Sorry for the tiny image. it's the biggest version I could find of the cover for the edition I read. Above the title it says: "Holmes meets Houdini in the most phantasmic adventure of his career!"
Fan fiction: the butt of endless jokes. Often, when a fan of a particular movie or tv show is debating continuity with another who cites a novel or comic, the term "fan fiction" will be used to belittle the licensed media. But is it fair? I'm not gonna draw it out: the answer is no.
Fan fiction is much older than most people give it credit for. What are we to make of the ways that cultures (*cough*Romans*cough*) appropriated the stories of their neighbors and those they conquered? "Oh, I like this Zeus guy. Let's tweak him a little bit and call him Jupiter." It's the same impulse, really: I like this story. I like these characters. I want to try something with them. Some may find it unoriginal, or a waste of time, but personally I think it's a testament to the collaborative nature of, well, everything.
And so that brings us to The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man by Daniel Stashower. It claims to be from a lost Watson manuscript (because of course Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were real people, ya dummy!) about the time that Holmes got Harry Houdini off from being framed for a robbery and a murder. I'm not going to go into great detail about the plot itself, but it's not bad. Parts of the solution to the case are fairly obvious early on, but some parts are surprising despite being properly set up, which is all you can ask of any mystery novel.
I'm more interested in the ways that the novel works as fan fiction, and how it resonates with myself as a Sherlock Holmes fan. I've had a love for the character since childhood. Just ask my mom about "Sherlock Joel," a story I had her transcribe for me while I was still figuring out how writing letters worked (Spoiler Alert: Darth Vader did it). And of course, I am just as enamored of the BBC Sherlock series as everyone else on the planet. But it has been some time since I've actually read a Sherlock Holmes story. I think the last one might have been around my freshman or sophomore years of high school. So it's been a while.
I was worried my mental image of the characters might be tainted by repeated viewings of the BBC series. Fortunately, that did not wind up being the case. My old mental images of Holmes and Watson quickly reasserted themselves (although Lestrade was stuck as Rupert Graves until near the end, when for some reason he started to look more like a constable in an Edward Gorey piece. My mind is a strange place). I must give credit for this to the writing. It was pretty close to how I remember the characters in the original stories. Stashower isn't interested in reinventing here: he just wants to add to what has come before. And he does so fairly well. The characterizations are solid, the plot is decent, but if it fails as "an addition to what has come before" it does so in how much it winks at the reader.
All sorts of in-jokes and dramatic irony pepper the story just for those familiar with Holmes and Houdini. After the third or forth time someone punches Houdini in the stomach, I kind of wanted to say "yeah, I get it, Stashower. Move on." There are all kinds of references to earlier Holmes stories, complete with footnotes specifically pointing out that they are references. This, I can only imagine, is as an aide to any readers who might be less familiar with the Holmes cannon. Perhaps Stashower's target audience is less hardcore Holmes fans and more those who are just casually acquainted with the character, and he hopes to get them to read more of the original stories. If this in fact was his goal, he succeeds. I was left thirsting for more Sherlock Holmes, although I won't be getting back to him until I get to the D's in my own library.
One last criticism: I do wish that Houdini had done more. Holmes does all the heavy lifting in the story, with Houdini merely being a client. It would have been nice for Houdini's skills as an escape artist to affect the plot a little more than they did. But it's a minor thing. I didn't even notice it until reflecting on the book afterwards.
Overall, The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man is an enjoyable read, and a solid piece of unabashed, unashamed fan fiction. If you're the type to likes to do this sort of thing, pick up a copy for some beach reading this summer. I might pick up my own copy of it at some point, but for now this copy is going back to Wade.
Next: The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell.
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