries”, contains over 800 one-paragraph descriptions of individuals who were well known in the times of Holmes and Dr. Watson. This will be an invaluable tool for readers seeing an unknown name while reading the Canon, as well as those who wish to add something extra while “editing” some more of Watson’s notes for modern publication.

I wish that I’d had this book decades ago. I discovered the Holmes Canon in 1975 when I acquired an abridged copy of “The Adventures” from a friend in a trade. Not long after, I borrowed ahead on my allowance to buy a complete Doubleday edition. I devoured it, but there were many references in the original stories that could have been made much clearer to that ten-year-old me if I’d had this book.

There have been numerous other books that list characters from the Canon, including Michael Hardwick’s “The Sherlock Holmes Companion” and his “The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes”, along with Molly Carr’s “A Sherlock Holmes Who’s Who”. This book excellently elaborates on individuals that weren’t directly involved in Holmes’s cases, but were still easily identified in Our Heroes’ times. My only regret is that this book, which lists so many important people of that era, leaves out two of the most important, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, men who are arguably more real – at least to me – than any of the other 800 listed.”

Reviewed by David Marcum

Lives Beyond Baker Street is available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK and for free shipping worldwideBook Depository.

Review of The Bird and The Buddha - A Before Watson Novel - Book Two

”With eloquent, refined, and precise prose, this novel calls forth the ethos of the time and the nature of Sherlock’s mind.

In A.S. Croyle’s The Bird and The Buddha, a young Sherlock Holmes stalks a serial killer with the aid of a lovely young doctor whose need to solve the mystery is almost as great as her passion for the romance-averse detective. In this, the second book in Croyle’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired Before Watson series, questions arise that threaten to lead the sleuthing pair to some unsettling conclusions: is the killer someone whose goal is to end suffering, or are the murders just cleverly disguised to look that way? And why are a small Buddha and a dead bird always left at the scene? As Sherlock and the doctor investigate the case, and their feelings for each other, the trail leads them frighteningly close to home.

Croyle’s graphic evocations of gritty, rough, late-1800s London and her portrayal of the quirky, indomitabledetective as he may have been at the beginning of his career, well before he met up with Dr. Watson, are sure toplease fans of Sir Arthur’s tales. Told in the voice of Dr. Priscilla “Poppy” Stamford, whose intellect, desire, andcourage led her to break with convention and follow her dream to become a medical doctor, the tale reveals how hermeasured, deliberate, and purposeful life became chaotic when she met Sherlock Holmes. Poppy’s attraction toyoung Sherlock was immediate, deep, and confusing. The young man possessed an astounding intellect and waslogical to a fault; disdainful of love, he could be warm, but rarely intimate. Despite the fact that he admitted to thefeelings she aroused in him, she came to see that he was unable to commit to another human being.

This novel satisfies on all levels; written in eloquent, refined, and precise prose, it calls forth the ethos of thetime and the nature of Sherlock’s mind, even as it is also able to portray Poppy’s more emotional nature and tosuccessfully carry the rising tension of the chase to find the killer before the wrong man is condemned. In unraveling the convoluted case, Croyle introduces the methods of crime detection of the era; the rough lives of workers and thepoor; the sorry state of British medical practice; the history of hospitals whose work dates back to the twelfth century;the place of women in society; the Buddha’s teachings on suffering; attitudes toward euthanasia, and more. The storyis further enhanced by the inclusion of famous persons of the time, including the flamboyant Oscar Wilde and thesensitive, exotic Rabindranath Tagore.

Croyle’s plot is well-developed, and her powerful imagery is authentic to the era. The mystery unfolds with effective and appropriate pacing, and her sensitive character development illuminates the difficulties that arise when two well-matched intellects try to reconcile the feelings they have for each other with their very different world views.The result is a rich and satisfying reading experience that never ceases to be entertaining.”

Reviewed by KRISTINE MORRIS,  Foreword Reviews 

The Bird and The Buddha - A Before Watson Novel - Book Two is available from all good bookstores including  Amazon USA, Amazon UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository.

MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Volume IV

The fourth volume (now totalling a huge 82 stories + other items) of the record breaking collection of new Sherlock Holmes traditional pastiches is now out on Amazon Kindle.



This volume will have particular interest with Conan Doyle fans as it includes a contribution from members of Sir Arthur's family.

Amazon Kindle

Peter E. Blau reviews The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories

“THE MX BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES, edited by David Marcum (London: MX Publishing, 2015), is an anthology of straight-forward pastiches, carefully selected from what Marcum calls the “Great Watsonian Oversoul.” Marcum believes that “there never can be enough good Holmes stories, relating the activities of the true, correct, and traditional Holmes,” and he offers more than sixty stories, almost all previously unpublished, by authors who are old hands at writing pastiches or newcomers to the genre. The stories (and occasional poems and scripts) are nicely done indeed, and the collection consists of three volumes (439/416/418 pp.) Recommended.
MX’s web-sites are at <www.mxpublishing.com> and <mxpublishing.co.uk>. The authors have donated their royalties to the preservation of Undershaw, Conan Doyle’s former home, which is being converted by the DFN Foundation into a school <http://www.steppingstones.org.uk/>, and the success of the anthology and triggered work on three more volumes <www.tinyurl.com/goj4jap>.”

Volume IV will be released on 22nd May.

The MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository . In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

Holmes in the World of Jules Verne - Review of Sherlock Holmes in the Nautilus Adventure

“…Once again, Joseph W Svec, III takes us (and Holmes and Watson) deep into another fictional world that somehow manages to be real. All of the scenes that excite the reader from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, such as the giant squid, are here in this exciting tale. While showing us the wonders of the Nautilus, and delighting us with Luna the Mermaid, Svec manages to also produce a challenging mystery!

I am also pleased to see that the teaser at the end of the book promises more adventures, perhaps at Camelot!

I gladly give this amazing book five stars plus!”

Reviewed by Raven’s Reviews

Sherlock Holmes In The Nautilus Adventure is available from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository .

Thomas Turley reviews Holmes and Watson - An American Adventure

“David Ruffle’s latest takes our heroes to New York, after Holmes accepts a commission to train its police detectives in his methods.   Before long, however, he and Watson journey to Fall River, Massachusetts to reinvestigate the Borden Mur­ders, still officially unsolved five years beyond.   Complicating their task is a series of new slaughters, for it seems the notorious Lizzie has not ground her last ax.  Ruffle’s research is com­mend­able; he quotes extensively from transcripts of the famous trial and enlivens his text with contemporary photographs.  The minor characters are all well drawn (some are also interestingly named!); and Lizzie Borden confirms her reputation as a mystifying “sphinx of cold­ness.”  Without revealing the result of Holmes’ deductions, the novel’s chief delights remain (as always) Ruffle’s meticulous recreation of the late Victorian world and his obvious affection for the great detective and his Boswell.”   – Thomas A. Turley, author of ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Tainted Canister’

Holmes and Watson – An American Adventure is available for pre order from all good bookstores including The Strand Magazine,  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository . In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo,Nook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).