Last-Minute Holiday Gifts?!
First of all, I must apologise to the lovely writers who sent me their books to review as I did not manage to do so until now. The last few months were a struggle and juggle in a multitude of ways – not all of them negative and some actually quite wonderful – but they meant that I had very little time for writing reviews.
Second of all, I would like to recommend all the following books as presents – for your loved ones, fellow Sherlockians or crime fiction fans, for those who seem to have it all or for yourself!
So let me dive right in.
The first book which I want to warmly recommend is The Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: The Adventure of the London Waterworks by none other than Ormond Sacker aka John Watson and published with Ammonite Press.
It’s a literary escape room/choose your adventure book which includes a lovely cover that doubles as a code-wheel that helps you to solve the puzzle in the book with dancing men, letters, colours and numbers. The book offers bits of the story on each page and as you progress, you have to solve small riddles or make the right choices to be able to continue with the story. If you choose the wrong path, you might end up in a dead end or be misled for some time before you can return to the story. Other paths shorten the story, making you miss important details which you need to solve the case. I don’t want to write about the mystery itself, as it would spoil the fun of it, but I truly enjoyed working my way through the book, backtracking every now and then to attempt to follow the red thread of the storyline.
The paper is very sturdy, so if you use a pencil or good pen to write in your solutions, it won’t immediately print through to the other side of the page. However, since I wanted to allow myself to redo the puzzle in the future, I got an extra notebook into which I wrote the answers. The book has several lovely illustrations and it generally feels very much like a scrap book which adds to the idea that you are working with the materials and clues collected in Dr Watson’s diary.
A note on the difficulty of the book: The puzzles themselves are not overly hard, so if you are an avid reader of escape books then you might find some of them too easy or familiar. Nevertheless, the story itself is worth the read even if you don’t have to struggle through the puzzles. I truly enjoyed working my way through it.
You can buy the book on Amazon (internationally), Waterstones, or order it from your local bookstore (the latter being the recommended one)!
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The next book which I want to recommend is the opposite of pretty much any Holmes story I have ever read – It’s a mashup between The Wind and the Willows and Sherlock Holmes, called The Victims in the Willows, featuring aspects of The Handmaid’s Tale with a sprinkling of criticism towards religious extremism bordering on fascism.
Not a Holiday’s read you say? Well, around Christmas, the British read horror stories, so why not follow the adventure of Ormond Sacker Molentine (Mole) and Sherrinford Hope-Ratch Arvikohl (Rat) as they try to solve the gruesome murder of two stoats whose death clearly is connected to religious belief/superstition as their eyes were plucked out. The connection lies in the general belief that albino-animals are descendants of the devil or the Great Beast (Rachnor) as their red eyes, called “demoneyes”, supposedly reflect hellfire. Those who born with albinism are often publically bullied and their families excluded from society, and, in worse cases, imprisoned and then sacrificed to Ældu. While there is a police force in place, Willowdell is controlled by Sentinels of the Temple of Ældu, leading to quite an oppressive atmosphere. Nevertheless, while the case is ongoing, we meet familiar characters from The Wind in the Willows like Toad and Badger and Otter, and there is quite a lot of boating, picnicking and chatting with the other animals, letting the reader almost forgot about the underlying terror that lies just around the corner. The mystery itself gets a little side-tracked by these scenes, but, as a mashup, they are necessary to uphold the balance between the two universes.
What makes the read truly enjoyable is the use of intertextuality and thinly veiled references to real and fictional people in the animals’ names. From the magician the Great Loudini, to the mystery writer Ratavericus Stringer, to the religious fanatic and self-righteous weasel Clanne Houlter, the story always carries several layers of meanings which make the relatively simple life portrayed in The Wind in the Willows into a very topical portrayal of a deeply rattled society which is deeply prejudiced and very ready to blame any animal that is obviously “other”. Arvikohl’s open-minded approach to the case and to the people of Willowdell not only allows him to solve the case, but he also finds a new friend in Molentine, who starts out the story deeply depressed and barely managing to leave his own hole. So while this story is definitely not the light reading you might expect from a mashup of The Wind and the Willows and Sherlock Holmes, it is quite an exciting and macabre read, sprinkled with intertextual references and quite a solid mystery.
The paperback and kindle edition are available on amazon US: here and UK: here.) There is also a handmade limited edition hardcover available at the author’s etsy store.
You can also visit Zoe Necrosis’s blog to see some of the illustrations in the book.
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The third recommendation could be a present for the Sherlockian who already has it all: A book which you can pick up from your bedside table before going to sleep, or just before getting out of bed in the morning, to read a page and feel quite contented. It’s like an advent calendar, but for the whole year. The Daily Sherlock Holmes: A Year of Quotes from the Case-Book of the World’s Greatest Detective edited by Levi Stahl and Stacey Shintani and available at The University of Chicago Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble or at your local bookshop.
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The fourth and final recommendation is Ashley D. Polasek’s wonderful collection of her favourite Sherlock Holmes stories in Being Sherlock: A Sherlockian’s Stroll Through the Bext Sherlock Holmes Stories.
You might think, why do we need yet another collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. I already have them all. But no, this is by far not what this book has on offer: Each of the selected stories is accompanied by an explanation as to why the story is excellent and deserved to be included. Furthermore, and of little surprise to anyone who knows of Ashley D. Polasek’s expertise in adaptation studies and all things Sherlock Holmes, the stories are also contextualised in their history of filmic adaptations. The first part of the book concerns 10 short stories and the second part is dedicated to The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is a very smart and engaging read and makes us see the stories in a new light. A perfect holiday read!
You can buy it on Amazon, at Lyon’s Press or order it from your local bookshop.
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I do hope that this post was helpful to anyone who is still looking for last minute presents. Let’s not forget to take a breather this holiday season, sit down and close our eyes as we smell candle wax and gorgeous food. I hope those of you who feel disheartened this season will find sparks of hope and people to talk to or listen to. Let’s be kind to each other! And remember: All Holmes is Good Holmes!
Maria teaches English Literature at Leipzig University, Germany, published a German introduction to Sherlock Holmes and is a fan of all things Holmes – but especially of the Canon stories and Sherlock BBC. Contact her at @stuffasdreams