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Synopsis
Sherlock Holmes enters the macabre and nightmarish world of H.P. Lovecraft to solve a series of bizarre cases in a collection of short fiction by such authors as Neil Gaiman, Steve Perry, Brian Stableford, and Poppy Z. Brite.

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3.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing literary games, 11 Jan 2006

By	S. Bentley "stuarthoratiobentley" (North Yorkshire) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! (Paperback)

At first blush, mixing the eminently logical Sherlock Holmes with the obviously inexplicable (and importantly so) Cthulu mythos is either a brave idea or a stupid one. However, it has been done before and very well by Andy Lane in the Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire so I was interested to see what this collection of short stories would offer.

The stories are definitely divided into two types, with one possible exception. In the first the story features characters from the Holmes stories, though not necessarily Holmes and Watson. Thus we have tales of Irene Adler, Sebastian Moran and teamings of Holmes with other partners. On the whole I would say these are the more interesting tales, probably because the authors have a greater latitude than when producing pastiches of Conan Doyle. This leads to the second variety which are straight forward clashes of Holmes and Watson and Lovecraftian Elder Gods and their minions. Most are servicable and some are most enjoyable. However there are elements that are a little too repetitive, such as Watson never being able to forget the inexplicable events of that ghastly evening at the start of each such story. In a way this is a fault of the editors if the stories were commissioned for the volume, as there is little sense that they are building on each other, despite claims that the stories should fit Holmes' canonical timeline. This is especially so with the absolute standout story of this collection, Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald, which is undoubtedly an alternate literary history story (in that it cannot really take place in the accepted Holmes' reality without it veering very heavily from our own history).

As said, the stories are on the whole solidly written, although there are few that really spark the two concepts off each other. An attempt is made in Brian Stableford's Art in the Blood, which does point to the innate incompatibility of the two but also features a near-deification of Holmes that doesn't quite fit. Elizabeth Bear's tale of colonial India is vey enjoyable and works all the better for not featuring the Great Detective. There are a couple of duffers as you would expect. Steve Perry's tale of Holmes receiving a midnight visitor trots out the show of deductive reasoning, but goes nowhere.

That said, on the whole the book is good fun. Many of the writers are talented enough to carry off what they intend and if you've read all the Holmes stories by Doyle and crave more, this might well hit the spot.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixture..., 22 Nov 2006

By	S. Larner (Edinburgh, Lothian United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Firstly I'd like to say that this is a fantastic premise for an anthology! Being a fan of both Conan Doyle and Lovecraft, I couldn't resist getting my hands on this.

The stories themselves, as in many of these anthologies, contains a roughly equal number of hits and misses and a fair few near hits that are entertaining enough without being brilliant. In my opinion, the weakest stories are those that attempt to write a Conan Doyle story with Lovecraftian horror elements and succeed on neither front.

There are a few noteworthies, though, and these are the ones that attempt to go on a completely different tack to a "typical" Holmes or Lovecraft story. "Tiger! Tiger!" is an interesting tale featuring Sebastion Moran and Irene Adler in India (no sign of Holmes or Watson!) more in the style of a Rider Haggard action yarn than ACD or HPL. The Weeping Masks is another good-un set during Watson's army days in Afghanistan and Art in The Blood is a very successful "true" horror story.

The icing on the cake, however, is Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald". It's fantastic and, in my opinion, worth the price of the book alone. I won't give the plot away, but it shows great respect and understanding to Conan Doyle and Lovecraft's creations while at the same time turning the whole thing on it's head.

So there you have it - although the anthology as a whole is pretty much a 3-star book, I personally was willing to go through the mediocre works to uncover the real gems (which adds another star on!). And, lets face it, even a mediocre story has got to be worth reading if it pits Holmes and Watson against the Cthulhu mythos!

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely done, 5 Jan 2007

By	D. Hunt (Surrey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! (Paperback)

I could not fail to get this as an ardent Lovecraft reader and a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes.

The cover art does prepare you for a pulpy roam through a collection of Mythos encounters. They are occassionally mechanical. There are a few 'oh dear' moments and these are stories to be taken individually. It is a bit of a shame that there isn't a consistent plotline linking all the stories, it would have been so nice if there could have been some collaboration with each story providing a further glimpse to a deeper mystery.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and did find myself immersed in each. The writers all did an excellent job in my opinion. I know i will read this again and am very glad i bought this. Infact, i bought copies for two friends for New Year presents and hope they enjoy them as much as i did.

It's a fun read. Very enjoyable.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure Lunacy Watson
As an admirer of both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and HP Lovecraft i was sufficiently curious enough to rush out and buy this book.

BIG MISTAKE... Read more

Published 19 months ago by alsmuse

4.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2 stars for very good collection of Holmes/Cthulu mythos tales
Holmes continues to fascinate as a character. This brilliant detective who underneath his sharp intellect has all too human flaws has appeared in a number of novels over the years... Read more

Published on 22 May 2007 by Wayne Klein

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice idea........
The idea of pitting Holmes against Lovecraft is inspired and, in theory, should produce equally inspired results. But........ Read more

Published on 25 Nov 2006 by M. Marshall

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	85% buy the item featured on this page: Shadows over Baker Street 3.3 out of 5 stars (6)
	11% buy Hardboiled Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) �10.94
	4% buy Arkham Tales (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) (Call of Cthulhu Novel) 4.5 out of 5 stars (2) �8.99