[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES VOLUMES 1-4 AND 5-8 by Jim French Jim French Productions, November 2006 Dramatized radio plays pages $29.95

Click here to buy

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a collection of standalone audio stories that owe as much to the conventions of old-style radio plays as they do to Doyle. Listening to all eight hours at once does them a disservice because they all blend into one mass. Listening to the 21 stories individually, as a treat during the commute to work or a distraction during workouts, keeps them interesting and fresh. And these charmers should be given every opportunity to shine.

A few of the stories fall flat, as will happen in any anthology. In one, there is neither mystery nor Holmes, with Watson impersonating his roommate while Mycroft does a little deducting. But most of them fit beautifully into Sherlockian canon, hitting the exact combination of melodrama, mystery, and deduction that led Doyle to write about Sussex vampires, speckled bands, yellow faces, and phosphorescent hounds.

Like canon, the mini-plays range throughout the life of Watson and Holmes; some set early in their partnership, some during Watson’s assorted marriages, even a few set in the early 1900s after Sherlock’s retirement. The plots range from the unmasking of a mystical speaking machine, through the solution to a murder that took place during an operation and the kidnapping of a wealthy American, to clearing a man wrongly accused of butchering his fiancée. There is even an audio that gives the background to one of the cases alluded to in canon, the Amateur Mendicant Society.

Each story is told with full cast and sound effects, although the voices we hear the most often are those of Lawrence Albert (Watson, and the narrator) and the two actors who play Holmes (John Patrick Lowrie and John Gilbert). All have excellent voices; clear and easy to understand while doing an excellent job of making the famous characters sound like real people. Favorite grace notes include Sherlock’s quietly understanding farewell as Watson leaves him to go courting and Watson’s infinite sarcasm responding to one of Holmes’ needling insults. One thing that I deeply appreciated is that Watson is not treated as mentally deficient; he might not be as brilliant as Holmes but he is not stupid, and he occasionally even gets the vital clue.

Anyone who likes audio books, Holmes, or old-time radio will thoroughly enjoy THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, December 2006

[ Top ]

QUICK SEARCH:

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)

[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]