1. The Giant Rat of Sumatra, Richard Boyer
2. Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds, Manly W. Wellman and Wade Wellman
3. The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, Michael Dibdin (as evil a book as you'd ever want to read, I have to admit . . . makes Seven Per Cent Solution look like a kiddie book)
4. Hellbirds, Austin Michelson and Nicholas Utechin
5. The List of 7, Mark Frost
6. The Childhood of Sherlock Holmes, Mona Morstein
7. A Study in Terror, Ellery Queen
8. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Michael and Mollie Hardwick
9. The Holmes-Dracula File, Fred Saberhagen
10. Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, Loren Estelman
11. The Adventures of the Stalwart Companions, H. Paul Jeffers
12. (And the first 335 pages of) The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie King (I was SO looking forward to the final battle of wits between Mary Russell and Moriarty's daughter . . . not a test of Mary's pitching arm. Yes, I know: get over it, Brad.)

Richard Boyer's The Giant Rat of Sumatra
Carr and Doyle's The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes
The Science Fictional Sherlock Holmes
August Derleth's In Re: Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Solar Pons (and the Memoirs and the Return)
Robert L. Fish's The Incredible Schlock Holmes
John Gardner's The Return of Moriarty
Greenberg and Waugh's The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Robert Hall's Exit Sherlock Holmes
Michael Hardwick's The Prisoner of the Devil
Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Per Cent Solution
Ellery Queen's A Study in Terror
Vincent Starrett's The Unique Hamlet

As books came and went on Shaw's lists, there were a few more than that, and some of the above had sequels on the list as well.

Perhaps future list-makers will specialize more than Shaw, as Les Klinger did in the latest BSJ. At this point, a "100 Best Holmes-Inspired Works of Fiction" list be easily compiled, and
would probably make pretty interesting reading. Pastiches, parodies, spin-offs, Sherlockian society novels, tributes, movie adaptations, kids books, choose-your-own-path mysteries . . . a representative sampling would have more categories than Shaw's original list.

Concerning the John Bennett Shaw 100, these comments were posted to WelcomeHolmes by Sherlockian author and scholar Susan Dahlinger:

Shaw used the list as a way of keeping other Sherlockians up to speed on what was being published, but since Shaw passed on, some fabulous stuff has come out that has certainly not made the first Shaw list or the revised lists. I believe John would have loved the quality of books now being regularly turned out by Calabash, BSI, Wessex, the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, Weller, etc.; by some of the Websites; by Teller of Tales; by Penzler's pb re-issues, by some of the new pastiches, magazines, newsletters, reissues in e-format, etc.
(July 25, 2002)

---

Comments on WelcomeHolmes from Daniel Stashower, author of the widely successful Teller of Tales - The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (Henry Holt, NY - 1999)

I gather, in seeing snatches of earlier posts quoted, that people have been saying generous things about my biography, and that these comments appear to have grown out of a thread on pastiches. It may be a little late to butt in on this conversation, especially when I'm not up to speed on what's been said, but I'd like to weigh in based on the fact that I've written both biographies and fiction -- including a Holmes pastiche.

In some ways biography and pastiche are two sides of the same coin. I believe that the best biographies employ the techniques of fiction to impose a dramatic structure on an otherwise unruly mass of facts, and I believe that the best pastiches use interesting facts and historical
situations to bolster the fictional conceit. In both cases, it's easy to go overboard. I truly dislike the modern trend toward invented dialogue -- and even invented characters -- in biography, and I get restless when a pastiche feeds me four or five pages on the history of the Victoria line, simply because the author has troubled to learn it. As Guy said, there's a
tendency to over-explain.

Obviously that's not to suggest that biography is in any way interchangeable with pastiche -- the differences are certainly more pronounced than the similarities. In my own case, however, when I finished writing Teller of Tales, it was hugely liberating to start in on the first of my Houdini books, setting aside the rigorous fact-checking for the relatively open spaces of fiction. That said, if my office were to catch on fire, and I had a choice between saving the biography manuscript or the pastiche, future generations would have to live without "The Return of the Ectoplasmic Man."

My choices are not meant to represent the best examples of the dictionary definition of "pastiche", but are the ones I've enjoyed reading most. Two lists, in no particular order:

Pastiches (or pastiche-like stories) with Holmes as a leading figure:

1) Sherlock Holmes In Canterbury by Miles Elward (a collection of three short stories, which struck me as sounding authentically Watsonian, while managing also to be interesting stories)
2) The Surrogate Assassin by Christopher Leppek
3) The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (Maybe because it was my introduction to both Sherlockian pastiche and The Game, but I still find it a very re-readable example of both)
4) "The Shadows On The Lawn" by Barry Jones (I enjoy the mood and atmosphere of this one)
5) Prisoner Of The Devil by Michael Hardwick
6) The Curse Of The Nibelung by Marcel D'Agneau (An elderly Holmes during the Second World War, this treads a nice line between pastiche and parody)
7) The Unopened Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes by John Taylor (Aimed at a younger audience, so not strictly Watsonian in tone, but scrupulously fair whodunnits, which, experience has shown, really get young teenage readers hooked on Holmes)
8) Sherlock Holmes: Draco, Draconis by Brett Spencer & Dorian David (Too lavish to be a financial success, but an enjoyable read)
9) Exit Sherlock Holmes by Robert Lee Hall (Like Dibdin's, one of my first pastiches. Another enjoyable blend of pastiche & Game. Another one the purists love to hate)
10) The Secret Cases Of Sherlock Holmes by Donald Thomas (Some of the most enjoyable of the recent spate of pastiches. Holmes tackles real-life crimes.)
11) "The Adventure Of The Bogle-Wolf" by Anthony Boucher (The most believable encounter ever between Holmes & a child)
12) All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane (Holmes meets Dr. Who. Included for its sheer bravado and number of references to Watson's untold tales)

Parodies, & pastiches, etc. influenced by Holmes, or with Holmes in a minor role

1) Trouble In Bugland by William Kotzwinkle (Children's stories featuring Inspector Mantis. Very atmospheric, with nice entomological details)
2) Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (An alternate London ruled over by Dracula. Very entertaining, clever interweaving of canonical, fictional & historical characters)
3) W.G. Grace's Last Case by William Rushton (Hilarious lampoon, Watson teams up with the cricketer during the hiatus)
4) A Night In The Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (Humourous-Fantasy with "the great detective" in a supporting role)
5) The List Of 7 by Mark Frost (Doyle as hero, teamed with a character who proves the inspiration for Holmes)
6) "The Final Problem" by Bliss Austin (Ellery Queen murdered? Christopher Morley & Howard Haycraft versus Professor Moriarty & Colonel Moran? A great literary joke)
7) The Pursuit Of The Houseboat by John Kendrick Bangs (One of the first, and funniest, parodies. Gives a good insight in social views and values of the time)
8) A Double-Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain (Another early parody, Holmes only appears in the second half. Once considered the worst Holmes story ever written, perhaps by people who didn't get it was supposed to be funny)
9) The Spy Who Fell Off The Back Of A Bus by Marc Lovell (Far from the greatest story ever told, but fun for an afternoon's mindless entertainment. 70s spy spoof, about a missing Doyle manuscript. Worth reading for the scene in which the many agents in search of the document argue over Doyle's nationality)
10) The Adamantine Sherlock Holmes by Hapi (It's hard to decide if this is scholarship or fiction. Whatever it is it's one of the most enjoyable examples of The Game I know.)
11) "As It Might Have Been" by Colin Howard (My all-time favourite short parody. Holmes is the assistant, Watson the consulting physician)
12) Rasputin's Revenge by John T. Lescroart (My favourite offspring-of-Holmes story)

All this talk about pastiches made me think up my own rules. So, with no apology whatsoever, I offer my highly opinionated rules for good pastiches.

1. Write short stories, not a book. The longer a work becomes, the harder it is to maintain another writer' s style, sense, language, characters, and situations. The best pastiches I have read were short stories, some of the most execrable were endless books. Part of the literary agents brilliance is his ability to set a stage for a time, a place, and a situation in less than a paragraph.

2. No famous people as characters! The character of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are already made and set. So is the overall situation. Apply your creativity to the plot and the rest of characters and do not recycle the person of Teddy Roosevelt to sell mufflers.

3. The end of civilization as we know it should NOT depend on the outcome of your pastiche. Not every case is simultaneously crucial to the future existence of the Queen of England, the Pope, Argentina, and the Royal Navy. You will recall the interesting matter of a red-haired pawnbroker.

4. Check your facts! Don't assume that Tower Bridge was there in 1890, that trains to Scotland leave from Victoria, or that a critical mass of Uranium can be assembled from two pieces at walking speed to make an atomic bomb.

5. Set the story in London or at least England! Yes, I know you have lived in Hicksville Ohio for 30 years, know the geography and people well, and want to provide an explanation for the area's great mystery (who killed old man McCarthy in '06). Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson belong in Victorian England.

6. Sherlock Holmes is not Rambo. Very seldom in the Canon is action "on stage" used to forward the plot or resolve the story. The fight with Woodly your recall was off-stage. Even when action by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is vital to the plot it is done in a few sentences (Take a look at the short scene in The Adventure of the Three Garridebs where Dr. Watson is shot.).

7. The characters, behaviors, and expertise of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are set, with enough internal inconsistencies for a wide variety of behaviors. Yes, I know you are an expert on stamps from the Belgium Congo, but don't make Sherlock Holmes a world leading philatelist. And, with no apologies to a certain writer, don't marry anybody off!

8. Dialog is hard, but study the Canonical style and try. Long third person paragraphs, the comments on an imaginary narrator, or words from outer space are generally absent from the Canon. While Victorians may of been more formal in their speech, that is not an excuse for horrendous, convoluted dialog.

9. Follow the rules of detection and play fair with the reader. No long lost identical twins or time machines.

10. If you must be politically correct, then use Victorian politics. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are men of their time. While we might cringe at their prejudices, don' t bring them up to date -- they don't live in Kansas City!

You can probably find an exception to each of these rules somewhere in the Canon, but not all 10 at once.

But, you ask, why doesn't Mr. Frick write pastiches if he knows all the rules? Well, I am ready to admit I am not much good at creative writing but at the same time I enjoy good creative reading.

Happy Writing!
Willis Frick (WelcomeHolmes member, living in Southern California)

www.nashvillescholars.net/members/memshowmore.htm (Created 01 August 2002)

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