My first exposure to tales of the world's first great detective was a story in a junior high English class anthology.
"The Speckled Band" had it all - a locked door mystery, a damsel in distress, a spooky death in the night, two brave heroes .... and an exotic snake. The rest of the stories didn't stand a chance of competing in my adolescent brain.
Many a fan base has been created with less.
I've long since given up hero worship, especially of fictional heroes. Still, I've enjoyed every Sherlock Holmes story I could find.
I'm fascinated by the skill of some musicians who can take a musical piece and transform it into something different but recognizably the same - the Cowboy Junkies' "Run for your Life" for example. Even more fascinating is how some authors can write new or extended stories in the same style as another's. For example, Robert Parker was able to write the unfinished pieces of Raymond Chandler's Poodle Springs seamlessly. At least, I couldn't spot where Chandler's work ended and Parker's began .... ( in a bit of turnabout, several of Parker's character series have been extended with new works by other authors trying, with varying success, to be consistent with his style - IMHO Ace Atkins has done the best with that, but YMMV).
Alas, I finally ran out of new Holmes stories to read ....
Until .... one day in my local library, hunting in desperation for some new material to read ......
I mostly don't care for Steven King, horror stories don't generally entertain me. Still, that's not all he writes, and he is a terrific writer. So I was sort of browsing the King section, thinking I might re-read The Stand if I could find a copy, and I pulled out a copy of The Beekeeper's Apprentice out of curiosity. I hadnt heard of that one. When I realized it was by Laurie King, I realized my mistake and almost put it back.But then ... I read the cover note and thought, well .... give it a try.
That was a happy choice, I've really enjoyed Laurie King's novel-length Holmes stories. I have not been able to find copies of the entire series, so I still have some to read. Authors sometimes write a book or two and then for one reason or another , later books in a series tend to not stay up to snuff. But I recently found a copy of God of the Hive , 10th in the series and it was excellent. So I remain hopeful that filling in the in-betweens will be satisfying ☺️
And I stay a little more open minded and watchful when browsing to see what other unknown gems I might find. This one was a complete surprise -
Murder in Baker Street is an anthology of Holmes stories written by various authors. All the stories are excellent though I almost gave up on one in particular. I just didn't like the way it started, but I'm happy to say it picked up and was quite satisfying. It is absolutely fascinating to see the variety of approaches the various authors took, the consistency of the characterization and story lines, even when told from the points of view of different characters.
The book was a terrific read and an exciting find for me. Exciting because I now have a list of almost a dozen authors with whom I am unfamiliar to investigate. If they can do this with a century-old character series, who knows what they can do with their own ?