The Holmes from Hell

For some reason, I enjoy off-the-wall riffs on Sherlock Holmes – just the sort of thing that you may hate. Maybe it’s because nobody takes that sort of things too seriously, including the author, and there is often a high degree of humor involved.

Warlock Holmes: The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles had me laughing out loud in places. But it took a while. Since I hadn’t read the first book, Warlock Holmes – A Study in Brimstone, I was a bit at sea at first. It was a little hard to come to grips with the idea that Watson had killed Holmes but kept the body, which was slowly reanimating.

Also, the aptly named Warlock Holmes has demons at his beck and call, sort of like street Arabs from hell.

The description of the book on Amazon is hard to improve upon (except that I have inserted an Oxford comma where needed):   

The game’s afoot once more as Holmes and Watson face off against Moriarty’s gang, the Pinkertons, flesh-eating horses, a parliament of imps, boredom, Surrey, a disappointing butler demon, a succubus, a wicked lord, an overly-Canadian lord, a tricycle-fight to the death, and the dreaded Pumpcrow. Oh, and a hell hound, one assumes. 

They forgot to mention that Mrs. Hudson is a shrew.  

In addition to the title story, the volume also contains four other adventures. All are based on original Sherlock Holmes stories. The creative distortion of these classic tales adds something to the enjoyment for devotees – or to the outrage, depending on your viewpoint.  

If you occasionally like your Baker Street with a big dash of humor (of the Three Stooges variety), Warlock is the Holmes to try.