R. Holmes & Co.: Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth

by John Kendrick Bangs, Sydney Adamson (Illustrator)

Contents:

I. Introducing Mr. Raffles Holmes
II. The Adventure Of The Dorrington Ruby Seal
III. The Adventure Of Mrs. Burlingame's Diamond Stomacher
IV The Adventure Of The Missing Pendants
V. The Adventure Of The Brass Check
VI. The Adventure Of The Hired Burglar
VII. The Redemption Of Young Billington Rand
VIII. The Nostalgia Of Nervy Jim The Snatcher"
IX. The Adventure Of Room 407
X. The Major-General's Pepperpots

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Fiction, Crime, Adult, Short Stories, Adventure

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

John Kendrick Bangs was an American author and satirist, and the creator of modern Bangsian fantasy, the school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife.

Reviews

[Pramod Nair · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Raffles Holmes & Company’ is a unique book as it is a pastiche based on two different legendary characters created by two equally legendary writers. In this collection of short stories with traces of humor and mystery written in 1906, John Kendrick Bangs introduces to the reader the enigmatic character of ‘Raffles Holmes’ – the son of the great Sherlock Holmes and the grandson of the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles – and his escapades.

In the story titled ‘The Adventure of the Dorrington Ruby Seal’ the reader gets to know how Sherlock Holmes – created by Arthur Conan Doyle - tracing a crime gets acquainted with Marjorie, the daughter of A.J. Raffles – created by Doyle’s brother in law E.W. Hornung - and falls heads over heels in love with her resulting in their matrimony. John Kendrick Bangs adapts character traits from both these ancestors resulting in Raffles Holmes being a gentleman and a magnetic figure with mastery in disguise, deduction, scheming and talented as a cat burglar and thief. Following the style of Sherlock Holmes and A.J. Raffles tales, these stories are chronicled by an artistic assistant named Jenkins who also acts as a companion to Raffles Holmes.

The battle of conscience between the A.J Raffles and the Holmes traits in Raffles Holmes are the main feature of these stories. Even though Raffles Holmes is a morally inclined character at times it can be seen that the traits of A.J. Raffles is a tad powerful than the Holmes traits. Instead of solving crimes through deductive abilities like Holmes, Raffles Holmes often uses his logical deduction and mastery over breaking and entering to create cases and then solve them for monetary benefits. The author intent seems to be on making these stories more tending towards being humorous and fanciful than making them taut mysteries like the original Holmes stories.

‘Raffles Holmes & Company’ is one of the earliest of the Holmes & Raffles pastiches and is a fine sampler for the multitudes of parodies written by John Kendrick Bangs. These preposterous tales of mystery are easy to read and amusing and will be worthy to take up for Holmes & Raffles fans.

My Actual Rating: 3.5/5

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining Holmes listening. ✨🎶

This kindle e-book novella is free from Amazon.

Raffles Holmes is the son of Sherlock Holmes.

Ten short stories about Raffles Holmes adventures in New York City. Each story is different with interesting characters lots of action and misdirection leading to each conclusion.

I would recommend this novella to readers of mystery novels. 2024

[The Usual · Rating 3 out of 5]

What we have here is a set of short-stories featuring Raffles Holmes, son of Sherlock the detective, and grandson, on his mother’s side, of Raffles the jewel-thief. This has potential, wouldn’t you say? Executed well it could have been interesting, or parodic, or an interesting parody.
The snag is, I don’t think Bangs executed it well. In fact, I doubt Bangs had read either Doyle or Hornung, or considered how this chap would fit into a story, before starting. And then, too, I don’t think my sense of humour quite accords with his.
What we get, then, are three stories that don’t work, one of which – a double act of sacrilege – features both Holmes and Raffles. Holmes isn’t very Holmesian, Raffles unraffles-like. I nearly stopped reading.
But then Bangs seems to have actually thought about what he was doing, considered the characteristics of someone with the instincts of both thief and detective – I refuse to say Holmes and Raffles – and written some light stories that do actually work, featuring the conflict between the two. He produced someone with, so to speak, an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. That conflict provides the opportunity for tension and humour – because Raffles Holmes is otherwise Lupin-like superpowered – that gives the things some content. Some of the later stories are very nearly good. They’re still a bit thinner than I’d like, but they’ll do.
On balance, then, an uneven three.
And now I’m off to read some proper Raffles.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book how ever I do wish the author had done more to make it more interesting. I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

J. Hendrick Bangs, for whatever reason, seems to have basically disappeared from the literary horizon, though I don't know if he loomed that large on it. Find him on Project Gutenberg and give the man a chance. You won't be sorry/.

[Heather L · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and somewhat amusing collection of stories about Raffles Holmes, son of Sherlock Holmes. The ebook edition I read would have benefited greatly from a bit of editing, as there were a few occasions I had to backtrack over what I'd read to make sense of a sentence.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on January 1, 1906, R Holmes & Co by J K Bangs is a Sherlockian-like series of short stories. The main character is Raffles Holmes, the son of Sherlock and apparently the grandson of gentleman criminal, A.J. Raffles. Featuring a number of his adventures as both a detective and a safe cracker, the narrative is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. There are ten tales, the first introducing Raffle Holmes and the others recounting his various adventures. Whilst not part of the Sherlock Holmes canon per se, it’s an amusing take on the great detective’s motif. An ideal bit of escapism for Holmesians that makes for an entertaining four stars read rating. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raffles Holmes is the son of Sherlock and grandson of gentleman criminal A.J. Raffles. He seems to have inherited equal parts of his DNA from each camp. In fact, the full title of this book is R. Holmes & Co.: Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth.

Raffles has decided that what he needs most is an income, and so he decides to sell the stories of his exploits whether as a detective or as a burglar extraordinaire. So each chapter stands more or less as a complete story featuring a variety of his exploits.

It's a fun read, but not to be taken too seriously.

[Outlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author (who died in 1922) would have fitted in very nicely with the "Ripping Yarns" writers, his sense of humour is akin to "The Ministry of Silly Walks" fame from "Monty Python's Flying Circus." These short tales of the adventure of Raffles Holmes, yes he's the son of Sherlock Holmes (ha ha) who marries the daughter of A J Raffles, Marjorie. So, Raffles Holmes has his two forebears competing for control of his conscience - Holmes is the voice of Justice and Raffles is the voice of greed. Completely mad whimsical fantasy, but this edition is so full of spelling and and grammatical errors, it's unbelievable and such a shame.

[John C Peiffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise got my attention right away. The son of Sherlock Holmes. I was not familiar with Raffles until I was somewhat introduced in the book.
The quandary is there the good and the bad sides of Raffety Holmes.
The beginning of the book held my attention but quickly waned as the adventures were repeats of the same tale with different characters.
Finally towards the end it had some variations.
Go ahead and read it for the sake of the novelty of seeing the son of Sherlock Holmes.
Do not expect anything remotely close to the work of Sir Conan Doyle.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book. Written very tongue in cheek for the fun and smiles it yields. R. Holmes and Co. Refers to professional inquiry agent Rafles Holmes and his biographer Jenkins (like Dr Watson). The gentleman is the grandson of A.J. Rafles and the son of Sherlock Holmes. What's more his appearance and mores vacillate between the two

[Mike Haxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight delight.

Sherlock Holmes has a son who just happens to be the grandson of the infamous Raffies. OK, I’ll buy it. He has his own Boswell in NYC who is a bit of a prig. It’s all good. Vignettes are presented and. Oh bother! Jude read it. It’s fun.

[LecturerRich · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a fun read

[Joan Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devilishly appealing

Very interesting stories and characters. Humorous and Intriguing plots with inventive "problems" and resolutions. Loved the dichotomy of scammer and detective.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bangs does a clever job of combining two literary universes to create his character.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raffles Holmes is the son of Sherlock and the grandson of Raffles the thief. Jenkins is our Watson-like narrator in a collection of fun little tales.

[Dovile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a sequel to 'Mrs. Raffles' by the same author, because no mention is made of her in this collection, and it's written in a tone less humorous than the previous collection and closer to the original Raffles stories.

Since I don't really like the barely moral original Raffles, I liked Raffles Holmes somewhat better, since he doesn't actually steal to make his living, but rather swindles it out of his marks by first stealing the items and then returning them for a nice and quite legal fee. In this way RH is a lot like Arsene Lupin, if less emotional and impulsive.

I knocked a star off my rating, because the author was in such a hurry to combine Sherlock Holmes and A.J. Raffles into one character, that he obviously didn't spend much time to think up a plausible story to go with it. In fact, the author gave no explanation at all. It stretched my disbelief to breaking point to swallow that a man like Sherlock Holmes who valued reason over heart and sneered at softer passions, who didn't notice women except when they had great minds (ie Irene Adler) and who say himself that would: a) quickly fall in love at first sight with a pretty girl because she looks pure and innocent; b) essentially blackmail the girl's father to let them marry; c) not investigate crimes only because disclosing them would affect his beloved feelings; d) for some reason abandon his wife and child and go on living as a bachelor in London; e) not tell his best and only friend Watson any of this, ever.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important genealogy. Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, detective extraordinaire. E W Hornung (Conan Doyle's brother-in-law) created A J Raffles, gentleman thief. John Kendrick Bangs created Raffles Holmes, son of Sherlock and grandson of Raffles (yes, really - chapter two explains). This third (or possibly second) generation offspring has characteristics drawn from both his forbears: he is an accomplished cat burglar, a thief with a conscience, a master of disguise, and a man-about-town with an amanuensis to record his exploits.

R Holmes & Co, published in 1906, is accomplished pastiche. The style is established early - cats in the night are "vagrant felines on Cupid's contentious battles bent" - and remains true to itself. The various episodes are preposterous but amusingly concocted. The book slips by as effortlessly as R Holmes through a deserving victim's window.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This just didn't work for me . . . . the protagonist is supposed to be the grandson of gentleman theif Raffles and the son of Sherlock Holmes. If you can swallow that, you might expect intricate and amusing mysteries. But it felt like the author was just trying too hard. I read about 25% of the book, which was three short stories, they were only o.k.

The first was a rambling explanation of how Jenkins, an author, came to meet Raffles Holmes.

In the second, he relates the story of how Sherlock Homes met Raffles' daughter and married her and fathered Raffles Holmes -- which required a Sherlock Holmes acting extremely out of character.

In the third, Raffles and Jenkins -- who he's hired as his 'biographer' a la John Watson -- claim a reward for finding a missing heavily jeweled article of clothing. It was, for me, completely obvious how it was managed.

So a DNF for me. :)

[Margaret Pinard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of very short stories, but rather long sentences. The son of Sherlock Holmes is shown to be more appreciated for his abilities to slip in and out of places unnoticed than for his deductive abilities here. He is not ON cases so much as CREATING them, to get cash. I liked it for its interesting transitional references--between the 1880s of Sherlock Holmes and the modern world of today, I learned a few interesting things about clubs, about recorders, and about 1905 New York City! Capital. But story-wise, it's really over before it's begun, for each tale.

[Peter Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're a Shelock Holmes fan or if you just enjoy turn of the century humor, John Kendrick Bangs is the author for you and this is an easy way to evaluate his work. The stories relate to the main character who is the son of the detective Sherlock Holmes and the grandsson of the famous jewelry thief and safecracker Raffles. The two bloodlines sometimes conflict and sometime work together to produce imagiative, fanciful, and light short mysteries. An easy and enjoyable read.

[Rozonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems that Holmes is everywhere I go...I discovered this author thanks to a funny , humorous Napoleon biography and then I learned he is author of one of the first Holmes (and Raffles) parodies: Raffles Holmes, a detective which invents robberies (often never committed) then "solves" them. This way, he placates both sides of his nature (he is son of Holmes and grandson of Raffles) but his biographer, a penny-a-liner, has to keep an eye on him so he won't wander from the right path.

[BRT · Rating 2 out of 5]

What if Sherlock Holmes and the daughter of Raffles the whimsical thief had a child? This tongue-in-cheek take on the Holmes legend gives several short stories via Raffles muse (a-la-Watson,) Jenkins. Always interesting to read things written when cultural norms regarding different races were less enlightened than today. The language is somewhat jarring and you really have to force yourself to remember that it, sadly, was accepted back then.

[Ronn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If one can accept the premise of a person being descended from both Raffles AND Sherlock Holmes [even in fiction, a profound unlikelihood], with personality characteristics of both, this turned out to be a very entertaining collection of short stories. Highly recommended for all but the most serious Sherlockians.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Period piece

A great example of life in the early 1900s. Taffeta Holmes, the son of Sherlock Holmes and the grandson of the famous thief, Rafferty, makes use of his inherited traits. God's stories.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty formulaic. But nice and soothing if you want something Holmesian and light.

[Timothy Ferguson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow. The lead character is the son of Sherlock Holmes and the daughter of A. J. Raffles. I was hoping he’d be a Victorian Dr McNinja, but no such luck.

[John Yeoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good read, for those who love or can endure the florescence of its period language.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

read SOMETIME in 2001

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet R. Holmes, grandson of the larcenous Raffles and son of Sherlock Holmes himself, and thus caught in a dilemma...to steal or detect...THAT is the question!