Tales from the Crypt

I had the great pleasure last year to read Donald Thomas’ The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, a book which reimagined several famous murder cases as though they were Sherlockian adventures. My very favourite of the lot was an ingenious retelling of the adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, revealing that it was a fictionalised account of the death of the notorious blackmailer Charles Augustus Howell, and turning it into a prequel to The Final Problem. It became one of my new favourite Sherlockian pastiches.

Naturally, I couldn’t pass up the chance to read more from this series, so I went with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt. It’s another collection of Sherlockian pastiches. There are six of them in all, but one of them is quite short, and the other (the titular story) is probably novella-length. As with the first book, Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate famous mysteries, and helps the authorities behind-the-scenes. Naturally, Holmes doesn’t take any of the credit.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

Max Allan Collins’ third Nate Heller novel, The Million-Dollar Wound, is very different from its predecessors. For one thing, it skips forward in time considerably. The previous book in the series, True Crime, took place in 1934. The Million-Dollar Wound opens in 1943. Nate Heller has returned to the States after fighting in WWII alongside his friend Barney Ross, but he returns a changed man.

Heller is brought back home from combat early because his testimony is wanted at an upcoming trial, one which could finally see Frank Nitti, Louis “Little New York” Campagna, and other gangsters on charges of extortion. But if there’s one thing Heller knows, it’s that double-crossing Frank Nitti is a very dangerous way of living, especially in Chicago, Nitti’s town…

Of Gangsters and Outlaws

Private eye Nate Heller is now in his second year of operations. His first year was described in detail in the novel True Detective, and all things considered it was a good first year. Unfortunately, Year Two has been much more quiet, with clients few and far between. After all, it is the Great Depression, and Heller has been watching the proceeds from his first year slowly dwindle…

And then he gets a case. It all starts when a shifty guy named John Howard comes to see Heller at his office. Howard is a travelling salesman who is worried that his wife, a pretty girl named Polly, is having an affair while he’s on the road. He pays Heller an exorbitant $100 in advance to follow Polly around and to determine whether or not she is being faithful. But right from the start it’s an odd job… and after a while, Heller finds that Polly is seeing a man all right… and that man looks remarkably like John Dillinger.

The Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes

Donald Thomas’ book The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes is a rare treat, hitting upon a brilliant idea for a Sherlockian pastiche. As Dr. Watson explains in an introductory letter, Sherlock Holmes has died and his private papers have passed into the good doctor’s hands. These papers worry a good deal of important people, who would like to set fire to the documents on the spot. But after much bargaining, a compromise is reached: Dr. Watson is to have access to the papers and is allowed to chronicle some of Sherlock’s most secret cases. Afterwards, the stories (as well as Holmes’ papers) are to be suppressed for seventy years, to see the light of day only long after the principal players have all died.

And thus, Dr. Watson explains, this is the first time he dares to take up his pen and chronicle Sherlock Holmes’ most secret cases, completely uncensored and with no attempt to disguise the famous people involved in the mysteries. For instance, we learn that The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton was largely fictionalised in order to protect the identities of the persons involved – in reality, the notorious blackmailer was Charles Augustus Howell, who was found with his throat cut and a ten-shilling coin stuck in his mouth: the slanderer’s reward. Another of Holmes’ cases, mentioned in passing, involved a forgery case in which Holmes was of some service to Lestrade; Dr. Watson reveals that it was in fact the Bank of England forgeries of 1873, “when the Bidwell brothers came within a hair’s breadth of having the Bank’s funds at their mercy”.

Marked for Murder

In Target Lancer, we once again meet up with Nate Heller, who has managed to soldier on well into 1963. In fact, it’s almost November of 1963, and there’s a conspiracy in the works. The people involved intend to kill President John F. Kennedy, and they have enough firepower to do just that. Here’s the thing: they’re planning to do it in Chicago, about three weeks before the assassination that took place in Dallas.

It’s a good thing, then, that Nate Heller is brought onto the case. And before long, Nate links up the assassination plot with some other mysterious occurences, including the murder of a friend of his. But who is involved in this conspiracy? What do they hope to gain by it? And will they succeed? The answers can be found in Target Lancer.