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Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag, Watson.
Review: Here we have 5 Holmes pastiches, clocking in at a total of 174 pages, a bit more substantial than the usual Breese Holmes volumes. First, the good features: the stories are fairly well told, and there is a lot of authentic-seeming local color--- cricket in 1896, Aussies vs. medical students; Sligo in Ireland, with a walkon by W. B. Yeats; the tourist charms of Glastonbury; Osea near Maldon, in Essex.Holmes and Watson are... well... ok, but a lot of the dialogue lacks a period sound. The plots are not always up to snuff, either. For example "The Strange Affair at Glastonbury" is quite literally a pastiche, awkwardly combining elements of "The Redheaded League" and "The Musgrave Ritual." The author also has an annoying stylistic defect, which appears in Watson's narrative and in all the dialogue, no matter who is speaking: broken sentences. Did the timid Harold Norman really witness a murder at Tandridge Hall, even though Sir George Simon and his staff stoutly deny it? Did Stamford die in the attempt to steal a priceless painting of Lord Sheffield's--- or did he die while attempting to stop the the thief? Why is an Irish doctor continually waylaid and assaulted, when he carries nothing of value and has no enemies? Why is Glastonbury beset by strange pranks each of which must have taken all night to perpetrate? Can Holmes solve a possible murder with the only clue being the voice of the victim as recorded on an early Edison phonograph? In the majority of these cases, I think you'll enjoy finding out.
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