While at the library yesterday . . .

. . . . this book was in the 'New Fiction' area.

I will let you know what I think.

The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street by Rob Nunn - A review.

Like I said in my previous post, this is not a book I would have picked up on my own.

I don't like reading books about Holmes that takes him out of my comfort zone.

Rob asked my to take a look at his first book and give my thoughts.

What Rob has done is take a fun exploration into Holmes career as if he had taken that once suggested path down the road to a career in crime.

Rob has connected in some way all sixty of the stories into a web of crime that only Moriarty could appreciate.
Smoothly blending many of the habits and traits we love about Holmes  while adding an almost noble veneer to a mob boss in Victorian London.

He has not taken the heart that is inside Holmes and Watson and made them Moriarty like in that of a one dimensional crime boss, but instead has tried to make their new life explainable and acceptable.

Most of the places and characters we love make an appearance in the book and make it feel familiar.

The Holmes in Criminal Mastermind is a crime boss for the little people, with at times a Robin Hood like air.

If I am to find any faults with Robs first book it would be that on a couple of occasions the conclusions seemed abbreviated or too quick to come to an end.

And with any tale of Holmes and Watson I would have liked to have seen them written in Watson's hand.

Rob's writing is very good and you can tell he has a background in education and a love for his subject.

I enjoyed the book and look forward to more works from Rob Nunn.

The Criminal Mastermind of Baker St. by Rob Nunn - A book review to follow.

I do not usually read books that take Holmes and Watson out of my comfort zone. I am happy to have Holmes and Watson live at Baker St. and be my dynamic duo with all the best intentions.

But a local Sherlockian that I have met and correspond with has asked me to review his latest book.

So while it seems to take Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson down a path I would never consider, I must admit I am looking forward to reading it..

So, in the next couple of days, be looking for my thoughts on Rob's new book.

Young Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes goes to prep school in Ridley Pearson's 'Lock and Key: The Downward Spiral'

Story Here.

Art in the Blood

If you have followed this blog for more than a week you well know that I love art work involving Sherlock Holmes and the 'lighter side' of the Canon.
So get this book was a real treat because I have always loved Scott Bonds treatment of the Canon.

This book covers most of the work Bond has done on Sherlock Holmes with captions explaining way the work was relevant when he did.
Glossy and well made, the book is a lot of fun.

Another list. . . have you read them all?

10 books for Sherlock Holmes fans

What do you think? A new book list.

Here is a list of 10 Books for Sherlock Holmes Fans

Source

Thanks to the enterprising work of mystery writers and die-hard Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fans, there are plenty of books for Sherlockians (it's a real term), who know that the mark of a great mystery novel is when its solution is far from elementary.

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Any Sherlock Holmes fan will know it’s worth going back to the beginning when analyzing a problem. Rediscover The Hound of the Baskervilles—the third Holmes novel that launched the detective from popular character to international icon. The mystery of the death of Sir Charles Baskerville is now widely considered one of the top English novels, and scholars have given it a 100 rating, making it the #1 Holmes novel of all time.

2. The Dark Water: The Strange Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, by David Pirie

Author David Pine takes readers through the fictional world of Arthur Conan Doyle—the famous detective’s creator. Sherlock is based on Doyle’s friend, Dr. Joseph Bell, and this story follows Doyle and Bell as they encounter all sorts of Victorian criminals in this addictive, eerie mystery.

3. Nevermore, by William Hjortsberg

In this murder mystery pastiche by William Hjortsberg, Sherlock Holmes teams up with Harry Houdini and the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe—yes, you read that right—to solve a series of murders perpetrated by a copycat serial killer imitating the work of the long dead Poe. Holmes fans with a healthy love of the paranormal will devour this modern homage that brings together three icons of the strange and unusual.

4. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, by Vincent Starrett

A die-hard Sherlock Holmes fan himself, Vincent Starrett was the author of several Holmes-inspired books, including his most famous: 1933’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Written as a fictional biography of Holmes, this book gives fans a further look into the Holmes case files—lovingly recorded by his trusty assistant Dr. Watson. As a Holmes expert, Starrett’s attention to detail and the inspiration behind Holmes’ most challenging mysteries makes The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes an essential addition to any fan’s library.

5. The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers

British mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers is best remembered for her Holmesian creation, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey. A typical “gentleman detective,” Wimsey solves crimes for fun, and is assisted by his former valet Mervyn Bunter. In the ninth novel in the Wimsey series, Wimsey and Bunter find themselves thrown into an epic murder mystery when they take a wrong turn in East Anglia. Though at first charmed by the unique traditions of this small English town, Wimsey and Bunter’s hopes for a relaxing weekend in the country are quickly dashed.

6. The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins

Generally considered the first ever English detective novel, Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone greatly influenced Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation of Sherlock Holmes. Published in installments in 1868, The Moonstone tells the story of a precious yellow diamond given to Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. Though it is said to bring bad luck to its owner, the bauble is nevertheless stolen from Rachel’s bedroom at night. Now, Sergeant Cuff must decipher who the thief is in this mystery that anticipates both Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie’s novels.

7. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s 1932 classic take on one of the 20th century’s most infamous crimes, the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, solidified the success of Christie’s creation: Detective Hercule Poirot, perhaps the most well known fictional detective after Sherlock Holmes. "I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition,” Chrisite explained in her autobiography on the creation of Poirot. “Eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Jap.”

Like Holmes, Poirot went on to international fame and is the only fictional character to receive an obituary in The New York Times.

8. Dust and Shadow, by Lyndsay Faye

Holmes takes on perhaps the most infamous unsolved mystery in this historical fiction novel by Lyndsay Faye: The Jack the Ripper murders. As the Ripper rages on through London’s Whitechapel district, Holmes finds that even he is out of his depth, especially when his trusty sidekick Watson is wounded in the fray.

9. Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes

George Edalji was the half-Indian son of a vicar, who found himself convicted of a crime he did not commit in 1903. Thanks to the efforts of Arthur Conan Doyle, Edalji was pardoned in 1907. Barnes’ Arthur and George is a fictional account of these very different men and the unusual circumstances in which their lives intersected. Though, as a novelist, Barnes only adheres loosely to the facts of the case, it undoubtedly had an impact on Doyle’s interest in the wrongfully accused and gives us a glimpse into his somewhat tumultuous private life.

10. The Final Solution, by Michael Chabon

Holmes was said to have taken up beekeeping when he retired from sleuthing, and that’s where we find him in Michael Chabon’s novel, The Final Solution—an unnamed 89-year-old man (who may or may not be Sherlock Holmes) biding his time in the English countryside during WWII. But when a young mute boy wanders into his life with nothing but an African gray parrot as a companion, this detective may need to put his skills back to work to discover the origins of this strange boy and his pet that keeps repeating numbers in some strange German code.

An interesting piece on the author of a popular new Holmes book.

Sherlock Holmes the girl genius

He has been a hound, one half of an African-American duo busting crime in modern-day Harlem and has, over the years, matched wits with everything from Martian invaders to flesh-eating zombies.

But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, the great detective who continues to inspire legions of adaptations across mediums, is rarely reimagined as a young girl.

With her debut young adult novel A Study In Charlotte, American writer Brittany Cavallaro, 29, fills that gap.

"There's been a gold rush of adaptations, but it seemed like Sherlock was getting reimagined every which way but as a teenage girl. It was important for me to do a feminist retelling of Sherlock Holmes," she tells The Sunday Times over Skype from her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"I thought it was crucial to give girls - especially now, with young girls so interested in the television and film adaptations of Sherlock - a genius character that looked like them. I love that Elementary (a television series with Lucy Liu as "Joan" Watson) reimagined Watson as a woman, but it's important to have the complicated, difficult genius - the person actually calling the shots - be a girl."

She experienced firsthand the casual assumption that mysteries are a man's domain.

Would we accept Sherlock's flaws if he were a woman? We're tougher on female characters than we are on men.

AMERICAN AUTHOR BRITTANY CAVALLARO

When she was a young girl, her grandfather gave her little brother a leather-bound edition of the Holmes stories.

"It went to him - you know, the boy, the one who my grandfather automatically identified as the one who'd be interested in reading about and solving mysteries. And I stole it," she says with a laugh.

Holmes became a life-long interest for Cavallaro, who would go on to study detective fiction when she did her PhD in English literature.

And when she started on A Study In Charlotte, the first book in a planned trilogy, she knew right off the bat that it would be built around a prickly girl genius.

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson, descendants of the original Holmes and Watson, are teenagers struggling to figure themselves out, but are already burdened with the legacies of their ancestors.

Marooned in an American boarding school, the two develop a tentative relationship when they find themselves framed for a classmate's murder.

The fun, fast-paced novel dangles new twists and mysteries that pay tribute to Doyle's canon. It is also Cavallaro's way of confronting expectations attached to gender.

"People don't tend to look to girls to be the genius. And when they do, they still want them to be pleasant and social and likable. Charlotte isn't any of those things and I wanted to see what the consequences of that would be," she says.

"When you're a girl who doesn't really understand her place in the world, when you're a girl who has the same kind of self-destructive eccentricities Sherlock had, how would that play out? Would we accept Sherlock's flaws if he were a woman? We're tougher on female characters than we are on men."

Her Charlotte is flawed and fumbling: She was sexually assaulted by the classmate whose death she is now being blamed for, and indulges a drug addiction.

Cavallaro says it was also crucial that she stick to Doyle's tradition of telling the story through Watson's eyes. In the book, Jamie - whose problems are of the run-of-the-mill teenage variety, among them hormones and grades - reports on Charlotte's frenetic, self- destructive fervour with fascination and confusion.

"I wanted him to be the storyteller and for the girl to not be there just to further his story. She's not a manic pixie dream girl. She's not just a love interest or arm candy," says Cavallaro, who is married.

"She's somebody who's driving the story, who's just fine without him, and he knows it, shows it and respects it."

She started on the novel in 2013, while she was trying to put off studying to sit a big examination for her PhD. She banged out the draft in about six weeks and finished revising the novel with her literary agent in early 2014.

Months later, the book was snapped up by HarperCollins.

Cavallaro has just turned in the second book and is getting started on the third.

She says: "Holmes has been a huge part of my life - I'm a Sherlockian and proud of it. So to have this as my Sherlockian calling card, to put my own spin on a character that's been embedded in the common consciousness for so long, is amazing."

•A Study In Charlotte ($32.13) is available at Books Kinokuniya.

Credit where credit is due.

'Watson and Holmes - A Study in Black' a review

While at our local library Monday evening I discovered this title in their Graphic Novel department.

Always on the look out for good Sherlockian artwork and stories I checked it out and thought I would give it a try.

The concept once again attempts to bring Holmes and Watson into the modern era. This time modern Harlem.
Both Holmes and Watson are African American and ghetto smart.

Watson is a young Afgan. vet. working as an intern in an inner-city hospital. He has also just left a troubled marriage and has a son.

We don't learn a whole lot about Holmes' motives for what he does. And nothing of his background other than his mother like Mycroft best.
The back story may come in follow up novels.

We have Mycroft showing up (wants to be called Mike), as does Moran (no, Moran does not want to be called Mike, but he is mentioned). Mrs. Hudson is also present.

Lestrade is represented as a white female cop named Det. Leslie Stroud (Les-Stroud).

Graphic Novels take a lot of work. The story has to fit into a comic book type format mixing images and words to tell the story. Dialoge is necessarily limited to fit that format, so a lot is expected of the few words used.

The art work is very good in this novel, done by Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman. It is gritty and, well, graphic.

Some spelling and grammar errors make parts hard to read, and for me the two story arcs didn't connect.
Also the introduction between Holmes and Watson was abbreviated and needed to be filled out.
Once again to make a modern Holmes it seems like he has to be tech. savoy or at least have many friends who are and known Sherlockian habits could have been better represented.

Baker St. Irregulars make a couple of appreances as street smart inner city kids.

Gun violence in the novel made it something I would not introduce to young riders. That may be the way of the world now, but is unnecessary to make a good story.

For all the faults I found with it, I still think it is a workable idea and would have some appeal as an after nine p.m. TV show.

I will check to see if there are more stories and give it another chance.

Note; There appears to be three in the series so far. Kindle version are fairly in-expensive while a hard copy of number one is around $140.00. 

What's in a name. .?

While browsing books at my daughters school book fair I came across this interesting title.
Being a Sherlockian I was hoping it would be a book to introduce younger readers to Sherlock Holmes.

Having read about a third of it so far. . . the only thing it has in common with Sherlock Holmes is the name Baskerville in the title.

Oh, well.

What do you think?

I just came across this line in a review of a new book; "And if you're a Holmes fan, this book is probably a must in the canon. Dan Simmons delivers personal details about Holmes' upbringing you may not have read before."

And it leads me to wonder; How can anything be important or 'a must' to 'The Canon' of Sherlock Holmes if it was not written by Doyle?

Now to be fair the reviewer did not give good review marks for the book that he was reviewing, but the line  "... probably a must in the canon." I found rather curious.

I am not a big fan of pastiches at the moment. They don't seem quite as fun or even as good now the 'e' books makes it so much easier to get published. And I absolutely refuse to try to keep up with all of the them any more, wheat from the chaff kind of thing.

Here is the review.

"White Fire" - a book review

While at the library the other night with my daughter I came across Preston and Child's book called "Wild Fire".
And I was pleasantly surprised.

I had not heard of this book, nor had I heard of any Sherlockian review of this book. Which probably means I don't follow enough really important Sherlockian sites, but none the less, there I was.

The book is one in a series about a Special FBI Agent named Pendergast.
And although this book doesn't go a lot into Agent Pendergast's back story, I get the impression he is a rather unique individual with many Sherlock Holmes like characteristics.
Very anti-social, intelligent and seemingly highly respected, he seems more than willing to follow his own path in solving crimes.


The Prologue opens with that famous meeting between Doyle and Wilde at the Langham Hotel, London. Also at the meeting are Mr. Stoddart and a Mr. Gill.
This of course is the meeting where Doyle would come away writing SIGN, and Wilde would write Dorian Gray. At this meeting Wilde apparently tells Doyle a story so grotesque that Doyle leaves the meeting rather abruptly.

This related story from that evening becomes the back bone of a mystery now set in modern Colorado where Pendergast's young protege goes to study some antiquated deaths for her thesis.
While in Colorado, Corrie Swanson, the protege, becomes involved in a case of attempted murder and arson.
Preston and Child also involve some BSI members in the hunt for the missing story.
The book was very fun to read and engaging. The characters interesting and somewhat sympathetic, which is required for me to become engaged in the story.
Included in the book is the pastiche, 'The Adventure of Aspern Hall', a stand alone piece which is also part of the story.

I don't know how much of the story that takes place between Doyle and Wilde is true, and I don't see Doyle as weak kneed as he appears to be after Wilde relates his tale.
But I enjoyed the book and found the Sherlockian connections worthy.

DANC - Brad's summer reading list #14 - The Sherlockian two step.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men is not a story that I have a whole lot feeling about.

Lots of attempts have been made to finish out the complete alphabet using dancing men. Just search Google and see how many there are.

The story is similar to SECO in that a woman attempts to save the honor of her husband by making bad decisions. In both cases the women want us to believe that what ever is pursuing them from their past is not really all that bad, but bad enough to destroy the honor of their husbands.
One is willing to betray her country, the other destroy her marriage.
Yet neither one feels able to trust their spouses with the truth.

I believe in Brad's review of DANC, he argues that honor and loyalty were different beasts in Holmes times than they are now.
And for the most part I would have to agree, well at least the perception of what honor was suppose to be.

In DANC we do however have a women who has taken it upon herself to remove herself from an environment which she was loathe to, basically living in a den of thieves.
She has secured enough of her own funds to remove herself from Chicago and relocate to London, where either by social graces or monetary self-sufficiency (or both) able to participate in the London social scene at the Jubilee, which we have to assume is Victoria's Golden or Diamond Jubilee (1887 or 1897, which also helps date this story).
She is not a weak women. She was able to pick herself up and start a new life.
We could easily call her a Gold-digger, coming to London to find a wealthy man to settle with.
But, as with honor, times were different then and women were not suppose to make there own way (although many did) and events like the Jubilee were perfect times for finding perfect mates.
But she wasn't so secure in her independence as to be able to trust her husband with the total truth.
But we have come to believe, in the Canon, that this was just the way things were done.

It seems to have been a fine marriage up until the diminutive dancers started showing up.
But still she couldn't tell him the truth, even though it was tearing her marriage apart.
And we can't believe she didn't see that, "Oh, it's okay honey. I see you getting the strange messages and all. And you are sad all the time, and about to fall apart, but I trust you will solve this on your own and our marriage is just fine because I am a lonely country squire and don't have any other prospects."
Ya gotta wonder about the reasoning of people sometimes.

So my questions are; Was she doing it out of honor or was there more to her past than what she told her husband?

Given the information he had, should Holmes have acted earlier?

Does Watson ever figure out how Holmes does it?


Again, like Brad said, different times and all. . . .

We do find Holmes and Watson together in Baker St. And we once again get Watson astound with Holmes' abilities. (Did Watson ever learn how Holmes did it?)

Although a fun story, I think it is the mysterious dancing figures that has made this story so popular.
Has anyone ever done a dancing women code?

Brad's summer reading list - #8 - The Man with the Twisted Lip (TWIS) Watson was missed more than we realize.

I like TWIS.

It has Mary, although she is never named.

Watson is married, but so far for just a short time.

They have a nice house with staff. Is Watson making good money or is Mary paying for it?

And it has another strong woman character.

It would be interesting to go back (yet another potential paper) and see how many shrinking violets (no pun intended) there are in the Canon. There are lots of men, noble and other wise, who crumble under the strain in one case or another. 

But how about the women. We don't find many, if any, who give up and just buckle under the pressure.

Well, except for maybe Katy Whitney. But she has after all been putting up with her husbands bad habits for a long time. But even her 'loss of self-control' is brief and no smelling salts are required.

But I think the key point to this case is how much Holmes missed and needed Watson. (As if we didn't already know that!)

One of the main things Holmes had always valued about Watson was his ability to remain silent, or as Holmes has recently commented, Watson's 'gift of silence'.

But it wasn't only that gift that was important, but also Watson's gift of being a good listener.

I think it could be said that Holmes was at his best when Watson was around as a sounding board for his ideas. Sometimes just saying something out load can clarify an idea, or even prove that the idea is not a good one.

And many times that was Watson's roll. Just having someone to say things out loud to would validate or cancel a conclusion for Holmes. Watson's comments were not even necessary most of the time.

But in TWIS Holmes does not have Watson as his filter, at least at the beginning,  and perhaps he then over thinks the problem of Neville St. Clair.

But once Watson finds Holmes (or is it the other way around) Holmes can once again verbally lay out his case and find or lose validation.

As we know, Watson may not be the light itself, but he at least proves to be the catalyst.

Oh, um, and it does have Mary.

And a reference to beer!

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - Brad's summer reading list number 3 - we sure miss Watson.

When I first started re-reading this tale for this review, the first thought that came to mind, as Billy ( imagine Charlie Chaplin ) was detailing the comings and goings of the individuals connected to the story, was one of the scenes in that wonderful comedy "Without a Clue". You know the scene; the one with the Prime Minister, the director of the Exchequer and Lestrade, where only one individual actually thinks Holmes (Watson in this case) should take on the job. One thinks he shouldn't and that he (Lestrade) is better qualified to do it, and one has no opinion at all.

It could be argued that MAZA should not be included in the Canon ( a point I would make), and not because it was written in third person. Not written originally as a case for publication but for the theater, the story reads as such. All the dialog and movements are such that it could easily be done on a stage again tomorrow.
The story takes place in only one room, with before unmentioned secret doors. The plot incorporates props (the wax bust, mention of an air gun, blackmail and murder of old women) from other stories as well as personalities. Even some of the wonderful Sherlockian quotes seem re-written and reused from other stories.
And the plot is also contrived from other tales.

And several noted Sherlockians would argue that Doyle (Watson) did not write the tale.

It would best be argued that Doyle was pressed for time at some publication date and resurrected "The Crown Diamond" for quick publication.

I doubt it ever made any one's top ten list.

You can, however, buy this wonderful copy at amazon for $450.00.

"Close to Holmes", by Alistair Duncan, a book review

I don't usually read books like this. Anything that, again usually, would seem to have a lot of research in it is normally why over my head and I loss interest very quickly.

I don't profess to be the most scholarly of Sherlockians, most often staying in my comfort zone of the lighter side of the Holmesian discussion.

But I regularly follow Alistair's insightful blog and thought I should check out some of his books.

I am glad I did.

The book was a wonderfully easy read, providing one with just the right amount of information to be informative with out being burdensome.
I can easily see myself getting a copy of this book for my next visit to England ( I read the e-book format) and keeping it in my pocket as we visit Sherlockian sites

And again without being overburdening, Alistair provides the Sherlockian connections to each location, along with further history of the landmarks.

This book is short and sweet and an easy companion when on the trail of Sherlock Holmes.

Well, instead of buying a hard copy of here, I will wait till my next visit and get a signed copy from him.

I just didn't get it. . . a book review, . ."The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon

I normally like books about Holmes' life after retirement. I have read a few I really have enjoyed.
Sure, all of them are speculation, but who amongst us has not done some of that.
We have all pictured him in retirement in his cottage by the coast with this bee's.
And I like to imagine a younger person discovering an older Holmes and learning of the great detective and his history and methods.

"The Final Solution" did none of that for me.
I really didn't like the Holmes that was created in the book. Now it can be argued that it never says anywhere that it actually was Holmes, but most readers know that it is. This 'Holmes' left me understanding why he is alone and a mess.

Chabon's Holmes, for me, offered none of the characteristics I envision Holmes taking into his retirement.
He is cranky, decrepit and slovenly. Cranky I could maybe live with, but not the other two.

The narrative is way over written and, again, for me, has none of the cadence of a good Doyle short story.
Several reviewers I have read compare the style to Doyle's writing which I did not find to be the case.
After quoting one lengthy paragraph one reviewer writes; ". . what I love about that passage is the way that it reminds me of reading about Sherlock Holmes's apartment when I was a kid. It's is the same life, only everything is fifty years older."
But to actually read the paragraph you will find it has none of the brevity or descriptive clarity of Doyle.

To really get much out of this book one must already have a good understanding of the Holocaust or must be welling to do some research to understand the 'mystery' in the book. A book leaving us wanting to know or understand more is not in itself a bad thing.

But I found myself wanting to skip over parts because the description became to thick. Perhaps some would argue that it is I who is thick and not the book
But for me, the book did not flow well.

The mystery and the history I could accept, but it was way over written.

And good article on "The Final Solution" and Holocaust imagery can be found here.

Although I enjoyed the history, the mystery and the style left me wanting something else.

The Watsonian - another review (discussion) #5 - "How the Speckled Band" Really Began" by Ann Margaret Lewis

Well, I am just going to have to read some of her books.
Although her little piece doesn't really add much scholarly, she sure can spin a yarn.
Very easy to read and a very comfortable Doyleian style.
Considering the purpose of the piece was to write a short piece based on an assigned phrase, she did a fantastic job.
Plausible and makes us think of Watson before Holmes.

Great work!

Another fine entry in the inaugural edition of The Watsonian.

The Watsonian - Review number four - 'Doctor Watson, Detective?' - by Dan Andriacco

I must admit, I was almost quality of theorizing "before (I) had all the evidence." I was jumping to conclusions, expecting to give Dan my first 'bad' 'review'. Neither the word 'bad' nor 'review' would be entirely correct. Just because I don't agree, doesn't make it bad. And just because I read it and say something about it, probably doesn't constitute a review.

Just my opinions in an effort to foster discussion.

Let's just say I almost started out expecting to give less then my so far usual five pipes.

Part of that comes from liking the place I have Watson firmly planted in.
He is the most British of the duo. Stalwart, loyal, brave, head strong, tenacious, a little naive, to trusting and the rock that is everything English.
The moral compass.
I don't think he is dumb by any means. And while I agree he could be very observant, I think he would have fallen more into the Lestrade detective category than the Holmes one.
Watson is the reason I read the books
But, while I agree there would be no Holmes without Watson. I also believe there would be no Watson without Holmes. No Stanley without Livingston. No Laurel without Hardy. No Lone Rancher without Tonto.
I was afraid Mr. Andriacco was going to try to convince me otherwise.

I follow Dan's blog and have read some of his works, so I knew he loves his subject and is a very capable writer.

He had all the right arrows in his quiver.

He seemed to have all his ducks in a row at the beginning of his piece. He seemed to be leading up to some grand argument that if we only listened to what Holmes and he  had to say about Watson, we would have to agree with him about Watson's abilities as a detective.

I really didn't want to go any further, but I was hoping to find a flaw in what I though his argument would be.

He even quoted, several times, HOUN.
My favorite.
Sure, I to think Watson did a pretty good job in HOUN. But HOUN was pretty fairly about following one clue to the next. Not really figuring something out as a theory and then developing it into a case. Holmes as always been about finding a theory or two on what he knows or hears, then eliminating the theories that don't fit the facts.

I had to force myself to go on.

And I am glad I did.

Dan turned a corner and started to remind me how good Watson was at observing. Seeing things. Maybe not the same way Holmes did, but in his own way, he didn't miss much. Well, I guess you kinda have to be to be a doctor or a writer, or biographer. I just said as much about Watson in my last review, stating how much he says in so few words. Maybe more like an artist, who are also great observers.
He never did argue that he thought Watson would also be a great detective. His stance was that Watson was also good as an observer.

Watson is very head strong, we see it many times. Times when he wants to rush into action, when something more subtle is required. With a temperament like that, I argue, he would not be able to see the smaller nuance's of a situation. In this way he would be more Lestrade like.
His form of detection would take the more plodding path, with great energy when the blood hound was nearer it's pray. Action more than thought. And that is way he was so valuable to Holmes.
While not completely opposites, they were near enough to attract.

And gosh darn it! That's the way I want my Watson.

Thanks Dan for not trying to destroy my image.

I liked the way Dan brought his conclusions together towards the end of his piece, coming to, I think, the same conclusions I have about Watson, (although he said it a lot better than I could.)

Holmes wouldn't have the patience's to chronicle his cases in a way people outside the detective field would want to read. Watson the observer, not detective, does. Watson is more the artist of observation, while Holmes is the scientist.

But they are both equally important to the team. Being equal doesn't mean being the same. Jesse Owens and Mary Lou Retton are both equally great athletes, but they are not the same.

It is one of the things I think the new TV show 'Elementary' is going to eventually have trouble balancing; making Watson Holmes' equal.

Dan, thanks for making me sit up and take notice, and then allowing me to settle back down into my comfortable chair.

Glad I was able to still light up

 pipes.

The Watsonian - A Review number 3 - All about down memory lane.

When someone writes a reminiscence it has to do one of two things for me, I either need to be taken down a path that makes me remember something similar or it needs to be something so different from my experiences that I  am 'Wowed!'

We are all like that. Something takes us back to hopefully pleasant memories that we want to relive. (They can also take us back to pleases we don't want to revisit, but I don't think this is the forum for that. We will stay with the pleasant path.)

A favorite place we visited or spent time at. A person that lift an indelible mark on our lives.
Or if it is the Wow! factor, it has to leave me with a feeling that they have just told me an extraordinary tale that I can't imagine in my experience.

I enjoy the Sherlock Holmes stories because of the atmosphere Watson (Doyle) creates in his short but descriptive proses. He can say so much with so few words. I like the images of the moors, or the stately homes, or the fog shrouded streets of London. I am not in it for the mysteries. Give me the atmoshpere.

And that is what Ron Lies did in his remembrance of his discovery of Sherlock Holmes in his Watsonian piece, 'A Love Story'.

He sent me on a pleasant trip back to when I first really discovered Holmes and Watson.

Mine was in a place of pleasant isolation, without phones or electricity, the nearest town some twenty plus miles away requiring a boat ride.

Rathbone and Bruce's Holmes and Watson were of my fathers generation, and I of course knew of them, but had not yet discovered the real Holmes and Watson. It was kinda like the time I met John Denver. Sure, I knew his music, and liked his stuff. But it really came into focus when I met him and could finally put a personal experience to the music.

I am going to save the whole story (well both of them actually, Holmes and Denver)  for another time, but will say that books would turn out to be my only form of evening entertainment for several weeks. (No, I was not in prison.) And one of the books would turn out to be Sherlock Holmes, thirteen stories. I knew they were (duh) set in London, my father's home town, and much of the rest of England (where the rest of my family comes from) and I wanted to read something that celebrated my English heritage.

Ron took me back to my discovery of that book, and then on to the books that followed. Many have great stories of their own and how I came across them.

Like him, I still have them, and many are very worn and have been replaced with newer copies. I have copies I will make notes in, and copies just for the collection. Most I have read. Some are still on the pile to be read.

My two copy Double Day, my second Sherlock Holmes books, is very tattered and much loved and holds a proud place on my bookshelves.

I am very glad I came across Holmes first in books. Most people now a days probably have some other introduction. But I hope they eventually make it to the books, because no matter what else has come along, so far, they are really what has kept this love affair going for most of use.

So Ron, thanks for taking me back to that old logging camp in Maine and. . . wait I am giving to much away!

Thanks for the memories Ron.