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In League with Sherlock Holmes

(Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon #5)

3.78 · Rating details · 68 ratings · 18 reviews

The latest entry in Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger’s popular Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery series, featuring fifteen talented authors and a multitude of new cases for Arthur Conan Doyle’s most acclaimed detective.

Sherlock Holmes has not only captivated readers for more than a century and a quarter, he has fascinated writers as well. Almost immediately, the detecti ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Published December 1st 2020 by Pegasus Crime

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Nov 29, 2020 Bonnie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

As with most short story collections it's a bit uneven. Some are OK and some are quite good. Even one that takes a humorous look at Holmes. Not a bad read though I wish Laurie King had written a story and not just edited. ...more

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Dec 30, 2020 Rachel rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Sherlockiana!

Recommended to Rachel by: My mum

FINAL VERSION:

After a huge long hiatus (pun fully intended) in which I crammed my brain full of as much ACD and Agatha Christie as I could...it's time to come back to this sweet lil anthology.

Because whoa do I have some feels for you!

So...me being me with a ton of book i'm currently reading on my bookshelf and feeling extremely stressed about finishing since there are, I kid you not, about 20 books i'm currently reading...what do I do but start another one?

It's one of my passions in life to stav ...more

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Feb 27, 2021 Rachel rated it it was ok

I was so disappointed with this collection. Only a handful of the stories kept me engaged enough to read to the end, and I had to skip over the entire comic book section because of the foul language. This has not been my experience with previous books in this series, and I am sad.

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Feb 11, 2021 Ray Palen rated it it was amazing

IN LEAUGE WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is far from your typical short story collection. Neither is it a gathering of famous writers from all different genres taking their shot at composing their own Holmes and Watson tale, although a few of the authors here do just that.

No, for this special gathering of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger personally hand-picked and invited each and every author who contributes within rather than merely soliciting st IN LEAUGE WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is far from your typical short story collection. Neither is it a gathering of famous writers from all different genres taking their shot at composing their own Holmes and Watson tale, although a few of the authors here do just that.

No, for this special gathering of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger personally hand-picked and invited each and every author who contributes within rather than merely soliciting stories that met the criteria. Also, and here is the fun part, the short stories here as well as the one brief graphic novel collaboration, merely use the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his world-famous creation Sherlock Holmes as inspiration to create unique tales that have settings from Baker Street, London to Africa and even on the wild Jersey Shore!

Just as Sherlock Holmes’ friends and fans have expanded over the decades and decades following the last Conan Doyle novel, leagues of Holmes fan-groups and clubs have operated around the world and King and Klinger are proud members of one of them --- The Baker Street Irregulars. IN LEAGUE WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is the type of collection that, if you are a fan like me, you will be squirming in your seat in a fit of pure delight as you turn each successive page. Those readers who have been reading my reviews for the past few decades are probably aware that I am not only a huge Holmes fan and member of a NYC-based Sherlockian group, but I have also portrayed Holmes several times on stage and even published a short Holmes play which went on to great acclaim. Are there any classics among this group of short stories, probably not, however, the boundless creativity exercised by the authors that contribute is unmatched in any prior Holmes collection I have read, and the end result is pure magic. I will highlight for you some of the stories that stood out for me personally and why:

• “The Strange Juju Affair At the Gacy Mansion” by Kwei Quarty – first off, this highly creative Holmes-inspired tale is set in Ghana and features the legendary detective Mensah Bay, known for his very Holmesian powers of observation and deduction. When he is presented with what appears to be a locked room murder at the famed Gacy Mansion, Bay breaks down the case bit by bit just by utilizing what was seen by the Detective in Charge as he successfully identifies the guilty party.
• “What My Father Never Told Me” by Tess Gerritsen – a young American woman travels to London for the purpose of honoring her father’s dying wish of having his ashes scattered there. She meets one of her father’s friends that she was unfamiliar with, a Julian Watson, and soon learns of the legacy behind their famous names. An easy thing to overlook in America, I guess, when you have a normal name like Eve Moriarty.
• “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement” by James Ziskin – Ziskin, whose own novels are typically set-in upstate New York, pens a traditional Holmes and Watson tale with a twist. As always, Watson narrates, and he presents us with this case which he felt embodied their peculiar friendship like no other before. It is a masterful story of pure Holmes wit and wisdom as he cuts through the murder of long-married husband at the behest of his wife and turns the tables on everyone.
• “When You Hear Hoofbeats” by Robin Burcell – the murder of John Watson, but not the one you are thinking of. This Watson was murdered outside of San Francisco and a retired former SFPD Detective now turned PI named S. Barker is called onto this case. What stood out for me was the use of a character named Dr. Bell as true Holmes fan will recognize as the same name for the person who inspired Conan Doyle to create Holmes in the first place.
• “Mr. Homes, I Presume?” by Joe Hill and Illustrator Martin Simmonds – this unique effort is a short graphic novel featuring a protagonist with the nickname of Sh*t-Talk Homes. The narrative is all Joe Hill and his bizarre dark humor while the graphics are penned by Simmonds.
• “A Séance In Liverpool” by Lisa Morton – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the star of this story which finds he and close friend, George Budd, attending a Séance in Liverpool held by a famous medium named Miss DeLisle. Most people were aware of the fact that Conan Doyle was a famous skeptic of the supernatural and this séance will test his wits to the fullest.
• “A Scandal On the Jersey Shore” by Brad Parks – just imagine that Snookie or J-Wow from the infamous virtual reality show of the same name had the powers of observation of the great Holmes and you will have some idea of the fun time you are about to have at the hands of author Brad Parks. I love all of Parks work and have attended a book-signing of his where he truly showed off his sense of humor. He is also rumored to have serenaded Sherlock Holmes at a past Bouchercon Festival.
• “A Case Of Mistaken Identity” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro – I have been reading Miss Yarbro’s horror for decades and this short story has perhaps the best twist in this collection. I do not want to spoil the fun, let’s just say you do not have to actually ‘be’ Sherlock Holmes to be a Holmes!

IN LEAGUE WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is just plain fun to read and if you consider yourself a fellow Sherlockian you would be doing yourself a disservice if you missed out on this collection. To say that the time spent with Holmes-inspired stories would not just be logical, it would be flat-out elementary!

Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter ...more

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Feb 15, 2021 Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller rated it it was amazing

IN LEAGUE WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is far from your typical short story collection. Editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger handpicked and invited each and every one of these authors rather than merely solicit stories that met their criteria. These pieces use the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his world-famous creation as inspiration to produce unique tales that feature settings from Baker Street, London, to Africa…and even the wild Jersey Shore!

Countless Sherlock Holmes fan groups and clubs ...more

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Dec 12, 2020 Marlene rated it really liked it

Originally published at Reading Reality

Because I’m a sucker for a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and in the right mood even for a bad one, I’ve eagerly anticipated each of these collections as they’ve appeared and I’ve read every single one of them, beginning with the very first, A Study in Sherlock back in 2011. This first entry in the series includes what is still my favorite story across the entire five volumes, The Case of Death and Honey by Neil Gaiman

It’s hard to believe that this current Originally published at Reading Reality

Because I’m a sucker for a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and in the right mood even for a bad one, I’ve eagerly anticipated each of these collections as they’ve appeared and I’ve read every single one of them, beginning with the very first, A Study in Sherlock back in 2011. This first entry in the series includes what is still my favorite story across the entire five volumes, The Case of Death and Honey by Neil Gaiman

It’s hard to believe that this current volume is the fifth in the series, after A Study in Sherlock, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, Echoes of Sherlock Holmes and For the Sake of the Game.

Like most such collections, this one is just a bit uneven. The stories that work, really, really work. The ones that don’t fall flatter than the proverbial pancake.

I think I’ve read every single one of these collections as they have come out, and my favorite is still the very first one, A Study in Sherlock, although I have certainly discovered favorite stories in many of the later volumes.

I have to say that this entry in the series did not live up to its predecessors. As the series has gone on, the stories have ranged further and further from their original inspiration, in ways that, at least in this particular volume, feel like they owe more to cleverness than detection.

To put it another way, I like my Sherlock to more or less be a kind of Sherlock. It’s not necessary that the stories feel like the original canon – unless that’s done well it can be terribly off-putting. But when I hear the name Sherlock Holmes I expect a detective story of some kind, and too many of the stories in this entry in the series seemed to be showing off how ‘twee’ they could be rather than how well they could solve a case.

But I still have two favorites even in this somewhat motley crew.

James W. Ziskin’s The Twenty-Five-Year Engagement is a classic pastiche, featuring the original Holmes and Watson solving a case that was so old and so cold no one even knew it was a case. It’s not the first time, that the unexpected return of a person long-though deceased has provided new clues to an old murder for the Great Detective, and this one shows the deft hand of both the investigator and the writer in constructing – and solving – such a conundrum.

The Strange Juju Affair at the Gacy Mansion by Kwei Quartey was a classic of a completely different kind. It is the kind of Holmesian homage where, rather than Holmes himself serving as the detective, the investigator is someone who uses Holmes’ methods and applies them with Holmes’ genius at a time and place that Holmes never visited, in this particular case Kasoa, Ghana at an unspecified time period that feels like it is much later in the 20th century – if not the 21st – than Holmes would have lived to see. The detective is a retired police superintendent who never visits the crime scene, but with a few questions to his younger – and rather desperate – colleague still manages to solve a classic locked-room mystery.

Escape Rating B-: Too much of this entry in this long-running series went too far afield for this reader. But those two stories were right on the mark as lovely but totally different Holmes pastiches. Your reading mileage will, of course, vary. That is the point of these collections, that there is something for every reader looking for a taste, in this case a taste of Sherlock Holmes.

...more

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Oct 31, 2020 Stan Dunn rated it really liked it

I first fell in love with the Holmes canon when I was in graduate school in the early ‘80s; the independent TV station (at the time) in Washington DC would show the old Basil Rathbone Holmes movies every Saturday night. Rathbone will always be Holmes and Nigel Bruce will always be Watson to me. As I read the stories in the current volume, I can clearly see their faces when they appeared, or even in the stories when they are referenced.

I have read many Agatha Christie works as well as Arthur Ree ...more

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Jan 21, 2021 Christine Beverly rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed the different imaginative twists on the Holmes genre, from spirit hunters who use the same skills of deduction to lunatics who believe themselves to be Holmes himself. The stories were short enough to be enjoyed at one sitting, so I could intersperse them easily into my busier working days.

I would have happily given the collection 5 stars but for one story that was essentially non-sensical to me. At the beginning of each story, each so unique and different, of course the reader ...more

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Feb 04, 2021 Mary Beth Str8K rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2021, sherlock-style

Truly enjoyed this compilation of short stories (one was even a graphic short story). If you like books that are Sherlockian in style you’ll enjoy this one and the previous books in this series. I could read or two short stories each night before bed.

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Jan 16, 2021 Kara rated it it was ok

I really wanted to like this book, but I think I have been spoiled by good fanfiction. The stories here were too short for me and felt like more of a series of exercises stretching the premise of Sherlock in different ways then a real stand alone narrative.

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Jan 20, 2021 Lyn rated it it was amazing

Always excited to find a new Holmes book or a collection of short stories. This is my first in these collections, overall a 5 star, a couple were just ok but the others made up for them. Great gift from my son, I’ll be on the lookout for more.

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Jan 02, 2021 Lucy Sanchez rated it it was amazing

This was a fun read. I especially liked the story called “A 25-year Engagement.” A classic Sherlock Holmes mystery. Another really good story was “The Observance of Trifles.”

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Jan 03, 2021 Sue rated it it was ok

Very disappointing

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Jan 24, 2021 Jim Benton added it

A couple of gems and a few stinkers: a typical collection

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Dec 21, 2020 Diane Heath rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle, mystery

Some good short stories.Some only someone.

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Jan 14, 2021 crdefe2 rated it it was amazing

This book is quite good, I loved everything I read, not only the narrative, the characters and the elements that make up the story are good and that is why I will rate it with 5 stars.

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Jan 10, 2021 Kim rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-mystery, other-anthology

A fun anthology, though the stories vary in their quality. Some were so intriguing or funny, while others were rather just... meh.

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About Laurie R. King

Laurie R. King

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Edgar-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King writes series and standalone novels. Her official forum is
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King's 2018 novel, Island of the Mad, sees Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes travel from London's Bedlam to the glitter of Venice's Lido,where Young Things and the friends of Cole Porter pass Mussolini's Blackshi ...more

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