Read Killing Mr Watson First
355952
Good follow up to Killing Mr. Watson. Florida history that comes to life. The locations and people are real, their descendents are still around today.
3551955
This book contains the novelette Sons of Moriarty and seven short stories by various authors. Some of them have been published in many anthologies, but some I had never read before.

The Infernal Machine by John Lutz I have read before. The infernal machine in question is a Gatling Gun. The Edgewick brothers are seeking to sell the weapon to Sir Clive Oldsbolt to manufacture the guns for the British Army. Then Sir Clive is murdered, shot seven times, and the Gatling gun was heard by the witnesses, but not seen. To make matters worse, Landen Edgewick was engaged to Sir Clives daughter. Her sister is engaged to a man named Robby Smythe, who is involved with one of the first combustion engine automobiles. He hopes this will be a great investment in the future. Then there is the mysterious Major Ardmont, who is visiting Sir Clive

The Adventure of the Double-Bogey Man by Robert L Fish was a new experience for me. Told with light-hearted fun, it is a Schlok Holmes mystery. Any more would spoil the story

The Case of the Bloodless Sock by Anne Perry is another I have read before. A little girl goes missing, and is later found in an alley. A note arrives from the kidnapper who says he can take the child at any time he chooses, and advises the father to sell his stock in a particular company. The girl vanishes again, and is agin returned. Holmes is on the case

Sherlocks by Al Sarrantonio is a new treasure for me. Taking place in an unspecified near future, machines called Sherlocks are taking on much of the work of CSI. PI Matheson, having had his caseload fall by 60% due to these little tentacled machines, is called into the case by notes and bank drafts. You see Matheson still believes in old time detective work

The Field Bazaar is a short piece by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1896.

The Deptford Horror by Adrian Conan Doyle, son of the great author, pits Holmes against something unseen. Two people have died in their rooms. They had weak hearts, but were otherwise healthy. Then there are the traces of soot scattered around the roomup the wall, across the ceiling, and down again in strange whorls

Before the Adventures by Lenore Carroll iswell, in this case I will just say read it! It is too good a twist to say more.

Sons of Moriarty by Loren D Estleman takes place in 1903. An Italian beauty, Magdalena Venucci brings the case to our duo. The odd thing is that she goes to Watsons home and surgery instead of 221B, as she has been told by someone that Holmes is there.

She proves to be the daughter of Venucci the assassin killed by the mysterious Beppo in The Six Napoleons. She wants to take her fathers body home to Italy, but everyone from Scotland Yard to the Home Office is stonewalling her. Il Casa Negro, the Black Hand is involved and the danger cannot be more deadlyuntil a descendant of an old foe tries to even the score for their parent

I give the book four stars

Quoth the Raven
2475865
I feel sad to finish this book,I want to read this book again! You get to try to solve the crimes as you read! At the end you see how he did it! Where's the period?
4327599
This author's 1st attempt at moving the Sherlock Holmes stories forward works pretty well.  The great, aging detective meets a fifteen-year old girl who shows uncommon observation skills, similar to his own, and he is impressed with her.  Mr. Holmes takes her under his wing and mentors her.  They later have a couple of adventures together, the last being pretty hair raising.  I don't like the way the villain initially gets the upper hand, on Holmes and his protg  but the villain, also female,  is quite cunning and will do anything to get what she wants.  The  protg proves very helpful with the case.  I think I will read the next volume (already available; written years ago) in the series.
2642589
A widow's "womanly feelings" are reawakened by the mysterious tenant of a rented villa where she is the housekeeper. Sounds like pretty standard stuff of romance, right? But the original characters in this story pop right off the page like living people. (The scenes with the household staff are especially enjoyable.)

So why add Sherlock Holmes into the mix of this otherwise wonderful story? Once he falls for the widow, he's just not Holmes anymore. Holmes kissing a woman passionately on the mouth? Not canon, but apparently plenty of wishful thinking.

Then there's the Watson problem. When a woman wants to write a Holmesian romance (which instantly makes the book non-Holmesian) the female character essentially wants to be Watson. She doesn't want to be the sit-at-home little woman, she wants to be an equal partner with Holmes. Therefore, all the authors who write books such as this universally make their heroine quicker on the uptake than Watson, able to recognize Holmes no matter what kind of disguise he's wearing, etc. So where does this leave Watson in such stories? Well, in this particular story, the main purpose he serves is to lead the arch villain of the piece right to Holmes (who was incognito to avoid such a thing from happening in the first place). Then he vanishes out of the story and doesn't come back until Holmes and the housekeeper have solved a murder and subdued (more or less, anyway) the arch villain. My suggestion for any potential sequel would be to either marry Watson off and keep him out of the story, or please figure out how to use him in a way that better reflects the fact that he was "the sole great companion" of Holmes's life, deserving of far better than he got in this book. (Quote from:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Final-Solution-A-Story-of-Detection-Hardcover/dp/B003KW8IKE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (Hardcover)</a>&nbsp;by Michael Chabon, a fine mystery about Holmes in his extreme old age.)

Lora Roberts is an established and accomplished author who has no need to put the name of Sherlock Holmes into her title or subtitle in order to get people to read her book. So apparently she just liked Holmes, and wanted to try her hand at a pastiche. But what a shame she didn't stick to canon! This could just as well have been turned into a fascinating traditional story, while treating Holmes and Watson as they were created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
27312
This is a Sherlock and Watson like who dun it. A bit of romance is also thrown in and all is cleared up by the end.
3427501
My first Christie novel; I won't read another.  I found it rather boring and not particularly "clever."  I got interested in reading AC having just read Conan Doyle/s "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and decided to compare another "great" fictional detective.  IMO there is no comparison.  "Murder...." was like an amateur version of a detective novel by comparison.  Ironic considering Holmes was an "amateur" detective and Poirot was a "real" one.  I'll read more Conan Doyle but not more Agatha Christie.
3045613
Good enough to keep me reading to the end.  However, as a Sherlock Holmes fan, I found it a bit disappointing.
4485372
EASY TO KILL (1939; originally published in Great Britain as MURDER IS EASY) is a very cleverly written fair-play puzzle story with a couple of bonuses: a fairly good love story and quite a bit of humor (most of it at the expense of a newspaper publisher, Lord Gordon Easterfield).

The detective in this book is neither Poirot nor Miss Marple. Instead, it is Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired colonial policeman who has returned to England and chances to converse on a train with a woman who reminds him of a favorite aunt. She informs him that she is reporting three murders to Scotland Yard and is hoping to prevent a fourth, that of a village doctor. Before she can do so, she is killed by a car, and a short time later the doctor she mentioned is killed. Fitzwilliam decides to investigate these five deaths.

There is a large array of plausible suspects, but readers with their eyes open ought to be able to solve the mystery before Luke Fitzwilliam does. (This novel has 24 chapters, and my own correct solution was arrived at in the middle of Chapter 19.)

I have rated this mystery four-stars (for a letter grade of "B+") and would have rated it higher if its concluding scenes had not depended so very heavily on a series of implausible and lucky coincidences. To say more than this would involve writing a "spoiler."
291749
...but can't get into this re-write of the same books. So, if you have already read Killing Mister Watson and its two companion volumes, don't bother buying and reading this book!
4092523
A mysterious Arab falls ill at their feet in a Parisian Bistro.  Irene guns down a cobra then, Nell and Godfrey are off to London to find and alert a Dr. John Watson who may be in danger because of his medical stint during the 2nd Afghan War.
It is the true Watson of Sherlockian lore, with a dead cobra under his desk and thus brings Holmes into play. Much tooing and froing often in disguise until before the archenemy Sebastion Moran falls to his death, clutching Nell's love interest, Quentin.  The game is still afoot and to be continued in future installments.
1166176
I believe this is one of the earliest of this writer's books as it introduces the detective Monsieur Lecoq. I actually like the way the character goes about solving the crime even though he seems to be a step behind the villain throughout the book, But, it was enjoyable to read all the twists and turns in the story. Personally, I was not quite satisfied with the end of the book as it left you wanting more. I assume for the writer that is likely a good thing. However, as a reader I like to have the story wrapped in a nice little bow at the end of the book.  I would recommend you read this book and then proceed to some of the other stories with Lecoq such as Monsieur Lecoq.
4029562
What a total delight this book is.  The conceit is that Holmes has been murdered and Watson tries to solve the mystery with the help of Mrs. Hudson's now grown son Christopher.  The voices are perfect, the writing is flawless and literate, the mystery so very Holmesian.  The descriptions of early 20th century London are great and I particularly loved the little,  clever, asides to the story: Watson meets a secretary of the Navy who has a speech impediment and he feels that this Mr. Churchill should get some speech therapy if he will ever be successful.  Someone is wearing a lovely hat by some French milliner named Chanel.  One of the characters (he's evil, so it's all right) is in a rush because he's leaving on the Titanic in 3 weeks.  With the introduction of the brilliantly deductive Christopher Hudson working with Dr. Watson, could there be some more mysteries afoot?  I hope so.
2928219
A nice use of a Sherlock-type character; looks probably based on B. Cumberbatch. If you've ever wanted to see Sherlock and Watson as a romantic duo, this one is for you.
2683965
I agree whole-heartedly with nearly everything said in Mr. David R. Eastwood's review. Go read that as it is thorough and well-considered.

What I do not agree with is his condemnation of "A Hansom for Mr. Holmes". I actually found this to be the most interesting of the stories in the book, as it is nice and refreshing to see a non-Watsonian narrator, and get his perspective on our favorite detective. In addition, it was well-written, although the plot is not particularly complex. (For that matter, many of the stories of the canon would not be either, were they told by an outsider, and in this fashion. It is not a great way to establish an entire series, mind you, but it is a puff of fresh air in a graveyard of bad stories.)

I particularly want to talk about the Siren story though. This was so laughably awful as to actually make me angry about having purchased the book. If you want to get an impression of how bad it is, take an average episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, remove Scooby and the gang, and replace them with Watson and Holmes. Done! See how bad that is?

For the material here, I give this a D-, and I would suggest all but the most hardcore fans of Holmes go somewhere better.

Harkius
2387217
A bride is murdered a few hours before her wedding. Naturally the bridegroom is the first person to be suspected but he has an alibi. It rapidly becomes clear to Wesley Peterson and Gerry Heffernan that the victim was not exactly popular and many people could have had means motive and opportunity for doing away with her. Neil Watson, Wesley's archaeologist friend, meanwhile, is investigating a skeleton buried on a local farm with two pieces of valuable jewellery which has been unearthed by a man with a metal detector.

The plot twists and turns and I had suspected several people before all the mysteries are finally unravelled. The mix of archaeology, history and modern day crime was as ever well done and the personal stories of the main characters continue to develop. Pam is getting sick if hardly seeing Wesley because of his job - is she about to succumb to temptation? Has Gerry finally found someone to replace his late wife?

This series can be read in any order but if you read them in the order in which they were published it is easier to follow the personal lives of the series characters. If you like your crime novels with interesting plots which interweave history and modern events then this may be the book for you.
3668066
EB has written a murder mystery in the time, of Sherlock Holmes. The story concerns an Inspector of Scotland Yard who is attempting to solve a crime of murder. When the Inspector hits a brick wall his trusty household staff comes to his aid and rescue. This is an excellent read for the genre..... ER