| Readers of Sherlock Holmes stories
invariably expect Watson to be the narrator, but what if one
of the other characters told the tale instead? Following on
from last year’s Associates of Sherlock Holmes, here
are another fourteen short stories that give a voice to a
selection of characters featured in the original Conan Doyle
canon.
The first volume contained stories told by most of the more
major characters such as Lestrade, Colonel Moran and Irene
Adler. Moriarty was surprisingly absent, but he is in here
telling the first tale and Mrs. Hudson makes an appearance
too. Elsewhere Irregular Wiggins is involved in a docklands
case, Inspector Gregson discovers why a blind man needed a
pair of spectacles, Sir Henry Baskerville tangles with another
beast on Bodmin Moor, Langdale Pike reveals his true identity
and even Toby the dog from “The Sign of Four”
lends his nose to solve a crime. Other tales make use of more
obscure characters such as Lord Holdhurst, who gets to discover
if a possible visitor from Mars is bona fide, Violet de Merville
investigates a haunted school and Lucy Hebron narrates a tale
set in the 1950s. Each tale has a short introduction describing
the person chosen as the protagonist and why they were selected
in the words of the author. I found the quality to be very
even and it is hard to choose favorites, but Mark A Latham’s
Langdale Pike story and Michelle Ruda’s spooky school
investigated by “Illustrious Client” Violet de
Merville were both particularly enjoyable. Thinking of the
many characters in the original canon, there are so many with
stories to tell that I hope next year might see a third volume
of these tales. Most enjoyable.
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