2011 Recommendations for the season.

Here is a list of my 2011 highlights (in no particular order):

Some basic (but not too important) errors. Otherwise an excellent account of the relationship between the arch-sceptic and the arch-believer. Sandford deserves credit for not painting Conan Doyle as quite the gullible fool that some writers have been inclined to do (although it seems pretty clear that he is on Houdini's side).

Conan Doyle's previously unpublished first work that he wished to remain unpublished.

Charlotte Walters' different take on the Sherlockian pastiche. People seem to be polarised in their opinions but I thought that, apart from some issues over characterisation, it was a brave and novel angle to pursue.

One of the better collections of short-story pastiche to come out for a few years.

Henry Zecher's definitive(?) biography on America's Sherlock Holmes.