Holmes for the Holidays

Rating:
Summary: Worthy of an eggnog toast
Review: Most of these pastiches range from good to very good. And I personally loved "The Yuletide Affair," which is a Watson case. Most of the others were enjoyable also. Unfortunately, two writers decided to incorporate "A Christmas Carol" into their stories which got redundant quickly. "A Scandal in Winter" was also a demerit to this book. If not for those three stories, I would have given five stars instead of four.

Rating:
Summary: Not everyone is in the Christmas spirit...
Review: My comments are organized by author, rather than in order of appearance. For some of the best stories, I haven't said much, since they're hard to praise without giving away pieces of the plot.

Two of the stories tackle the same theme: the person who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley begins having ghostly visitations and consults Holmes. (A priori, they're not ghosts but something else, so that Holmes works out how the trick was done.) Crider's version of the story strikes me as being the stronger of the two.

Breen, Jon L. "The Adventure of the Canine Ventriloquist" - A VERY long-winded client (a professional writer customarily paid by the word) is the victim of either supernatural events, or a tortuous scheme of persecution. Unfortunately, the client blathers on SO long when engaging Holmes that I lost interest, despite Watson's (unspoken and derogatory) opinions of professional vs. amateur writers.

Crider, Bill "The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts" - One of two variations on a theme; this one seems the stronger of the two. Franklin Scrooge, who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley, has begun having experiences like those of his uncle 40 years before. His description of Scrooge's meeting with Marley for the skeptic Holmes and Watson deliberately mimics Dickens' setting of the early scene. S: "Marley was dead. There can be no doubt about that." H: "And how did he die?" (Interesting line of thought, that.) There is a continuity error - Scrooge's great-nephew, as his *sister's* grandson, would not have the same surname - but other than that, the story is well-handled.

DeAndrea, William L. "The Adventure of the Christmas Tree" - Why did someone steal, then return, the tree being shipped from the Duke's Scottish estate while in transit? (The client isn't the Duke, but his forester, who can't rest until the matter is cleared up.)

Douglas, Carole Nelson "The Thief of Twelfth Night" - I recommend this to any fan of Douglas' Irene Adler novels.

Estleman, Loren D. "The Adventure of the Three Ghosts" - Lord Chislehurst (born "Tiny" Tim Cratchit) acquired Scrooge's old firm a decade ago, when Scrooge's generosity brought it to the brink of ruin. (His business acumen grew as Scrooge's declined, buying him into the Peerage.) Now ghostly visitations have begun appearing to *him*. Weaker than Crider's version; the characters, for one thing, seem less realistic.

Hill, Reginald "The Italian Sherlock Holmes" - At the conclusion of a case in Italy, Holmes suffers a nervous collapse, which keeps him and Watson in Rome over Christmas. A would-be imitator, scraping acquaintance with him, is taught a lesson.

Hoch, Edward D. "The Christmas Client" - Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) is being blackmailed by a fellow mathematics professor - one James Moriarty. Enough to interest Holmes even on Christmas Day...

Linscott, Gillian "A Scandal in Winter" - The only story not narrated by Watson. After a sudden death at the ski resort the previous year, rumor condemned the widow of murder - one Irene MacAvoy. Upon her defiant reappearance this year, two older gentlemen at the resort seek to find out what really happened, by questioning the only witness - the narrator, a child. Stylistically, of course, it isn't like the Holmes canon, but if one doesn't insist on that, it's a rather good story.

Moffat, Gwen "The Adventure in Border Country" Clement Daw's neighbour, Mrs. Aubrey, seeks Holmes' help in discovering what happened to her husband, who went out to the stables on a snowy night and hasn't been seen since. Some of Watson's commentary regarding Mrs. Aubrey's family may seem rather disturbing, incidentally.

Paul, Barbara "The Sleuth of Christmas Past" At first, this story may remind the reader of 'The Solitary Cyclist': high praise, to sound like Doyle's original. The death of Amy Stoddard's father, a spice importer, has left her an heiress, in a modest way, but she hasn't come to Holmes about that; she's familiar with the business, having served as her father's transcriber due to his horrible handwriting. Now some of his old friends are behaving suspiciously, and her fiance may be no better. But who is lying to whom?

Perry, Anne "The Watch Night Bell" - This doesn't have the usual trappings that accompany Perry's Victorian-era detective stories; she's adapted her tone to fit Doyle's work. On this occasion, poor Holmes has to cope with the worst type of female client: a fluffbrained, pretty young woman who can't seem to think straight long enough to get to the point. She fears that her sister may be plotting to murder their father. Some very clever plot twists in this one.

Stroessel, John "The Yuletide Affair" - Lestrade and his merry men, seeking Watson's medical help while Holmes is out on another case, give him a chance to shine on his own. Holmes has only a bit part in this, at the end.

Wheat, Carolyn "The Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet" - A barrister who once persuaded a jury to disregard Holmes' evidence now seeks his help for a client on trial for poisoning her grandfather. Since Holmes appears so long after the event, there's a lot of "tell" as opposed to "show".

Williamson, J. N. "The Adventure of the Man Who Never Laughed" (Contains an entertaining digression about Holmes' proposed image of Father Christmas for the artist Thomas Nast, and another about Charles Fort.) The sister of the title character seeks Holmes' services to find out what's wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good, Some...
Review: The title is quite clever, although a little misleading. There isn't a lot of Christmas involved -- of course, with Holmes, there wouldn't be. Some stories are, as usual, better than others. Some are downright bad. A few have the distressing tendency that some Holmes "fans" have to glorify, or at least "redeem" Watson. Let's face it, true Holmes fans don't read the stories to hear about Watson! Despite a few clinkers, this is a pretty good book -- but I wish it had been available in paperback!