I am not supposed to like it....

I am a self-proclaimed Sherlock Holmes geek. It all started over forty years ago when Mrs. Tallman, the children's librarian in my home town of Fort Lee, NJ, presented me with the complete works of Sherlock Holmes as a reward for completing the summer reading program.  Throughout my  academic and professional career, I have read countless books in English and French.  To this day, when I want to escape into a world of logic and deduction, I pull out Arthur Conan Doyle.  True, not all Conan Doyle's writings met with literary success.  Even I struggled through Professor Challenger.  And Conan Doyle dabbled in spiritualism and believed in fairies. We all have our foibles.


If you are ever in Toronto, Canada, take some time to visit the  Arthur Conan Doyle Room at the Toronto Public Library.  It is a fitting tribute to an author who has inspired and entertained so many children and adults through the world.


It was with some trepidation that I first picked up Laurie R. King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.  If Holmes should marry, what sort of woman would she be?  Laurie King proposes Mary Russell who is every bit Holmes' intellectual equal.  By the way, she is also much younger, American and Jewish.


The series works and works well.  There are currently 12 books in the series starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Holmes and Russell (of course she keeps her own name and identity) thwart criminals around the world in true Holmesian fashion.


I would be remiss if I did not include the latest on-screen Sherlock.  The BBC has continued Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch.  This is arguably the best screen portrayal of Holmes. Cumberbatch's Sherlock is an ascetic, fiercely intellectual and unflappable. In addition to his intellect, he makes use of technology.  Martin Freeman's depiction of Dr. Watson is my favorite.  Watson is not a bumbling sidekick.  He is a wounded warrior with injuries and PTSD home from the wars in Afghanistan.  Watson offers the one thing Holmes cannot conceive - simple human friendship.  Holmes is larger than life and that is what we expect.  Cumberbatch brings us  a Holmes for the 21st Century who is neither campy nor kitschy.  Enjoy!