edited by Laurie R. King & Leslie S. Klinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4, 2018
Only “The Adventure of the Six Sherlocks,” Toni L.P. Kelner’s inventive, amusing story of a fatal poisoning at a Baker...
Following their three earlier co-edited collections exploring farther and farther reaches of the universe of Sherlock Holmes pastiches (Echoes of Sherlock Holmes, 2016, etc.), King and Klinger have commissioned 14 new stories that make up their wildest, weirdest crop yet.
The goal not to write a straightforward period pastiche but to produce something more loosely inspired by the canon suggests at least three criteria by which the entries might be judged: their success as mysteries, the fidelity or ingenuity with which they replicate or transform notable thematic or stylistic devices of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, and the originality of the concepts that link them to the sacred writings. Virtually none of this year’s crop succeeds in all three of these areas. The strongest mysteries are Harley Jane Kozak’s breathlessly overplotted contemporary search for a missing twin, D.P. Lyle’s exposure of a modern fake suicide by recourse to “The Reigate Squires,” Weston Ochse’s encounter between a hot dog seller and a psychic prostitute in LA, and Jamie Freveletti’s elaborately worked-out tale of vanishings, ghosts, and counterterrorists. The most obviously Holmes-ian are F. Paul Wilson’s period tale of Holmes’ encounter with a woman nearly as impressive as Irene Adler, Alan Gordon’s droll account of young Sherlock’s apprenticeship to his sorely tried brother, Mycroft, and Zoë Sharp’s surprisingly detailed update of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The most original in their concepts are Peter S. Beagle’s poem in which Watson complains about Holmes even as he salutes him, Rhys Bowen’s reimagining of Holmes as a robot programmed with deductive powers, and William Kotzwinkle and Joe Servello’s comic-book saga of Inspector [Praying] Mantis and Dr. [Grass] Hopper. Despite their varied provocations, the contributions by Reed Farrel Coleman, Gregg Hurwitz, and Duane Swierczynski escape Holmes’ gravitational pull so completely that they float out into other universes.
Only “The Adventure of the Six Sherlocks,” Toni L.P. Kelner’s inventive, amusing story of a fatal poisoning at a Baker Street Con, hits the mark in every category. Fans will argue endlessly about which others are the real keepers.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68177-879-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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by J.A. Jance ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2019
Proficient but eminently predictable. Amid all the time shifts and embedded backstories, the most surprising feature is how...
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A convicted killer’s list of five people he wants dead runs the gamut from the wife he’s already had murdered to franchise heroine Ali Reynolds.
Back in the day, women came from all over to consult Santa Clarita fertility specialist Dr. Edward Gilchrist. Many of them left his care happily pregnant, never dreaming that the father of the babies they carried was none other than the physician himself, who donated his own sperm rather than that of the handsome, athletic, disease-free men pictured in his scrapbook. When Alexandra Munsey’s son, Evan, is laid low by the kidney disease he’s inherited from his biological father and she returns to Gilchrist in search of the donor’s medical records, the roof begins to fall in on him. By the time it’s done falling, he’s serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for commissioning the death of his wife, Dawn, the former nurse and sometime egg donor who’d turned on him. With nothing left to lose, Gilchrist tattoos himself with the initials of five people he blames for his fall: Dawn; Leo Manuel Aurelio, the hit man he’d hired to dispose of her; Kaitlyn Todd, the nurse/receptionist who took Dawn’s place; Alex Munsey, whose search for records upset his apple cart; and Ali Reynolds, the TV reporter who’d helped put Alex in touch with the dozen other women who formed the Progeny Project because their children looked just like hers. No matter that Ali’s been out of both California and the news business for years; Gilchrist and his enablers know that revenge can’t possibly be served too cold. Wonder how far down that list they’ll get before Ali, aided once more by Frigg, the methodical but loose-cannon AI first introduced in Duel to the Death (2018), turns on them?
Proficient but eminently predictable. Amid all the time shifts and embedded backstories, the most surprising feature is how little the boundary-challenged AI, who gets into the case more or less inadvertently, differs from your standard human sidekick with issues.Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5101-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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by Lorna Barrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2019
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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