Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone

Douglas Adams meets Arthur Conan Doyle in this delightfully absurd collection of six cases narrated by a Dr. Watson who’s teamed with a very unusual partner: Warlock Holmes, a consulting magician. As in the original stories, the good doctor has returned from the Afghan War down on his luck, only to stumble into an opportunity to share quarters with an eccentric sleuth. Almost totally destitute, Watson leaps at the chance, despite Warlock’s warning of his unusual tendencies and the detective’s requirement that the doctor enter their Baker Street rooms by stepping over their threshold backward. Their first case together is a hilarious parody of A Study in Scarlet, wherein a “baked goods wrapper,” inserted in the mouth of a murder victim, proves a vital clue. Watson also gets to meet this universe’s versions of Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson, who are a vampire and an ogre, respectively. Sherlockians will be reminded of Robert L. Fish’s brilliant Schlock Holmes stories. (May)