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This article is for the 2010 series of novels. For the 1985 film of the same name see Young Sherlock Holmes. For the novelisation of the film see Young Sherlock Holmes (novelisation).


Young Sherlock Holmes is a series of novels by Andrew Lane that depicts Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes from the age of fourteen onwards facing numerous mysteries, crimes and adventures throughout the 1860s and 70s. The first was published in the UK on 4 June, 2010 by Macmillan Books and the eighth book in September 2015.


Background[]

Based on the success of Charlie Higson's bestselling Young Bond series, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle authorised a series of books detailing the life of the teenage Sherlock Holmes'.

One of Andrew Lane's key aims is to explain some of the complexities of Holmes' character, who is scientific and analytical on the one hand, and artistic and moody on the other. Two new characters introduced in this series, his two tutors, Amyus Crowe and Rufus Stone, will help shed light on the formation of the two sides of his character evident in later life.

Lane also wanted to ensure that his stories jibed with the original Doyle stories as it bothered him that Watson was presented as a young friend of Holmes in Young Sherlock Holmes which contradicts the events of A Study in Scarlet.

"In the 10-page proposal that I put together, it was important that the series took Sherlock from being a 14-year-old boy at school, through university, and leads seamlessly to the opening lines of the first of Doyle's Sherlock novels. I didn't want them to be seen as period pieces with Victorian wood-cut-style covers, but as contemporary, 21st-century books."

Lane's initial proposal provided ideas for potential plots for entries in the series;

  • The Giant Rat of Sumatra (mentioned in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire")
  • The Remarkable Worm Unknown to Science (mentioned in "The Problem of Thor Bridge")
  • Colonel Warburton’s Madness (mentioned in "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb")
  • The Segregation of the Queen (mentioned in "His Last Bow")

Books[]

Reception[]

Chicago Tribune gave Death Cloud a positive review stating:

"For a reader who has outgrown the Hardy Boys' adventures but still seeks mystery-solving plots, Andrew Lane's invention of a teenage Sherlock Holmes will seem timely."

Graham Moore, author of The Sherlockian, reviewed Death Cloud for The New York Times and stated:

"Lane is attempting a curious feat: to update and adapt Sherlock Holmes for a new generation, much the way Guy Ritchie has done with a swashbuckling Sherlock on screen....Yet, in the end, the novel strives to rescue Holmes from the prejudices of his creator, and thereby expand the pool of Holmes devotees. For that we can all be grateful."

External links[]

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