Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street

In this fictional biography of Sherlock Holmes, Baring-Gould makes his attempt at unraveling and chronicling Holmes' sometimes mysterious life. The book begins with a short history of Holmes' childhood and family, all of which comes from Baring-Gould's imagination and a few tantalising scraps of information from Canon. It matches nicely with what we already know of Holmes, fleshing out his character and adding motive for his eccentricities and habits as an adult. Baring-Gould continues by covering Holmes and Watson's first meeting and Holmes' earliest cases, much of which is quoted directly from Canon. Baring-Gould also goes on to describe Holmes' brush with Jack the Ripper in 1888, an interesting but not wholly satisfying account. The longest departure from Canon - and the silliest and most unlikely bits - come during Holmes' disappearance after his plunge over Reichenbach Falls with Moriarty. Baring-Gould tells of Holmes re-meeting Irene Adler, with whom he has a love affair and a son (who grows up to be the famous and corpulent American detective Nero Wolfe, no less!), travelling to Tibet, where he becomes a Buddhist under the discipleship of the Dali Lama, capturing the Abominable Snowman in Nepal, and nearly managing to scale Everest single-handedly, before finally returning to England to resume his detective practice. The book concludes with an account of Holmes' final cases, before his retirement to the Sussex Downs to become a beekeeper, from whence he helps the British Government to win both World Wars and lives to the estimable age of 103 (thanks to his discovery of Royal Jelly!!). Sarcasm aside, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street is an interesting read for any Holmes aficionado, and if one can overlook Baring-Gould's attempts to sensationalise, he has done an excellent job of detailing Holmes' life and sorting out the often-confusing dates and time lines of the Holmesian Canon. It's simply fan fiction in its highest form, and as such I can't knock it. from amazon.com