Holmes Sweet Holmes

A rhetorical question asked at Bouchercon: how can you have a mystery conference without a panel about Sherlock Holmes?

When that question went unanswered, a couple of people decided to do something about it: they added a mini-panel event Saturday afternoon to talk about Holmes and his continuing influence on crime literature and film and television.

Discussing Sherlockiana were a couple of experts in the field. Les Klinger, generally regarded as one of the most notable students of all things Holmes-related - he's the editor/author/compiler of the updated Annotated Sherlock Holmes, among other things, and has served as an advisor on various Holmesian projects for Hollywood - was one of the speakers. The other was author Laurie R. King, whose best-selling series of books about Mary Russell, the young woman who marries Holmes in King's books. Her latest book in the series, The Pirate King, just went on sale this week and immediately jumped to number 7 on the New York Times best-seller list.

Is it heretical to do to the Holmes canon what Laurie King has done, making Holmes a major supporting character (but NOT the lead) in a series of new novels? I think not, nor does Les Klinger, nor, rather obviously, Laurie R. King. Certainly her books have been at least partly responsible for a renewal of interest in Holmes, including successful new movies and television productions. Frankly, I would argue that anything which revives and nurtures that interest will eventually lead readers to the original stories, and that can only be good.

Comments

[Yvette]

I couldn't agree more with you, Les. I love Laurie King's books and it would not surprise me at all to find her work is the spark that has renewed interest in Holmes.

I particularly wish I'd been at this mini-panel. :)

So, how was your entire trip to St. Louis? From what I've been reading around, it was a particularly good Bouchercon.

[Les Blatt]

It was a terrific convention, Yvette. 74 panels over 3 1/2 days. You usually had to choose from among five panels during each time slot, so while I did get to many panels there were still some I couldn't get to, as I haven't learned enough about how to clone myself. There were panels of interest to all fans, no matter what genre or sub-genre, and to writers as well. Next year's conference is in Cleveland. I have already registered.