Shadows over Baker Street

Shadows over Baker Street, 446 pages

Shadows over Baker Street is everything it advertises itself as, which is Sherlock Holmes with Lovecraftian themes. Of course by Lovecrafitan it means Cthulhu, Innsmouthians and other macabre themes. Much like the original Holmes collection, this book is a collection of short stories, though these are written by a collaboration of different authors.

What I really liked about Shadows over Baker Street is that each and every story holds up. Where before with collections like this I would highlight the ones that I really liked and shame the ones I thought fell short here they were all good, for a Holmes novella. By that I mean they all rely on Holmes knowing more than everyone else and in some cases more than it seems likely he should know. But that is what makes a Holmes novel, well that and the brilliant deductions he comes up with. That being said I think these could have been better with the clues to the ending or what was going on spaced through the novella so that the reader could solve the case as well.

If you like the writings of Lovecraft I think you would enjoy this book though it is not as dark. If you like the Sherlock Holmes series and at least can tolerate some of the bizarre then I would say give this a try.