My Sherlock Summer

[Writers Plot]

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I have been a reference librarian for 38 years. To some this sounds boring, but trust me, it's really fun work. I enjoy poking around for information, recommending good books to enthusiastic readers, and putting just the right reference title in the hands of a desperate, left-it-to-the-last-minute student. I also know, as we say, where all the bodies are buried in two Massachusetts small towns, and I'm not referring to the local cemeteries.

Reference librarians have a window into the lives of our patrons, many of whom become good friends. We are the first to know about pregnancies, divorces, and dire medical diagnoses. People tell us everything. We are the bartenders of the library world.

As a mystery lover, I'd rather refer to my job as Sherlockian. I also run the Mystery Mondays readers group, which I get to plan and execute, if you will. Since its inception a couple of years ago, we have read new-to-us authors, foreign authors in translation, books using famous people as sleuths (think Jane Austen and Poe), and this October we will discuss classic mystery authors (Hammett, Spillane...)

This year we have been enjoying Sherlock Summer. Dan Stashower's Teller of Tales, biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was a great way to start. His life was almost as interesting as that of his characters, and the inside scoop on the sources for Holmes' and Watson's personalities is like peeking into a secret room for clues to a mystery. His marriages, his relationship with his mother, his father's insanity, his disdain for Holmes and disappointment that his other fiction was eclipsed by The Canon, provide great topics for discussion.

We moved on to Holmes himself, beginning with two of the longer works. A Study in Scarlet depicts Mormons rather like the ones in Betty Webb's Desert Wives, a knockout book from our first season. It is practically required by law, isn't it, that study of Conan Doyle include The Hound of the Baskervilles? That is one terrific read. A selection of the short stories followed, with "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" a favorite. (Paraphrasing Harrison Ford in one of the Indiana Jones movies, "Why do there have to be snakes?")

Next up: two pastiches of the Holmes stories. I read Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Per Cent Solution when it came out 30 years ago; naturally I don't remember a thing about it. I have enjoyed Laurie King's elegant Kate Martinelli series, but I've never dipped into the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes titles. We're topping off the summer with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Our grand finale is an investigation beyond the words into the world of media. We're going to watch snippets from different versions of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and duke it out over who was the best Sherlock. Peter Cushing? Ian Richardson? Richard Roxburgh? Matt Frewer? Raymond Massey? Who would give any of them the time of day when we have Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett waiting in the wings?

It's been great fun, but my repeated question over the summer has been, "Why Sherlock?" Why have scholars dissected the stories, plumbing the depths of characters, plot twists, whether or not the railway schedules of the time render Holmes' travels impossible, ad infinitum?

I trust most of this scrutiny is done with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I had no idea until I bought the three volumes of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes to what extent the stories have been pulled apart and inspected, presumably under a hand-held magnifying glass. I knew the summer would be challenging when I realized that the annotations in these meticulously researched and footnoted volumes (which together easily weight 10 pounds) are usually longer than the text to which they are referring. One especially amusing note suggested that offspring of various liaisons in "Speckled Band" descended to Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton of "The Honeymooners."

Besides books there are Sherlock Holmes clubs all over the world, postage stamps with his likeness, pubs, movies, card games, deerstalker hats and magnifying glasses....the mind boggles. More than one biography--of Sherlock Holmes. A fictional character. Hellooooo?

All this for a guy who belittled his friend Watson, was arrogant, a cokehead, stunk up his lodgings with his chemical experiments, practiced his marksmanship in the livingroom, played the violin tunelessly all night long, and was something of a misogynist (Irene Adler aside, and she has her own pastiches by Carole Nelson Douglas.) Holmes wasn't even the first consulting detective; at minimum, Poe's Dupin preceded him.

A part of me thinks that some people just have too much time on their hands. But the writer part of me wishes that all of us could write characters who appear so real.

[Jackie Houchin]

Great blog, Jeanne. I'd love to be in your Monday Mystery group. You will enjoy Laurie King's Mary Russell books. Back in the dark ages, when I was 13, a wonderful librarian suggested a Mary Stewart book for me to read. It was summer, I was bored and I wanted a "romantic mystery." I read her suggestion - Madam, Will You Talk - became hooked on Mary Stewart, Phyliss Whitney and then Helen MacInnes... and thus began my love of mystery, suspense and spy thrillers. Thank you to that librarian, and to all who followed her!

[Pepper Smith]

I think Tom Baker (of Doctor Who fame) played Holmes as well in a Hound of the Baskervilles remake.

But of all the actors who've played Holmes, I'll take Jeremy Brett by miles.