The Adventure of The Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer

Nicholas Meyer's latest Sherlock Holmes novel feels less like a Detective novel and more like spy/political thriller, but I am impressed by his ability to still craft a full-length Holmes novel at more-or-less the same length as the novels by the characters' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Very few authors penning these "pastiche" adventures are able to accomplish this feat; the results are often a 320-page "brick" or longer, depending on the format size of the font.

He's also light on gimmicks. There's a lot of footnotes & self-aware framing sequence business in which Meyer inserts himself as a character, cobbling together a manuscript based upon pages of notes chronicling an unknown adventure within a battered notebook purportedly belonging by Dr. Watson, though all of Meyer's Holmes pastiches follow the same rules: each book is based on some newly-discovered material, which Meyer sets about to make presentable.

Protocols is Meyer's fourth Holmes novel. His first, The Seven Per-Cent Solution, is his most-successful and best-known effort; it was adapted into a successful film starring Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall and Alan Arkin. It told an alternate history of Sherlock Holmes seeking help from Sigmund Freud to eliminate his drug addiction; his casual use of cocaine (referenced several times in the original stories) had made him drug-addled and corrupted his memories of a past childhood tragedy: his mother was caught having an affair with Holmes' mathematics tutor, Professor Moriarty, and in a jealous rage, Holmes' father killed her, while Moriarty snuck out like a thief in the night...and young Sherlock Holmes - who was only a little boy at the time - saw it all. The appeal came from Meyer's witty efforts to psychoanalyze Sherlock Holmes by teaming him up with the most-famous analyst of all, who needed to be a better detective than Holmes in order to get to the root of the problem.

My personal favorite of Meyer's Holmes novels is The Canary Trainer, which Holmes narrates himself (something Doyle attempted in two of his short stories: "The Blanched Soldier" and "The Lion's Mane") and attempts to retell The Phantom of The Opera with Irene Adler as the diva-damsal and Holmes as the hero. There's no puzzle here, either, but it's a lot of fun. 

"Protocols" has fun moments, but it is weighed down by the fact that this is basically about Holmes' encounter with real-life evil and realizing that his best efforts won't lead to a happy ending. We're warned early on that this is a story of failure, so we're reading this book for the air of maturity that we wouldn't get from tacky Sherlock Holmes stories where he's fighting Dracula or Martians..and I think that's what inspired Meyer to write it.

A recurring element of Meyer's Holmes novels is he will feature historical figures in key supporting roles. The one who gets the most to do is civil rights activist Anna Strunsky-Walling, who is reimagined by Meyer as an adventuresome woman in the same mold as "The woman", Irene Adler, but her pictures indicate her to be more of a scholarly-type:

Maybe Meyer fancies her; the picture doesn't quite match his prose; in my mind, as I read all the scenes with her teaming up with Holmes & Watson in Russia, I kept picturing actress Emmy Rossum, with red hair and a twinkle in her eyes:

        Yeah, that's more like it.

 So, all in all, not bad; more a fact-finding mission than a puzzle, more Dan Brown than Arthur Conan Doyle, but entertaining and well done. Meyer's got another book coming out this year - I'll check it out.

   Sherlock Holmes will return in..

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight

In terms of style and execution, this direct-to-DVD/Blu-Ray Batman isn't really different from the other direct-to-DVD/Blu-Ray Batman movies Warner Brothers Animation has been cranking out, lately. The same murky color palette, the same pacing issues...the faux-anime look to the designs and animation. I don't think it's particularly ground-breaking, kinda slow along the middle, but I wouldn't mind re-watching it.

Why adapt Gotham By Gaslight? I remember fans would say that graphic novel is the greatest Batman story told, better than The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One! I'm not sure if there's much analysis on the internet devoted to explaining that opinion, but here's my guess: to a generation or two who read Batman comics, Batman is Sherlock Holmes. There are many Sherlock Holmes pastiches depicting his efforts to identify Jack the Ripper, so having Batman solve that mystery is a treat. Ignore the fact that Gotham By Gaslight in an alternate reality and you have an archetypal Batman story  in which he solves the biggest unsolved true crime mystery ever recorded and you could understand the magnitude of the tale. No mutants, no killer clowns, no sideshow dwarves, no gangsters. We're just following Batman/Bruce use his brain.

The team behind these movies have been getting a lot of flack over their adaptations being too faithful & leaden; conversely, when they've tried to tell an original story ( Batman and Harley Quinn, a film I liked, but try finding positive reviews ), it's declared a piece of excrement. To date, the most-popular of these films is Batman: Under The Red Hood, which explains why they brought back Bruce Greenwood to voice Batman in Gaslight, rather than, say, Jason O'Mara, who's become their go-to for voicing Batman in these movies, moreso than fan-favorite Kevin Conroy. My opinion of Greenwood's Batman is that he doesn't sound different from O'Mara, but comes off less bland; I'm surprised they don't try casting Diedrich Bader more often if they're not casting Conroy.

Another thing they did was loosen the plot and change the characters in order to include more of the Batman mythos. Selina Kyle, Hugo Strange, Harvey Dent, "Dick", "Tim" and "Jason". They incorporated elements of Master of The Future, the sequel set at The World's Fair exhibition  ( just imagine a gentrified Epcot Center if you're not familiar with that and you'll picture it better ) to include more action scenes. Plus, they clearly wanted steampunk stuff sprinkled in, so we get a bat-motorcycle and bat-grapple thrown in. Those were neat. I also liked how the fight scenes didn't use martial arts much, so that makes the fight choreography less...recycled/generic. Without listening to the commentary, I am aware of plot points recycled from past Batman films - the scene where Bruce evades the Gotham police and hitches a ride with Selina Kyle in her hansom cab is a recreation of a scene in Mask of The Phantasm..up until the part where they're pretending to be making out in the cab to hide his injuries when the cops inspect it, that is.

That's a good key to understanding what I what I'm watching..this was, essentially, an R-rated "Batman: The Animated Series" movie set in a different time period, with a final twist that I'd rather let Wikipedia reveal, but I will say was pretty cool..better than having a counterpart to the Joker show up..ironic, because there is a character in the original graphic novel set up as such, but as a red herring. I wouldn't mind a sequel..probably with a little more detective work and humor next time.

Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" At 30

I remember watching The Great Mouse Detective when it premiered when I was a kid. For those who haven't seen it, this Disney animated film from 1986 is about a mouse named Basil who lives in a mousehole at 221B Baker Street in London - the home address of Sherlock Holmes. Basil is an anthropomorphic cartoon mouse who solves mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. He even has a sidekick - Dr. Dawson - who is the anthropomorphic cartoon mouse counterpart to Dr. Watson. Basil's archfoe is Professor Ratigan (voiced by horror icon Vincent Price), who is the anthropomorphic cartoon rat counterpart to Professor Moriarty. The film is excellent. It's still available in stores as part of a Blu Ray-DVD combo pack, so I highly recommend that you see it.

And...you might want to check out the children's book series of novels that inspired the film. Eve Titus created Basil, Dawson and Ratigan. She wrote five books in all, beginning with Basil of Baker Street, which I remember was brought back in print to coincide with the release of the film. I remember thinking that I didn't enjoy Paul Galdone's illustrations because the characters looked too much like real mice, whereas the Disney version reimagines the cast as pure cartoon characters. Cut to 2016, the 5 books are back in print, with new cover illustrations by artist David Mottram - these I like! Basil and Dr. Dawson have a bit of a Chuck Jones style to them...a literary Hubie & Bertie, ready to meet the cricket in Times Square  (if you got that reference..thank you)..or a wizened Pixie & Dixie. Unfortunately, they didn't have Mottram contribute new interior illustrations, so you get to stare and compare with Galdone's stuff.

As for the stories..I got a confession to make: this month will mark my first time reading the books. I remember owning the reprint of Basil of Baker Street that had the Disney version of the mouse on the cover, but being put-off by the Galdone drawings and the fact that the story had little to nothing in common with the plot of the film. You won't find prose/illustrations of balloon races across the Thames, no escapes from Rube Goldberg-esque deathtraps or clock tower showdowns or bats with peg-legs. Ratigan isn't in it - he appears in the 2nd book! You will find a similar scene of Basil deducing a location by analyzing a piece of paper, along with the disguises Basil and Dawson wore in the film. The book's plot is about Angela and Agatha - two little girl mice twins who are kidnapped by a group of mice called "The Terrible Three". Angela and Agatha have little to do, but are the likely inspiration for the character of Olivia Flaversham from the movie.

I did enjoy the book now because I appreciated reading a new story with these characters and I've got four more to go. I'm curious as to why Disney never thought of cranking out some direct-to-DVD sequels during their "cranking-our-some-direct-to-DVD-sequels-of-our-movies" phase, but there was material there. Plus, in the wake of Geronimo Stilton and Sherlock, these books seem perfect for a chance at being rediscovered by new readers.

One notable difference in the books from the film that's never addressed is the idea of anthropomorphic animals co-existing with humans in secret communities/colonies that escape the humans notice. Basil gathers a group to live in the basement at 221B Baker Street and forms Holmestead, a literal mousetown with houses and shops..kind of like the Aardman movie Flushed Away..or the "city" scenes in A Bug's Life...this might've been the forerunner to that kind of thing.

I'm about to read about Basil and The Cave of Cats..pygmy cats, huh? This would make a cool idea for a CG sequel..

One last memory: does anyone besides my old 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Vogel, pronounce "Basil" like "Bay-zil"? Y'know - like the herb? Or "Bah-zil", as in "Basil Rathone" or "St. Basil"? I remember when I ordered Basil of Baker Street via Troll - the school book order catalog. The books for the students would be delivered to the respective classrooms, then the teacher would sort out who ordered which books. She insisted that Basil's name was pronounced Bay-zil. It was a losing argument: she wasn't going to see the film, but she had to be right, because it was her classroom, so this cartoon mouse was clearly named after an herb she owned in her spice rack...

In retrospect, her intelligence was...elementary.

5 Questions With...Joseph Adorno

The following questions came from David Rachels' blog, Noirboiled Notes (http://www.noirboiled.blogspot.com) I thought it would be fun to answer them; it's a recurring feature on his blog, where he sometimes posts interviews with contemporary mystery/crime fiction writers. I noticed I was able to answer some of them..

1. What's the first crime novel that you remember reading?

Encyclopedia Brown and The Case of The Mysterious Handprints. That was the first one, though if you find it too "kiddie", The Maltese Falcon was the 1st "adult/mature" crime novel I read...but I remember seeing the film first before reading the book, so I personally don't feel like counting it. The Murder At The Vicarage, then.

2. (Dashiell) Hammett or (Raymond) Chandler?

Hammett. Five novels, neither one alike. Each had something new to say. Chandler...I like Philip Marlowe, but I don't like the books..they're too formulaic to me. He rewrote The Big Sleep an additional six times. My favorite scenes in The Long Goodbye are not in the book - they're in the Robert Altman film adaptation - where Marlowe tries to seek a particular brand of cat food for his pet cat in the middle of the night, then in the end, when he shoots Terry Lennox. He thought the cat was his friend; he thought Terry was his friend; they turned on him, like he was a loser, yet he was the only one who cared about either. Meanwhile, in the books...Chandler's prose would have you think he could type 150 pages of scenes describing furnishings and call it a "novel".

3. If forced to choose, would you want Sherlock Holmes or Philip Marlowe to save your life?

Holmes. Marlowe's no fool, but he's always the last to figure out everything! As a detective, he's perceptive in small ways; he can solve the puzzle, but only after the bodies have piled up. Everyone is one step ahead of him..even the shady asshat cops that always give him a hard time and do nothing to help are one step ahead of him! Like I said earlier, I like Marlowe, but Chandler liked him as a noble sap.

4. If you were stuck on a desert island, which crime novelist's complete works would you choose to take with you?

Agatha Christie. There's a lot I have yet read. I would stack neat piles resembling furniture and point to a book like Taken At The Flood and say, "I'm going to give you another chance!"..That was the one Poirot novel that I could never get through..something dull about it...like it was written just as she was making Ms. Marple's appearances more frequent and was about to write fewer Poirot books. When he does appear in later novels, he's usually accompanied by Ariadne Oliver, a mystery writer who was a caricature of Christie's public persona as a mystery writer.

5. Any novel by Chandler you can recommend?

Pfft! ...actually, I think I have an interest in Poodle Springs that I could never shake off. He only wrote the first four chapters before he croaked; it's the work of a dying man - a crusty Philip Marlowe realizing that he's just gotten married to a vapid socialite that proposed marriage to him over the phone; it's strongly hinted that he had taken it at a week moment, when he was feeling his age, taking stock of his lonely existence...and now he realizes he doesn't want to be Nick Charles. It's was a spoof of Hammett's The Thin Man, basically. Enter writer Robert B. Parker with Chapter 5's "I finally found an office." and you realize the rest of the novel is going to eschew the Thin Man riff in favor of another Big Sleep pastiche, this time with Marlowe acting more like Spenser, For Hire...

Or I could recommend The High Window.

Wayne of Gotham by Tracy Hickman

Gardner Fox is credited with writing the origin of Batman. In 1956, Bill Finger, the co-creator of Batman, wrote "The First Batman", a soft retcon of the origin, revealing that Bruce Wayne's inspiration for the act of dressing up like a bat was subconciously influenced by his memory of a costume worn by his father, Thomas Wayne, at a party held at Wayne Manor.

This story has been retold several times, with subtle variations. Sometimes new characters are added, the costume worn at the party is redesigned or substituted with another ( in Ed Brubaker & Scott McDaniel's retelling, Thomas wore a Zorro costume ), and in the excellent episode of Batman: The Brave And The Bold, "Chill of The Night!", Batman himself attends the party and assists Thomas, but the outcome is the same: an attempted robbery by a gang of party crashers is foiled by a man in a batsuit. Wayne of Gotham is essentially a retelling of this story, which author Hickman uses as a vehicle to showcase the relationship between Thomas & Martha Wayne and presents a convincing portrayal of what their lives were like as young adults amidst Gotham City's social scene, as well as fleshing out the story of Lew Moxxon, the gangster who played a key role in Finger's tale. I think Finger was trying to revise Fox's origin story to suit how he saw Batman, which is why he would retcon the death of the Wayne's as a mob hit on Thomas orchestrated by Moxxon, as opposed to a random mugging by Joe Chill, who was also retconned by Finger as a hitman who panicked and killed Martha as well.

In Wayne of Gotham, the twist is that Thomas wasn't wearing the bat costume that evening: a new character, Denholm Sinclair, drug-addled vigilante friend of the Waynes gone mad after force-fed a mind-controlling cocktail drug by an ex-Nazi scientist whom Thomas was unwittingly assisting, becomes the catalyst in Hickman's storyline, which jumps backwards and forwards to present-day Gotham, where the repercussions of the events from that night are felt by Batman, who discovers that the mind-control drug is now being used on members of his rogues gallery to make them puppets in an elaborate revenge scheme, where the mastermind knows Bruce is Batman. The overarching theme is similar in execution to Archie Goodwin, James Robinson & Marshall Rogers' "Siege" story from Legends of The Dark Knight. That tale suffered from having a dull villain who was defeated easily; Wayne of Gotham also has a dullard unveiled as the brain behind the curtain at it's denouement, but Hickman was wise enough to pepper the book with Batman's classic rogues gallery to give it some snap - Joker in particular.

There are also easter eggs. Thomas Wayne drives a Lincoln Futura prototype - the car that became the template for the 1966 Batman batmobile. And then there's the status quo in which Hickman sets the book. This is the element of the novel that stayed with me long after I had finished it..it's a mashup of various alternate futures for Bruce Wayne as Batman. Hickman's Wayne is older, working solo ( all the "Bat-Family" members/sidekicks/allies are conspicuously absent, save for Alfred Pennyworth, who is portrayed as being more agile and active than you would think he should be), cultivating a public image of a Howard Hughes/Charles Foster Kane-esque eccentric recluse, while trying out a new hi-tech, strength-enhancing Batsuit that sounds like a precursor to the Batman Beyond batsuit. I dug up any pictures I could find around the net that would complement what I was picturing. Not since the prologue to the 1st episode of Batman Beyond - with gray-haired Bruce Wayne having a heart attack while attempting to save the daughter of his old girlfriend Veronica Vreeland - have I been intrigued about reading another "old Batman" story. This isn't a bad book - it's well-written, but I think Hickman could've gotten away with less - a character story about Batman keeping up with the times while becoming more aware of his mortality - there's a Batman novel for you...NOT like The Dark Knight Returns, but more like the plot to Mr. Holmes, the Sherlock Holmes film starring Ian McKellen, which was a very good movie, by the way. A Mr. Holmes-esque Batman film/novel would be interesting...or maybe this was it..

A Summer of Sherlock: "Sherlock Holmes: The Titanic Tragedy" by William Seil

Encapsulate the plot in one sentence?

Aiming to carry out a secret mission in America, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson unwittingly board the Titanic on it's sole voyage in 1912.

When was this published?

1996. The edition I'm reviewing is the 2012 reprint by Titan Books, as part of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of original "pastiche" novels.

What's your verdict?

The novel is set before the World War One adventure His Last Bow. It features a Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson who are in their 60s, aware of their celebrity status and entering the twentieth century.  In other words, this book is a lot like the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce ( although the Watson in this book was definitely Edward Hardwicke from the 80s series with Jeremy Brett ). In fact, I could imagine a film of this made in the early 60s,  with Rathbone as Sherlock,  John Williams ( replacing Nigel Bruce,  who passed away the decade before ) as Watson, David Niven as Colonel James Moriarty, Paula Prentiss as Christine Norton, Pamela Tiffin as Holly Storm-Fleming...and Peter Sellers as Jacques Futrelle. Directed by Clive Donner.  Of those names, Tiffin as Fleming popped into my head whenever I read her dialogue;  she's the most-interesting of the characters Seil created for this story. And while Futrelle in real life looked more like the DNA hybrid clone of Peter Lorre & Paul Sorvino than Peter Sellers, I could just imagine the sight of Sellers wearing pince-nez glasses and mangling an American accent portraying the one-hit-wonder mystery writer who went down with the ship.

The plot? Stolen submarine plans...daughter of Irene Adler teams up with Holmes and Watson...dizzy groupie ( Holly Storm-Fleming ) is carrying a secret...Professor Moriarty's brother is onboard...actually,  this "Holmes on a boat" stuff reminded me of Pursuit To Algiers, one of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Rathbone and Bruce, only this time, the ship is the TITANIC, which is featured here like an exotic location that enhances things. There's little real Sherlockian detection on display, though he does spend most of the book disguised as a veteran seaman, so Holmes penchant for disguises is fully displayed. 

And then there's that boat...this book was published just one year before James Cameron's film about the ship took over the pop culture consciousness, so, yes, it is tempting to imagine this book and that film as Rosencrantz and Guildestern Are Dead -esque scenarios, with Holmes wrestling Moriarty on one area of the sinking ship while Jack & Rose are running from Billy Zane on the other, combined with Jacques Futrelle enjoying a conversation with John Jacob Astor while his wife May looks on from the departing lifeboat ( that does not occur in the book, but it is May Futrelle's real-life account of the last moments she saw her husband before he went down with the ship)..the final quarter is the real highlight/draw of the book- an account of the sinking and evacuation of the ship from Watson's point of view - and it's well done. It's actually more convincing than the Cameron film because Seil manages to avoid turning it into an action/disaster film, which is what the movie tried and failed to avoid becoming, because those sequences contrast too sharply with the rest of the picture.

Which scenes in the book will stay with you?

Oddly, there's a scene were Seil has Futrelle recap The Problem of Cell 13, the story he is best-known for...it's actually very silly, but it was considered a rival to Doyle's detective stories at the time. Then there's every scene with Holly. She was a terrific character that got the book moving whenever she turned up. Definitely Pamela Tiffin.

Will you be keeping this book?

Yes. While I do wish the more fanciful characters (Moriarty and Christine) had been more interesting...and the detective work was not as marginal as it was...it was still interesting and had a good ending.

Give us a good quote.

Of course.  Check out the gallery below.

***

That completes the "Summer of Sherlock". I hoped you enjoyed the books I chose - or at least enjoyed my reviews of them! I might do this again next Summer - if not with Sherlock Holmes books, then perhaps a different character, one with a series that I can pick and choose entries from. James Bond novels? Jack Ryan novels? Star Wars novels? So-called "Young Adult Dystopian" fiction? Eh...that last selection would be an act of courage...I would want to get paid for that.

A Summer of Sherlock: "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes" by Loren D. Estleman

Encapsulate the plot in one sentence?

Sherlock Holmes becomes obsessed with learning why "highly respectable" scientist Henry Jekyll revised his will, bequeathing his entire estate to "the immoral, debauched" and violent Mr. Edward Hyde...

When was this book published?

This is a 2010 Titan Books reprint of the 1979 original,  as part of their The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of Sherlock Holmes novels by other authors.

What's your verdict?

It's a series of cat and mouse games. The only suspense is waiting for Sherlock to deduce the link between Dr. Jekyll and Mr.  Hyde;  when he does, you might wonder (as I did), why didn't he make that intuitive leap in logic sooner? Especially since the most obvious path of investigation is Dr. Jekyll's personal life and career, which Holmes does not do until the last 1/3 of the book. He spends the first 2/3 following Hyde aimlessly through London.

As with Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, Estleman's novel is retelling the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel from the point of view of a Sherlock Holmes adventure,  but whereas the Dracula tale served as a subplot to Bram Stoker's novel, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes is an alternate retelling of the story, with a different ending. And whereas the Dracula mashup was a quasi-suspense thriller with some light detective work (or merely examples of a detective thinking through), I think Estleman wanted Hyde to be more archtypical like Professor Moriarty or Jack the Ripper - building up an antagonistic relationship with Sherlock that leads to an explosive confrontation.  It doesn't work. Edward Hyde is not as interesting as Moriarty,  though ironically, Dr. Jekyll is very interesting and the scenes featuring him are very sharp. It makes sense that it is he and not Hyde who figures in the book's climactic scene, which is unfortunate, because we get a lot more pages centered around cat and mouse games with Hyde. That's not saying Hyde can't be interesting - Alan Moore made him a vaguely sympathetic anti-hero in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - but Estleman's portrayal reminds me of Danny Devito as The Penguin in Batman Returns: short, nasty, crude and mean. That image might help get through this if I felt like rereading it someday...would anyone care to see an adaptation of Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jekyll and Devito as Hyde? Or maybe that's just me...

Which scenes will stay with you?

The final showdown between Holmes and Doctor Jekyll does not disappoint. I also liked the afterward by the author,  in which he talks about how this book wasn't popular with Hollywood film executives who enjoyed Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, but accused this book of being "too cerebral". Isn't calling a Sherlock Holmes adventure "too cerebral" a compliment? 

The final book in this Summer of Sherlock reading challenge for August will be Sherlock Holmes and The Titanic Tragedy...Sherlock Holmes novels tend to appear like dour reads sometimes (and there are MANY awful pastiches out there) but turn out to be quite light..maybe it's an effect  of the titles.

Give us a good quote.

Sure. Check out the gallery below.