question question question! and assistance

[seperis]

Okay, so say I suddenly had a burning desire to read Sherlock Holmes (thanks marycrawford). Other than Sir Conan Doyle, what are your recommendations? I've read on and off for years, but I'm thinking a concentrated hit would be nice right now.

Comments

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

The Seven Percent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer

[daraq.livejournal.com]

The Beekeepers Apprentice (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0553381520/sr=8-1/qid=1175783627/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-9697423-4606440?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1175783627&sr=8-1) by Laurie R. King is lovely, and the first book in a Sherlock Holmes series.

[mindyfromohio.livejournal.com]

Absolutely you should hit nekosmuse up -- she just finished reading *everything* and doing a slash-goggle Commentary of Great Length for all of it.

[(Anonymous)]

_The Beekeeper's Apprentice_ by Laurie R. King--the first in her marvelous series narrated by Mary Russell.

[graycastle.livejournal.com]

you must read all the Conan Doyle stories and the novellas first! but you are allowed to skip The Sign of Four, because it sucks and is all about Mormons again for some bizarre reason.

but, once you've done that, you should runnotwalk to get Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, which is set after WWII (with a very elderly Holmes). It is simply breathtaking, that book.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

LAURIE R. KING!! Laurie R. King. Laurie R. King LAURIE R. KINGLaurie R. King Laurie R. King Laurie R. King Laurie R. King. Yes. Her.

Start with The Beekeeper's Apprentice

I like her.

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

If you want to see what's new in the fandom, stop at Lyrastar's page first. Lyrastar's H/W recs and links page is a major work of love for the fandom and fen. She does a super job of keeping current with a huge variety of websites, lists, LJs and assorted other resources. Lyrastar's links have saved me a mind-boggling amount of search time by keeping her links current and staying on top of what's happening across various platforms. ABSOLUTELY THE FIRST, BEST STOP for any H/W fan. I love this collection passionately.
http://liquidfic.net/Holmes_Watson.html

Though Sacrilege! hasn't been updated in several years, it still has some of the best Sherlock Holmes fan fiction around.
http://www.hwslash.net/sacrilege.html

Brancher, Irene Adler, Jin Katkin, Emily Veinglory, and Miss Roylott, aka Cress are amongst my favorites on Sacrilege!

Highly Improbable is a new (2006) Holmes/Watson slash archive:
http://excessant.com/HI/index.htm

Briarbrae is an excellent, wide-ranging Holmesian slash site with lots of fiction links.
http://www.harperspenny.net/briarbrae/index.html

Cox & Co is one Sherlock Holmes slash LJ community:
http://community.livejournal.com/cox_and_co/

221B Baker Street is the gen Sherlock Holmes LJ community:
http://community.livejournal.com/221b_bakerst/

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

Laurie King, Carole Nelson Douglas (the main character is Irene Adler, but Holmes shows up later and Irene and her friend solve Holmesian-style mysteries in the meantime), David Pirie (awesome), Nicholas Meyer (awesome, especially the second book), and Neil Gaiman has a short story online somewhere ("A Study in Emerald" maybe? I think?)

Also "Lestrade and the Ripper" by I forgot the author's name. The real version of Lestrade investigates Jack the Ripper. Also great for Ripperologists because he goes into a lot of the theories they were working on at the time. And it's incredibly funny.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

_The Last Sherlock Holmes Story_ by Michael Dibdin.

"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman

_The West End Horror_ by Nick Meyer (frankly, ANY Holmes by Nick Meyer is worth it, tho I haven't read _The Canary Trainer_ yet so that one I can't vet).

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

'The Seven Per Cent Solution', by, um - oh, that's Nicholas Meyer. People have already recced that. Well, it's hilarious. Wait, he's written more? Huh.

If you're looking for fic, somniesperus has written some very good, very tense and understated Holmes/Watson fic without any damned moustache sex, which is on her site, linked from her LJ.

[cjandre.livejournal.com]

Not a book, but if you can get hold of it, you should watch it. I don't think you could get it on DVD, but someone might have a copy to download someplace: Sherlock Holmes: The strange case of Alice Faulkner (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163227/).

This is a TV broadcast of the play done on stage, with Frank Langella playing Holmes. I remember that I loved it when it came out and watched it several times on HBO. It's an interesting take on Holmes - all the more because it was written by someone else while Doyle was alive. Of course it was done with his permission, but it does have an interesting hint of fanfic to it.

:-)