Exit Sherlock Holmes (1979)

Robert Lee Hall's Exit Sherlock Holmes offered up a sci-fi resolution to the mystery of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. This is the 1979 U.S. paperback edition with nicely atmospheric cover art by Jordi Penalva.

THE GREAT DETECTIVE'S FINAL DAYS 

Through the sounds and fogs of Victorian London and a tangled maze of deception, the resurrected Sherlock Holmes and his archenemy, the wicked Professor Moriarity, once again engage in a terrifying battle between good and evil. When the master sleuth decides to "disappear" in order to deal with the villain, his loyal assistant, Dr. Watson, frantically searches for him, traveling deep into Holmes' mysterious past, until he must face the shocking discovery that his old friend has lied to him for years about who he really is and where he comes from. Indeed, Watson learns the master's incredible lifelong secret–a truth which is, in the Great Detective's own words, "infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

Title: Exit Sherlock Holmes
Author: Robert Lee Hall
Year: 1979 (first published 1977)
Publisher: Playboy Press
Purchase: Amazon.com.

Exit Sherlock Holmes (1987)

This is a 1987 UK paperback edition of Robert Lee Hall's intriguing novel, Exit Sherlock Holmes. I always thought this one would have made a good movie.

THE ASTOUNDING SOLUTION TO THE ENIGMA OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 

October 1903. Moriarty is back in London–he too survived the Reichenbach Falls. Holmes goes to ground, leaving Watson like so much bait to draw the quarry. But the subsequent astonishing revelation and confrontation at 221B Baker Street is only the first in a shattering series of blows to be dealt Watson's (and our) view of Holmes. Until now we have known only the skimpiest details of his early life–and then only what he himself, a fiercely secretive man, chose to reveal. Where did he acquire his many different skills? Why did he tell Watson so little about his brother Mycroft? And what was the true relationship between Holmes and his arch foe Moriarty? Mysteries and enigmas rise to envelop Watson in his quest for the truth like the yellow fogs of Victorian London. Can he ever pin down the true identities of Holmes and Moriarty–and the true meaning of their lifelong duel?

Title: Exit Sherlock Holmes
Author: Robert Lee Hall
Year: 1987 (first published 1977)
Publisher: Grafton
Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

The quest for a second Solution

As I revealed in my last post, my first experience of Sherlock Holmes in print was not the Canon, but a pastiche, The Seven Per-Cent-Solution by Nicholas Meyer. Of course, in the 1970s this was a pretty good choice of pastiche, so I might not be as ashamed of this as I'm pretending to be.

After reading the Meyer, I did begin to pick up the Doyle collections and started to give the Canon a proper read. But I craved another post-modern pastiche novel in the style of Solution. Luckily, because of the success of the Meyer book (which was also made into a film), my local Waldenbooks had quite a few of these to choose from. The first two I came away with were The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin and Exit Sherlock Holmes by Robert Lee Hall.

What drew me to these two paperbacks was the cover art. These are exactly the kinds of covers a budding young Sherlockian would be attracted to (I still like them). Also, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story promised an encounter with Jack The Ripper, so that was pretty irresistible.

While these did not live up to the level of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, I still enjoyed them both. They are well-written adventures with their own revisionist "twists." (SPOILERS AHEAD.) In The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, the great detective turns out to actually be Jack The Ripper(!). In Exit Sherlock Holmes he's revealed to be a time traveler.

While I didn't really care for the twist in Last (Holmes cannot be a murderer), the time travel element in Exit Sherlock Holmes is handled better than you would expect, and I've always though this novel would make an interesting Sherlock Holmes film.

Title: The Last Sherlock Holmes Story
Author: Michael Dibdin
Year: 1979
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Purchase: Amazon.

Title: Exit Sherlock Holmes
Author: Robert Lee Hall
Year: 1979
Publisher: Playboy Press
Purchase: Amazon.