The Pastiche: A Sherlockian Necessity

by Vincent W. Wright

About the Author: Vincent W. Wright has been a Sherlockian for over 20 years, and is the creator of the Facebook Page and blog Historical Sherlock. He speaks about Sherlock Holmes at various gatherings and functions around the country, has had both pastiche and scholarship published, and maintains the world's largest Sherlockian chronology database.

Excerpt

Oh how I wish we had more Sherlock Holmes cases from the pen and desk of Arthur Conan Doyle. 60 just doesn’t seem like enough. Like an incomplete story they leave more questions than answers. More problems than solutions. And more gaps in the whole picture.

The Canon has given us so much, though. Those cases that we do have seem to be timeless in their ability to attract new readers. But, we still want more. We need answers to questions about Holmes’s family and Watson’s military service. We want to read the unpublished cases that are mentioned, even the ones where Holmes didn’t achieve the great resolutions to which we have become accustomed. We could discover more about the childhoods of our heroes. There could be enlightenment on the subject of Watson’s marriage(s). More glimpses into the seedy underside of London would be at our fingertips. And perhaps we could finally figure out the precise location of 221b Baker Street.

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