John Dibbs is an award-winning photographer, specialized in air-to-air photography. The book is very representative of the quality of his work. This classy coffe-table book is full of stunning photos of high impact. Interceptors, bombers, tankers, tranpsorts, trainers and helicopters in RAF service are all here, gathered in this single volume. The reader will feel bewitched by the high quality of this, basically, pictorial book. Depicted in John's special style, dozens of full page photos, accompanied by comprehensive text will attract your interest. John's technical mastership is easily identified and widely used throughout the book. Angle of views, lighting and speed effects are effectively used to give a distinctive look at the RAF Frontline. Carefully selected photos, made me wishing, all the more often, to be me who had taken them. The majority of the photos are air-to-air, hard to see anywhere alse, and not just ordinary ground-level shots. I particularly liked the wealth of pilots' personal quotes on their aircraft and mission. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interesting in the RAF, aviation, and stunning photography. Wish to see more of this kind by John.
Anthony Tsagaratos
Athens, Greece

The title is quite clever, although a little misleading. There isn't a lot of Christmas involved -- of course, with Holmes, there wouldn't be. Some stories are, as usual, better than others. Some are downright bad. A few have the distressing tendency that some Holmes "fans" have to glorify, or at least "redeem" Watson. Let's face it, true Holmes fans don't read the stories to hear about Watson! Despite a few clinkers, this is a pretty good book -- but I wish it had been available in paperback!

My comments are organized by author, rather than in order of appearance. For some of the best stories, I haven't said much, since they're hard to praise without giving away pieces of the plot.

Two of the stories tackle the same theme: the person who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley begins having ghostly visitations and consults Holmes. (A priori, they're not ghosts but something else, so that Holmes works out how the trick was done.) Crider's version of the story strikes me as being the stronger of the two.

Breen, Jon L. "The Adventure of the Canine Ventriloquist" - A VERY long-winded client (a professional writer customarily paid by the word) is the victim of either supernatural events, or a tortuous scheme of persecution. Unfortunately, the client blathers on SO long when engaging Holmes that I lost interest, despite Watson's (unspoken and derogatory) opinions of professional vs. amateur writers.

Crider, Bill "The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts" - One of two variations on a theme; this one seems the stronger of the two. Franklin Scrooge, who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley, has begun having experiences like those of his uncle 40 years before. His description of Scrooge's meeting with Marley for the skeptic Holmes and Watson deliberately mimics Dickens' setting of the early scene. S: "Marley was dead. There can be no doubt about that." H: "And how did he die?" (Interesting line of thought, that.) There is a continuity error - Scrooge's great-nephew, as his *sister's* grandson, would not have the same surname - but other than that, the story is well-handled.

DeAndrea, William L. "The Adventure of the Christmas Tree" - Why did someone steal, then return, the tree being shipped from the Duke's Scottish estate while in transit? (The client isn't the Duke, but his forester, who can't rest until the matter is cleared up.)

Douglas, Carole Nelson "The Thief of Twelfth Night" - I recommend this to any fan of Douglas' Irene Adler novels.

Estleman, Loren D. "The Adventure of the Three Ghosts" - Lord Chislehurst (born "Tiny" Tim Cratchit) acquired Scrooge's old firm a decade ago, when Scrooge's generosity brought it to the brink of ruin. (His business acumen grew as Scrooge's declined, buying him into the Peerage.) Now ghostly visitations have begun appearing to *him*. Weaker than Crider's version; the characters, for one thing, seem less realistic.

Hill, Reginald "The Italian Sherlock Holmes" - At the conclusion of a case in Italy, Holmes suffers a nervous collapse, which keeps him and Watson in Rome over Christmas. A would-be imitator, scraping acquaintance with him, is taught a lesson.

Hoch, Edward D. "The Christmas Client" - Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) is being blackmailed by a fellow mathematics professor - one James Moriarty. Enough to interest Holmes even on Christmas Day...

Linscott, Gillian "A Scandal in Winter" - The only story not narrated by Watson. After a sudden death at the ski resort the previous year, rumor condemned the widow of murder - one Irene MacAvoy. Upon her defiant reappearance this year, two older gentlemen at the resort seek to find out what really happened, by questioning the only witness - the narrator, a child. Stylistically, of course, it isn't like the Holmes canon, but if one doesn't insist on that, it's a rather good story.

Moffat, Gwen "The Adventure in Border Country" Clement Daw's neighbour, Mrs. Aubrey, seeks Holmes' help in discovering what happened to her husband, who went out to the stables on a snowy night and hasn't been seen since. Some of Watson's commentary regarding Mrs. Aubrey's family may seem rather disturbing, incidentally.

Paul, Barbara "The Sleuth of Christmas Past" At first, this story may remind the reader of 'The Solitary Cyclist': high praise, to sound like Doyle's original. The death of Amy Stoddard's father, a spice importer, has left her an heiress, in a modest way, but she hasn't come to Holmes about that; she's familiar with the business, having served as her father's transcriber due to his horrible handwriting. Now some of his old friends are behaving suspiciously, and her fiance may be no better. But who is lying to whom?

Perry, Anne "The Watch Night Bell" - This doesn't have the usual trappings that accompany Perry's Victorian-era detective stories; she's adapted her tone to fit Doyle's work. On this occasion, poor Holmes has to cope with the worst type of female client: a fluffbrained, pretty young woman who can't seem to think straight long enough to get to the point. She fears that her sister may be plotting to murder their father. Some very clever plot twists in this one.

Stroessel, John "The Yuletide Affair" - Lestrade and his merry men, seeking Watson's medical help while Holmes is out on another case, give him a chance to shine on his own. Holmes has only a bit part in this, at the end.

Wheat, Carolyn "The Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet" - A barrister who once persuaded a jury to disregard Holmes' evidence now seeks his help for a client on trial for poisoning her grandfather. Since Holmes appears so long after the event, there's a lot of "tell" as opposed to "show".

Williamson, J. N. "The Adventure of the Man Who Never Laughed" (Contains an entertaining digression about Holmes' proposed image of Father Christmas for the artist Thomas Nast, and another about Charles Fort.) The sister of the title character seeks Holmes' services to find out what's wrong.

Most of these pastiches range from good to very good. And I personally loved "The Yuletide Affair," which is a Watson case. Most of the others were enjoyable also. Unfortunately, two writers decided to incorporate "A Christmas Carol" into their stories which got redundant quickly. "A Scandal in Winter" was also a demerit to this book. If not for those three stories, I would have given five stars instead of four.

If you have ever wondered what a normal day in the life of an amish man or woman consists of, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The chapters are actually articles that were written for a special section in the Holmes County newspaper,specifically dealing with the ways of the Amish. The chapters deal with various customs and traditions of the Amish culture, how the Amish make their living, what a typical Amish School is like, and what is expected from them personally in their church.

This book only touched upon the history of the Amish people,and did not really talk about all their religious beliefs,but after reading it,I do feel like I have a better understanding of this culture. I found this book full of detail when it came down to the every day life of the Amish people.I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the Amish culture.

After enjoying "Holmes for the Holidays", I was glad that the editors were putting out a second volume of Christmas stories involving Holmes and Watson. Some of the writings in this book were better than those in the first version, and some weren't that great. One of my favorites was "The Adventure of the Second Violet"--I thought it was very clever!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's acquired disdain for his own renowned detective creation is legendary, and 'tis said that when William Gillette wired him with the question, "May I marry Holmes?" (to a female character), Conan Doyle brusquely replied, "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him."

But one must draw the line somewhere. And notwithstanding Mollie Hardwick's excellent paean to the legend of Sherlock Holmes at the head of this collection of short stories, I wonder whether even Conan Doyle could have stomached some of these literary assaults upon it.

In "Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin", Dorothy Hughes presents us with a feminist Holmes and Watson who look forward to the day when women become doctors and scientists. Another swig of Women 100 Proof and Ms. Hughes would have had them lobbying from their 19th century perches for abortion on demand, free daycare, and a chocolate bar in the glove compartment of every SUV, a bottle of prozac in the pocket of every power suit.

And even THIS atrocity barely holds its own, as an atrocity, against the contemporary setting of Joyce Harrington's "The Adventure of the Gowanus Abduction", in which a delicate hippie-type Watson plays second fiddle to a ferocious liberated female Holmes - not only as "her" assistant but as "her " lover. Indeed, the story winds up with a broad hint of a rendezvous in the bedroom, but I think that this Watson will couple with this Holmes about as successfully as Tchaikovsky did with Antonina Milyukova.

This book also has its share of short stories that do considerably more justice to the Sherlockian tradition, and the best of these are Barry Jones's "The Shadows on the Lawn", Edward D. Hoch's "The Return of the Speckled Band", and Stuart Kaminsky's "The Final Toast". The Jones story, in particular, is very chilling.

But John Lutz's "The Infernal Machine" also deserves credit for craft and subtlety. The threat of an international conflagration and the new concept of the "horseless carriage" are crucial to the resolution of this story, and there's a passage in it where a young inventor asserts that in ten years, everyone in England will drive a horseless carriage. "Everyone?" Watson asks. "Come now!"

Holmes laughs and says, "Not you, Watson, not you, I'd wager."

How many readers realize that Lutz is paying homage to the last story in the Conan Doyle concordance, "His Last Bow", set on the eve of the first World War, in which Watson does indeed drive an automobile, in the guise of a chauffeur? Not many, I'd wager.

It must have taken a lot of commendable restraint for Lutz to simply rely on his readers' perspicacity and to resist the sore temptation of finding a way to directly point to the Conan Doyle story.

For that matter, Malcom Bell, the villain in the Kaminsky story, may be based upon Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle's medical instructors, who is said to have been the chief inspiration for Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes.

Stephen King's contribution might be the cleverest, if not the best written. He apparently wrote his own Sherlock Holmes story in response to a challenge from the editors, but King's normal writing style doesn't quite click with the sober Watsonian chronicling presented by Conan Doyle.

And King is usually a good researcher, but this skill fails him on at least two occasions. He presents us with several images from the Victorian Era that Conan Doyle withheld from delicate sensibilities, including orphans losing all the teeth out of their jaws in sulphur factories by the age of ten and cruel boys in the East End teasing starving dogs with food held out of reach.

But the authentic Sherlock Holmes, having learned that Jory Hull was a painter and having deduced that he had no need of monetary support from his cruel father, would have further deduced - without asking Lestrade - that Jory probably gained his independence by painting professionally.

And the authentic Holmes, as Watson says in the Conan Doyle classic, "A Study in Scarlet", has a good practical knowledge of British law. Stephen King is surely wrong to have Holmes ask Lestrade what sort of treatment the murder suspects might expect to receive under it.

Still, we must be grateful to King for bringing to our attention the one case in the lexicon where Watson actually solves the mystery before Holmes does - and yes, it happens in a plausible manner. As Loren Estleman has pointed out, Holmes's brilliance wouldn't be appreciated by us as much if it were not for the buffer provided by the savvy but unremarkable earnestness of Watson's narrative. We admire Holmes, but we empathize more with his Boswell, and it's wonderful to learn of a case in which Watson has his moment in the sunlight.

This collection has its share of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the just plain silly (Peter Lovesey's "The Curious Computer"). The reader is advised to judge each story on its own merits. Don't be too impressed with Dame Jean Conan Doyle's endorsement of the volume as a whole. But do ask, as another renowned English author once did, "What's in a name?"

"The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" was like a breath of fresh air. Lately I have come across some anthologies which just aren't up to par as far as the quality of the plots. These stories I found to be entertaining and fun to read. Two which stood out for me were "Shadows on the Lawn" and "The Return of the Speckled Band". There's even a story in there for Watson lovers, "The Doctor's Case", penned by none other than Stephen King. Though there were a few which I didn't really care for, this is a worthwhile read.

I love anything about Holmes and Watson. These were well written stories that I truly enjoyed reading. It took me back to when I read all of Doyle's stories about Holmes and Watson. I recommend it highly.

Whereas I am always greateful when new Holmes stories are released, particularly in anthology form, and as long as they do not deal with utterly bizarre places or events, I found that these stories were rather lack-luster. Within the first three days I had the book, I read through five pieces, none of which were as remarkable as I hoped they would be. The usual contributors are here, and one can usually expect outstanding entries by Loren D. Estleman and Edward B. Hoch, but here their stories are as flat as the rest. Hopefully in their next effort, the writers will write more engaging tales.

I went ahead and invested in this follow-up to last year's "Murder in Baker Street", hoping that the stories would be better. Well, they weren't. The tales are just flat and unexciting. What happened to the good stories some of these authors used to contribute to previous anthologies? Out of this batch, maybe two are worth reading. Other than that, I would recommend saving $$ and renting it from the library.