Of Course He Pushed Him & Other Sherlock Holmes Stories: Vol. Two: Crossovers and Alternative Histories

The execution falls short of the promising setups of the six Sherlock Holmes pastiches in this underwhelming collection from Chan (Sherlock’s Secretary). Pairing Holmes with G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, who has a markedly different detecting style, has potential, but “The Chapel of the Holy Blood,” in which the cleric seeks to use Holmes’s test for human bloodstains, doesn’t make much of their contrasting styles. The unsuspenseful title tale, which involves a slanderous campaign aimed at implicating Dr. Watson in Holmes’s death at Reichenbach Falls, comes across as a thinly veiled critique of fake news. In “The Search for Mycroft’s Successor,” what could have been an intriguing exploration of how Mycroft Holmes’s unique role in the British government could survive his death becomes silly when Sherlock suggests vetting Professor Moriarty’s descendants to succeed his brother, including one named James James Moriarty (“known as J.J.”). The story’s opening sentence, “As much as it pains me to admit it, none of us are immortal,” won’t remind anyone of the voice of Conan Doyle’s Watson. This is for completists only. (Nov.)