The Doctor's Case: Stephen King

What is the connection with Stephen King, the thriller/horror novelist and Sherlock Holmes? It is the Doctor's Case. The case which was solved by Dr. Watson ahead of Sherlock Holmes (don't worry he gets ahead only by a couple of seconds). The story appears among a collection of stories in the book: The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1987) and it is about a 'perfect closed room mystery' that Holmes always longed to solve (as suggested by the author).

Lord Hull is stabbed to death in his study, which was closed from the inside, with windows bolted in place and also with no obvious place for the killer to hide inside the room.Inspector Lestrade invites both Holmes and Watson to investigate. All the other members in the family become suspects due to the fact that the lord very recently re-wrote his will to ensure that his entire wealth goes to a boarding of stray cats and not to any his family members.

On reaching the place, Holmes goes down with an allergic reaction from a cat possessed by the lord. Watson 'seizes the chance' and sharpens his skills, ultimately solving the case just before the detective with the help of weather gods! He is ecstatic at this but tries hard not to overjoy.

Holmes realizes this and lets Watson take the glory and allows him to explain the story. Eventually Watson finds out that the detective saw more about the crime than he himself initially did, there was a  conspiracy and everything was not as transparent as it first seemed. The truth, which is somebody's masterpiece, is never known to the outside world and all 3 of them return visibly empty handed.

When I saw the story in the book I was tempted to see how Stephen King would bring in his 'dark' style of writing into a Holmesian mystery. He himself must have had this doubt and probably that is why he chose Watson as the pilot ahead of Holmes, because with Holmes at the helm he would not be able to proceed in his usual self because the detective had his own ways.

However the story keeps us interested till the end because we will be tempted to see how Watson got ahead of Holmes. Not only that, we always love a closed room mystery, don't we?

Verdict: The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a dull read but the doctor's case is a relatively brighter spot.

Secret Documents of Sherlock Holmes

The book written in the 90's by June Thomson has seven interesting stories which never got published by John H Watson. Interestingly enough, the author's (late) uncle who shared the same name as that of Dr. Watson was curious and lucky enough to obtain that unpublished collection after a serious amount of research.

The stories include Ainsworth abduction (story of Vittoria the circus belle), the Boulevard assassin's capture, the dreadful business of the Abernetty family, the Ferrer documents, the case of the Vatican cameos, the Camberwell Deception and the Bartonwood murder(that involved leeches).

The most interesting aspect of the book is that the original series (by Doyle) has passing references to most of these stories at some point or other. This is what turns this book into a winner. June Thomson has carefully studied the actual series including the timelines and she has painstakingly derived branching cases from those passing references. For instance, the Camberwell Deception is that case in which Holmes sorted out a domestic problem for Mrs.Cecil Forrester who was the past governess of Mary Morston. Mary Morston of course, is Dr. Watson's wife whom he met during the case of "Sign of Four".

Similar connections to the original series exists for the story of the circus belle, the Ferrer documents and the Bartonwood murder. These connections/references are mentioned as footnotes in this book and these will quietly push us along till the end of the book. Nothing has been exaggerated here, no unwanted twists in any of the stories, no mention of Lestrade, Moriarty or Irene Adler just for the sake of it. In short it is a short, well prepared Holmes mini package.

Verdict: A very good read.