Shadows Over Baker Street

"Shadows over Baker Street" is an ingenious (if not singular) attempt by Ballantine Books to superimpose the gigantic persona of Sherlock Holmes upon the weirdly menacing landscape of Cthulhu, under the editorship of Michael Reaves and John Pelan. The authority of these two as well as the host of authors invited by them to undertake this `mission' is irreproachable. But to an aficionado of either genre, the crux of the matter is to find out who has been disparaged by whom (although the outcome of the confrontation was `known' to all, since, had the Lovecraftian monsters succeeded surely we would not be here to contemplate over global warming and other trivia). But now, I better come to the point. The penmanship of the stories constituting this book vary alongwith the focus of the authors. Some of these works are about Yog-Soggoth, some about the Colour beyond Space, some about other paranormal and psychological phenomena that would have stumped the author of the famous line: "This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply." [The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire]. The stories are: 1. "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman is one of the finest pastiches that I have ever come across. It is about events very similar to those in "A Study in Scarlet" happening in a post-Cthulhu London occupied by some of the most well-known characters of fantastic Victoriana, where the events are narrated by `once crack-shot' Col. S. M, the murder is solved by a consulting detective who is the author of "Dynamics of an Asteroid" and has been pressed into action by Inspector Lestrade, the murderer is an ex-Army Doctor who has been to Afghanistan and the murder is planned & implemented by an extremely talented amateur actor Sherry Vernet!!! 2. "Tiger! Tiger!" by Elizabeth Bear is a breathtaking adventure of hunting, international politics and a sorcerer who chants "Ia! Ia Hastur cf'ayah 'vugtlagln Hastur!" in Malwa plateau involving Colonel Sebastian Moran and Irene Adler. 3. "The Case of the Wavy Black Dagger" by Steve Parry recounts Holmes' meeting with the woman of his dreams (NOT IRENE ADLER)! 4. "A Case of Royal Blood" by Steven-Elliot Altman is an adventure concerning some of the dark secrets of the royal family in Netherlands, where Holmes is accompanied and assisted by H.G. Wells. 5. "The Weeping Masks" by James Lowder is Watsonian reminiscences of what could have actually taken place after the battle of Maiwand and how Murray saved him from otherworldly doom. 6. "Art in the Blood" by Brian Stableford is a solid effort that aims at bringing not only Sherlock Holmes, but also Mycroft Holmes and his Diogenes Club into the Cthulhuian world. 7. "The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone" by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson is a rather flat story involving mind-travel, somehow clinging to the Lovecraftian postulates. 8. "The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece" by Barbara Hambly is a purely

Many fans of the literature of H.P. Lovecraft wonder what his fiction would have been like if set in another era. Ramsey Campbell is perhaps the best representative of the '60s and '70s while John Tynes and his crew admirably adapt the core of Cthulhu to the 1990's. But what about the 1890's? Well, there is already a game afoot in that period and it is the inestimable Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion and recorder Dr. John Watson. The 1890's of Sherlock Holmes brings to the table of the Lovecraftian corpus the very summit of the Enlightenment and Rationality to be broken on the jagged rocks of Madness and Otherworldliness. Before the humbling of the Great War, all the power and prestige of the West was to be found in London, as well as the darkness of poverty, suffering, and a bubbling social revolution, ripe to be exploited for the Mythos. Some of the stories herein are mere supernatural detective tales. The Sherlock Holmes we know and love has never been beaten and can conquer even the eldritch and the horrific when armed with the Necronomicon. Here, the gnosticism of Abdul Al-Hazred is simply one more tool in the box of Holmes for fighting the forces of darkness. Rarer is the story where he must come to grips with something he can't explain, when his much vaunted intellect is vanquished by something too alien to be dealt with by mere humans. In a world of only rational numbers, the value of "pi" is insanity. I think only "The Horror of the many Faces" successfully pulls this off. Not every one of these tales is about Sherlock Holmes. A few deal more or less exclusively with Dr. Watson, and one is even about Irene Adler. H.G. Wells makes a guest appearance, and "A Study in Emerald" has . . . well, the ending is too good to give any hints. For anyone who enjoys both Lovecraft and Doyle, this is a great anthology. I think that the tone leans more towards the latter than the former, but it is better than much of the fiction published recently, and is perhaps as good as the anthology SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH edited by Stephen Jones.

Even though not every story in this anthology is a winner, most were satisfying enough, and ALL managed to imaginatively combine two genres which seemed to me, at first, like oil-and-water (totally unmixable)! But Detective and Horror fiction DO mix, and very well, in this unusual collection. "Tiger, Tiger!" by Elizabeth Bear was one of my favorites in this volume, but other readers may be more pleased with a more "traditional" tale; say, Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson's "The Cusious Case of Miss Violet Stone." Entertaining reading for fans of both genres.

A fantastic collection, thanks to editors Michael Reaves, and John Phelan. A great idea and the writers take up the challenge with gusto. Two of the best, The Case of the Antiquarian's Niece by Barbara Hambly, and A Case of Royal Blood are genuine pastiches. The problem is, believing that Holmes would countenance the supernatural in the solution of the cases. Mr. Doyle would have been delighted, especially in his later years, when he became a so called believer in the existence of the hereafter, spirits etc. The writers have carefully used Lovecraft's trade mark terms:'The Elders', 'The Necronomicon' and 'Cthulhu'. All enough to make the blood of his fans run faster. Sherlock Holmes fans should also rejoice, in the Weeping Masks, there are details of Watson's wounds received in Afganistan,not in Conan Doyle's accounts. Most stories are expertly crafted and not a single dull one. Very very enjoyable.

I stumbled upon this book by accident and being a huge Sherlock Holmes fan as well as a huge Lovecraft fan I decided to pick it up. I was NOT disappointed. This Book is TERRIFIC!! Neil Gaiman's short story "A Study in Emerald," alone is worth my money. Gaiman was able to capture Sherlock Holmes in a different light and still stay true to the character (that story had a lovely twist at the end). Most of the other stories are also wonderful with maybe one or two that lose the Holmes feeling to them. I like how Holmes was able to accept the possibility of other worldly creatures through the use of logic and deduction and that he knew of cults because cults are the cause of many a small murdering sprees and one has to keep up with that kind of information.I read the entire book in a span of three days and just devoured everything in it. This book made me want to go and read other Holmes pastiches!!