COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #10 (Vol. 4, No. 2) is copyright © 2013 by Wildside Press LLC. All rights reserved. Visit us at wildsidemagazines.com.
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Publisher: John Betancourt
Editor: Marvin Kaye
Assistant Editors: Steve Coupe, Sam Cooper, Carla Coupe
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Cover art by Jeff Doten.
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Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine is published by Wildside Press, LLC. Single copies: $10.00 (+ $3.00 postage). U.S. subscriptions: $59.95 (postage paid) for the next 6 issues in the U.S.A., from: Wildside Press LLC, Subscription Dept. 9710 Traville Gateway Dr., #234; Rockville MD 20850. International subscriptions: see our web site at www.wildsidemagazines.com. Available as an ebook through all major ebook etailers, or our web site, www.wildsidemagazines.com.
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The “Sherlock Holmes” characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are used by permission of Conan Doyle Estate Ltd., www.conandoyleestate.co.uk.
CARTOON, by Marc Bilgrey
FROM WATSON’S SCRAPBOOK
Both Holmes and I are doubly delighted with this, the 10th issue of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. Firstly because, with the exception of one article and the usual columns by Mrs Hudson and Lenny Picker, all of the stories are about Holmes and me—all adventures and problems that until now I hadn’t managed to write up.
Our second reason for rejoicing is that our magazine, which up to now has been published quarterly, now becomes a bimonthly periodical—which means, of course, that we shall be in need of more submissions!
No fewer than ten new Holmesian narratives appear below. I have restricted myself to a brief composition called “The Field Bazaar,” though, for personal reasons, I have allowed my editorial colleague Mr Kaye to run it as if it had been written by Doyle, my literary agent. Of the other selections, I merely wish to comment favourably on one of them—“The Curse of Edwin Booth,” which, having occurred on the other side of “the pond,” I mean the Atlantic Ocean, I was not involved in it. But I am glad that Holmes has seen fit to assign its writing to Ms Carole Buggé, who already has done splendid renditions of two of our longer, hence novel-length, exploits, The Star of India and The Haunting of Torre Abbey.
And now I shall turn over the rest of this editorial column to Mr Kaye.
—John H. Watson, MD
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Other than the good doctor’s classic cases, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine seldom runs reprints, but this issue makes an exception.
One of the interesting sidelights concerning Dr. Watson’s many stories is the question of viewpointing. In all but three cases the tales are told first person by the good doctor himself. However, two of them—“The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane,” and, earlier, “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier,” which Dr. Watson is very fond of because in it, Holmes finally admits that he was wrong for frequently badgering his friend for “pandering to popular taste instead of confining himself to facts and figures.” His exasperated companion finally dared him to “Try it yourself, Holmes!” and when he did so, the following admission was penned: “…I am compelled to admit that, having taken my pen in hand, I do begin to realize that the matter must be presented in such a way as may interest the reader.”
The third story to vary from the first person style is “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone”—the only tale in the entire Canon to be told third person! It came about in an unusual fashion. Its history was first written up by Watson’s literary agent Arthur Conan Doyle—(Watson would prefer it if I added the prefatory title “Sir,” but I look upon Death as the Great Leveler)—in the form of a one-act play titled “The Crown Diamond.” According to anthologist Peter Haining, it was performed in London on May 16, 1921. William S. Baring-Gould says that “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone” occurred on a summer’s day in the year 1903. The question, of course, is who wrote it. Since it was composed third person, which Watson never chose to employ, I assume that it was adapted from its theatrical original by Doyle himself.
In this issue, two stories are not in first person. “The Curse of Edwin Booth” is told by the title character himself, whereas Zack Wentz’s “Simplicity Itself” comes from one of those street urchins whom Holmes employed as part of his Baker Street Irregulars.
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Our next issue will feature a new Holmes adventure transcribed by one of SHMM’s best “regulars,” Mr. Jack Grochot, as well as Watson’s own “A Case of Identity.” Other stories include ones by the following authors: Marc Bilgrey, Jay Carey, Sergio Gaut vel Hartman, G. Miki Hayden, D. Lee Lott, and Gary Lovisi.
Canonically Yours,
– Marvin Kaye
CARTOON, by Basil Chap
SCREEN OF THE CRIME, by Lenny Picker
A Baker’s Dozen of Pastiches that Would Make Great Movies
While it might seem that the market is currently glutted with film and TV interpretations of the Master, the Robert Downey movie series, BBC’s Sherlock and CBS’s Elementary all share a nontraditional take on Sherlock Holmes. Continued vigorous sales of DVDs of the Granada Jeremy Brett adaptations, and the original 60 stories, though, support the idea that there is still an appetite for in-period versions. And with Amazon and Netflix producing their own television series, and the likelihood that at least some of the above-mentioned series won’t be around in five years, don’t be surprised if before too long someone out there takes a crack at adding to the long and distinguished roster of actors who have played Holmes in more conventional plots and settings. But any such production would need a hook to attract investors. So, with a surfeit of modern-day Holmes, Downey covering the steam-punk possibilities of the character, and Brett, and especially BBC Radio’s Clive Merrison having done the original stories, what’s left?
Pastiche. While purists (and those who can’t add) regard it as a four-letter word, for over a century (perhaps as far back as 1893, with J.M. Barrie’s “The Late Sherlock Holmes”), many (count me among them, at least for the last four decades), have longed for stories faithful to the spirit and tone of the originals that provide further opportunities for gaslit streets, the urgent knock on the door of 221B, dazzling deductions and devoted comradeship. That’s the route Bert Coules took after the BBC did the complete Canon for radio, with most of the stories adapted by Coules. (NB—my personal favorites—his version of “Dancing Men,” with a very different, but extremely effective, opening, and a very compelling “The Final Problem”). In his The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Coules presented 15 new exploits, inspired by the dozens of Watson’s tantalizing untold tales, such as Colonel Warburton’s Madness and the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant. (Perhaps his tour-de-force is “The Abergavenny Murder,” in which Holmes and Watson solve the crime from their armchairs.) In doing so successfully, Coules proved, again, that in the right hands, pastiches can be both faithful and gripping.
With his gifts for adapting the Canon to a different medium, Coules would be the perfect choice to turn his talents—and perhaps the exploits he’s already penned—to television or film. (He has stated that he has had a film script of A Study in Scarlet sitting around for quite a while.) But our hypothetical producers might look elsewhere, to print stories that would translate well to visual media. If I were to be asked, a prospect even less likely than Mycroft departing from his set routine to rescue Mary Morstan in a