Murder By Decree (1979)

Novelization of the 1979 film starring Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Dr. Watson. A good Holmes vs. Jack The Ripper tale incorporating a popular Royal conspiracy theory of the day. 

THE MOST INFAMOUS MURDERER IN THE ENTIRE CENTURY––

He terrorized a city.

He committed acts of unspeakable horror.

He ruled the shadows and the back alley.

He was called Jack the Ripper––

THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS INVESTIGATOR OF ALL TIME––

He commanded boundless admiration.

He possessed ruthless intelligence.

He pursued his suspects with unfailing instincts.

He was Sherlock Holmes.

Title: Murder By Decree

Author: Robert Weverka

Year: 1979

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Purchase: Amazon | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock in the Seventies (2021)

Let's kick off 2026 with something a little different. This is not a pastiche, but it is a Holmes book I'm currently reading and greatly enjoying. Having grown up with '70s Holmes, I was worried there wouldn't be much new here for me, but I was wrong. This author really knows his Holmes and movie history. I'd love for him to tackle some other decades.

Every era has had the Sherlock Holmes it wanted or needed—except the 1970s. In that wild decade, all bets were off . . .

The popular image of Sherlock Holmes in any given period derives as much from the actors who portrayed the detective as it does from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories and Sidney Paget’s famous illustrations. In earlier and subsequent decades this image was defined by a single stage or screen actor (from William Gillette and Basil Rathbone to Jeremy Brett and Robert Downey Jr.), but the nine Sherlock Holmes films made in the ’70s re-imagine the detective in starkly divergent ways, from the boldly inventive to the flat-out irreverent. Holmes is variously portrayed as gay (Robert Stephens), crazy (George C. Scott), pompous (Stewart Granger), petulant (Gene Wilder), vulnerable (Nicol Williamson), camp (Roger Moore) wrong-headed (John Cleese), silly (Peter Cook), and socially conscious (Christopher Plummer). Yet all these films contribute in their own way to casting new light on the legend. In Sherlock in the Seventies, Derham Groves offers an entertaining and absorbing account of these films, packed with shrewd analysis and insights, background details, numerous illustrations, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

Title: Sherlock in the Seventies
Author: Derham Groves
Year: 2021
Publisher: The Visible Spectrum
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Murder By Decree (1979)

British novelization of the 1979 film starring Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson. A U.S. edition was published by Ballantine Books.

THE JACK THE RIPPER MURDERS 

Sherlock Holmes lifts the veil of secrecy, corruption and terror at the heart of the throne of England itself. Clue by clue...murder by murder.

Title: Murder By Decree

Author: Robert Weverka

Year: 1979

Publisher: Corgi

Purchase: Amazon.co.uk