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Improbable Remains: The Bizarre and Unconventional Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by J. R. Campbell
meltingpenguins's review
2.0
Improbable Remains is a collection of various Sherlock Holmes pastiches by J.R. Campbell, some previously published, some new. Some stories here have Holmes tackle the supernatural, others are simply odd.
I found the stories to be overall pretty dull, I must admit, with little that left an impact, left alone stuck to memory. My main issue with them is, by all means, that the fantastical cases often felt they would have fared better with a mundane solution.
In detail (no marked spoilers):
1. The Missing Coppertop
3.5/5 Holmes is called to investigate the theft of a railway engine, uncovers the kidnapping of a retired engineer and stops an attack with the engine on Scotland Yard. It's a solid read, even though the mechanical explanation as to how the bad guys planned to use the engine to attack was a little... wobbly and took me out of the story. This, the first story, is funnily enough one of the mundane ones that could have done with something more fantastical.
2. The Entwined
1/5, maybe even 0.5/5. One of the weakest to me. The first supernatural story, and this really could have done with a mundane solution. A young woman in a mental asylum declares that she can turn into a transdimensional creature to kill people, and asks Holmes to... prove that? stop her? I'm not entirely certain. In any case, yeah, she's some multidimensional creature, Holmes gets knocked out in the confrontation, Watson kills her, and tells Holmes nothing supernatural happened.
I found this quite dull, and I am in general not much a fan of stories that have Holmes despair over the existence of the supernatural and magical.
3. The Haunted Inspector
2.5/5 Solid story, nothing outstanding, didn't stick with me. An Inspector meddles with evidence to get a murderer hanged for certain, in the progress protecting the actual culprit guilty of the second death, gets haunted by the ghost of the woman. I don't even remember if the actual culprit died at the end or not.
4. Court of Honour
4.5./5, best of a bunch. A queer Holmes story surrounding the alleged suicide of a gentleman. Turns out the man was forced to take his own life after former classmates of his uncovered his affair with another man, leading to Holmes giving the culprits a taste of their own medicine.
5. Best laid plans.
0.5-1/5 This one bored me. Something about Scotland Yard tying up loose ends after 'The Final Problem', there's some Island of Dr Moreau style human hybrids and stuff, Moriarty is immortal or something, eesh. Didn't like the narrative style for this one either.
6. Mr Other's Children
2.5/5 Again solid, but again nothing outstanding. Starts with Holmes preventing a suicide of an Inspector, turns into bodyhorror when it turns out the woman the Inspector had an affair with was used by some worm creature as breeding ground for more worms. Worms die, some answers that should have been answered remain unanswered.
7. Lord Garnett's Skulls
3/5, Holmes investigates the theft of some skulls from the home of a wealthy anthropologist, then the man's son disappears. Solid, but I don't think chimney's worked like that, so that important detail threw me off. This is another mundane solution one when a supernatural might have done better. Also I'm not much a fan when mysteries, regardless the investigator withhold information from the reader.
8. The Oba's Voice
2.5-3/5 Like 'The Entwined' before this one felt as if it would have fared better with a mundane explanation. We got magical hypnosis instead. Some guy uses a stolen artefact to weasel his way into high society, screws over Holmes, but ultimately gets hoisted by his own petard when Holmes gets his hands on the artefact.
9. Contaminated Sample
0-0.5 This one was so, so dull. Lotsa talking, no plot that would have even required Holmes' presence, then some nonsensical transdimensional action, with no answers and so, so many coop-outs. Basically some scientist has been in contact with a being from another dimension/reality, and tries to... I'm not entirely certain -what- he even tried. There's a lot of drawn out metaphors to explain dimensions beyond the 3rd and 4th one, and it's just so dull.
10. Grimoire
1.5-2.5/5 Dull, but not necessarily in a completely bad way like the previous one. Holmes goes to Wales to investigate the origins of some photographs of a book which apparently drove an Oxford Professor to lose his wits. A lot of talking, little action, bit of a coop-out ending. The 'oh but I knew you'd know I'd do that' approach to things was used a little bit too much for my taste.
11. Hero of Baker Street
2/5 It took me so long to finish this one. I don't know what it was, it had a good flow, but there was just something about it that felt like I'm missing some in-joke or general previous knowledge necessary to understand what's going on, and the narrator didn't really excite me either. Something about hypnosis and human experimentation again.
All in all the stories are more on the weak but the strong side for me. Some good ideas, but the execution felt lacking all too often.
Overall:
2/5
I found the stories to be overall pretty dull, I must admit, with little that left an impact, left alone stuck to memory. My main issue with them is, by all means, that the fantastical cases often felt they would have fared better with a mundane solution.
In detail (no marked spoilers):
1. The Missing Coppertop
3.5/5 Holmes is called to investigate the theft of a railway engine, uncovers the kidnapping of a retired engineer and stops an attack with the engine on Scotland Yard. It's a solid read, even though the mechanical explanation as to how the bad guys planned to use the engine to attack was a little... wobbly and took me out of the story. This, the first story, is funnily enough one of the mundane ones that could have done with something more fantastical.
2. The Entwined
1/5, maybe even 0.5/5. One of the weakest to me. The first supernatural story, and this really could have done with a mundane solution. A young woman in a mental asylum declares that she can turn into a transdimensional creature to kill people, and asks Holmes to... prove that? stop her? I'm not entirely certain. In any case, yeah, she's some multidimensional creature, Holmes gets knocked out in the confrontation, Watson kills her, and tells Holmes nothing supernatural happened.
I found this quite dull, and I am in general not much a fan of stories that have Holmes despair over the existence of the supernatural and magical.
3. The Haunted Inspector
2.5/5 Solid story, nothing outstanding, didn't stick with me. An Inspector meddles with evidence to get a murderer hanged for certain, in the progress protecting the actual culprit guilty of the second death, gets haunted by the ghost of the woman. I don't even remember if the actual culprit died at the end or not.
4. Court of Honour
4.5./5, best of a bunch. A queer Holmes story surrounding the alleged suicide of a gentleman. Turns out the man was forced to take his own life after former classmates of his uncovered his affair with another man, leading to Holmes giving the culprits a taste of their own medicine.
5. Best laid plans.
0.5-1/5 This one bored me. Something about Scotland Yard tying up loose ends after 'The Final Problem', there's some Island of Dr Moreau style human hybrids and stuff, Moriarty is immortal or something, eesh. Didn't like the narrative style for this one either.
6. Mr Other's Children
2.5/5 Again solid, but again nothing outstanding. Starts with Holmes preventing a suicide of an Inspector, turns into bodyhorror when it turns out the woman the Inspector had an affair with was used by some worm creature as breeding ground for more worms. Worms die, some answers that should have been answered remain unanswered.
7. Lord Garnett's Skulls
3/5, Holmes investigates the theft of some skulls from the home of a wealthy anthropologist, then the man's son disappears. Solid, but I don't think chimney's worked like that, so that important detail threw me off. This is another mundane solution one when a supernatural might have done better. Also I'm not much a fan when mysteries, regardless the investigator withhold information from the reader.
8. The Oba's Voice
2.5-3/5 Like 'The Entwined' before this one felt as if it would have fared better with a mundane explanation. We got magical hypnosis instead. Some guy uses a stolen artefact to weasel his way into high society, screws over Holmes, but ultimately gets hoisted by his own petard when Holmes gets his hands on the artefact.
9. Contaminated Sample
0-0.5 This one was so, so dull. Lotsa talking, no plot that would have even required Holmes' presence, then some nonsensical transdimensional action, with no answers and so, so many coop-outs. Basically some scientist has been in contact with a being from another dimension/reality, and tries to... I'm not entirely certain -what- he even tried. There's a lot of drawn out metaphors to explain dimensions beyond the 3rd and 4th one, and it's just so dull.
10. Grimoire
1.5-2.5/5 Dull, but not necessarily in a completely bad way like the previous one. Holmes goes to Wales to investigate the origins of some photographs of a book which apparently drove an Oxford Professor to lose his wits. A lot of talking, little action, bit of a coop-out ending. The 'oh but I knew you'd know I'd do that' approach to things was used a little bit too much for my taste.
11. Hero of Baker Street
2/5 It took me so long to finish this one. I don't know what it was, it had a good flow, but there was just something about it that felt like I'm missing some in-joke or general previous knowledge necessary to understand what's going on, and the narrator didn't really excite me either. Something about hypnosis and human experimentation again.
All in all the stories are more on the weak but the strong side for me. Some good ideas, but the execution felt lacking all too often.
Overall:
2/5
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