From the Vault: "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes"

Several weeks ago, I returned from the Malice Domestic Conference, a gathering of authors and fans of the "traditional" mystery - mysteries which are based, generally, on puzzle-plots. One of the best panel discussions that weekend had to do with the continuing popularity of Sherlock Holmes, not just in print but in television and the movies. That sent me back into the Classic Mysteries archives to find a book which I enjoyed quite thoroughly when I first read it several years ago - a book called The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Stories from the Golden Age of Gaslight Crime, ably edited by Nick Rennison who also supplied introductions to the stories. Here's my original review, edited somewhat to update some now-outdated publishing information.

 - 0 -

More than a century after his first appearance, Sherlock Holmes remains a giant among fictional detectives. Most of his stories first appeared in English literary magazines. These days, however, few of us remember some of the other fictional detectives who also appeared in those magazines at the same time. They were The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes – and that’s the title of a new anthology put together by Nick Rennison. When I was visiting London a few months ago, I picked up a copy of this paperback anthology to renew my acquaintance with some of the characters and to meet others for the first time. 

It’s a fine collection – but just a word of warning, to begin: those of us who are devoted Holmes fans may well be disappointed by the quality of some of the stories here – and, of course, by some of the detection. It is painfully obvious that not all authors had the ability of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a number of the detectives here find themselves relying on improbable coincidence, or, worse, the supernatural to come up with solutions.

And so we find detectives such as Carnacki the Ghost Finder, the creation of William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki is a practitioner of so-called psychic research, which was quite popular around the turn of the last century; Doyle himself was a spiritualist in his time. The story in this anthology, called “The Horse of the Invisible,” follows a fairly narrow line between supernatural and real events, as it tells the story about a young woman whose life is threatened by an invisible giant horse. Of course, you could argue that stories like “The Hound of the Baskervilles” also have a supernatural background – remember, the hound itself was the subject of legend. But the hound in the Holmes story proved to be quite real. Hodgson is less certain about the horse in the Carnacki story, and the ending leaves the question of supernatural influence unresolved – although Carnacki appears to be coming down on the side of the supernatural.

I think my own favorite story in this collection is one which goes in exactly the other direction – that is, the problem is laid out and solved with a complete reliance on reality and logic. The story is “The Problem of Cell 13,” and it features an investigator names Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, also known as “The Thinking Machine.” The author, Jacques Futrelle, was quite highly regarded by other, and later, mystery authors, and "The Problem of Cell 13" is widely considered one of the best and most readable of the stories about the thinking machine. Curiously, there is no crime committed here: the thinking machine accepts a challenge to escape from the condemned cell at a nearby prison. Or, as he puts it, “Lock me in my cell in any prison anywhere at any time, wearing only what is necessary, and I’ll escape in a week.” His friends accept the challenge, lock the professor up by himself in the condemned cell – and, precisely one week later, after taunting the warden, his guards and his friends, he does indeed escape. I’ll leave it to you to learn how.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s marvelous Father Brown appears in this anthology as well, in one of the best and most-often-anthologized stories, “The Hammer of God,” in which Father Brown, through observation and logic, is able to solve a seemingly impossible murder.

Another detective I had met before was Craig Kennedy, known as “the scientific detective.” Kennedy was the creation of Arthur B. Reeve. These stories all feel somewhat dated now, for things which were not-very-well-known scientific miracles in those days are very old hat today. In the story, “The Deadly Tube,” for example, we are presented with two then-miraculous inventions – the x-ray and the microphone. Still, there’s a certain charm to the story which makes it quite enjoyable reading.

There are many more. For example, Loveday Brooke, a detective created by Catherine Louisa Pirkis, is described in an introductory note as one of the first female detective characters. The story chosen for this anthology, "The Murder at Troyte’s Hill," is quite melodramatic, but it shows off the logical mind of Loveday Brooke, a female detective at a London detective agency, as she works with police to expose a killer.

Then there is Dr. Halifax, and the creation of L. T. Meade and Edgar Beaumont who used the name of Clifford Halifax on the books they co-authored. The fictional Dr. Halifax was a specialist in medical mysteries. I found the story anthologized here, called “The Horror of Studley Grange," a very well plotted mystery – even though it was fairly easy to figure out the facts behind a case of apparently supernatural visitation.

There are many more – a total of 15 stories. Each has a brief introduction by editor Nick Rennison, providing background on both the author and the detective. Rennison also provides an informative introduction that tells a great deal more about these – and other – detectives of the period. Even the weaker stories are interesting to the mystery reader; the stronger ones stand up very well in their own right. Again, the book is called The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Nick Rennison, and your local book dealer, as always, should be able to get it for you.

 - 0 -

To listen to the original podcast version of this review, click here.

Next week, more period mysteries: Detection by Gaslight, edited by Douglas G. Greene. 

Comments

[plus.google.com/116897478763124006190]

Looks like a great book. But one problem: no Dr.Thorndyke!
joe allegretti

[Les Blatt]

Joe, in his introduction, Rennison mentions Dr. Thorndyke (along with Martin Hewitt and Orczy's Old Man in the Corner) as detectives he decided not to include, preferring to find less-well-known characters (and ones he admits he liked better!)