I had quite forgotten how funny Herlock Sholmes is with his larger than life nose, even bigger pipe, and cocaine cask always nearby. And Dr Jotson, too, with his line of patients who drop like flies or can’t “stir abroad save in an ambulance”.
I also forgot that I didn’t actually finish reading The Complete Casebook of Herlock Sholmes. So I added it back in to my daily reading this week.
Herlock Sholmes, if you haven’t guessed, is a parody of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. A few years ago, just as I was starting this blog, I read Holmes and Sholmes in tandem. Some of the early Sholmes mysteries were nearly exact replicas of the original Holmes stories. For example, while Sherlock Holmes was clearing up the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Herlock Sholmes was investigating The Bound of the Haskervilles.
During World War I, Sholmes investigated cases of espionage and resolved issues of governmental waste and corruption, especially in the Red Tape Office, the Unanswered Letters Department, and the Circumlocution Department. Before and after the war, he helped locals find missing items, solved ghost mysteries, and befuddled Inspector Pinkeye’s New Year’s resolution.
I don’t know how many copies of the Herlock Sholmes archives there are, but if you ever see one in a used book store, snatch it up, especially if you love a good laugh and a comical parody. You won’t be disappointed.
