Rating: 
Summary: great fun
Review: I enjoyed most of the stories, although admittedly they weren't all so great, but even if they had almost all been terrible I would still recommend this book, for the sake of Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald", which I have reread more times than I can or care to count. it has a brilliant twist ending that leaves one totally in awe of the author. it is by far the best in the collection. However, even the worst ones can be endured, and if nothing else, laughed at. Gaiman's story is by far the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche I have come across, and almost all of my free time is devoted to reading Sherlock Holmes pastiches online and at the library. I strongly recommend this collection!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but...
Review:
Its a nice idea, and should sell well - after all Cthulhu addicts and Holmes addicts will buy almost anything. Certainly something I had to own.
However these kinds of strories are notoriously easy to write badly, and this anthology has its fair share of stories which take the easy way out. For example. Holmes is already a Mythos scholar, Holmes is convinced of the 'supernatural' with astonishing ease, Holmes discovers some terrible secret and thats it. Bees get mentioned a lot.
There are some good stories here as well. Some even try to do something a little different. Many people even do a few reasonable lines in deduction, although we see more of Holmes the actiton hero, than Holmes the thinker.
On the whole if you like the idea of this book, you will probably not be that disappointed. I doubt you will feel either the sense of unearthly terror and unease expected of Lovecraft, or the delight in reason and observation expected of Doyle, but you will have fun.
Really if I gave Doyle and Lovecraft 5 stars (and if so what do you give the greats?), then I should give this 3, but in 'amazonian' 3 usually seems to mean that you think the item is hopeless, so it gets 4 stars - as its by no means that bad.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but...
Review:
Its a nice idea, and should sell well - after all Cthulhu addicts and Holmes addicts will buy almost anything. Certainly something I had to own.
However these kinds of strories are notoriously easy to write badly, and this anthology has its fair share of stories which take the easy way out. For example. Holmes is already a Mythos scholar, Holmes is convinced of the 'supernatural' with astonishing ease, Holmes discovers some terrible secret and thats it. Bees get mentioned a lot.
There are some good stories here as well. Some even try to do something a little different. Many people even do a few reasonable lines in deduction, although we see more of Holmes the actiton hero, than Holmes the thinker.
On the whole if you like the idea of this book, you will probably not be that disappointed. I doubt you will feel either the sense of unearthly terror and unease expected of Lovecraft, or the delight in reason and observation expected of Doyle, but you will have fun.
Really if I gave Doyle and Lovecraft 5 stars (and if so what do you give the greats?), then I should give this 3, but in 'amazonian' 3 usually seems to mean that you think the item is hopeless, so it gets 4 stars - as its by no means that bad.
Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft scores over Holmes
Review: A fantastic collection, thanks to editors Michael Reaves, and John Phelan.
A great idea and the writers take up the challenge with gusto. Two of the best, The Case of the Antiquarian's Niece by Barbara Hambly, and A Case of Royal Blood are genuine pastiches. The problem is, believing that Holmes would countenance the supernatural in the solution of the cases. Mr. Doyle would have been delighted, especially in his later years, when he became a so called believer in the existence of the hereafter, spirits etc.
The writers have carefully used Lovecraft's trade mark terms:'The Elders', 'The Necronomicon' and 'Cthulhu'. All enough to make the blood of his fans run faster.
Sherlock Holmes fans should also rejoice, in the Weeping Masks, there are details of Watson's wounds received in Afganistan,not in Conan Doyle's accounts. Most stories are expertly crafted and not a single dull one.
Very very enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Invigorating anthology
Review: Every time this reviewer concludes that there is no way to place Holmes who's been around in so many different clever settings in the past few decades a new approach occurs. SHADOWS OVER BAKER STREET takes Holmes out of Doyle's Victorian England and relocates him in H.P. Lovecraft's Victorian England. Seventeen tales are set in the last two decades of the nineteenth century while three occur in the twentieth.
The premise of changing the setting of the world's greatest detective works, providing the Baker Street crowd with a strong invigorating anthology. However, besides the obvious uniqueness of the background, the collection also takes a wider look at Holmes by including renowned authors from non-mystery genres along with the who-done-it writers. Thus, twenty tales from horror, science fiction, fantasy, and of course mystery (what! No romance or western) furbishes a strong unique anthology in which the worlds of Lovecraft and Doyle converge into a tremendous short story book with no weak entry. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Three stars does not mean unreadable. That's what 1 is for.
Review: I can half heartedly reccomend this with serious caveats. Problem one. It is really a one-trick pony. OK. You get it. Holmes vs. various mythos creatures. This looks great on paper but does not sustain a book. If you are really interested, however, and since many of the stories are entertaining and a couple actually thought provoking, then buy it and read no more than one story a month, maybe every 6 weeks. This isn't only because of the limitations of the idea, but also because all but two authors chose (generally successfully) to mimic Doyle's/"Watson's" writing style. Problem two. A disproportionate number of stories are based on The Shadow over Innsmouth. One that isn't, "The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone," is, as has been pointed out by a previous review, based on The Shadow out of Time. This is one of the two best stories in the book. A few stories seem headed off down that sidetrack created by August Derleth where there was a chance in fighting back and winning with Help from Outside. In HPL doom was eventually inevitable and there was no Help available. "Death Did Not Become Him" is very tenuously mythos being more related to the story of the Golem and Cabbalistic mysticism with a pretty lane excuse given for the connection. Most of The Uspeakable Old Ones are named in various chants and so forth, but few put in an appearance. In the original HPL the power of suggestion hightened the suspense. Here it is merely disappointing. Shub-Niggurath has a cameo and I think (based on precious little evidence) that Nyarlathotep has some off-stage schtick. Most disappointing, Chthlhu Himself is totally AWOL, replaced by innumerable aquatic hybrids. "The Case of the Antiquaritan's Niece," is vaguely related to "The Dunwich Horror." The best story is by Neil Gaiman. More or less connected to At the Mountains of Madness, it also reminded me of the wonderful Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books.
Rating:
Summary: Three stars does not mean unreadable. That's what 1 is for.
Review: I can half heartedly reccomend this with serious caveats. Problem one. It is really a one-trick pony. OK. You get it. Holmes vs. various mythos creatures. This looks great on paper but does not sustain a book. If you are really interested, however, and since many of the stories are entertaining and a couple actually thought provoking, then buy it and read no more than one story a month, maybe every 6 weeks. This isn't only because of the limitations of the idea, but also because all but two authors chose (generally successfully) to mimic Doyle's/"Watson's" writing style. Problem two. A disproportionate number of stories are based on The Shadow over Innsmouth. One that isn't, "The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone," is, as has been pointed out by a previous review, based on The Shadow out of Time. This is one of the two best stories in the book. A few stories seem headed off down that sidetrack created by August Derleth where there was a chance in fighting back and winning with Help from Outside. In HPL doom was eventually inevitable and there was no Help available. "Death Did Not Become Him" is very tenuously mythos being more related to the story of the Golem and Cabbalistic mysticism with a pretty lane excuse given for the connection. Most of The Uspeakable Old Ones are named in various chants and so forth, but few put in an appearance. In the original HPL the power of suggestion hightened the suspense. Here it is merely disappointing. Shub-Niggurath has a cameo and I think (based on precious little evidence) that Nyarlathotep has some off-stage schtick. Most disappointing, Chthlhu Himself is totally AWOL, replaced by innumerable aquatic hybrids. "The Case of the Antiquaritan's Niece," is vaguely related to "The Dunwich Horror." The best story is by Neil Gaiman. More or less connected to At the Mountains of Madness, it also reminded me of the wonderful Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books.
Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: I have to agree with other reviews printed here. The book is something of a mixed bag. Few of the stories are well balanced quality pieces of professional writing. Their strengths and limitations differ. Some of the stories show a paucity of knowledge about Lovecraft's work. In such stories, only a few of the most general references are made to the Lovecraftean canon. Otherwise the stories just suggest the pursuit of a "nightstalker" figure similar to a sort of Jack the Ripper. To justify the story's inclusion in this collection, the author tosses in a couple of Lovecraft's character names or place names such as "Cthulhu" or "Innsmouth" into the story. Nothing is ever done with these references, mind. That would require too much effort. Some stories work pretty well because the writer has worked with the material before and knows it well. I think that Richard Lupoff's story "The Voorish Sign" is one of the book's best. But Lupoff has written and published other Sherlock Holmes pastiches over the years. He has a track record, so to speak. Some of the most intriguing and most enjoyable stories set a Lovecraftian stage beautifully, drawing us in, getting us really eager to move on to the denouement. Unfortunately, it is as though the writer at this point does not know what to do with the situation he/she has established, and just . . . stops. Such is "The Mystery of the Worm" by John Pelan. A series of biographic sketches appear at the end of the book, profiling the authors of the various stories. Here one sees quite a range of experience. Some of the writers have published a number of books and stories, and seem to have done their share of "weird tales." Others have published very little professionally, and seem to be either beginner professionals or serious amateurs. This may partly explain the sense of unevenness one gets from the book. If I could ask for one thing, it would be a more genuine knowledge of H.P. Lovecraft's writings by some of the authors. Most of the writers, not surprisingly, have a good sense for Holmes and Watson, since Arthur Conan Doyle's characters are well known through a myriad of books and movies, although even here there are disappointments. One of the weakest stories in the book, "The Drowned Geologist" by Caitlin Kiernan, is just a long letter supposedly written to Dr. Watson -- but we learn at the end of the story, it was never mailed. This story reveals virtually no serious detailed knowledge of either Doyle's OR Lovecraft's writing. In fact, the only evidence that Holmes and Watson are even involved in the story at all comes in the letter's salutation, "My dear Dr. Watson." One suspects the author congratulated herself that she could make a token gesture toward the editors' requirements while writing something else entirely. I enjoyed the book despite its uneven quality. It is the kind of book that is very good to take on an airplane trip. Three or four of the stories are very good.
Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: I have to agree with other reviews printed here. The book is something of a mixed bag. Few of the stories are well balanced quality pieces of professional writing. Their strengths and limitations differ. Some of the stories show a paucity of knowledge about Lovecraft's work. In such stories, only a few of the most general references are made to the Lovecraftean canon. Otherwise the stories just suggest the pursuit of a "nightstalker" figure similar to a sort of Jack the Ripper. To justify the story's inclusion in this collection, the author tosses in a couple of Lovecraft's character names or place names such as "Cthulhu" or "Innsmouth" into the story. Nothing is ever done with these references, mind. That would require too much effort. Some stories work pretty well because the writer has worked with the material before and knows it well. I think that Richard Lupoff's story "The Voorish Sign" is one of the book's best. But Lupoff has written and published other Sherlock Holmes pastiches over the years. He has a track record, so to speak. Some of the most intriguing and most enjoyable stories set a Lovecraftian stage beautifully, drawing us in, getting us really eager to move on to the denouement. Unfortunately, it is as though the writer at this point does not know what to do with the situation he/she has established, and just . . . stops. Such is "The Mystery of the Worm" by John Pelan. A series of biographic sketches appear at the end of the book, profiling the authors of the various stories. Here one sees quite a range of experience. Some of the writers have published a number of books and stories, and seem to have done their share of "weird tales." Others have published very little professionally, and seem to be either beginner professionals or serious amateurs. This may partly explain the sense of unevenness one gets from the book. If I could ask for one thing, it would be a more genuine knowledge of H.P. Lovecraft's writings by some of the authors. Most of the writers, not surprisingly, have a good sense for Holmes and Watson, since Arthur Conan Doyle's characters are well known through a myriad of books and movies, although even here there are disappointments. One of the weakest stories in the book, "The Drowned Geologist" by Caitlin Kiernan, is just a long letter supposedly written to Dr. Watson -- but we learn at the end of the story, it was never mailed. This story reveals virtually no serious detailed knowledge of either Doyle's OR Lovecraft's writing. In fact, the only evidence that Holmes and Watson are even involved in the story at all comes in the letter's salutation, "My dear Dr. Watson." One suspects the author congratulated herself that she could make a token gesture toward the editors' requirements while writing something else entirely. I enjoyed the book despite its uneven quality. It is the kind of book that is very good to take on an airplane trip. Three or four of the stories are very good.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes versus the Cthulhu!!
Review: I stumbled upon this book by accident and being a huge Sherlock Holmes fan as well as a huge Lovecraft fan I decided to pick it up. I was NOT disappointed. This Book is TERRIFIC!! Neil Gaiman's short story "A Study in Emerald," alone is worth my money. Gaiman was able to capture Sherlock Holmes in a different light and still stay true to the character (that story had a lovely twist at the end).
Most of the other stories are also wonderful with maybe one or two that lose the Holmes feeling to them. I like how Holmes was able to accept the possibility of other worldly creatures through the use of logic and deduction and that he knew of cults because cults are the cause of many a small murdering sprees and one has to keep up with that kind of information.
I read the entire book in a span of three days and just devoured everything in it. This book made me want to go and read other Holmes pastiches!!
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