A Study in Sherlock

I went with high expectations for this book, and except for one or two stories, it was mostly disappointing. Maybe it was just not the book for me; I noticed a good number of people here in GoodReads gave it positive reviews. However, for me, it is a book "inspired by the canon," and apparently that was not saying much. The great detective is mostly peripheral in this collection of stories about Sherlockiana geeks, collectors, and other folks with an interest in Sherlock Holmes but otherwise not related to the detective. This was basically like getting a book that claims to be inspired by Star Trek canon, only to find it is just so-so stories about the Trekkies you meet at conventions who happen to know every single detail of the episodes in the original series, and use that knowledge to solve mysteries. Just because one or two can deduce, as another reviewer mentioned, it is not the deductive art of Sherlock Holmes. That was the main thing that was missing. As I mentioned, there was one or two good entertaining stories here, but overall, the anthology is hit and miss. I will give it credit for being something different, but personally, not something terribly impressive in terms of substance.

I will mention that I have read various anthologies of Sherlock Holmes stories, in addition to having read the whole original canon. If you want something along the lines of Conan Doyle's work, something that truly captures the essence and pays good tribute to the great detective, pick up one of those other anthologies, or just go back the original. In fact, after reading this book, I felt the urge to go back and read Conan Doyle's work, just to remind myself how good that is. For now, if asked for what is a good anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories, I would recommend Shadows Over Baker Street, a nice set of stories where the great detective is tossed in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. That is worth reading. This, in my estimation, not so much. As I said, there are one or two stories in it, including one by Neil Gaiman, but the rest are pretty forgettable.

However, if you enjoy light mysteries with amateur sleuths, anything from Murder, She Wrote to the Mary Russell series (one of this books editors is the author of that series), you just might like this book. Just because I did not enjoy it does not mean you might not either.