A Taste for Honey by H.F. Heard (1941) - Post 2

“More than 30 years before Nicholas Meyer’s [1974] The Seven-Per-Cent Solution opened the floodgates of Sherlockian imitation, H.F. Heard’s A Taste for Honey was the first significant book-length Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and it remains one of the very best.”

—Jon L. Breen, mystery and crime-detective writer, scholar and critic (from Blue Dolphin Publishing’s 

“Mr. Mycroft Commemorative Series”)

The year was 1927 and two things of huge import happened to shake up Sherlock Holmes circles. First, Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Holmes story was published in Strand Magazine in its April 1927 issue. Then in May, Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes book, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes was published. Between 1927 and 1974, a period of 47 years, efforts were made by a spectrum of people—from scholars to booksellers, from enthusiasts to librarians—to write Sherlock Holmes short stories in the manner that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote them, with varying degrees of success.

            A number of fine books either reference or reprint many of these early adventures: for example, The Game Is Afoot: Parodies, Pastiches, and Ponderings of Sherlock Holmes edited by Marvin Kaye; The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collected and introduced by Richard Lancelyn Green; The Pocket Essential Sherlock Holmes by Mark Campbell; Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder; Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective in Paperback & Pastiche compiled by Gary Lovisi; and The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories edited by Otto Penzler.

             In addition, beginning in 1945, Conan Doyle’s son Adrian took up the baton and crafted a dozen stories, some alone and some as collaborations with noted mystery writer John Dickson Carr. Then again, August Derleth, prolific storyteller and publisher of Arkham House books, around the same time asked permission of the Doyle estate to write Holmes stories and was turned down. Not one to let a small thing like that deter him, he wrote over the next two decades some 80 detective stories about Solar Pons as told by Dr. Parker, obvious clones of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

           In other words, the world simply was not prepared to let go of Sherlock Holmes, even though his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, was no longer writing Holmes stories. Nevertheless, 47 years is a long time and during that period relatively few Holmes stories—invariably short stories—were written and/or published, and they all required permission from the Conan Doyle Estate.

            Enter in 1941 H.F. Heard, a British writer who was inspired to write a Sherlock Holmes novel. Whether he sought formal permission to do so or whether he simply sidestepped that potential obstacle, what resulted was pure magic.

“…but since [Sherlock Holmes] has definitely retired from London and betaken himself to study bee-farming on the Sussex downs….”

—John H. Watson, M.D. (Arthur Conan Doyle) in

“The Adventure of the Second Stain”

            What Heard did was remarkable. First off, he created Sidney Silchester, a prissy introvert who lived on the Sussex Downs and preferred nothing more than to enjoy his honey at breakfast and to be left alone. When his honey from his regular source dried up, he looked about his village for a new source, which quest brings him into contact with an intense, supremely intelligent older fellow who raises bees and who has honey to spare. This gentleman identifies himself as “Mr. Mycroft”.

           “’I have used 'Mycroft'…because my full name was once pretty widely known, and I wanted, when I retired to be quiet and unmolested…’”

            “There! I have forgotten the name he gave himself. It was something not unlike Mycroft—Mycroft and then another word, a short one, I think….

            ’You see,’ I said, ‘now that I do know your real name, I have to own I have never heard of you before.’ Then, I must own, he looked amazed….”

—Sidney Silchester (H.F. Heard) in A Taste for Honey

            The book comprises a sort of journal or memoir in which Sidney Silchester has determined to write up in chronological order the strange events—perhaps illegal, perhaps immoral—through which Mr. Mycroft has subjected him, virtually against his will. Silchester writes in the first person, just as Dr. Watson did. It’s not long into his narrative that he expresses how frustrated he is, and how taken aback, by Mr. Mycroft’s peculiar manner of expressing himself, both verbally and through behavior, and by his chemical experiments. It so happens the reason Silchester’s honey was no longer available was because the mistress of the beekeeper’s house was stung to death by her own bees.

            In short order, Mr. Mycroft suspects the poor woman was murdered, and then he embroils Silchester into his impromptu investigation, not so much because he cares about the victim, the perpetrator, or even the probable crime itself. No. Mr. Mycroft is going to all this trouble because it is clear to him that Silchester was on a very short list to become the next victim, probably followed by himself. He explains to Silchester that even the simple expediency of moving out of the town or even out of the country would not deter the murderer’s obsession to kill him once he decided to do it.

TIP: Be forewarned. Many commentators on this novel and its two sequels—Reply Paid and The Notched Hairpin—seem to be confused as to whether ”Mr. Mycroft” is Sherlock Holmes’ brother Mycroft or Holmes himself.  [In fact, in nearly all of these instances, there is no confusion at all; these commentators absolutely and clearly take for granted that Heard's Mycroft IS the brother Mycroft. This is 100% wrong.) These commentators assume, or seem to assume, that Heard, by calling the character Mycroft, intended for the character to be in fact Mycroft. This is a sore point for me, since it is crystal clear who it was that retired to the Sussex Downs to raise bees. And it wasn’t Sherlock’s brother! To make matters worse, even the publishers of various reprints over the decades of these books fail to get it right. Thus, rest assured that A Taste for Honey by H.F. Heard and published in 1941, is the first important novel-length Sherlock Holmes pastiche, throughout which Sherlock Holmes, himself is front and center.

Next up: Murder by Decree by Robert Weverka from the screenplay by John Hopkins