The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes – “Edited” by Tony Reynolds is probably one of the best collections of pastiches I have read in the last couple of years. Mr. Reynolds starts with the “Giant Rat of Sumatra” and then adds seven more delightful mysteries for us. We get to follow the stories of gypsy girls, Amazon explorers and Russian anarchists. Mr. Reynolds has made eight unique tales (which in itself is a challenge) to test the Great Detective. Dr. Watson of course remains the participant, biographer and ally.

An especially delightful aspect to this volume is the illustration provided for each of the adventures by Chris Coady. They are quite remarkable. Sydney Paget would be impressed!

It would be hard to select one particular story in the group that I would consider my favorite but when pressed I would have to say it’s the Adventure of the Russian Anarchist. The problem with reviews of novels is that if you like it you’re terribly afraid if you go into the tale you’ll “give it all away”. I certainly don’t want to do that. Let me just say that Mr. Reynolds has kept the style and pace of the original tales and Holmes is at the top of his form.