Reviews
"…These books are like literary crack. I fell in love with her characters and her world so completely that I've been telling all my friends 'YOU MUST READ THESE!' And yes, I've been doing so in all caps."
~Melissa A. Bartell, Bibliotica
"I’ll admit to being an absolute sucker for Sherlock Holmes pastiches, so what drew me into the concept of Stephanie Osborn’s Displaced Detective series was seeing whether her concept of pulling the “Great Detective” into the 21st century worked reasonably well.
"It doesn’t just work, she figured out a brilliant way of handling the transformation of Holmes from literary character to flesh-and-blood human. And managed to give a nod to possibly everyone’s gateway SF author into the bargain...
"The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival is so damn much fun that I couldn’t stop reading the series. I swept right on through the first three books one right after the other. I only stopped because I want to savor the last one.
"The author’s solution for slight variations in Holmes’ personality is sheer genius. There are differences. He is still the brilliant and calculatingly observant detective of the stories. That shines through every time he is on the page. But he also evolves past the “thinking machine” of Conan Doyle’s fiction. Partly, that’s because Ms. Osborn expressly made her Holmes a living person from the beginning, and partly because her Holmes is from a different universe and is similar but not exactly the same as the literary figure in our universe. She gave herself license for him to be different. It works for me...
"There’s an inevitable comparison to Laurie R. King’s Holmes/Russell series, starting with A Beekeeper’s Apprentice. King made her Holmes both a living person and started her series after the final Conan Doyle story, so she didn’t conflict with the Canon. Different approach, and I adore those too. If you like Mary Russell, give Skye Chadwick a try."
~ Marlene Harris, Reading Reality
The Sherlock Holmes character is moved to a more "modern" setting through an unusual event and "redesigns" himself to accommodate the new period. His Victorian "self" is radically altered, yet the qualities so treasured, remain. He marries, drives automobiles and wears clothing appropriate for his new environment, however, he is still "the old Holmes" chivalrous and practical.
The genre is definitely not one of my favorites and some of the settings startle, but, overall it is a superb idea and believably constructed. An 1800's man "ripped" from his world and "dropped" into ours. The concept is "most worthy". Written to entertain; it succeeded with me.
I've been a "Sherlockian" for too many years to mention and have been the recipient of numerous "pastiches" articles and manuscripts. Some were "OK" and some were "terrible"! This is in a category "to itself". It is "REALLY good"!
~Bill Markie aka Webley, Nashville Scholars of the Three-Pipe Problem
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