Sherlockian Story Summaries

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WARNING: These are summaries, not reviews, and may contain story spoilers.

Click on these links for publication details of editions used for indexing

Robert Quackenbush

Sherlock Chick and the Case of the Night Noises (1990)
Story Type:
Children's Picturebook
Detective: Sherlock Chick
Other Characters: Animals; Mother Cow; Joe Horse; Calf; Putty Cat; Amy Goose; Goslings
Locations: The Barn; The Stable; The Tool Shed; The Corn Bin; The Hay Loft; The Spring House
Story: Loud noises in the barn wake Sherlock Chick and the other farmyard animals, but all they find is a milk pail on the floor and a rubber ball. The next night there are noises in the stable, spilled nails and a ball of yarn, and the third night cans and a ball of paper in the tool shed. Sherlock Chick makes some deductions and lays in wait for the noisemaker, who gets some good advice from Mother Cow.

Sherlock Chick and the Peekaboo Mystery (1987)
Story Type:
Children's Picturebook
Detective: Sherlock Chick
Other Characters: Mother Mouse; Squeakins; Raccoon; Rabbit; Baby Fox; Cat; Puppy
Locations: The Farmyard; Mother Mouse's House; Raccoon's Tree; Rabbit's Hill; A Bush; A Basket; A Kennel; A Drainpipe
Story: Mother Mouse asks Sherlock Chick to find her lost child, who was scared away by a cat. Sherlock Chick knows mice live in holes, so he searches all the holes in the farmyard for the missing mouse.

Ellery Queen

"The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore" (1944)
Included in:
The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ellery Queen)
Story Type:
Homage / Untold Story / Script
Canonical Characters: James Phillimore
Fictional Characters: Nikki Porter; Ellery Queen; Inspector Queen; Sergeant Velie
Story: Ellery Queen, in bed with a cold, receives a visit from his father who is about to "close the book on the career of a bird who should have been in jail years ago". As Sergeant Velie and Inspector Queen lie in wait outside the fraudster, James "Little Jim" Phillimore's house, they see him come out, then go back inside for his umbrella. When he does not come out again, they search the house, finding only Phillimore's man, Jonathan Biggs, inside. After several false starts, Ellery solves the mystery from his sick-bed.

The
                          Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ellery
                          Queen)


The Big Book
                      of Jack the Ripper (Otto Penzler)

The
                      Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of
                      Sherlock Holmes (Loren D. Estleman)

A Study in Terror (1966)
Included in:
Jack the Ripper (Martin Greenberg); The Big Book of Jack the Ripper (Otto Penzler); and as a novel in its own right; an extract appears in The Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes (Loren D. Estleman)
Story Type:
Homage / Pastiche
Canonical Characters: Sherlock Holmes; Dr Watson; Mary Morstan; Mrs Hudson; Baker Street Irregulars; Inspector Lestrade; Mycroft Holmes; (Wiggins)
Fictional Characters: Ellery Queen; Inspector Queen; Grant Ames III
Historical Figures: Jack the Ripper; Annie Chapman; Polly Nichols
Other Characters: Scot on Train; Shires Butler; Kenneth Osbourne, Duke of Shires; Lord Carfax; Deborah Osbourne; Joseph Beck; Dr Murray; Pierre; Derelicts; Sally's Patient; Sally Young; Two Toughs; Butch; Lamplighter; Bookkeeper; Michael Osbourne; Madge Short; Angel & Crown Clientele; Waiter; Max Klein; Butcher's Boy; Timothy Wentworth; Pimply Messenger; Rachel Hager; Page-boy; Urchin; Cabman; Opium Addicts; Prostitutes; Jenny; Leona; Western Union Messenger; Murray's Patient; Angela Osbourne; Rudyard; (Aunt Agatha; Katherine Lambert; Lita; Pagan Kelly; Tommy; Alfred Dobbs; Genealogist)
Date: Present & Autumn, 1888
Locations:
New York: Ellery's Residence; Madge's Upper East Side Apartment; New Rochelle; Rachel's Backyard; Westchester; Deborah's Cottage
England: 221B, Baker Street; Watson's Paddington Residence; Express Train; Devonshire; Shires Castle; Whitechapel; Great Heapton Street; Beck's Pawnbrokers Shop; Montague Street; Mortuary; Montague Street Hostel; A Hansom Cab; The Diogenes Club; The Angel & Crown; Abattoir; Opium Den; Brothel; The Pacquin; (Paris)
Story: Ellery receives an envelope containing a manuscript by Watson:

Having announced his reluctance to investigate the Ripper killings, Holmes receives a case of surgical instruments bearing the crest of the Duke of Shires.

Grant Ames challenges Ellery to confirm the manuscripts authenticity.

Holmes and Watson travel to the Shires Estate in Devonshire, where the Duke identifies the case as belonging to his son, Michael, whom he says is dead, although Holmes later learns he is disgraced and disowned after marrying against his father's wishes.

Ellery sends Ames to try to track down the woman who addressed the envelope the manuscript came in.

The Irregulars trace the shop the case was pawned at, and Holmes learns that it was redeemed by a woman with a disfigured face. He also traces the woman who originally pledged the case. They encounter Lestrade and another Ripper victim at a mortuary on their way to find the women. At the Montague Street Hostel they learn the mysterious origins of the instrument case and of Dr Murray's simpleton assistant, Pierre. They re-encounter the Duke's eldest son, and are set upon by three toughs.

Ellery tells his father about the manuscript.

Holmes and Watson visit Mycroft and true identities are revealed.

Ames begins his search with Madge Short

Watson follows a man he believes is the Ripper, but is attacked himself. He and Holmes fail to prevent another murder. They learn more of the Osbourne family's links to the hostel.

Ames continues his search, but Ellery has already deduced the manuscript's source.

Holmes and Watson are visited by Wentworth, who tells them of Michael Osbourne's life in Paris.

Ames realises he has fallen in love.

Holmes discovers the Ripper's lair, and a note from Mycroft puts him on the trail of the man himself.

Ellery receives a phone call from an old lady.

A meeting with the scarred woman fills in the gaps in the case, and a fire brings it to a close.

Ellery provides an alternative solution to Holmes's.

Stanley Quinn

"A Fiasco of Inference" (1905)
Included in:
The Fordham Monthly, Vol. XXIV No. 3, December 1905
Story Type:
Parody
Canonical Characters: Sherlock Holmes; Dr Watson
Historical Figures: (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Other Characters: Marion; Annette; (Sir Charles Gilhooley; Sir Charles Manton; Sir Charles Tavernay)
Unnamed Characters: Under Secretary; Cab Driver; (Watson's Patients)
Date: October
Locations: 221B, Baker Street; Swamp
Story: Holmes shows Watson a letter from Annette to Marion, planning a murder. Holmes deduces that the victim will be a prominent person, perhaps even the Prime Minister. They lay in wait at the swamp where the murder is to take place but end up assisting in the events that play out there.


Tim Quinn & Dicky Howett

"Hello, I'm Doctor Who" (1988)
Included in:
Doctor Who: It's Bigger on the Inside! (Tim Quinn & Dicky Howett)
Story Type:
Comic Strip
Canonical Characters: Sherlock Holmes; (Hound of the Baskervilles)
Fictional Characters: The First Doctor; John Who; Gillian Who; Robinson Crusoe; Cannibals
Legendary Characters: William Tell; Tell's Son; Albrecht Gessler
Unnamed Characters:
Soldiers
Locations: Storyland
Story: Attempting to return his grandchildren John and Gillian home to 1964, the Doctor arrives in Storyland where, after brief encounters with Holmes and Robinson Crusoe, he comes to the rescue of William Tell.