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Philip K Jones (aka The Ill Dressed Vagabond ) is one of the leading Holmes reviewers in the USA. Here is his recent review of 'The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes' by Tony Reynolds. This is the first Sherlockian writing I have found by this author. It is a collection of eight short novellas, each set up similarly to the Canonical tales. Other than the language, which seems a bit modern, these tales read a lot like their originals. `The Giant Rat of Sumatra" takes place in London and migrates from a tale of murder to a story of a...

Dan Andriacco, D.Min., of Cincinnati, OH, USA, is a former journalist and mystery fiction reviewer. His book Baker Street Beat: An Eclectic Collection of Sherlockian Scribblings is a delightful grab bag of essays, short stories and radio plays, plus a helpful annotated bibliography.  We cornered him in his library (don't call it a collection) of Sherlock Holmes books to answer a few questions. What was the main inspiration for the book? I’m not sure, but it may have been our trip to the Reichenbach Falls in 2008. It was certainly around that time that I began to pull together various...

Phil K. Jones aka An Ill-dressed Vagabond is one of the USA's leading Holmes reviewers - here is his take on 'A Study in Crimson'. "This is the second book in Molly Carr’s ‘Watson – Fanshaw Detective Agency’ series. It follows events in The Sign of Fear rather directly and continues in much the same vein. Again, Watson natters, Holmes is always out on some sort of business, Lestrade needs help and odd clients turn up in the strangest places (or is that strange clients in oddest places?). It is difficult to be more specific as the author wanders from...

An Ill-dressed Vagabond is one of the most respected Sherlock Holmes reviewers in the USA. Here is his review of Molly Carr's fascinating biography of Dr.Watson from May 2011. "This book is a study of the sources and uses of John H. Watson as presented in the sixty Sherlockian tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The author examines the relationship between the characters of Holmes and Watson in a careful fashion to determine why Doyle chose to create Watson as both a foil and a counterpoint for Holmes and how that choice affected the style and development of the...

We caught up with Kate Workman from New Jersey ahead of the May launch of her debut novel 'Rendezvous at the Populaire' in which a badly injured Sherlock Holmes is coaxed out of retirement to tackle the Phantom of the Opera. Kate explains that pitting two literary giants against each other was too tempting to resist. What was the main inspiration for the book? My main inspiration for Rendezvous at the Populaire was simply that I love the idea of Holmes and the Phantom not only matching wits, but potentially joining forces.  They are both giants in the literary world...