Another tenuous post but needs must...

As I believe I have said before, I'm not a massive fan of Sherlock Holmes pastiche...

...but I do enjoy books that make reference, directly or indirectly, to Holmes.

A series of books that I've got into over the last six months or so is collectively known as the Amelia Peabody Murder Mysteries.

These feature the eponymous Amelia Peabody, her husband Emerson and assorted other regular characters. In the smallest of nutshells, they are archaeologists and Egyptologists that spend more time than they probably should solving murders and other mysteries.

The link to Holmes is that the author, Elizabeth Peters, borrows character names from Doyle. In the books I've read so far (five out of eighteen) there have been a Baskerville and an Oldacre (guess the pertinent stories folks) and others I've probably forgotten. She has also borrowed from Wilkie Collins by having an Inspector Cuff (although Collins created Sergeant Cuff).

They lack, in my opinion, the structured reasoning of Holmes but are no less fun for that. Do check them out. Why no one has dramatised them is beyond my understanding.


Written by Alistair Duncan Buy my books here
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