As soon as the Sherlock Holmes bug has bitten you, there’s no turning back. From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s original stories, all the way through to the ‘pastiches’ and fan-fiction of the modern era… once the bug bites, you can’t get enough and you will devour any new adventures – be it natural or supernatural – that comes your way. Don’t believe me? Well, I once thought that Sherlock Holmes was overrated and I was determined not to become one of the sheep, yet when I was kindly forced to read and review one of these ‘pastiches’, I was hooked. I went back to read the original stories and when there was no more, I simply fell into a terrifying spiral of gathering anything Sherlock Holmes related in literature. As a result, I think I might start to resemble Watson (or at least the way he thinks), but alas that’s something I probably need to tell my therapist about, not to you…

With some exciting voices that are a part of this collection, George Mann – the editor of Encounters of Sherlock Holmes – has done an excellent job of keeping Encounters of Sherlock Holmes true to what we know and love of our favourite private investigator (with a few great twists and turns to keep the reader in their seats). With thirteen stories included in this Titan Books anthology, authors like Mark Hodder (The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man), Paul Magrs (666 Charing Cross Road), James Lovegrove (The Age of Odin), Eric Brown (Helix Wars) and Richard Dinnick (Doctor Who: The Underwater War) feature. However, these big names aren’t the only ones that have great imaginations that entices the reader with Sherlock Holmes’ further adventures.

Each story is unique in its own way, true to the franchise and well-written. With fantastic stories that will take you on a wild ride, Encounters of Sherlock Holmes is definitely the type of book you want to get your hands on. With so many variations that surrounds the world of Sherlock, you won’t be disappointed. The only thing that may be a problem to readers is how short some of the stories are… That’s it, there’s nothing else that’s bad of this book otherwise.

Mrs Hudson, Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes and the rest of the gang all have their place in this collection and each and every one of these stories will leave you wanting more. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud of it.

(Review originally posted on www.killeraphrodite.com ) ( )

As always with a set of stories this is a mixed bag, but there's a love of the stories of Sherlock Holmes that comes across from all of the stories. Little details like the Persian Slipper become stories. There's mashups from other stories (H G Wells War of the Worlds for example) and they often take an interesting twist.

None of the stories are terribly memorable or made me want to hunt up more by the authors but none were terrible and would suggest to me to avoid those authors. ( )

A series of new short stories with Sherlock Holmes and John Watson by modern authors. When they follow the basic formula they are very good and some very good indeed. I have to confess I didn't find the ones that were in a scifi world terribly interesting to me personally and I also didn't like the story where Mrs. Hudson did all the work while Sherlock and Watson were basically dribbling idiots.
On the whole, enjoyable, though. ( )