An Evening In Baker Street

by David Ruffle

On the eve of Sherlock Holmes's retirement Watson pays a final visit to 221b Baker Street. Their quiet conversation is interrupted as other guests drift in and out of the 221b sitting-room...
Also included here is the account of a visit made by Holmes and Watson to Inverness and a record of a strange tale set in Borley Rectory, once believed to be the most haunted house in England.

Genres: Mystery

100 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2016

About the author

David Ruffle was born in Northamptonshire in the UK at an early age in 1956,yes..a long time ago. The school years passed by in a blur, or was he the blur ? He managed to extricate himself from the education system at 15 years of age and embarked on the adventure of life.

Eventually, said adventure took him to Dorset and the beautiful town of Lyme Regis in July of 2004.He felt immediately at home here and surprised himself by starting to write...first, poetry and later ghost stories. All the time he felt that Lyme Regis would be a perfect place for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to have an adventure, any kind of adventure ! And so...Sherlock Holmes and the Lyme Regis Horror was born. The story continues.

David is now with the MX publishing team and further titles have appeared; Sherlock Holmes and The Lyme Regis Legacy, Tales From The Stranger's Room (as contributor and editor),and Holmes and Watson: End Peace. A children's illustrated book, Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Snowman (with illustrations by Rikey Austin, another Lyme Regis resident and hugely talented to boot)saw the light of day in November 2012. Two weeks later the third and final part of the Sherlock Holmes/Lyme Regis trilogy appeared: Sherlock Holmes and the Lyme Regis Trials. Also in the offing is an outing to Scarborough for Holmes and Watson, a proposed tale of thievery, murder and cricket!(A collaboration).Meanwhile, he is still to be found in Lyme Regis, working away and drinking the odd cider, diet permitting. The Abyss: A Journey With Jack The Ripper is set to be published in December 2013.
On a whim he decided to try his hand at comedy resulting in A Twist of Lyme and Another Twist of Lyme. These were published in 2014 along with the final book in the trilogy, A Further Twist of Lyme. New for 2015 will be, Holmes and Watson: An American Adventure. 2016 will see the publication of Holmes and Watson: An Evening in Baker Street followed by The Gondolier and the Russian Countess, a Holmes and Watson adventure set in 1902 Venice. And with any luck, Sherlock Holmes and the Scarborough Affair should surface by the end of the year!

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Presented in an unusual way, the first part of the book is, as the title says, an evening in Baker Street. Holmes announce to Watson his intention to retire to Sussex and the two friends chat amiably about their long partnership, reminiscing old cases and talking about themselves, while old friends and acquaintances come to visit.

I particularly liked Lestrade's visit and see the obvious respect that has grown between them in all those years working together :D

After this, there are two short stories, 'The Loch Ness Affair' and 'An Essex Adventure' which are inconclusive in their endings, but interesting nevertheless.

Kevin Theis does a great job with the narration.

[odedo1 Audio book worm. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for a story.


Even so that I knew that it’s too
short for a good story I decided to give David Ruffle the author a chance, after all it happened before and that it could happen again.
Well I was wrong this story is really about Dr. Watson trying to convince Sherlock Holmes not to retire by reminiscing a few memories from the past.
That’s about it !!!!

Kevin Theis narration was perfect so no complaints !!

I can’t in a clear mind
recommend this two hours
audiobook !


Oded Ostfeld.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are discussing; Holmes’ plans to retire to tend to bees. They talk about several cases that did not have a favorable or logical conclusions.

[Thomas Turley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prolific David Ruffle’s latest book is a slender, but unusual and entertaining volume. Its title work, told only in dialogue, is not a story. Instead, it is a meditation on their long partnership by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, while they sit reminiscing after Holmes has announced his intention to retire. As they review the highlights of the Canon, old friends drop by to visit; old enemies return in retrospect; and the two debate everything from the doctor’s pawky humor to the great detective’s doubts about divine order in the universe and his own place in the new century. Few Sherlockians understand the relationship between Doyle’s central characters as well as David Ruffle. The reasons he cites for Holmes’ retirement eschew the apocryphal, romantic explanation first proposed by Baring-Gould. Holmes and Watson receive a satisfying send-off, but one that keeps them firmly grounded in the Canon. Along with historical photographs and Sidney Paget illustrations, the book includes two excellent, though inconclusive, cases. “The Loch Ness Affair” demonstrates that even Holmes’ best-laid deductions can sometimes gang agley, while “An Essex Adventure”—a ghost story set in a real rectory of ill repute—would surely please a spiritualist like Conan Doyle. All in all, An Evening in Baker Street offers another fine outing from David Ruffle for his fans.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Evening in Baker Street by David Ruffle

My thanks to Steve and Time of MX Publishing got my review copy of this book.

The opening story in this less than 100 page book is written all in dialogue, and is confusing at times as there is never anything like “Holmes remarked,” “Watson said,” “Mrs. Hudson spoke up,” etc. The dialogue changes characters in and out without any reference as to who is speaking.

I am sorry to say I found it not only hard to read, but boring as well.

“The Loch Ness Affair” has Holmes and Watson investigating a missing boater on Loch Ness. The body turns up torn and shredded as if by Nessie herself!

There is a twist in this little tale that is very delightful!

“An Essex Adventure” sends Holmes and Watson to the Borley Rectory, known as the Most Haunted House in England. Holmes, of course has an explanation for everything spooky occurrence. A twist ending may surprise the reader!

I have to ding the author two stars for the truly dreadful main story, but the two shorter tales are exquisite! I grant the book three stars.

Quoth the Raven…

[LuAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Ruffle’s Lyme Regis Holmes books and this one, while competently written and narrated, features a more contentious Holmes and Watson. When Lestrade and Wiggins are visiting Baker Street in the first story, the reminiscing with Holmes and Watson is warm and pleasant, but when Holmes and Watson are alone, they mostly bicker.

And while I would have preferred the “Evening” story to come last as the other cases obviously happened before them chronologically, ACD himself did not present all Holmes cases in chronological order.

I like the new element of Holmes having one case interrupted by another in one story.
Thanks to MX publishing for a free audio version.

[Phil Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good premise flawed by mediocre execution and editing. Sentence fragment errors; extra or missing prepositions, etc. There is at least one section of the text where the author appears to have forgotten that he covered essentially the same material earlier in the conversation.

The "Evening" story is less than 50 pages long. The rest of 'book' is made up of two extra stories. They are OK, but nothing special.

If I had paid a couple of dollars for this, I'd probably given it three stars; but, for ten dollars it was poor value received.

[Outlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

This offering of short stories from David Ruffle was not as effective as either "Holmes and Watson End Peace" nor "Sherlock Holmes Tales from the Stranger's Room", but better than the Lyme Regis trilogy. Basically the main story is a conversation between Holmes and Watson days before Holmes retires to Sussex and his bees, with "walk in" visitors adding to the conversation. Followed by a Loch Ness monster story that is short but fun, then a rather boring "haunted house" story.