Big dog...

Sherlock
Hound of the Baskervilles

This seemed like an episode from the X-files. Dark rooms, foggy moors, frightened client - is he all he seems to be? Big scary dog, CIA plots, illicit drugs. The meaning of "hound." Sherlock admitting his own insecurities, his feelings (of friendship) for Watson. a bit of a mess, really. At least everyone kept his or her clothes on.

I've read and seen so much new Holmes in and out of canon, really got to get back to Conan. Doyle that is...

Scandal in Belgravia -- last night's Sherlock

Watched last night's Sherlock, the first in Series 2, Scandal in Belgravia. This series, if you don't know, features Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson. These two are soon to be united in The Hobbit, where Freemen is Bilbo and Cumberbatch is Smaug. That should be fun.

Stephen Moffat, who also produces and writes the BBC's 11th Dr. Who, wrote this episode, and produces this new Sherlock series for the BBC. Anyway, last night's was fast paced and a bit hard to follow. I may have to watch it again.

A lot of women with crushes on Sherlock "smart is the new sexy" well duh!, a lot of cell phone and laptop finagling; Watson writes a blog that everyone reads including the Queen, I guess this is to show how much it's updated. Watson is just back from the modern war in Afghanistan, actually a sad commentary on 20th century geopolitics. Irene Adler is a very well-placed sex worker and dominatrix who teases and possibly is even smarter than Sherlock. She is a joy to watch, a lot of fun. Lots of twists and turns. A scandal that will bring down the British government or so Mycroft says. "Jim" Moriarity is genuinely scary. My husband and I enjoyed it. I need to go back and read the original. Before next week...

Sherlock is coming in the US

Pbs will be airing Season 2 of Sherlock starting May 6 at 9 pm. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/mystery/index.html

Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 9pm SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA Picking up from season 1's gripping cliff-hanger, the whip-smart dominatrix Irene Adler (Lara Pulver, True Blood) takes on Sherlock in a game he is ill-prepared to fight...love.

Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 9pm THE HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLE Sherlock and Watson track a gigantic hound to Baskerville, where the military is conducting top-secret experiments. But whether demonic or dubious, something is stalking the moors...

Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 9pm THE REICHENBACH FALL Stealing the crown jewels is just a prelude for the unhinged criminal mastermind, Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott, Lennon Naked), when he poses the diabolical and inescapable "final problem" to Sherlock.

Can't wait! I'll be watching with a pipe full of shag, a rather fine brandy, and a soupçon of 7% solution to round the corners.

More new reads...More Sherlock...Deb Crombie...Amelia Peabody...

Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye (2009) No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie (2012)

Gallows View by Peter Robinson (1990)

Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A compendium by Elizabeth Peters, Kristen Whitbread and Dennis Forbes (2003)

Lyndsay Faye's new and highly acclaimed novel The Gods of Gotham is set in 1840's New York during the early days of the police force in that city. A future read but I wanted to read her 1st novel, Dust and Shadow,  more Sherlockiana (see some of my recent blogs). I read her novel with a map of London and a "Ripperology" website at my side. Her novel is well-researched and enjoyable. It is tightly plotted but as in all of the recent Sherlockiana novels, Downey/Law movies, and the BBC TV series (2nd series airing in the US in May), they are interested in giving Sherlock a lot of emotions, sometimes a wife or girlfriend, and perhaps more physicality than is canonical. Now I need to re-read the originals to see what is or is not canon.

I was looking forward to Deb Crombie's new novel and it did not disappoint. There is a ripping mystery involving rowing, posh Henley rowing clubs, and the power hierarchy and sexism at the Met (London Police). Detectives (and new spouses) Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James must combine work and family life as they try to make a good life for themselves and their children while solving dastardly, complex crimes (try that, Ann Romney!) and navigating the tricky waters of the Yard politics. 

In my last blog, I discussed Peter Robinson's latest Before the Poison. I wanted to read his Inspector Banks series, starting with the first, Gallows View. Since the first, he's written a lot of this series, 20 books or so. In the first, Banks and his family have just moved to small town in Yorkshire, where a peeping Tom, angry local feminists, a gorgeous psychologist, and a nasty sociopathic youth gang lead to all kinds of crime - including murder. The small town is full of interesting characters - like an updated Miss Marple would find in council flats and posh new estates. It's good stuff.

Last, Amelia Peabody's Egypt is a fun companion to Elizabeth Peters' archaeological mysteries set in 1880's to 1920's Egypt. It is great fun reading about the actual investigators like Flinders Petrie and Howard Carter and puts some more meat on the bones of Peters' backstories of Egyptology, fashion, suffrage, and espionage. 

More tales of Sherlock....

A Study in Sherlock
Edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Kinger
2011
Bantam Books
"Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon"

If nothing else, the recent edited volumn of stories by 16 noted mystery writers such as Margaret Maron, Jan Burke, Lee Child, Laura Lippman, Dana Stabenow, and several others "inspired by the Holmes Canon" inspire one to go back and read the originals. I first read Holmes as a teenager and it is time to re-read the collection. I wasn't sure if I would like these stories but they are wonderful, although all are very different.

I'd be hard pressed to pick my favorites. Some feature Holmes in a new story such as the ones by Alan Bradley, Thomas Perry, S. J. Rozan, and Neil Gaiman. Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson solve a mystery without Holmes in Maron's story, while Conan Doyle is the subject of Todd's story. Others such as the ones by Jacqueline Winspear, Dana Stabenow, Gayle Lynds and John Sheldon, Jan Burke, Lionel Chetwynd, Tony Broadbent, Lee Child, and Philip and Jerry Margolin, are about detectives inspired by Holmes or using similar methods of observation and detection. Some are set in the Victorian era, some in the early twentieth century, and some are contemporary. It is also good to read these stories by Burke, Maron, Lippman, and Winspear, whose detective novels I've read avidly but whose stories are featuring other detectives and in some cases other eras. I particularly enjoyed Winspear's story about the inspiration of a young detective.

As I said, it is difficult to pick any favorites since they were all so good but if I pressed I'd say that Neil Gaiman's semi-steampunk sci-fi Holmes story set in part in China, and Dana Stabenow's epistolary blog-novel set in modern Alaska are my absolute favorites of the collection. But I liked them all. I was disappointed that there was no story by Laurie King herself but it is a wonderful collection. I will be looking for stories by Alan Bradley, the Margolins, Lionel Chetwynd, ad Gaiman, all of whom I had never read before and really loved their stories. I did not read the graphic Holmes story by Colin Cotterill since that didn't appeal to me but might appeal to other readers.

House of Silk

House of Silk
Anthony Horowitz
2011

This book is is a new Sherlock Holmes mystery authorized by the Conan Doyle estate. Sherlock is hotter than ever. I saw the latest in the muscular version of Holmes and Watson depicted by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law on Christmas Day and really enjoyed its non-stop action. Jared Harris, skilled playing an evil genius from his work on Fringe makes avery effective Moriarity. Even better is the modernized version presented by the BBC and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The first series was on last year and the next is being shown in the UK at present and we'll see it in the U.S. in May. Laurie King's wonderful and well-received Mary Russell- Holmes mysteries featuring the young intellectual wife of Holmes and Study in Sherlock are also well worth it for the hungry Holmes fan.

House of Silk is very good and not at all revisionist. It does feature some of Holmes irregulars and focuses on the terrible mistreatment of poor children during Victoriam times. Holmes has come upon a secret so heinous it threatens to bring down the government and he continues to pursue it despite being warned off by his brother Mycroft. It is very atmospheric with a sinuous well-draw plot.