Holmes for the Holidays (Hc)

Veteran anthologists Greenberg (Great Modern Police Stories) and Waugh (New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) have joined with Doyle/Holmes scholar Lellenberg (Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) to gather 14 new Holmes cases by contemporary writers involving Christmastime mysteries. Contributors include some of the mystery field's brightest stars, including Anne Perry, Loren Estleman, Jon Breen, Reginald Hill, Carole Nelson Douglas and Carolyn Wheat. Their affection for the style and feel of a Holmes short story is evident. Hill's Holmes, in ""The Italian Sherlock Holmes,"" even sounds like Doyle's creation: ""...my methods misapplied are as capable of causing serious damage as a surgeon's scalpel in the hands of a schoolboy."" Both Wheat's ""Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet"" and J.N. Williamson's ""Adventure of the Man Who Never Laughed"" are delightfully sinister and macabre. In all, this is a fine collection in which even the weakest story pays worthy homage to Doyle and will please the ardent Holmes fan. (Nov.)