SHERLOCKIAN FICTION

Doyle fans have literally taken matters in their hands. Our pick of books by Doyle fans who have written their own Sherlock stories:

THE HOUSE OF SILK: Anthony Horowitz’s book has all the usual suspects and the big-set pieces. Carstairs, an art dealer with a flighty wife, is being watched by a mysterious stranger in a flat cap...an Irish gang is led by a pair of twins...plus train robberies and carriage chases. This is the first instance of Sherlockian fiction to have been endorsed by the Conan Doyle estate.

A THREE PIPE PROBLEM: In Julian Symons’ ingenious take on the detective, a small-time actor in 1970s’ London has an obsession with Sherlock Holmes. So when he gets the chance to play the famous detective in a television series, it seems his dreams have finally come true. And when London is plagued by a series of unsolved murders, he steps right in.

THE FINAL SOLUTION:

In this version of Holmes, Michael Chabon combines a mystery story with a Holocaust novel. When a talking parrot of a nine-yearold refugee boy from Nazi Germany vanishes, Holmes comes out of retirement. WATSON AND HOLMES: Written by Karl Bollers and Larry Stroman, this comic turns all conventions on its head: both Sherlock and Watson are imagined as African Americans and modern-day Harlem is their playground. Watson here is not a bumbling sidekick. He is smart, resourceful and has also served on the front lines in Afghanistan.

THE MANDALA OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: On popular demand to bring Holmes back to life after he falls off a waterfall, Doyle in a story, makes Holmes write to Watson: ‘I travelled for two years in Tibet...’ Jamyang Norbu takes that as his cue to investigate Holmes’ stay in Lhasa. What he unearths is the Mandala...

THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION:

In Nicholas Meyer’s novel, Watson manages a meeting between Holmes and Freud. A hallucinating Holmes (he has a cocaine habit) meets Freud in the hope that the psychoanalyst, a fellow user, can work a cure. By the end of the story, Holmes kicks his habit and also manages to save Europe from catastrophe and war.

A STUDY IN SCARLET: Neil Gaiman does a Sherlock Holmes pastiche which he transfers to the fictional universe of horror of writer HP Lovecraft. It won the 2004 Hugo Award, an award given for the best science fiction or fantasy work, for the best short story.

THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY:

In this novel by Michael Dibdin, Holmes suspects Jack the Ripper to be his nemesis, James Moriarty. This is a brilliant and inventive updating of the Holmes legend.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES-THE PEERLESS PEER: During WWI, Holmes and Watson go in search of the nefarious Von Bork and his weapon of dread in this novel by Philip Jose Farmer. Their airship crashes into the African jungle and an alliance is formed between the detective and Lord Greystoke, the noble savage, to defeat their enemy.