John Gielgud as Holmes! Orson Welles as Moriarty! How could a Holmes lover resist buying this collection? I spent six pleasant hours reliving the Holmes saga. I went with Holmes and Watson from the foggy streets of London to the English countryside to the Reichenbach Falls where Holmes and Moriarty fought their last battle. Radio plays stimulate the mind to a a degree that television never can, and these stories served up mental stimulation of the first order. As good as "A Baker's Street Dozen" is, though, it doesn't quite measure up to the quality of the BBC series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes. Gielgud is undoubtedly the better actor, but Merrison is the better Holmes.

Despite the fact that Gielgud doesn't capture Holmes' energy as well as Merrison, "A Baker's Street Dozen" is superb listening. It would make an excellent addition to any mystery lover's audio library.

One minor quibble: I can't understand why they renamed three of the stories. "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" became "The Blackmailer;" "The Adventure of the Golden Pince Nez" became "The Yoxley Case;" and "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" became "Rare Disease." In each case, Conan Doyle's choice of titles was superior.

I am very pleased with "A Baker's Street Dozen." It is so wonderful to listen to these stories and let the power of your imagination create the scenes described by the many wonderful tales. The only flaw I would like to see the publishers correct is that the stories do not seem to follow a chronological order. The fifth tale, "The Final Problem," is an account of Sherlock Holmes' final adventure. However, you still have 7 more tales to go through! Place these stories in chronological order and you will have a flawless product.

This book is great. Although I didn't compare it overmuch with Dracula, I thought the author was quite clever in weaving the two stories together. There is also an authentic, "Holmesian" feel about the novel that is essential for mysteries of this type.

I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan all my life. I have read all four of the Conan Doyle novels and most of the short stories. I've read numerous Holmes stories and novels by other writers and seen every Holmes film that I have come across. I was predisposed to like "Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery". However, all I can say is that it was a major disappointment.

First of all, let's be clear. Millett can call his main character Sherlock Holmes just as I can call myself the King of France, but saying, or writing, it doesn't make it so. Instead, we have some English imposter who doesn't even have the courage to use the Holmes name most of the time, let alone the Holmes intellect or his flair for observation and deduction. Millett would have been better off to have centered the novel around his own detective creation, Shadwell Rafferty, at least he seems to be who he says he is. Better yet, he should have built the book around his only interesting character, (alleged) villainous, Mary Comstock.

This is a story built, according to its narrator, the Pseudo-Dr. Watson, on coincidences. We all know what coincidences are. They are the last refuge of hack writers. If you don't know how to resolve a problem, have the solution fall conveniently into someone's lap. It's a lot easier than being creative.

Then there is the location of the book. We are asked to believe that Holmes would travel all the way to Minnesota by boat and train on some trivial mission for the King of Sweden. Since the King already has an agent there, this seems far-fetched. Now, I have nothing against stories set in Minnesota being a fan of John Sandford's Prey novels, but this is the third time that Millett has had Holmes make that trek. It just isn't reasonable to believe that Sherlock couldn't find something better to do in London, or Paris, or even beautiful downtown Burbank.

If you are a Holmes fan, I suggest curling up with Conan Doyle or Nicholas Meyer, or, better yet, one of Laurie King's Mary Russell novels. Just don't waste your time with this bit of fluff.

Sending Holmes and Watson to Minnesota, especially for a third time, is a stretch, but the story is good enough to overcome that, if the reader allows.

Millett manages to tell his partly factual mystery through a narrative that's acceptably close to Watsonian style, and makes his character Shadwell Rafferty a believable and pleasant addition to the team.

He is guilty of some overkill with his addition of the character Mary Comstock, whom he paints as being some combination of Professor Moriarty and Irene Adler. As such she can be no more than an obvious contrivance--there's only one Moriarty, and only one Irene Adler (who, as any Sherlockian knows, will always be "The woman" to Holmes). I'd have much rather seen Millett try to use either Moriarty or Adler in their true forms than this strange Comstock composite, which is definitely a mark against the book.

Having said that, I admit I much prefer to see a pastiche author err by addition, as Millett does in this case, than to see one err by grossly reshaping a classic character. Millett avoids this, and we're left with a book that, although untraditonal in setting, can be enjoyed in most of its other features.

I've read all three of Milletts Sherlock in Minnesota and this one was my favourite so far. I enjoy the interface of the refined Victorian detective with the quarks and characters of Minnesota. His stories have become progressively more fun to read. I really enjoy the addition of Rafferty to our crime fighting team.

Here's yet another Sherlockian pastiche off the presses. I buy 'em all, hoping to come across another Sam Siciliano's Angel of the Opera or another Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Or at least a Jan Walker's Singular Case of the Duplicate Holmes, but my advice for you who've arrived to this page and are considering buying this book is "Keep on going. Nothing to see here."

As Holmes pastiches go, this particular book isn't too bad. But neither is it very gripping. It's just sort of...there. Out of the dozen or so installments that I've read in the continuing non-Doyle adventures of the Great Detective, this little outing does little to distinguish itself.

We get no real insight into the Holmesian character, and certainly none into the often-overlooked Watson. (In truth, a lot of the recent pastiches use this duo only as an excuse to introduce other historical or fictional characters that the author is far more interested in investigating.) The antagonists are singularly bland, and the supporting cast is not altogether memorable.

The key cryptographic puzzle is rather intricate, though, so much so that several diagrams are required in order for the reader to make any sense of the whole thing. It's fairly clever.

However, the denouement is just ludicrous and the fulfillment of Holmes' plan requires that everyone involved should unwittingly act out their part by undertaking the most irrational actions. The whole climax feels forced.

My biggest complaint? The villains are threatening Holmes' client from the moment he sets foot in England and wish to prevent him from going to a certain place, when, in fact, they have no evidence that he ever intends to go there, nor that anything he might do would in the slightest way be disadvantageous to them. In fact, as it all turns out, the bad guys have no way of solving a riddle without his assistance in the first place, so they would've been better advised to have duped him into acting on their behalf. But perhaps I quibble.

In any case, it's a quick read for those who absolutely must have a Holmes fix, and the notes at the end of the book are not without interest.

Right up until the end, this is one of the best Holmes pastiches I have read in years. Holmes and Watson are depicted pretty much bang on, there is plenty of authentic local 1895 color in various British Isle locales, and there are some interesting characters for Holmes and Watson to interact with, plus an ancient, secret message for Holmes to decode.

But at the end, things fall apart. First, Holmes' preposterous plan for dealing with the three villains would, in real life, have led to a mass grave covering the bodies of Holmes, Watson, their client, his son, and a number of Baker Street Irregulars! Second, the nature of the "Devil's Grail" itself is a huge, huge letdown. But right up to these final pages, things move along well, and the entertainment value of the proceedings is unquestionable.

I do have one other reservation about the novel, but it is a reservation I have about fully half of the hundred or so novel-length Holmes pastiches I have read over the years. Namely, the villains act exactly contrary to their revealed motivations. They want to find the secret hidden in the ruins of Glastonbury, but they spend half the novel preventing the one man who can find the secret for them from going there! All they have to do is wait until Col. Harden takes his photos, then steal them. But instead they are involved in a hundred pages of nonsensical foolishness to PREVENT Harden from getting the info they need. Then, with Holmes on the case, all they need to do is to wait until Holmes finds the Grail and take it, but insead they interfere constantly for another 70 pages. Of course, the answer to the paradox is that the author could not fill his pages with action unless the villains behaved this way! But I wish more authors would try to find another way to keep the reader's attention besides having the villains act like the Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons throughout the book.

Since I began reading this series, I had occasionally wondered if Penelope "Nell" Huxleigh, sensible parson's daughter and friend to the great Irene Adler, would ever find a special "someone" of her own. Irene, after all, has been happily married to Godfrey since the end of "Good Night, Mr. Holmes" (no spoiler there, as this is revealed in the Holmes version of the tale). I was pleasantly surprised with the nature of the match the author chose to make-- fitting with Nell's background, yet appropriate to her present and future. Quentin is simultaneously able to hold Nell up as an icon of respectability, yet admire her for her present adventures (much as she denies them). And in doing this, he encourages her to see herself more as we, the readers, have come to see her-- competent, practical, and intelligent.

The period references to the "Great Game"-- the ongoing struggle for domination between England and Russia, the two major world powers of the day-- were also detailed and well-written, and added a satisfying texture to Watson's past, as well as adding suspense to the plot. (Those who liked this aspect of the story might also like Margaret Ball's "Flameweaver" and "Changeweaver" novels, though these are historical fantasy rather than mystery.)

Oh, and the mystery itself was pretty good too. :)

I find this book, as others in the series, a delightful addition to the Sherlockian canon. The adventures of Irene Adler loop in and around the known timeline of Sherlock's exploits, and the few tantalizing glimpses we have of the Great Detective keep him very definitely in character, unlike many ham-handed attempts by other authors. I highly recommend the entire series, and can't wait until it moves into the mysterious 2-year hiatus so unsatisfactorily explained by Mr. Holmes after his supposed death.

I have read other supposed Sherlock Holmes take offs, This one succeeds by not recreating Sherlock Holmes but one of the characters from the original series. I enjoyed the female viewpoint and the tidbits of Sherlockian lore she weaves through the adventure. This was the first of the series that I have read, I have just bought the previous two and will spend a couple of great nights reading them. Hope Ms. Douglas bring out more in the series.

I was again reluctant to read this sequel of the "Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon," and the author disappointed me by writing a better novel (exactly as what happened when I read Meyer's "The West End Horror" after "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution").

But let me make this statement here: "The West End Horror" is by far much better than this "Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders."

Again the same rich guy from Minnesota invited Holmes to his home town to investigate some mysterious occurrences in the Ice Palace there ... As if there are no good detectives in America. As long as we are talking nonsense here, why did not he summon Ellery Queen, who is not less intelligent than Holmes, or maybe Colombo (hohohoho).

The story this time had some mystery elements. It was, as a matter of fact, a whodunit. I figured the murderer out from half of the mystery, not because I was abnormally cleaver, but because of a fallacy the murderer inserted. The strange thing is that Millett did not allude to this fallacy, maybe he did not even know that it was there, and maybe I was lucky!

A new character is introduced in this novel, and Irish clever guy by the name Shadwell Rafferty. I'm not so enthusiastic about him, because he does not enrich the world of Sherlock Holmes, and people are more used to one superior detective in the story. After all, this is a pastiche to praise Sherlock Holmes, and no one else.

We reach to the conclusion of the story and the villain who killed every body was apprehended, and then nothing much, the story does not give me the impression I get from Doyle's writings. And I am not going to recommend the book, because I could have done well without reading it.

Larry Millett combines his knowledge of the history of the Twin Cities with a mystery involving Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. So how does it come off? This is one of the better Sherlock Holmes pastiche I have read, and believe me, I've read a LOT of them.

The history lessons I received from reading the book are a definite treat since I visit the Twin Cities several times a year and know the areas talked about. But even if you are not familiar with the Minnesota cities, a map and Millett's detailed descriptions help the reader visualize the cities at the turn of the century.

The Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson characterizations are very good; there are not too many instances where the reader would say "Oh, come on. Holmes would never do that." That is how I judge pastiches.

I thought this story the best of the first three Larry Millett/Sherlock Holmes endeavors.

If you are a fan of the British detective you will want to read this, and the previous Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, as they have the American twist to a great mystery involving Holmes and Watson. If you are from Minnesota and know St. Paul this is the ultimate story involving that city. It is not a story to second guess and the best you can do is when a city location is given is to say "I know where that is !" and you'll forever drive around St. Paul with Watson's eyes. Millett should be proud that he is as accomplished as Arthur Conan Doyle in being able to propagate the Holmes and Watson mystique. This is simply a great book.

There is nothing unusual about another Sherlock Holmes novel - not even one in which the Great Detective is pitted against the best known uncaught criminal of the nineteenth century, Jack the Ripper. Where 'Bloodguilty' varies from the pack is in that the Holmes portion of the book is only about one-half; the rest is taken up with the twentieth century consequences of the actions of the Ripper.

The story revolves around a diary of Dr. Watson kept hidden by the Baker Street Society, who "both guard and insure the immortal continuance of the world's greatest consulting detective and his faithful chronologist, Dr. Watson." The good doctor has specified that this diary not be released until 100 years after the last entry. And now it is time to reveal the truth about Sherlock Holmes and the man who was known as Jack the Ripper...

But, the legacy of the Ripper lives on, and will stop at nothing to prevent the truth getting out.

Fairly well-written, the story doesn't contain too many twists and turns that can't be predicted, but exactly what tack a particular author would take with this kind of story isn't predictable. Raymond Thor produces a creditable effort, but not one that is not necessarily superior to other efforts.

This was one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. I was caught up in it from the first page and couldn't put it down! I just had to find out what was going to happen next. The story is a little terrifiying because it seems so plausible. The author guided me through each chapter with just enough to keep me wanting more. Now that's a great book!

In a great novel, Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper are presented in a most unusual way. The author cleverly forms the foundation of a mystery that spans a 110 year period. The story begins in 1888 and ends in 1998 in the deserts of Southern California where the mystery is finally unraveled. This book kept me on the edge of my seat!

Again, I think it's immoral to borrow this great name if one hasn't the slightest intention to bring it to life. This name means not only the person himself, but also a beloved genre of detective stories and a cherished memory of good old days when they were thriving. One can forgive an awkward imitation, but not most stories in this collection, where the person named Sherlock Holmes is certainly not the best and the wisest man I've ever known.

The basic premise of this book is to have contemporary famous authors write stories in the styles of deceased famous authors ostensibly working from notes of Sherlock Holmes' cases left behind and never written up by Dr. John Watson. With me so far? Good. This book is obviously an experiment and as such it fails overall. Perhaps three of the stories are outstanding, so much so that they measure up to the best of the original canon. Most do not really reflect the styles of the putative authors but that is not always a flaw. The "Hemingway" tale, for instance, is far better written and much more entertaining than anything Papa ever wrote himself. Another flaw, significant to dedicated Sherlockians, is the glaring lack of familiarity with their subject shown by too many of the authors. One wonders if they have read many Sherlock Holmes adventures or at least watched teleplay versions. Two or three of the stories are absolutely excrement and never should have been included in this collection. Outstanding among the latter is the story by "Jack Kerouac." In his introduction, the editor admits that the tale has no relationship whatsoever to Watson's notes on a Holmes case. In attempting to read the first few pages, it becomes patently clear that the story lacks other important elements like a plot, characters, and a purpose for existing. The editor's reasons for including this piece are beyond even the powers of the Master to deduce. Although the premise of the collection is certainly original, it is ultimately unsuccessful and hopefully will not be repeated. Far better to have writers recreate stories in the voices of Watson and Holmes themselves rather than in the false voices of others.

'Resurrected Holmes' is a somewhat convoluted idea well-executed. It is a collection of short Sherlock Holmes stories supposedly written by other well-known authors. In other words, the actual authors who wrote the stories had to write them in the style of the purported authors, who were supposedly endeavouring to write in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Watsonian voice.

Now, that may or may not take your fancy. What is needs to be said is that, by and large, the stories in this volume are of an excellent quality, so even if the literary conceit that is the book's starting point fails to please you, the stories themselves should.

For true Holmes completists, each story is one of the unchronicled stories referred to by Watson in his accounts of Holmes' investigations (with the exception of the final story, which reveals the truth behind 'The Adventure of the Second Stain').

In some cases (for example, 'The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin' and 'The Madness of Colonel Warburton', ascribed to Jack Kerouac and Dashiell Hammett respectively) the voice of the putative author occassionally overwhelms the Holmesian nature and may be a substantial distraction for those reading this book purely as a Sherlock Holmes collection.

However, some of the stories are good enough to warrant the price of admission alone. I particularly enjoyed 'The Adventure of Ricoletti of the Club Foot (and his abominable wife)', notionally written by P.G. Wodehouse, in that it managed to be both a convincing Holes story while also being a comedy of manners that its putative author might well have appreciated.

Marvin Kaye knows his Sherlock Holmes, and this volume plainly displays his (and the contributing authors) deep-felt love and admiration for the Holmesian canon. Recommended.

This collection presents more of the Mutual Broadcasting System's Holmes radio shows from a time after Rathbone and Bruce had left the show, as had writers Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green. Unlike the Simon & Schuster collections of tales from the Bruce/Rathbone era, this collection presents 12 consecutive tales in chronological order of presentation. Also, unlike the Simon & Schuster presentations, this collection dispenses with the pre- and post-story commentary. With the extra tape, they present three, rather than two, stories per cassette.

Every third story is an adaptation of a Conan Doyle story, so the quality of those stories is superb. When Meiser is left to her own devices in writing, she can produce very uneven work. "The Case of the Well Staged Murder" makes for satisfying listening, but "Professor Moriarty and the Diamond Jubilee" is quite contrived, and "New Years Eve in the Scilly Isles" is downright silly. A firebug is seen deserting a ship as it sails out of harbor. The Captain is radioed that the ship will probably go up in smoke at the stroke of twelve on New Years Eve. The lives of 2,000 passengers and crew hang in the balance. So does the Captain turn around and go back to port to unload the passengers and search for the time bombe? Nope. He sails on for 18 hours until he is far at sea and there is only an hour left until midnight. But Holmes arrives in a yacht just in the nick of time. This has my vote for the most contrived Holmes radio pastiche of all times.

John Stanley sounds more like Rathbone than Rathbone, and doesn't muff his lines as often. Alfred Shirley tries manfully, but he cannot quite convey the warmth of Bruce's Watson. The organ music is more subdued and not quite as annoying, but Meiser makes Holmes far too disagreeable. He is the rudest Holmes I have encountered, and very nearly the most conceited. I'm sure that on several occasions, the only thing that prevented Watson from inviting Holmes outside for fisticuffs was the fact that Holmes was an expert amateur boxer.

The 60 page booklet that comes with the collection is a gold mine of information for Holmes afficionados.

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.