Holmes and Moriarty
by Gareth Rubin (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
audiobook read by Michael Fenner & Gareth Armstrong (Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024)
The Holmes/Watson characterisation feels right, and Moriarty/Moran emerge as an equally absorbing duo (Watson and Moran alternating their first-person accounts), yet the titular conflux amounts to little. The plot devolves into explicated mystery where neither Holmes nor Moriarty (nor Mycroft) contribute much.
Enola Holmes
dir. Harry Bradbeer (2020)
Bradbeer’s lively direction notwithstanding, the story is too slight to sustain a two-hour film treatment. The best scenes by far are those pairing Millie Bobby Brown (Enola) and Louis Partridge (Tewkesbury), who together could productively be retro-scripted into Attack of the Clones.
Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon
ed. Laurie R. King & Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus, 2016); audiobook read by various narrators (Blackstone, 2016)
A solid selection of stories either set in Conan Doyle’s world or featuring his much-loved characters (or spiritual successors based thereon). Some imaginative takes, with few duds but also few standouts. Jonathan Maberry’s ‘The Adventure of the Empty Grave’ has canonical appeal.
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat; dir. Douglas Mackinnon (BBC, 2016)
Cleverly executed, presenting initially as a standalone special then morphing into a bridge between series. Gatiss and Moffat indulge in some social commentary while poking gentle fun at the original Sherlock Holmes canon. Cumberbatch and Freeman (especially) revel in the old-fashioned characterisation.
Sherlock: The Sign of Three
by Stephen Thompson, Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss; dir. Colm McCarthy (BBC, 2014)
Possibly the funniest of all Sherlock episodes, albeit skewed beyond the pale towards character development and adapting little of its plot from Conan Doyle’s stories. While Benedict Cumberbatch brings Sherlock’s misanthropy painfully centre-stage, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington are more humanly sublime.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
adapted by Alexander Baron; dir. Peter Duguid (BBC, 1982)
A watchable if unadventurous four-part adaptation. Tom Baker’s search for Holmes’s mastery has him deliver lines with commanding eloquence but often a fraction of a second early. Terence Rigby makes for an unsteady Watson, balancing things out with delays of corresponding magnitude.
The Baker Street Four, Vol. 1
by J. B. Djian & Olivier Legrand; ill. David Etien; trans. Mark Bence (Insight, 2017
first published as “Les Quatre de Baker Street vol. 1” (Editions Glénat, 2009)
A thick volume containing two adventures of Sherlockian street kids Billy, Charlie, Tom (and cat). The stories are nothing special but the art is rather splendid, foregrounding the characters and rendering London’s East End with a grimy palette and considerable background detail.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
dir. Guy Ritchie (2011)
Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes hides his genius behind a facade of extemporised buffoonery. Jude Law’s Watson is less idolising, more exasperated, than in the original stories. Their dynamic nevertheless works, carrying the more stylised mayhem as Ritchie’s treatment walks its fine line.
The Case of the Left-Handed Lady
by Nancy Springer (Penguin, 2007); audiobook read by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books, 2007)
Again, the mystery element is slight, but 14-year-old Enola Holmes proves intelligent, quick-witted and resourceful… and more than a match for her famous older brother! Both Sherlock himself and Victorian London reveal different facets of themselves when encountered by a female protagonist.
The Valley of Fear
by Arthur Conan Doyle (George H. Doran, 1915); audiobook read by Stephen Fry (ABC/Audible, 2018)
In essence, two largely unconnected novellas. The first sees Holmes in fine form, his aura only enhanced by Inspector MacDonald’s shining a lesser light of uncommon strength. The second is an engaging enough story of Freemason gang activity in lawless north-east America.