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Milo Yelesiyevich

Wilde About Holmes (2008)
Story Type:
Canonical Revisioning narrated by Wilde & Holmes
Canonical Characters: Sherlock Holmes; Professor Moriarty; (Dr Watson; Mary Morstan; Mycroft Holmes; Inspector Patterson)
Fictional Characters: Gladys Hallward
Historical Figures: Oscar Wilde; Norman Forbes-Robertson; Lillie Langtry; John Kelly; Barney O'Shane; Inspector Williams; Grover Cleveland; Frederick Gebhard, Jr; Frederick Gebhard, Sr; Richard D'Oyly Carte; Henrietta Labouchere; Miss Jay; Mrs Pendleton; Daniel Manning; Frances Folsom; The Whyos; Red Rocks Farrel; Googy Corcoran; Slops Connolly; Baboon Connolly; James G. Blaine; Sam Ward; Mrs Schermerhorn; Edgar Saltus; Colonel Morse; Bury I. Dasent; Jay Gould; John Jacob Astor; Russell Sage; A.A. Hayes; Mrs Hayes; Clara Morris; Theodore Tilton; Jeanne-Marie Langtry; Henry E. Abbey; Napoleon Sarony; David Belasco; Pierre Lorillard; Leonard Jerome; Kate Hodson; Arthur Elwood; Abe Hummel; Benoit Coquelin
(James Whistler; Lady Jane Wilde; Lady Elizabeth Lewis; J.M. Stoddart; Edward Burne-Jones; Mary Cornwallis-West; George Childs; Mary Anderson; Reggie Le Breton; Charles A. Dana; Reverend Ball; Reverend Kingsly Twining; Mrs Folsom; Oscar Folsom; Ulysses S. Grant; Ernest Fenellosa; Rev. Samuel D. Burchard; Lester Wallack; Edward VII; Henry Labouchere; William Le Breton; Diamond Jim Brady; Richelieu Robinson; Edward Langtry; George Lewis; William Ewart Gladstone; François Joseph Regnier; Sarah Bernhardt
)
Characters Based on Historical Figures: Amber Halpin (Maria Halpin); Dandy John Nolan (Dandy John Dolan); Jeanne-Marie Langtry (Oscar Folsom Cleveland)
Other Characters: Woman in Window; Hansom Driver; Lillie's Maid; Sailor; Dockers; Customs Officers; Political Marchers; Cyprians; Porter; Brevoort Commissionaire; Desk Clerk; Kelly's Aides; Journalists; Artists; Brevoort Porters; Brevoort Page; 23rd Street Ostlers; 23rd Street Crowd; Amber Halpin; Office Boy; Gebhard's Butler; James Mitchell; Streetwalkers; The Captain; French Waiter; Amber's Butler; Policeman; Liveried Servants; Gebhard's Guests; Gebhard's Maids; Cleveland's Physician; Hotel Waiter; Moriarty's Spies; Police; Vagabonds; Newsboy; Police Headquarters Children; McGurk's Waiters; McGurk's Clientele; Charley the Chisler; Pumpkinhead O'Malloy; McGurk's Streetwalkers; Chinese Man; McGurk's Policemen; Ludovic the Vampire; Ryder; Maxwell; Hack Driver; Fifth Avenue Desk Clerk; Fifth Avenue Bellboys; Delmonico's Beggars; Delmonico's Patrons; Clergymen; Children; Wilde's Valet; Chickering Hall Audience; Hayes's Guests; Blaine's Aide; Newsboys; Captain of the Arizona; Crewman; Lord X; Lady Y
(Covent Garden Child; Todd; Margaret
; Barber; Mrs ----; Mary Smithfield; Mr Smithfield; Smithfield's Child; Chinese Workman; Ward; Inspector Wilson; Train Boy; British Ambassador)
Date: 1874 & October- November, 1884
Locations: Boat Quay; Holmes's Rooms; The Arizona; New York; Castle Garden; Pearl Street; Fifth Avenue; Brevoort Hotel; 362 West 23rd Street; Gebhard's House; The Louvre; French Café; Hotel Savoy; The Bowery; Palace of Illusions; Police Headquarters; McGurk's Suicide Hall; The House of Lords, Houston & Crosby Streets; Brooklyn Bridge; Ward's Home; The East River; Broadway; Blaine's Headquarters; Fifth Avenue Hotel; Delmonico's; Cathedral of St John the Divine; Chickering Hall; 112 East 29th Street; Poe's House; Park Theatre; Wall Street; Stock Exchange; Wallack's Theatre; Chicago; Grand Pacific Hotel; San Francisco; Kansas City; Washington D.C.; France; Paris
Story:
1874: Wilde suffers a hansom accident while travelling across London to meet Lillie Langtry off her ship. She visits Holmes, who is working on a distillate of opium, and begs him to love her.

1884: Wilde sails to America after his play Vera is closed in London for political reasons, and encounters Holmes on the dock as he disembarks, recalling how he had almost come to share rooms with him ten years previously. There is a mix-up over their luggage and Holmes is almost arrested for possession of banned books. He has arrived in New York in pursuit of Moriarty who has allied himself with the Whyos gang. They are both staying at the Brevoort, where Holmes receives an official welcome from Mayor Kelly. Later, they are visited by Grover Cleveland, who asks Holmes to retrieve a birth certificate from the actress Amber Halpin, with whom he fathered a child nine years previously and who is blackmailing him into breaking his engagement to Frances Folsom. Wilde already has a meeting, regarding Vera, arranged with Halpin, and it is he who discovers her true identity, while undertaking the task of marrying her off to Gebhard. Gebhard wants to finance Wilde's play, but his father has threatened to cut off his allowance if he is not married by the following day. Holmes and Wilde use a familiar trick to retrieve the birth certificate.

At Gebhard's wedding, Holmes comes face to face with Moriarty, and at Cleveland's hotel he discovers that Moriarty now has the birth certificate. The newspapers are full of the details of the Cleveland scandal. Holmes discovers he is being spied on, goes mad and writes a weird John Lennon-esque chapter to prove it, then pulls himself together again. He and Wilde discover they are being spied on by the Whyos. Holmes is arrested in an opium den, and later captured by Moriarty, who is in league with Blaine and Kelly. He and Moriarty fight on the Brooklyn Bridge, while Wilde organises an American lecture tour.

There follows much philosophising and political chicanery, but little to hold this reader's interest.

Oh, and Holmes discovers he has a daughter.

The last fifty or so pages are Lillie's diary.

Jane Yolen

Shirlick Holmes and the Case of the Wandering Wardrobe (1981)
Story Type:
Children's Homage
Detective:
Shirli "Shirlick" Holmes
Other Characters:
George Parker; Women Raking Leaves; Gloria; Candy; Frances Bird Baylor; Police Chief "Chiefy" Parker; Gloria's Mother; Professor Baylor; Mrs Holmes; Candy's Mother; Lester Gravel; Mr Lolly; JF; Auction Bidders; Shirli's Father; Shirli's Grandmother; Sandwich Man; State Tropers; (Doc Kaiser; Bubba Baylor; Willard A. Baylor; Mrs Parker)
Date: Autumn
Locations: USA; Hansfield; George's Yard; Empty House; George's House; Auction House; School
Story:
George Parker challenges Shirli Holmes, who wants to be called "Shirlock", to solve the mystery of antique furniture being stolen from summer houses in their town. She begins investigating with her friends Candy, Gloria and Frances. The Girls visit the houses that have been burgled to find clues, but are caught and warned off the case by George's father, the chief of police, although he assigns them the task of keeping watch over the houses. Cigars, lollipop sticks and Juicy Fruit wrappers provide them with clues, which lead to Shirlick being trapped inside a wardrobe as it is stolen.

Gilbert Youmans

"Mrs Hudson Stays for Tea" (1985)
Included in:
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (January 1986)
Story Type:
Pastiche
Canonical Characters: Sherlock Holmes; Dr Watson; Mrs (Dorothea "Dottie") Hudson; Inspector Lestrade; (Grimesby Roylott; Baker Street Cook)
Historical Figures: (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Other Characters: Tea Shop Waitress; Mr Fowler; Purse-Snatcher; (Baker Street Lodgers; Sergeant Hudson; Fowler's Assistant; Carrie; Cornelia Ransom; Mrs Hudson's Relative; Fowler's Employer)
Locations: 221B, Baker Street; Tea Shop
Story: Mrs Hudson consults Holmes over her new gentleman friend, Mr Fowler, an American who runs a fish stall in Soho, and whom she fears is more interested in her widow's pension and 221B than he is in her. It transpires that he has something altogether different in mind.

Richard & Judy Dockrey Young

"Rap...Rap...Rap!" (1990)
Included in:
Favorite Scary Stories of American Children (Richard & Judy Dockrey Young)
Story Type:
Children's Parody
Sherlockian Detective: Shylock Bones
Other Characters: Lady
Locations: Bones's Office; Lady's House
Story: Shylock Bones investigates a rapping sound in his lady client's attic.