Mysteries of Montreal

Who? That was my question, up until quite recently, but I have been schoolong myself in Pontine lore. Pontine, what a great word! Though I must admit, I keep reading it as Poutine. I have my collections of Mythos Tomes, by various authors (which is by no means complete), and of course my Sherlockian works, but I quite recently discovered the series of tales that could in some ways be seen as the original point of contact of these two universes, the Solar Pons stories. Solar Pons was a character created by Lovecraft's friend, correspondant, and later publisher through his company Arkham House, August Derleth . Derleth of course wrote his own, much maligned, mythos tales, but let's not go down that rabbit hole here. Derleth also wanted to write Holmes tales. Indeed he contacted Doyle, to ask if he could take oer the series aftr Doyle had finished with Holmes, but Doyle declined (no doubt Derleth was not the only young author to contact Doyle about this, so I'm not p...

My second post on a subject that is without my normal sphere for this blog, Sherlock Holmes. However, I'll try to turn it back on topic by the end of the post. I was a little annoyed that my previous post on a new Sherlock Holmes story turned out to be nothing more than a heavy handed pastiche of Doyle's work, if at least a contemporary one. The first half of the interview, Doyle talks about Sherlock Holmes, and within the details spoken, we really learn nothing new, excep that we hear of Holmes from the horses mouth as you will. The second half of the interview is taken up with, in Doyle's words, "the entirely more serious matter" of spiritualism. He talks of the in-depth and varied research he has made on the subject. Again this is not news, but the attitude he takes to wards the psychical research could of course work well as a jumping off point for an investigator, or group of such researchers. Especially since his devotion to the subject after the G...

Holmes statue in Edinburgh. I know this is outwith the normal bounds of my blog, but it is covered by the general mystery theme. There has been a new Sherlock Holmes Story discovered. I post the transcript here, as I'm pretty sure that the copyright on Holmes has long ago passed into the public domain. The story is less mystery, and more a peculiar little coversation between Holmes and Watson, clearly written to appeal to the guid-folks o' Selkirk. Anyway without too many spoilers, here is the full transcript of 'Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar'. The story of how it was found can be read here : 'We've had enough of old romancists and the men of travel, said the Editor, as he blue-pencilled his copy, and made arrangements for the great Saturday edition of the Bazaar Book. 'We want something up-to-date. Why not have a word from "Sherlock Holmes"?' Editors have only to speak and it is don...