Category Archives: Sherlock Holmes

March 4, 2026 · 5:27 am

Sherlock Holmes:”Nothing clears up a case as much as stating it to another person”

I’m not sure when it occurred to me that getting feedback from other people before I submitted my work might make it better.

While memory isn’t always accurate, I’m pretty sure I didn’t show my first novel to anyone until after I sent it off to DAW Books (came back with a “not bad, submit again,” which was quite a thrill). I showed my second novel (currently a new WIP as Let No Man Put Asunder) to my friends Martin and Cindy because I remember their feedback. Cindy, in particular, pointed out that my protagonist Adrienne (Mandy in the current WIP) didn’t have a purse or anything else to carry her stuff. I rewrote accordingly.

I’m a good self-editor. I can spot plot holes. I can sense places where my work needs something more, even if I can’t define what it is (eventually I do). I’m not an infallible self-editor. Showing my work to beta readers has made it so much better.

My short story “You Are What You Eat,” for instance, has the food in a married couple’s house possessed by ghosts. Every editor I submitted to said the ending disappointed them. Cindy made me see what was wrong with it: it had become a standard revenge story when it needed something weirder. I rewrote accordingly; it sold to Tales of the Talisman.

It’s hard as writers to see our work clearly. Once I’ve written a story I tend to think of the finished work as the only possible way it could have been done. Even if I can see alternatives, they’re clearly not as good. Obviously the reader will see that … right. Someone outside my head, reading cold, may (and usually does) have a completely different reaction. Sometimes it’s the aesthetics — the ending lacks oomph, the character’s issue got left unresolved. Sometimes I left out a point on the page that was very clear in my head, leaving the story an illogical mess. Plus the little things like changing a name between drafts and not catching all of them, head-hopping, etc.

This hasn’t always been an option. There have been stretches of time where for whatever reason I didn’t have anyone to provide a critique. I’m pretty sure I wrote Questionable Minds without any feedback; it’s a little too gruesome for Cindy and I didn’t have anyone else to ask at the time. I think it turned out well, and it got positive responses from some editors (even an acceptance, right before the publisher shut its doors). Still who knows if a more thorough beta-reading might have helped.

Now that I have my writer’s group here in Durham, that’s not a problem. I have feedback on almost everything, including my film reference books. They were great help on The Aliens Are Here and Watching Jekyll and Hyde, for instance — pointing out where I wasn’t clear, where I’d gotten bogged down in synopsis, where I’d wandered off topic.

Beta readers are not infallible either. And when you have 10 or more of them, there are inevitable outliers. The ending of my short story “The Schloss and the Switchblade,” for instance, has the lead hooking up with his long-ago crush. One of my beta readers had issues with that; I kept it in. Still, when you have a solid majority of people saying “that was a mistake,” it’s worth thinking about. And even one person can be right when they’re pointing out an obvious mistake.

Occasionally beta reading goes sour. About 30 years ago, I showed an intense, angry short story to one of my writer friends. She didn’t think it was marketable. This threw me enough I don’t think I ever tried to sell it — a shame, because what’s the worst that could happen? A no, that’s what, and I’ve had plenty of those. I didn’t submit it, which guaranteed it would never be accepted (and for various reasons, I don’t think it’s good enough now). I’ve no idea why that critique shook me so much, but it did.

Overall, though, beta reading has been a big win for me. I highly recommend it.

Rights to all images remain with their current holders. Questionable Minds cover by Samantha Collins.

Sherlock Holmes: incidental vs. vital (again)

It’s been more than a year since I used a Sherlock Holmes quote as the basis for a blog post about writing. And while it’s a different topic this time, I’m using the same quote, from The Reigate Squires: “It is of the highest importance to the art of detection to be able to determine, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital.”

The post last year was about figuring out the essential core of your story. This time out I’m thinking of historical fantasy, which is what I mostly write, and the details of historical settings. How much detail do readers need and which details?

In my first draft of Let No Man Put Asunder, for instance, I have Mandy making multiple movie references as she’s a film buff: to Notorious, North by Northwest, With Six You Get Eggroll, Viva Las Vegas, The Way We Were, Last Year at Marienbad, and that’s just the first two chapters. The unanimous conclusion was to dial it back and make sure everyone of them had some context, and to remember not everyone is going to know all these films. It was good advice. I eliminated the incidentail films in that list leaving me with North by Northwest —

— and Notorious, and highlighted that Mandy’s a huge fan of both Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant. The essential detail is that movies (and, unfortunately, smoking) are her escape from the stress of her daily life, but just saying that without some specifics wouldn’t work for me.

Paul is a mystery fan, movies and books both. In the first draft he mentions picking up books by Richard Prather, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr at the used book store that morning, again without me explaining who they are (though I doubt anyone didn’t know who Christie is). In the second draft (still under way) I get more specific (e.g., “three locked-room mysteries by John Dickson Carr.”). I thought that detail was incidental — isn’t “mystery novels” enough? — but I was wrong.

Obviously it’s easy to go too far with this. In one of my Atoms for Peace stories, I have my protagonist Steve in a bar where the patrons are watching Zane Grey Theater on the bar TV. I could have explained what that was but why take the time? It’s an incidental detail, it doesn’t affect the plot or characters, so even if readers haven’t heard of Western author Zane Grey, I don’t think it’ll bug them too much.

In Southern Discomfort there’s constant reference to the politics of the day: The FBI’s recently uncovered history of harassing the civil rights movement, Watergate, the Kent State shooting, terrorism, anti-war activism. It’s incidental in that most of it doesn’t affect the plot but it does ground the story in its specific time, May of 1973. Most of it gets the minimum explanation possible because it’s all current events to my characters. Have I judged the level of detail right or left it too confusing?

Guess we’ll find out when I finally put it into some readers’ hands.

Cover by Zacharia Nada, all rights to images remain with current holders.

Sherlock Holmes: which facts are incidental, which are vital

Once again it’s time for a Sherlock Holmes quote that turns out to be about writing: “it is of the highest importance to the art of detection to be able to determine, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital.” (from The Reigate Puzzle).Back in the first year of this blog, I discussed Orson Scott Card’s theory that you can build a story around four things: setting, puzzle, character or event. The thing is, while a short story may involve a single one of the four, novels frequently require two or more.

Southern Discomfort for instance, is primarily a character story. Maria Esposito starts out burdened with guilt over a past tragedy, closed off from everyone and unable to do a job she loves, nursing. The book ends with her free of guilt, reconnected with the world and going to work for Doctors Without Borders. However it’s also a book about the setting, Pharisee County, Georgia.

For 300 years Pharisee’s residents have benefited from having Olwen and Aubric, two elves, guiding things from behind the scene. When the book starts, Aubric’s been murdered and everything is unstable: the forces of nature have become unmoored, Olwen’s still a target for the killer and Pharisee’s social structure risks becoming unmoored. By the end of the book stability has been restored, but not the status quo: things are changing, for better or worse. In a sense, Pharisee gets its own character arc.

But I could also make the case it’s an event story. It starts with Pharisee under attack, ends with the threat eliminated. As Holmes says, knowing which of these plot elements is incidental, which is vital is essential to finding my way through the maze of possible story choices.

I’m applying the same analysis to Let No Man Put Asunder as I review the first draft and think about the second Which of Card’s four elements is incidental, which the heart (for all Card’s loathsome politics, I still find his analysis useful).

It’s definitely not “about” the setting in the way Southern Discomfort is. It does have character arcs for protagonists Paul and Mandy. It’s also very much an “event” story: something happens in the first chapter that throws their world out of kilter, then they spend the rest of the book struggling to right the ship. But there’s a puzzle element as Mandy and Paul have to figure out why this weirdness has engulfed them.

With a puzzle story you start by posing a question, then end by answering it. I don’t think that’s where Asunder is going. While “why is this happening?” is a constant refrain throughout the story, the real focus is “how can we stay alive and free long enough to find out?” That’s much more about events; as I said last month, it’s very much in the “menace” genre where a lurking threat constantly imperils everyone (as in some of Lester Dent’s fiction).

Menace stories can be mysteries. The Doc Savage novel The Squeaking Goblin has a menace — the eponymous villain’s constant attacks on the Raymond family — but the focus is as much on why, and who the villain is, as it is on stopping him. In the typical Fu Manchu novel, by contrast, Sir Dennis Nayland Smith and his allies know who the villain is and what he wants; the challenge is stopping him.

While I’ve been thinking about the book primarily as a mystery — Paul and Mandy don’t know who the Community of All are or what the Community wants with them — I suspect it will play better if I treat it as event more than mystery. That would allow me to reveal more of what’s going on sooner, rather than holding for a big reveal at the climax. As Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut, resolving the mystery before the end keeps the audience focused on whatever you want the climax to be about instead of guessing about the reveal.

It’s also more event than character story. Mandy and Paul do have personal problems they’re dealing with but those problems don’t propel the plot — the threat from the Community’s killers does. That said, the story definitely needs stronger character arcs: Paul has a decent one in the first draft but Mandy doesn’t. The first draft ends with the downfall of the bad guys, then Mandy and Paul wrapping up their personal shit. I think that works and will probably remain but the details need to change.

Once I have the beginning and the end I can work on the arc in between. As I said in that previous post, the plot of the first draft doesn’t progress or arc, it just moves them across the game board. That won’t do.

Hopefully these insights will help as I start replotting.

#SFWApro. Mug by Philosopher’s guild, Strange Tales cover by Jack Kirby, bottom artist unknown; all rights to images remain with current holders.

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Filed under Sherlock Holmes, Southern Discomfort, Writing

Tagged as let no man put asunder

November 1, 2023 · 5:12 am

The Story Behind the Story: The Adventure of the Red Leech

If everything goes as planned, my short story The Adventure of the Red Leech is out today in the Raleigh-Durham magazine Dimension 919 (it is! Link here!) Here’s my story of how it came to be and why it was a completely new story rather than a minor rewrite.My first published story was a Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft pastiche, back before such things became common (as I’ve said before, “Lovecraftian” is a broader description than Lovecraft would approve of). One of the many untold adventures Watson alludes to in his writing was “the repulsive story of the red leech and the death of Crosby the banker.” Some Holmesians argue these should be two separate stories, but I went with the view they’re one and the same case. I spun a tale with the red leech a Lovecraftian horror and sold it to Eldritch Tales, a well-regarded horror magazine at the time.

I’m guessing it was the novelty of the concept that helped sell it because rereading it in 2020 I could see the flaws. It’s very talky and the ending is a hand-wave — Holmes talked to someone offstage who knows about occult matters so he has a talisman to defeat the entity. How … convenient. I resolved to polish it a little, fix the problems and put it out there again. But I’m not the writer I was back in ’83 — who is? — and a little light tinkering didn’t satisfy me. I wanted Watson to be on the crime scene, telling us what he saw, rather than listening to Holmes’ take. That required new scenes. I had to figure out how Holmes was going to stop a Lovecraftian monstrosity without pulling a deus ex machina. I changed the identity of the killer, though I’m not sure why (was it a problem or just aesthetics?). I completely changed the clues to the killer. I incorporated another untold tale, the unsolved mystery of James Phillimore, who walked into his house to get his umbrella and vanished for all time.

The end result was a new story. I worked on it, read it to my writing group, got feedback that it was really good (I hadn’t realized how many fellow Holmes fans I had in the group) but needed some specific changes; as usual, they were right (it’s an awesome group). I rewrote to suit, submitted it to a Holmes anthology and got a near-miss response. Then I learned of Dimension 919‘s existence, submitted it and bingo!

Check it out and (hopefully) enjoy.

#SFWApro. Art by Frank Wiles (t) and Sidney Paget, all rights remain with current holders.

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Filed under Sherlock Holmes, Short Stories, Story behind the story, Writing

November 14, 2022 · 5:19 am

The Story Behind The Story: Questionable Minds

As today is the launch date of my first published novel, Questionable Minds (available as an ebook or paperback), my usual Monday political post will go up tomorrow. For now, it’s the story of how I came to write it.IIRC, the original idea for what became Questionable Minds was born sometime in the early 1980s. I’d seen Sean Connery in The Great Train Robbery my junior or senior year at Oberlin and much enjoyed his role as the roguish thief organizing the first robbery from a moving train. In his trial, after a judge demands to know what could have led him to violate every principle of law and decency, Connery simply shrugs and says “I wanted the money.”

My initial idea was to take the Connery character (based on a real character in the Michael Crichton nonfiction account of the theft) and have him work for the government — go where the police can’t go, do things the police can’t, that sort of stuff. The initial adventure, prompted by some nonfiction I’d read, would have involved the Hindu Thuggee cult setting up shot in London. In hindsight I’m very glad I never sat down and wrote it as I can’t think of any way it wouldn’t have been racist as shit.

Instead the idea lay fallow in the back of my brain. When it finally resurfaced it had two key differences. First, my poacher-turned-gamekeeper protagonist had become Sir Simon Taggart, baronet, old-money and impeccable pillar of the establishment. Second, the concept that Simon lived in an England where psychic powers — mentalism — worked. My original concept had been intrusion fantasy — supernatural elements intruding into the mundane Victorian world — but my revised idea meant the world was no longer mundane.

What led to the change? I’m not sure, but most likely reading some of my reference books about the Victorian age jump-started my original idea. The book’s villain became Jack the Ripper, then I threw in Jekyll and Hyde, Helena Blavatsky, and multiple other elements. Plus lots of borrowing from Arthur Conan Doyle, being the Holmes fan that I am.

At the time I finished the original draft — late 1990s, I believe — steampunk was still a new concept. I hoped building my book around psi powers rather than tech would make it stand out. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen hadn’t come out so me incorporating assorted fictional characters into the book would, I thought, be a plus too. Of course, as some of them were Sherlock Holmes characters (though not Holmes or Watson himself) and they were still under copyright, perhaps it’s good I didn’t sell it, though I imagine the publisher would have red-flagged that.

In any case it didn’t sell. I was particularly frustrated by one publisher who asked for like three chapters at a time, asked for more whenever I prodded them, then finally said no. That stretched the process out waaaay beyond what was reasonable.

Ditto a company who held the book for a long time, then told me, when I checked back, that they’d reserved it for the publisher’s personal review — expect an answer in four months. When six months passed I checked … and checked again … and again … and finally said that having had no answer, I chose to withdraw it from consideration. Late can happen for legit reasons; not responding when prodded is, in my experience, a huge red flag. The publisher’s curious response was that she was sorry we couldn’t reach an agreement — meaning what? They’d sent me an offer and I hadn’t heard back? Or that she and her people couldn’t reach an agreement whether to buy? I’m guessing the latter.

Finally, success! I submitted to an e-book publisher, got accepted and they told me they’d be back in touch by the following summer to discuss edits and possible changes. Summer passed, no contact. I checked back, they were going out of business. They apologized for not notifying me sooner but did return all rights.

I tried a couple more publishers after that without success, but I still believed the book was good (after all, at least one publisher liked it!). So finally, rather than chase after small publishers who probably didn’t have that much to offer me (not a slap at small publishers, honestly. But when the submission package calls for me to submit a marketing plan — well, if I could draw up marketing plans, I can’t see what I’d need them for) I opted to self-publish. I rewrote the book, rewrote again, edited the book and sent the manuscript through Draft2Digital for the ebooks (they’ll be available on Amazon eventually) and Amazon’s Kindle publishing for the paperback. Plus using One World Ink for promotional services. Plus, of course, my friend Samantha Collins who designed the awesome cover.

And now it’s done. Let’s see what happens …

#SFWApro. Copyright on cover is mine, rights remain with me.

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Filed under Sherlock Holmes, Story behind the story, Writing

Tagged as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Questionable Minds, self-publishing

July 1, 2022 · 4:30 pm

It is the little rift within the lute, that by and by will make the music mute

(title taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson). Which is to say, small problems can grow into big ones, which explains some of why my weeks feel like suet.

In theory, I take an hour for lunch. That includes walking the dogs (or co-walking if TYG’s available), eating and then reading, relaxing or doing useful around-the-house stuff. This works out fine if lunch hour is 11-12, but due to TYG’s new schedule, we frequently walk the dogs around 10-10:15. I’m not ready for lunch, but instead of relaxing after walkies I just go back to walk, intending to make it up when I sit and eat. Only instead I do the equivalent of eating at your desk — eat (taking my time, I note), then get back to work.(No, that cover has no thematic connection to my post, I’m just fond of it).

The result is that I don’t take much of a lunch break. Then around 2 PM I burn out for the day. This is not unusual: I’ve had the same experience in the past when I keep pushing without a pause. “I’ll get it all done, then break” isn’t as effective for me as regular small breaks. So I need to remind myself to take a full break at lunch, even if it’s chopped up into separate pieces.

That said, the week went well. I finished my rewrite and proofing of Southern Discomfort and read the first chapter to my writing group. The verdict: Starting with Maria’s story and putting it in first person really improved it. They made several other suggestions, such as giving readers her name sooner and making it clearer this is a fantasy; I made those corrections the next day and mailed it off. Wish me luck. Even if it doesn’t sell, it’s a better book for the added work.

I also completed another draft of The Adventure of the Red Leech. I think it’s done, so I’ll print it up next week and go over it in hard copy. That should get me a solid final draft and spot any typos. After that, off to the Holmes anthology I’m submitting to. Plus I once again submitted Fiddler’s Black to the umpteenth market.

And over at Atomic Junkshop, I ponder the appeal of trains and models as kids’ toys. I didn’t get it as a kid, still don’t get it now.

#SFWApro. Cover art by Dick Dillin, all rights remain with current holder.

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Filed under Sherlock Holmes, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Time management and goals, Writing

May 27, 2022 · 4:30 pm

The week that dropped out of time

As far as writing goes, this was a waste of a week.

For starters, I’d forgotten I had my six month medical checkup Monday morning, so there went all that writing time. On the plus side, everything checks out good, so that’s a win.

As TYG wrapped up her last week at her old job (as I mentioned this mornning), the amount of work she put into prepping her team ramped up. So more doggy care and running errands (if they had to be run) devolved to me. Which is fair — she did as much for me when I was wrapping up The Aliens Are Here — but still exhausting. Even when I had time to write, I felt too drained to get much done.

And I had to rewrite one of the Accounting Seed articles I’d done earlier this month. Perfectly reasonable, but that much more time.

I did get a good deal further in rewriting Southern Discomfort, though nowhere near as far as I’d expected. I also rewrote Adventure of the Red Leech and read it to the writer’s group on Tuesday. They really liked it, but did have a couple of suggestions how to improve things. For example, give more of Watson’s perspective on Holmes, which is, of course, a major part of the original stories. They also spotted one point where the logic didn’t hold up, but it’s fixable.

I’d thought I might make up a little time today but we had a thunderstorm this morning so Plushie was freaking. While he hid under the coffee table some of the time (as in this photo from a couple of weeks back), he also decided to climb up with me and demand cuddles for security. Cuddling a 20 pound dog is not compatible with work but obviously I wasn’t going to refuse.

This is how things go pearshaped, of course. A day here, a day there and suddenly everything’s behind. But TYG has started a new and better job and that’s a great thing.

#SFWApro. Cover by Irwin Hasen, all rights remain with current holder.

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Filed under Personal, Sherlock Holmes, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, The Dog Ate My Homework, Writing

April 1, 2022 · 3:55 pm

A cover reveal and thoughts on goals

Much to my surprise — they hadn’t told me — McFarland has already picked a cover for The Aliens Are Here. I’m not sure what the illustration is from, because it’s not one of the ones I submitted for the book. But that’s fine, because it looks fabulous and captures the tone better than anything I would have chosen.

This was a good week for writing. I put in a lot of work rewriting Don’t Pay the Merryman (oh, it so needs a better title) and read the first section for the writing group. They loved it; now I just have to get the rest of the story up to that level. Several people said the section would work fine as itself if I strengthen the character arcs, so I’ll think about that option.

I rewrote The Adventure of the Red Leech and finally fixed the plot. Holmes is able to crack the mystery and thwart the killer without having to conveniently have a suitable mystic talisman (the rather hand-wave finish of the original published version). Still needs work, but it’s getting there.

I’ve also considerably reworked the plot of Impossible Takes A Little Longer and I’m pleased with it. No more long stretches of talk without compensating action. I managed to restore a lot of the characters who fell out of the previous draft — Rachel Chang, Darla Jeffries — and I think some of the key turning points are better placed. I shall start the next draft this month, with 25,000 words as the minimum goal. Plus fixing the remaining plot issues later in the book.

I didn’t achieve as much on my writing goals (or others) as I wanted to. I keep setting a goal to be more aware of local politics but I just can’t seem to make time. I did, however, send off another 60 postcards encouraging people around the country to vote (while this isn’t the exact link, you can find opportunities to help out here). I didn’t finish Red Leech or get Don’t Pay the Merryman as far along as I wanted. But the goals were ambitious enough to push me: everything’s progressing, even if it’s not as fast as I’d like. There are times when no matter how much I rewrite a story, I end up not improving. That’s not the case now. So setting the goals is doing the job it’s supposed to.

Oh, and I finished the tax forms. Now it’s just a matter of signing them and mailing them out. Once again I made a mistake in the write-off for our HSA, which upped our taxable income by $5,000. I caught that today, so yay!

Overall, I did complete enough goals to reward myself by buying the second Epic Iron Man Collection, which runs from midway through his time in Tales of Suspense through the launch of his own series (Gene Colan provides the cover).

#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Sherlock Holmes and Shang-Chi: Movies viewed

THE TRIUMPH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1935) has Arthur Wontner’s Sherlock Holmes (last seen in Sign of Four) retire to the country while Watson (Ian Fleming — no relation) likewise retires from sidekick to spouse. When there’s a murder in the neighborhood, however, Holmes investigates and gets plunged into a good adaptation of Valley of Fear (from which Frank Wiles illustration here is taken). When he realizes Moriarty (Lyn Harding) is entangled in the plot, it becomes another chance to bring his nemesis down.

Wontner’s Holmes lacks Rathbone’s energy and charm but he does have an imposing sense of intelligence and gravitas that made him, justifiably, the definitive Holmes between the silents and Rathbone’s debut. Harding is over-the-top as Moriarty but they do play up his role as a “consulting criminal” parallel to Holmes.

His performance here isn’t consistent with his staying hidden in Sherlock Holmes’ Fatal Hour, but hell, Moriarty dies here and still comes back next film with Watson and Lestrade still refusing to believe he’s a master criminal. Consistency wasn’t a big deal for this series. “The important thing about the case, Lestrade, is that Mr. Douglas liked to exercise in the morning.”

Also known as Murder at the Baskervilles, SILVER BLAZE (1937) has Holmes and Watson revisiting their old friends at Baskerville Manor, twenty years after defeating The Hound of the Baskervilles. Once again there’s a convenient local murder — someone murdered a local jockey and stole the prize horse Silver Blaze — and once again Moriarty’s in the middle of it (this uses some of the great dialogue with Holmes from The Final Problem). Throwing Moriarty in complicates the plot of Doyle’s Silver Blaze and reduces the mystery (we have some idea what’s going down from the moment the Professor is hired) but it’s still a good movie. “That was the curious incident.”

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021) introduces us to Shang-Chi (Simon Liu), seemingly an ordinary parking valet who spends his time goofing off with BFF Katie (Awkwafina) — until a team of martial artists attacks them to steal Shang-Chi’s pendant and he kicks their butt. Katy learns her buddy is the son of the immortal leader of the Ten Rings, a League of Assassins-type secret society named for the energy-blasting armbands he wears. And for some reason, Daddy’s very interested in a reunion …

I really appreciate that unlike Dr. Strange this didn’t bog down in the origin and training montage, doling it out gradually throughout the movie. And I really appreciate that Katie and Shang aren’t secretly hiding feelings of love for each other and are genuinely just friends. Beyond that the movie is good and entertaining, with some funny line such as when Dad complains about the exploitation of his image in Iron Man III (“The Mandarin? Americans were scared of an orange!”). Ben Kingsley returns as the fake Mandarin and Michelle Yeoh shows up as Shang’s heroic auntie. I spotted a few Easter Eggs and suspect there’d be more if I were more familiar with Shang Chi in the comics. “A guy with a freaking machete for an arm just chopped our bus in half!”

#SFWApro. Cover by Gil Kane, all rights to images remain with current holders.

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Filed under Movies, Sherlock Holmes

January 29, 2022 · 5:10 am

A Christmas of Holmes!

My Christmas gift from my friend Ross this year was The Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection, three DVDs of obscure Holmesian material. I’ve been watching the mix of films, short films and TV episodes gradually through the month, waiting until it was all done to make a total review. So here we go, starting with the films.

THE COPPER BEECHES (1912)is an uninspired adaptation with George Treville getting very little chance to show what he can do as Holmes. By focusing on the backstory in this mystery — a villain’s scheme to get his daughter’s inheritance — and leaving Holmes out until midway through, it becomes less a Holmes story than a dull melodrama.

Norwegian Eille Norwood was one of the first actors to be hailed as a Definitive Holmes. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP (1921) is the first time I’ve seen one of his films, a fairly faithful silent adaptation. Norwood has more screen presence than Treville, but he doesn’t hold up to Jeremy Brett or Basil Rathbone.

Or for that matter, Arthur Wontner, who launched a series of Holmesian adventures with SHERLOCK HOLMES FATAL HOUR (1931), known when it was made in England as The Sleeping Cardinal. A mix of The Final Problem with The Adventure of the Empty House, it has Holmes’ investigation into the criminal mastermind named Moriarty (“He has a thousand disguises — many men know Moriarty without being aware of it.”) overlaps with Holmes and Watson’s efforts to cure a compulsive gambler of his habit. I can’t help thinking this was influenced by Dr. Mabuse — The Gambler, which likewise involved gambling, cheating, a villain with a hundred faces and communication with his henchman while unseen.

The film, alas is very talky, with some of the scenes running way too long. As I recall, the later Wontner films were better. “Never give way to sudden impulses — they’re more dangerous to you than I am.”

Next, the shorts. THE LIMEJUICE MYSTERY or WHO SPAT IN GRANDFATHER’S PORRIDGE (1930) is a fairly plotless (and dialog-less) puppet-show short in which Herlock Sholmes investigates a Limehouse riot (the opium den really was ubiquitous in Chinese stereotypes back then) and encounters the puppet Anna Went Wrong (a joke on Anna Mae Wong, a Chinese actor of the day). Barely worth mentioning.

THE STRANGE CASE OF HENNESSY (1933) is a ringer as the detective is “Silo Dance,” a takeoff on W.S. Van Dyne’s Philo Vance, so there’s no Holmes connection. The brief musical comedy about Vance searching for a vanished wealthy man was amusing enough, though. “Make a note of it.”

LOST IN LIMEHOUSE or LADY ESMERELDA’S PREDICAMENT (1933) is a melodrama parody in which lecherous Sir Marmaduke Rakes kidnaps Lady Esmeralda as Step One to forcing her into marriage. Can Sheetluck Jones and a poor but honest suitor save the day? Watching this made me realize I’m familiar with this kind of melodrama almost entirely through parodies like this; pretty funny but the Chinese stereotypes (more opium dens!) and names such as Hoo Flung have not aged well. This was one of several shorts made by the Masquers, a Hollywood actors’ club. “I trow he is an honest youth, for he has an open face that bespeaks a noble soul.”

THE SCREAMING BISHOP (1944) is one I’ve seen before, on PBS’ Matinee At the Bijou series, a cartoon in which HHairlock Holmes and Gotsome investigate the theft of a dinosaur skeleton and discover the zany thief is using the bones to make the world’s largest xylophone. Loony but entertaining. “The best bones of all go to symphony hall!”

And then the TV (not in chronological order). The one I wanted this set for was THE ELGIN HOUR: The Sting of Death an episode adapted from HF Heard’s first novel about retiree-turned-beekeeper “Mr. Mycroft.” Here, Mycroft (Boris Karloff) discovers beekeeper Martyn Greene has bred a deadly strain of killer bees and is feeling the itch to test them on human beings; can he be stopped? Karloff’s not one of the great Holmes but he’s satisfactory. I blogged about this in more detail over at Atomic Junkshop. “I am a man whose loquaciousness makes him a constant martyr to a sore throat.”

THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED was a British one-off adaptation of The Man With the Twisted Lip. John Longden makes an adequate Holmes but throwing in murder and blackmail on top of the original plot makes this overly complicated. “In your heart of hearts, do you think Neville is alive?”

A CASE OF HYPNOSIS was another one-shot in which master detective Professor Lightskull and his sidekick Twiddle battle a criminal psychiatrist. Forgettable except that it uses chimps in all the roles, with Paul Frees and Daws Butler providing the voices. “It’s not that he saw anything worthwhile through that magnifying glass, I think it just made him feel like a detective.”

YOUR SHOW TIME: Adventure of the Speckled Band does a decent job adapting the story with Alan Napier — later Alfred to Adam West’s Bruce Wayne — as Holmes. “That sir, unless you are a crystal gazer, you shall never know.”

Finally another ringer, SCHLITZ PLAYHOUSE OF STARS: The General’s Boots. This has Basil Rathbone as an arrogant, officious general flying home from the Far East with former subordinate John Dehner on the same plane. When the plane goes down in the ocean, Rathbone takes charge of rationing the water — or is he really planning to drink it all himself? A good cast, but minor (the series was well-regarded but this episode came from its years of decline). In a type of advertising I’m familiar with, the series’ host waxes prolific about the wonders of drinking Schlitz beer — just as the general set high standards for his men, so Schlitz sets high standards for its brew! “I believe every individual is put on Earth with a purpose, to help with the survival of his species!”

#SFWApro. Illustration by Sidney Paget.

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