Leslie S. Klinger

This is a hard book to rate because it's a collection of short works by different writers. The stories themselves range quite a bit in quality. Some are very good, but most of them, in my opinion, were not. While I was reading it, at first, I thought it would be between 3 and 4 stars. Then, as I went on and read more of the stories, it was a solid 3. Then 2.5. Then it got worse yet. I was very disappointed overall. One good thing about this collection is that because it's a collection of so many parts, a few bad stories won't hurt the overall experience—it's a celebration of Sherlock Holmes, and certainly the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Here, though, there were only two stories that I really liked, two more that were nice, and a fifth that was very good but just not my cup of tea. I'm still counting it as plus, since it was so good, and since my opinions are subjective anyway. But that still only leaves five positives out of 14 stories altogether. Again, this is all just my own reaction, but it was not a good experience. I spent most of the time feeling irritated. Then I'd get to a really good one, and I'd get my hopes up again.

Some stuff I didn't like:
• Paranormal. I'm okay with it as a genre, but it doesn't fit well into Sherlock Holmes. Maybe I'd feel differently if the writers had done a better job of integrating it, or if it hadn't been used in SO MANY of the tales.
• Non-smart Sherlock Holmes. Usually this happens alongside a perfect other character who outsmarts him at every turn. I've no problem with Sherlock being outsmarted, especially if it's by an Irene Adler figure. After all, her victory was in the VERY FIRST short story of the canon. But in that story, Sherlock was smart and clever, and Irene was cleverer still. Here, I think, some of the authors wanted their own characters to triumph, so instead of writing them smarter, they just diminished Sherlock. They made him jump to conclusions (a far cry from the “Data! Data! Data! I cannot make bricks without clay!” detective of the canon). They made him mild and prone to inaction. There were also some painful scenes of Sherlock meeting an Irene-like character, and falling over himself telling her how wonderful and smart and tough she is. Didn't feel real to me.
• Super-perfect non-Doyle characters. Whether it’s a macho tough guy or a badass warrior woman, I would have liked something more interesting than perfect perfection
• Gratuitous violence (I know, I know, it’s about a man who solves murders, so of course, there will be murders. It just felt a little over-the-top to me.)
• Some of them just felt pretentious.

Some stuff I liked:
• The variety. Some of these are stories set in the Doyle-era, starring Doyle characters. Others are set in modern times, still with Sherlock et al. Then there are the ones that have all original characters, but whose heroes assume the roles of Holmes and Watson. And ones where the characters are normal, everyday people who also happen to be Sherlock Holmes fans. And a whimsical Sherlock-is-really-a-bug retelling. And prose. And poetry. And a graphic novel. This is a very rich collection of many different styles and forms.
• The humor. A few stories made me laugh out loud.
• Whimsy
• Fun. Some of these stories had such a nice sense of fun, and they really felt like a celebration of Doyle.

My top 5:
Dr. Watson’s Song and The Case of the Naked Butterfly, tied for first.
The Case of the Missing Case, honorable mention. A nice origin story for Holmes. Also, they worked music into the plot, so that’s a win.
The Adventure of the Six Sherlocks, honorable mention. A lot of fun to read about a mystery at a Sherlock Holmes convention, with a bunch of Sherlock cosplayers as suspects. The mystery element kind of falls apart if you think about it too much, but the story itself was such a hoot that I didn’t much care.
Sherlocked. I didn’t care so much for this one, but it was well-written.

All in all, I didn’t enjoy most of this collection. Parts of it were cute, but most of these stories were either irritating or dull. I enjoy a good Sherlock yarn, but this collection just wasn’t for me.… (more)

Some of these were good, and some weren’t, but this is definitely a case of the whole being better than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed the experience of listening to these stories far more than I enjoyed some of the individual contributions. These stories are all related to Sherlock in some way, but there is tremendous variety in each interpretation. Some of the stories are about Sherlock, or about minor characters in the Sherlock stories, or about Doyle, or about people who have read the Sherlock stories; the tones are pleasant, or bleak, or serious, or humorous. They are parodies, or straight retellings, or brand-new stories. They are set in modern day, or Victorian England, or WWII. There is one crossover and one graphic novel. This collection, one big celebration of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock culture, offers the unique chance to see the iconic character from a variety of perspectives. And while some of these stories would get 5 stars from me and some others only 2, I relished the chance to see Sherlock from someone else’s eyes.… (more)