There are some mysteries that you judge on the cleverness of the puzzles they set, and others you just enjoy for the ride. I felt Stuart Douglas’s The Counterfeit Detective, part of the Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series, fit very much in the latter category. It’s a lot of fun. Watson is concerned at how Holmes has been run ragged on missions of state around and about London when a chance to mix business and pleasure presents itself: news reaches Baker Street that someone calling himself Sherlock Holmes has set up a consulting detective service in New York City. Crossing the pond to track down this “colonial facsimile” and find out what his game is sounds like the perfect getaway.
Of course, things turn out to be a lot more complicated than they bargained on. Or at least than Watson bargained on. Holmes, as always, knows more than he’s letting on. A habit that his chronicler gets exasperated at several times. “There were times when his preference for the dramatic revelation could become tiresome, to be frank.” But then Holmes was always trying to play the co-author, even with Doyle.
So the chase here, and it very much takes the form of a chase, with the bad guys (fake Holmes has a fake Watson as well) staying a step ahead of the genuine articles, was great stuff. With some help from the NYC police (Gregson gave them an in), the real Holmes and Watson explore low life and high society, both of which have plenty of dirty secrets. However, if I were grading The Counterfeit Detective on how well the plot held together I wouldn’t rate is as highly. In so far as I understood what was actually going on from Holmes’s explanation at the end, it seemed preposterous. Though to be sure a lot of the Further Adventures are even further out there.
Alex Good 
Fake Holmes has a fake Watson.
That sentence is just awesome. I am almost tempted to read this just to see that play out. Then I look at my tbr and realize that reason isn’t good enough to increase the numbers 😀
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It’s the eternal problem. Too many books, not enough time.
Fake Watson is the real bad ‘un.
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Was he a Cingpin of Crime though? That’s my new Standard for Villains now…
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He’s an international man of mayhem.
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I wonder how the real authors would feel ( if still alive) about other authors taking their characters and using them for their own purposes. Especially if they’re not as good as the originals.
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I’d hope Doyle would see it as well intentioned fan service. These aren’t parodies. But then today there would likely be all kinds of legal squabbles.
Other authors were doing things with Holmes while Doyle was still alive and he seems to have been remarkably casual about it. Told them they could do whatever they wanted with the character.
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That’s very altruistic of him.
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When a playwright took liberties with the Holmes character in a stage adaptation in 1899, including having Holmes married off, he sent a telegram to Doyle asking if he could have Holmes married. Doyle replied “You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him.”
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Is wordpress dead for you this week? It feels like there is nobody else out there…
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Traffic is pretty steady. Not much commenting. But then I never get a lot so that’s not something I’d notice.
I’m going to have to take most of April and May off I think, at least for posting, because the rest of my house is going to be a construction zone. So I’ll be quieter too.
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Good to know, on both things.
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