‘Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street’ Nancy Holder and Margie Deck (Eds)

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

This is a compilation of essays, personal reflections and short stories using the general theme of baking as a starting point. As with any anthology, some pieces are more appealing than others but for fans of the detecting duo Holmes and Watson, there’s definitely something for everyone.

Several of the stories such as Julie Ditrich’s ‘The Adventure of the Tempting Tower’ are written very much in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle and could easily fit in with any of the original adventures. Of course, if I wanted to nit-pick, I’d say stories written by American writers using American spellings couldn’t possibly be expected to pass for the work of ACD! Though ‘Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street’ is certainly not a recipe book, there are a few recipes included, such as ‘Win-a-Ginger Clod’, contributed by Paul Thomas Miller and ‘Mrs Hudson’s Curried Salmon’, by Enrico Solito and Gianluca Salvatori. It should be noted that produce created from these recipes aren’t necessarily designed to be eaten!

Noteworthy pieces include Margie Deck’s ‘The Child in the Wood’, written in a true Holmesian style, ‘What She kneaded’ by Elise Elliot (in which Kitty Winter from ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ appears) and Morton Duffy’s ‘The Childhood of Sherlock Holmes’, which investigates how the world’s only consulting detective honed his skills on the family estate.

An interesting and thought-provoking collection that will delight Holmesian fans everywhere.

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