Sheer Luck Holmes
I love parodies. And I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, so reading a Sherlock Holmes parody is a lot of fun. But only if the parody is good-natured. If I read a story and sense the author’s aim is to be mean-spirited, then all the fun drains out of the parody.
Below are some of my favorite Sherlock Holmes parodies. All of them can be found in The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories edited by Otto Penzler, who gives an introduction to each story. Enjoy!
“The Adventure of the Two Collaborators” and “The Late Sherlock Holmes” by James M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan.
In the first story, Holmes’s deductions so amaze Watson that he leaps to the ceiling, noting that the ceiling “is much dented”.
“From a Detective’s Notebook” by P.G. Wodehouse. I love the beginning of this story.
” A private investigator asks a group of men, ‘I wonder . . . if it would interest you chaps to hear the story of what I always look upon as the greatest triumph of my career?’
We said No, it wouldn’t, and he began.”
“Detective Stories Gone Wrong: the Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs” by Robert Barr
This one makes me laugh because Kombs find the weapon used in the crime using ridiculous deductions.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had no reverence for his creation and wrote two parodies of his own: “How Watson Learned the Trick” and “The Field Bazaar”
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