Baker Street Beat is an entertaining
collection of short essays, stories and screenplays by Dan Andriacco,
a self confessed Sherlock Holmes aficionado (he admits as much in his
introduction so it hardly takes a Sherlockian level of genius to work
this out) and covering the author’s own experiences and knowledge
of the world of Holmes.
When faced with the term ‘essay’
one is put instantly in dread of dry, academic tracts with no
inherent entertainment.
However, in this case the fear is unfounded.
The essays are more like articles, light and easy to read with an
engaging and friendly style that draws you in and keeps you reading.
The topics of the articles are interesting too.
Everything from
reminiscences of the author’s trip to the Reichenbach Falls
(Reichenbach Pilgrimage, p 14) to how to write the perfect Holmes
pastiche (Writing the Holmes Pastiche, p29) is covered and there is
likely to be something here to pique the interest of everyone. I
particularly enjoyed ‘Writing the Holmes Pastiche’, an article
which I suspect many writers who seek to emulate the style of Conan
Doyle should look at to see what tropes and concepts need to be in
play before a tale can truly be said to be a ‘Holmes pastiche’.
I
did note in my reading of this article that the authors of the other
two MX Publishing books I have reviewed did miss some of these
required elements.
Whether you consider this to make them less worthy
of the franchise or not is probably a matter of personal preference
and whether you consider yourself are purist or not. In my personal
opinion, it did not spoil my enjoyment and some of the features in
this article are things I would never have considered being needed in
a Holmes tale.
Andriacco’s fiction writing certainly
does follow the rules he has set, however.
Though actually only one
of them is listed as a pastiche (The Peculiar Persecution of John
Vincent Harden, p37). Of the others, one (The Adventure of the
Speckled Band p102) is actually a screenplay adaptation of an
original Conan Doyle tale for radio, another (The Adventure of the
Amateur Players p59) is a story about modern day child detectives
using Holmes’s methods and the other screenplay (The Wrong Cab, p64)
is a strange metaphysical tale about a modern day detective being
transported into the past where he takes on the role of Watson in one
of Holmes’ cases. All are fun stories with a lot to recommend them.
In all, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who has a
love of Holmes and wants to learn more about him.
-Areteus
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