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Home , Clive Merrison, Mary Russell (character)

My Man Sherlock

It began with “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” which is arguably ’s most famous short story. I was 11 years old and at odds with the world when my mother thrust a heavy volume into my hands. Still complaining, I retired to my room. Within a page, I’d been offered a wonderful new nine- teenth-century identity as and Dr. Watson’s invisible sidekick. One who knew that only a dog cart throws up mud on a person’s sleeve in that way. “And then,” as Holmes explained, “only when you sit on the left-hand side of the driver.” Soon thereafter, we discovered the snake in the wall, that is, The Speckled Band, and I was hooked for life. The Sherlock Holmes canon— four novels and 56 short stories— has remained in print since publica- tion of the first novel, , in 1887. It’s inspired hundreds of screen adaptations (beginning with a silent film in 1900), radio and stage plays, and new Holmes novels and Stephen Fry short stories by other writers. Luckily for us, that wealth has produced an SHERLOCK HOLMES equal richness of audiobooks. Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry [Intro.] Why is the man so lastingly popu- Read by Stephen Fry lar? Notice I wrote “man,” not “,” which goes some way Consummate British actor, writer, comedian, toward an explanation. For me, it’s his and all-round performer Stephen Fry delivers combination of controlled rationality an audio experience to savor in this perfor- and fizzy enthusiasm. His brilliance mance of the entire canon of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes works, beginning coupled with his flaws, for he is an with A Study in Scarlet and ending with His impatient fellow, as well as a depres- Last Bow. However you consume it—during a sive drug addict who is unlucky in marathon car trip or by dipping in and out— love. David Timson, who has narrated you’ll be entertained and will learn something, for Fry has written introductions most of the short stories, is for me to each of the novellas, as well as the two volumes of short stories. We learn the quintessential interpreter, giving everything, including why Conan Doyle began to write about Holmes. (It involves Holmes a crispness and quickened Mark Twain.) Fry’s Holmes is crisp and high-handed, his Watson enthusiastic habit of speech, and offering a host and bemused, and the rest of the colorful without being mannered. of minor character studies. Have fun. A.C.S. As I was at age 11, I am heartened Audible, Inc. 63 hrs. Unabridged by Holmes’s delight in being differ- Trade Ed.: DD $82.77 ent. Listening to Stephen Fry’s interpretation, I chuckled at the detec- tive’s relish for disguise and doing Stephen Fry delivers an things in the least expected way. I also

audio experience to savor. appreciate Holmes’s affection for Photo courtesy of Audible

22 n AudioFile/www.audiofilemagazine.com More Sherlock Holmes Listening My Man Sherlock THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: Volume One Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Anna Waterhouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, read by read by Damian Lynch Clive Merrison, , Audible, Inc. Unabridged

Dr. Watson and the detective’s and a Full Cast Trade Ed.: DD equal treatment of women, which BBC Audiobooks Ltd. Audio Program the of Edward Hardwicke Trade Ed.: DD THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES personify. Hardwicke played Dr. THE MEMOIRS OF Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Watson opposite Jeremy Brett’s SHERLOCK HOLMES David Timson Holmes in the long-running BBC Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Naxos AudioBooks Unabridged series. He incorporates some of Clive Merrison, Michael Williams, Trade Ed.: CD, DD Brett’s tightly wound interpretation and a Full Cast BBC Audiobooks Ltd. Audio Program DEATH CLOUD while giving Holmes and Watson Trade Ed.: DD Andrew Lane, read by Dan Weyman a depth all his own. Hardwicke Macmillan Audio Unabridged Ages 12+

also offers colorful voices for the THE MURDER OF Trade Ed.: CD, DD minor characters. MARY RUSSELL Laurie R. King, read by Jenny Sterlin, When you want more than one THE COMPLETE STORIES OF Susan Lyons SHERLOCK HOLMES actor reading every character, the Recorded Books Unabridged Arthur Conan Doyle, read by BBC’s full-cast recordings of Library Ed.: CD, MP3, DD Charlton Griffin The Return of Sherlock Holmes and Audio Connoisseur Unabridged The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes offer ECHOES OF SHERLOCK Trade Ed.: DD HOLMES: Stories Inspired by the music and sound effects as well as Holmes Canon SHERLOCK HOLMES’ terrific performances by a host of Laurie R. King, Leslie S. Klinger [Eds.], REDISCOVERED RAILWAY actors clearly having a good time. read by Alison Larkin, Clive Chafer, MYSTERIES & OTHER STORIES I cannot get enough, which means Derek Perkins, Donald Coren, John Taylor, read by that I’ve also gulped down a feast of Anne Flosnick, Kate Reading, Benedict Cumberbatch Marguerite Gavin, Mirron Willis, books inspired by Sherlock Holmes. BBC Worldwide Unabridged Ralph Lister, Saskia Maareleveld, Trade Ed.: DD Jenny Sterlin is the voice of Laurie Sara Nichols, Tim Gerard Reynolds, King’s addicting mystery series about Traber Burns an aged Holmes and his brilliant Blackstone Audio Unabridged wife—yes, wife. The latest is Trade Ed.: CD, DD Library Ed.: CD, MP3, DD, PRE The Murder of Mary Russell. Laurie King and Leslie S. Klinger A SLIGHT TRICK OF THE MIND have edited two wonderful collections Mitch Cullin, read by Simon Jones of short stories written and narrated HighBridge Audio Unabridged Trade Ed.: CD, DD by a variety of authors and actors called Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon. How else might I have considered the fate of Conan Doyle’s famous characters between books or cheered Sherlock Holmes’s reincarnation as an intrepid female child? And let’s not forget the straight- ahead novels featuring Holmes, such as Mitch Cullin’s haunting A Slight Trick of the Mind, read by Simon Jones. All right, all right. I’ll stop. If you promise to listen to something— anything—in the loosely knit Holmes canon, I’ll spare you more sugges- tions. But I will say this. Even when Sherlock Holmes explains how he knows what he knows, it still seems like magic.—Aurelia C. Scott

October/November 2017 n 23