Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula (1978) "edited" by Loren D. Estleman—The Second Part—5b

With Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, Loren D. Estleman, who by the way now has an excellent reputation as a contemporary mystery novelist, fashioned a traditional (i.e., ordinary) Holmes pastiche, despite the dramatic inclusion of the king of Counts. Whether this new story idea was originally Estleman's or his agent's, or even his publisher's, who can say?

Watson performs his scribe role admirably, but at the end of the adventure, Holmes indicates that publishing such a tale would be inadvisable, as long as there were surviving participants. Thus Watson sequestered his notes on the subject and paid them little mind for a number of years, but there came a day when Holmes sent a message, the gist of which was, "Write it up and publish it now." Holmes' dearest friend obliged (but then, Holmes changed his mind and Watson's record of that adventure remained unpublished until the ms. fell into into the hands of Estleman resulting in the manuscript finally coming to life.)

Riding his success in this new-for-him style of writing, Estleman embarked on a similar thriller, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes. It too enjoyed some success, but then the author-cum-"editor" put his deerstalker, magnifying glass, and blue pencil in the bottom drawer of his bedroom press and returned to the maze-like mysteries of our modern world; though an occasional short story from Watson by way of Estleman would later be found in the occasional anthology.

Years later, the Quality Book Club issued a nice trade paperback that contained both novels...er...memoirs from Dr. Watson's hand. It's a handsome, sturdy volume. It's fun to have both of these novels bound together, as there is so much that binds them together.

Next:  

Dining with Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Cookbook 

by 

Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt.