The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part XV

Stories pitting Sherlock Holmes against seemingly supernatural phenomena highlight Marcum’s 15th anthology of superior short pastiches. Kelvin I. Jones elicits the most chills with “The Devil’s Painting,” in which an art restorer is found dead with a look of horror on his face in front of a picture depicting the execution of a young woman. Holmes and Watson find other paintings, apparently by the same unknown artist, that seem to come to life. In Nick Cardillo’s unsettling “The Adventure of the Weeping Stone,” Holmes takes time off from his beekeeping to deal with an impossible murder involving a stone of South American origin that somehow ended up in Sussex. Marcum himself again demonstrates his gift for emulating the feel of the canon with “An Actor and a Rare One,” a sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Despite the audacity of the concept, Marcum pulls off a satisfying mystery centered on the writing of graffiti on Baskerville Hall that quotes the original text of the legend of the hound. This series shows no sign of flagging, welcome news for the many eager for more Holmes. [em](July) [/em]