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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Some Sherlockian Christmas Reading


"I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season."
- "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle "


Re-reading "The Blue Carbuncle" is a yearly habit for many Sherlockians, and "compliments of the season" their favorite greeting at this time of the year. Christopher Morley famously called it a "Christmas story without mush." Basil Rathbone on the radio and Jeremy Brett on television both gave us fine dramatic versions.


Although this great tale of crime and forgiveness is the only Christmas story in the Canon, there is no shortage of Christmas-themed reading material with a Sherlockian twist. A few examples:
  • Holmes for the Holidays and More Holmes for Holidays, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenbeg, and Carol-Anne Waugh, are collections of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. As with most collections, the quality is variable, but some of the stories are quite good. (It's amazing how many ways Scrooge can be brought into a Holmes story.)
  • "The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians," as noted here previously, is one of my favorite adventures of Solar Pons, who both is and is not Sherlock Holmes. It appears in The Chronicles of Solar Pons.
  • Any Christmas annual issue of The Baker Street Journal.  
  • "Christmas Eve," a one-act Sherlock Holmes play with only four characters by S.C. Roberts. It's not long and it's not great, but it's interesting. You can find it in Roberts' Holmes & Watson: A Miscellany, published in 1953.
  • "Santa Crime," a Sebastian McCabe - Jeff Cody story with all the mush that's missing in "The Blue Carbuncle," appears in my book Rogues Gallery.
And still there must be more. What have I forgotten?

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