CHRISTMAS IS AFOOT!

MEDICAL EXPERTS are recommending that we shouldn't go home for the holidays. The science, along with the most recent data, reveals that it isn't wise or prudent to do so at this time. It's best to hunker down and spend the holiday season with only your housemate, or housemates, if that's your situation. And by all means we should do what's right for the greater good of humanity and our country. Always. But being sequestered doesn't mean we can't enjoy the holidays, because we can, we most certainly can. We have FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, Google Hangout and Duo and we are all adept at cooking and eating and decorating and ordering items online. And if we insist upon an alternative gathering of sorts to make us feel even better we can always go Holmes for the Holidays, under the safe and assured guidance of editor's Martin H. Greenberg, John L. Lellenberg and Carol-Lynn Waugh, plus artist-extraordinaire Guy Deel, and a host of contributing mystery authors paying homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective creation, Sherlock Holmes.

Guy Deel (1933-2005) was known more for his Western paintings than for other genre work, but when he was called upon, like here with an assignment to depict the Victorian Age, he could oblige as good as anyone. But his greatest accomplishment during his fifty year career, besides the abundance of advertising art, poster art, magazine covers, animation art, television and film work and the approximately 250 book covers he produced, was the 130-foot mural he painted in the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles, California, at the behest of his close friend Gene Autry, which depicted the "Spirits of the West." It's an amazing piece of illustration covering three walls.

CENTER SECTION OF THE MURAL

Deel's dustjacket art on Holmes for the Holidays is the perfect mood setter for getting into the spirit of Christmas: Holmes and Watson are strolling along at night on a cheery London street in December, with Holmes taking notice of what's being displayed behind the panes, while Watson appears already content in his gift buying effort. All we need now is some joyful singing!

Berkley published this hardcover anthology containing fourteen Sherlock Holmes pastiches in 1996.

     "Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has been solving cases and amazing fans for over a century. From his flat at 221 B Baker Street, the engaging detective has led readers--and an often incredulous Dr. Watson--on a series of mystery adventures unmatched anywhere in literature. Now, Berkley Prime Crime presents HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, a brilliant collection of fourteen original Holmes stories written by today's premier mystery writers. Each story features Holmes and Watson, festively solving the darkest of crimes in the brightest of seasons:

In Anne Perry's "The Watch Night Bell," Holmes and Watson must foil the foulest of schemes--a Christmas midnight murder...

In Loren D. Estleman's "The Adventure of the Three Ghosts," Holmes and Watson are plunged into the plot of "A Christmas Carol"--and a real-life murder plot of Dickensian proportions...

In Carole Nelson Douglas's "The Thief of Twelfth Night," a holiday feast provides the perfect chance for a robbery--but Holmes knows the proof is in the pudding...

In Reginald Hill's "The Italian Sherlock Holmes," the master detective spends the holidays in Rome, and matches wits with an ambitious rival...

And ten other masterful authors unveil ten new holiday whodunits featuring the world's greatest Detective. It's elementary!"

The Watch Night Bell by Anne Perry

The Sleuth of Christmas Past by Barbara Paul
A Scandal in Winter by Gillian Linscott
The Adventure in Border Country by Gwen Moffat
The Adventure of the Three Ghosts by Loren D. Estleman
The Adventure of the Canine Ventriloquist by Jon L. Breen
The Adventure of the Man Who Never Laughed by J. N. Williamson
The Yuletide Affair by John Stoessel
The Adventure of the Christmas Tree by William L. DeAndrea
The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts by Bill Crider
The Thief of Twelfth Night by Carole Nelson Douglas
The Italian Sherlock Holmes by Reginald Hill
The Christmas Client by Edward D. Hoch
The Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet by Carolyn Wheat

Deel's dustjacket illustration on More Holmes for the Holidays is just as effective as his earlier one: Holmes in deep contemplation, puffing unconsciously on his pipe while a Christmas present lies nearby waiting to be opened. Watson, of course, is relaxing in the background, ever vigilant though. Pass the eggnog, please! Berkley published this hardcover anthology containing eleven Sherlock Holmes pastiches in 1999.

     "In HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, today's best mystery writers featured Arthur Conan Doyle's inimitable Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in an original anthology of holiday whodunits. Now Berkley Prime Crime is proud to present MORE HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS--in which the beloved duo returns... to the scene of the crime:

In Anne Perry's "The Christmas Gift," a Stradivarius is plucked away from a master violinist just before a holiday performance--one Sherlock Holmes had his heart set on attending...

In Loren D. Estleman's "The Adventure of the Greatest Gift," Holmes receives an unusual present, a wax recording cylinder bearing festive greetings--or is it a warning about an impending war between England and France?

In Carolyn Wheat's "The Case of the Rajah's Emerald," Timothy "Tiny Tim" Cratchit requests Holmes and Watson's assistance in identifying the true heir of the late philanthropist Ebenezer Scrooge...

In Peter Lovesey's "The Four Wise Men," Watson's former army superior invites him to appear in a nativity service and guard the valuable Star of Bethlehem treasure from being stolen by a villain from Holmes past...

With these and seven more merry mysteries, you can spend the season with the world's most famous detective, courtesy of today's masters of mystery, in MORE HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS."

The Christmas Gift by Anne Perry
The Four Wise Men by Peter Lovesey
Eleemosynary, My Dear Watson by Barbara Paul
The Adventure of the Greatest Gift by Loren D. Estleman
The Case of the Rajah's Emerald by Carolyn Wheat
The Christmas Conspiracy by Edward D. Hoch
The Music of Christmas by L. B. Greenwood
The Adventure of the Christmas Bear by Bill Crider
The Adventure of the Naturalist's Stock Pin by Jon L. Breen
The Adventure of the Second Violin by Daniel Stashower
The Human Mystery by Tanith Lee


GUY DEEL produced several more Holmesian covers, specifically on Berkley paperback reissues in the the 1980's. Below are four that I have images of. The first three are pastiches written by British author John Gardner, famous for his continuation and updating of the James Bond canon, and the fourth one is by Doyle himself.

The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty by John Gardner were originally published in Great Britain in hardcover in 1974 and 1975. Deel's artistic interpretations were produced for the 1981 Berkley U.S. paperback reprints only, as seen just above.

In Return, Holmes makes merely a perfunctory appearance; Moriarty is the book's entire focus. In Revenge, Holmes becomes a bit more involved, but isn't really impactful until the climax; the primary detective in pursuit is actually Inspector Angus Crow of Scotland Yard, as it was in the first novel. A third novel, simply titled Moriarty, was published posthumously in 2008, but Deel, like its author, had passed away by then.

In 1988, Berkley reprinted The Return of Moriarty, with Deel supplying new cover art to enhance a new font design. In my opinion this is one of the top images in the entire illustrated oeuvre of Sherlock Holmes. I don't believe "Revenge" was reprinted at the same time to coincide with this new printing--at least I've yet to find any evidence of it online or elsewhere.

"London is in terror. The streets are filled with dippers, macers and bullies of every description, all collecting "contributions for the Professor." But Holmes saw Professor Moriarty swept over a waterfall in Switzerland! Could it be that Europe's Master Criminal somehow survived, and has returned to battle Holmes again in the greatest crime duel of all time? It could indeed."

This Berkley reprint of Doyle's His Last Bow was published in 1981, a few months after the Gardner pastiches were issued. Most of the Holmes titles were reissued by Berkley around that same time, then reissued a few years later with a slight design change--same great Deel covers though. Finding these items won't be easy--It'll mean digging around in used book stores again, but I can't wait to mask up and get started. 

     "Among the puzzles here unraveled by the great detective are "The Adventures of Wisteria Lodge" (a most unflowery bower); and "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax." Holmes sends Watson to Switzerland on this case, with the memorable comment, "... it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes."

Here are the eight stories collected in His Last Bow:

The Adventures of the Wisteria Lodge
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
The Adventure of the Red Circle
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
His Last Bow

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and STAY SAFE.

[© December, 2020, Jeffersen]