Wildside Press’ SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE is many things — fun, nice-looking, great value for your money — but not regular. Yet issue #3 arrived alongside Hollywood’s blockbuster take, just as the public appetite for all things Holmes is whetted, so hopefully it may attract more readers. It deserves to.
As with previous issues, the periodical — actually a sturdy paperback — opens with nonfiction features that make the mag feel like a club. Lenny Picker provides a terrific article on some Holmes screen adaptations, with particular attention paid to BBC’s MURDER ROOMS series, which was added to my wish list immediately.
Gary Lovisi follows with a delightful look at some notable Holmes pastiches in paperback, pretty much all of which are sadly out-of-print. Bob Byrne then compares Nero Wolfe to Holmes in an essay, and landlady Mrs. Hudson’s advice column — the weakest link in SHMM — is shuttered for a recipe column, but I’m afraid the change is no better.
This issue’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reprint is “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” my favorite Holmes story. Since it’s likely that a majority of readers have already read it, too, I wish it would’ve been dressed up with art, either in the style of Sidney Paget’s Victorian-era STRAND illustrations or that original work itself.
New fiction begins with Bruce I. Kilstein’s “Watson’s Wound,” in which the story behind Watson’s war injury is told, and Holmes thinks that something about it doesn’t quite ring the right way. This story is a great example of expanding upon Holmes’ established universe. Kim Newman’s lengthy “A Volume in Vermillion” is next, written from the perspective of Holmes villain Sebastian Moran.
In pieces unrelated to Holmes — but no stranger to mystery — include Stan Trybulski’s table-turning “Tough Guys Don’t Pay”; Hal Charles’ father/daughter whodunit, “Vacation from Crime”; Jean Pavia’s near-diabolical “Workout,” featuring one of the most pathetic protagonists you’ll encounter all year; and Peter King’s wry, sublime parody of TV’s AVENGERS, in “Mayhem in St Margaret Meade.”
A couple of cartoons dot the pages as filler, but there could be many more. With so few publications daring to showcase short stories these days, the Marvin Kaye-edited SHMM is one of the most reliable, and I love how the covers utilize poster art from the old Holmes films, to place you in the right frame of mind: that of inexpensive, but intelligent escape. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF MARVIN KAYE:
• DON’T OPEN THIS BOOK! edited by Marvin Kaye
• THE FAIR FOLK edited by Marvin Kaye
• FORBIDDEN PLANETS edited by Marvin Kaye
• THE GHOST QUARTET edited by Marvin Kaye
• SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE #1 edited by Marvin Kaye
• SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE #2 edited by Marvin Kaye
• THE ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN edited by Marvin Kaye
Related posts:
- Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #2
- Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #1
- Klinger offers ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES bookplates
- The Ghost Quartet
- The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds
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MURDER ROOMS is definitely worth checking out.
Raucous, rough energy infuses this film from start to finish, carrying us along even when the slightly over-egged script starts to feel somewhat slender. And it’s the terrific chemistry between Downey and Law that makes the film worth seeing.