THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
by Ken Greenwald, based on the original
radio plays
by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher.
In the 1930s and 40s, before television, individuals and
families clustered around the radio much as they do with the TV these days.
They listened intently to the plethora of variety shows, the news, serious
drama, and adventures. The radio networks were filled with radio plays, many based
on properties that existed long before radio became popular, shows like SUPERMAN
and THE LONE RANGER. One such show was THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. In 1946, Rathbone left the show,
passing the baton to perhaps half a dozen actors. The show remained popular for
four more years.
Regarding why I consider this to be a landmark Sherlockian
book, here is the backstory: Rathbone and Bruce were in the first 220 half-hour
radio episodes of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which aired from 1939
to 1950. Apparently audio recordings of the whole series existed and were
available for 40-odd years—except 1945. The recordings for all of 1945 were considered
lost. But in the 1980s, a vintage radio club that included Ken Greenwald
located the lost recordings. They produced at least one LP with the recordings,
and then somebody had the idea to write short stories based on the recovered
1945 shows. Greenwald took up the challenge and by 1988 he brought into the
world 13 new Sherlock Holmes short stories in a book titled THE LOST ADVENTURES
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
Greenwald was obviously tuned into the Holmes pastiche
culture of that era, which is something I conclude because THE SEVEN-PER-CENT
SOLUTION started the tsunami of Holmes pastiches only about a decade earlier,
assuming Greenwald began writing in the early or mid-1980s. For example, the
book includes an excellent framing device at the start and a clever Introduction
by Dr. John H. Watson explaining how the fortunes of this, his last volume of
Holmes stories, was less than stellar due to all of England preparing for The
Great War (aka World War I) in 1914. The few copies that were printed
eventually faded away and the entire book was forgotten.
To my taste, all 13 stories are well-crafted and enjoyable. In
his Foreword, Greenwald admits having trepidations about his writing style,
concerned that the stories may seem “off key” because Doyle/Watson was not the
true author. In my view the stories, which are told from Watson’s point of
view, which is only right and proper, succeed in wonderfully evoking Dr. Watson page
after page.
The titles of the stories are “The Adventure of the Second
Generation,” “The April Fools’ Adventure,” “The Case of the Amateur Mendicants,”
“The Adventure of the Out-of-Date Murder,” “The Case of Demon Barber,” “Murder
Beyond the Mountains,” “The Case
of the Uneasy Easy Chair,” “The Case of the Baconian Cipher,” “The Adventure of
a Headless Monk,” “The Case of the
Camberwell Poisoners,” “The Adventure of the Iron Box,” “The Case of the Girl
with the Gazelle,” and “The Adventure of the Notorious Canary Trainer.”
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