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Come in, Karl.
Paging Karl.
Sorry for beeing so late in answering this nice request.I chose the book (The Dossier of Solar Pons) due to my life-long interest in Sherlock Holmes ( Oh yes, I'm one of those...). The Solar Pons books are a series of stories by the american horror and science fiction writer August Derleth. The series is closely modeled on Doyle's work and started when Derleth asked Doyle's permission to use the Sherlock Holmes caracther. Luckily for Derleth, Doyle declined the request and Derleth went on to write some sixty-odd stories about the famous sleuth, Solar Pons, of 7 Praed Street, London, where he cohabits with his friend and collegue, Dr. Lyndon Parker. The titles of the stories tend to be takes on Doyle's originals (, like The Tottenham Werewolf to match The Sussex Vampire). The Solar Pons series was later expanded further by stories of a British writer, aptly named Basil Copper - and The Dossier of Solar Pons is one of Copper's outings. While Derleth's stories tend to be short, Copper's stories are longer, and so on and so on.
Why do I read this book? There is a regular Sherlock Holmes-pastiche-industry out there ("The marked is flooded with cheap fiction."), most of it rather bad. The Solar Pons series are written ( long ago, I'll admit) with a certain reverence for Doyle's work as well a a flair that I find lacking in the hum-drum industrial Holmes-pastische. So I will probably read another Pons book, if I can lay my hands on one. They are scarce in Norway....
Mod
I admit I was well-familiar with August Derleth when I asked you to sit in the hot-seat. I had hoped I would get a meaty report just as you have given us. Good job!
August Derleth was a weir-r-r-r-r-d character. He wasn't just a Holmes imitator. He was heavily into ghost stories, paganism, and the occult. And numerous other topics. What do you think of all that?
I learned something new here today, will have to look into a Derleth or Copper book.
Felix: I have read some of Derleth's Cthulhu-stories, but not very many, and one collection of Pons-stories. I'm looking for more of them, but they are hard to come by. I know I can get them on eBay, but that somehow takes the thrill out of the search, and I prefer garagesales and secondhand shops to the keyboard.
Mod
The Solar Pons stories have always been well-regarded; in one episode Pons and his aide actually confront Holmes/Watson --and in others, both Raffles and Lupin! This is brilliant.
I quite agree about Nicholas Meyer, and although his second and third attempts are not as good as his first.
Note to self: Never post comments on Goodreads while riding a bus...
Mod
Espionage, you bastards! How dare you lure me to a discussion on ... on... Pah!
Mod
Steve, these gaslight crime stories are an early form of international intrigue tales later developed by Buchan and Ambler. No need to sniff! :p
Also there is Necropolis by the same author epub.
You're first on the hot seat, Karl. Tell us about it.
What made you choose this work?
What's it about?
Are you enjoying it?
What are you getting out of it?
Who wrote it?
Would you read more from this author?