The West End Horror (1976)

Nicholas Meyer's follow-up to his best-selling first Holmes novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.

March, 1895. London. A month of singular occurrences in the West End. First there was the bizarre murder of theatre critic Jonathan McCarthy; the police were baffled. Then came the lawsuit against the Marquess of Queenbury for libel; the public was scandalized. And what of the ingenue at the Savoy, discovered with her throat slashed? Or the police surgeon who disappeared talking with him two corpses from the mortuary?

Some of the theatre district's most fashionable and creative luminaries (as well as a number of more marginal participants) were involved or affected by these events: a penniless stage critic and writer named Bernard Shaw; Ellen Terry, the gifted actress and loveliest woman in London; Gilbert and Sullivan; a suspicious box office clerk named Bram Stoker; and aging matinee idol, Henry Irving; an unscrupulous publisher calling himself Frank Harris; and a controversial wit by the name of Oscar Wilde. 

Scotland Yard is mystified by what appear to be unrelated cases, but to Holmes the matter is elementary: a maniac is on the loose.

Title: The West End Horror
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1976
Publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co.
Purchase: Amazon.

The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man (1985)

One of several books that teams Sherlock Holmes with the world's greatest escapologist, Harry Houdini.

Sherlock Holmes and Harry Houdini? The World's greatest detective and the king of magic–together? 

Yes, together, astounding all England and confounding the crooks who would commit "the crime of the century." Here, for the first time, are the details of this legendary case. 

Even while London is applauding Houdini for such incredible feats as "Walking Through A Brick Wall" and "The Ancient Hindu Water Torture Cell Escape," his devoted wife, Bess, fears for his safety. A rival magician is plotting against him. When Houdini is framed for espionage and incarcerated, Holmes vows to clear his name. 

So begins one of Sherlock Holmes's most colorful adventures. You'll meet such exotic characters as the beautiful and mysterious Countess Valenka, who attempts to blackmail the Prince of Wales, and Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother, whose bulk is matched only by his intellect (said to be even more formidable than Sherlock's). 

You'll see Houdini reduce his body to ectoplasm–and Holmes deduce how he did it. You'll witness Houdini perpetrate the most astonishing escape of his career–from Scotland Yard! And, best of all, you'll see Holmes in action: his celebrated deductive technique, his uncanny talent for confounding disguise, and his hitherto unrevealed skill of flying aeroplanes. 

The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man is a magical entertainment, glittering with suspense, comedy, and romance. It is a must for Sherlock Holmes fans, and for all lovers of adventure and mystery in a grand style.

Title: The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man

Author: Daniel Stashower

Year: 1985

Publisher: William Morrow & Co.

Purchase: Amazon.

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.

The case of the non-canonical seduction

Here's another reason that I have no business starting a Sherlock Holmes blog, but I suppose I need to confess this upfront. My first experience of Holmes was not the Canon. In fact, I came to Doyle late. My first experience of Sherlock Holmes in print was a pastiche novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer.

In my defense, this is a great novel. It was a sensation of its day and a New York Times Bestseller. And while there had been Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels before this book, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was the one that kicked off the tidal wave of Holmes mash-up pastiche adventures that continue to this day. (The mash-up here being Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud.)

Part of what made this book special was that Meyer wrote it as John Watson and presented it as a lost adventure with himself credited only as "editor." Today that is almost the standard way to present a Holmes pastiche, but this was a pretty original idea back in 1974 when the book came out. I'm not Holmes expert enough to know whether Meyer was the very first person to write a Holmes novel in the voice of John Watson, but he might have been. He also brilliantly turns the Moriarty story on its head and shows us Holmes as a drug addict, but you know all this.

Pictured above is my cherished signed first edition hardcover. No, it's not Doyle, but I think Meyer's book could be the most significant non-canonical work of them all. It certainly seduced me into the world of Baker Street.

Title: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1974
Publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co.
Purchase: Amazon.

Also see: The West End Horror (1976)

A tin dispatch box with my name on it

I have no business starting a blog about Sherlock Holmes. My true passion is Harry Houdini, and I run a blog devoted to the escape king called WILD ABOUT HARRY. But I really love Holmes, and I was a minor Sherlockian even before I discovered the magic of Houdini. I'm not a scholar, but I do enjoy keeping up with the latest Holmesian happenings, and over the years I've collected a few gems, primarily pastiche paperbacks, that I would like to share here. I'm also starting this blog because my name really is Cox, John Cox, and I couldn't resist the name. So, like it or not, here is yet another Sherlock Holmes website: Cox & Company. I welcome you.

UPDATE: I've changed the name of this blog to The Battered Tin and have decided to focus on the pastiche adventures of Holmes and Watson -- "cases for which the world was not yet prepared." Hope you enjoy.