Sherlock Holmes, the beloved fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is so preternaturally brilliant that it’s tempting to picture him having sprung into the world fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus. One of the great pleasures of Before Baker Street: The Adventures of Teenage Sherlock Holmes is that it vividly imagines something the Doyle stories don’t: Sherlock’s origins. Through seven captivating tales, we see him coming into his own as a sleuth, developing the skills that made him famous in both fiction and reality.
Another pleasure of the tales is their cross-pollinization with characters from–and sometimes the creators of–other classic literary works: for example, Tom Stubbins from the Dr. Doolittle books; Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, among other works; and Phileas Fogg from Around the World in Eighty Days. And in one chilling thrillride of a tale, Sherlock joins forces with Dracula author Bram Stoker to track down an exsanguinating murderer in Dublin, Stoker’s hometown. In some cases, these characters come to Sherlock’s aid; in others, they present additional mysteries for him to solve. But you don’t have to have read the works these characters came from to enjoy their interplay with Sherlock.
Tom Stubbins, who is described as Sherlock’s cousin, appears in the first two stories of the collection: “The Mystery of Edith Curtsey” and “The Adventure of the Missing Don.” We learn that Tom worked as an assistant to Dr. Doolittle and, like the doctor, he knows how to communicate with animals, an ability that comes in handy in both tales. In “The Mystery of Edith Curtsey,” Tom claims that an old blind cat, Jim, not only heard his mistress, Edith Curtsey, being murdered but was able to relay what he heard to Tom–something that critically minded Sherlock dismisses at first. But Sherlock is also open-minded, and this feature of his personality, combined with his budding sleuthing powers and assistance from Tom and Jim, leads to the discovery of the murderer, and to the revelation of a big secret surrounding Edith.
In “The Adventure of the Missing Don,” a parrot becomes a crucial aid in solving the disappearance of the don, who happens to be Charles Dodgson (a.k.a Lewis Carroll). When Dodgson fails to show up for class two days in a row, Sherlock becomes determined to find him. After discovering that Dodgson was accustomed to feeding birds from his apartment window–creatures that might have witnessed what happened to the professor–Sherlock puts Tom, as well as a parrot who can communicate with Tom and other birds, on the case. (This Parrot is Polynesia, from the Dr. Doolittle books.)
From the birds that Dodgson had been feeding, the parrot learns that Dodgson had been sedated and then “manhandled” from his apartment by a Prussian-accented man he’d hosted for tea. Based on a soil sample left behind in Dodgson’s lodgings, Sherlock tracks down the geographic origin of the kidnapper. He also discovers that this man is in cahoots with another malefactor. Furthermore, Sherlock identifies a motive for the kidnapping: A talented cryptographer, Dodgson would be an ideal creator of a cipher for the Prussian government, which, according to Sherlock’s father, appears to be bracing for hostilities with France. From here, Sherlock’s sleuthing brings the story to a satisfying conclusion–with the help of a talking dog, no less.
One of my favorite stories in the collection is “Lady Corwynne’s Legacy,” a gripping mash-up of the detective and horror genres. The story is set in Ireland, where Sherlock and his parents are visiting an aunt, uncle, and cousins on his mother’s side of the family. On the way to Ireland, Sherlock reads news accounts about the disappearance of several people–mainly prostitutes and indigents–in Dublin, some of whom are discovered later, drained of blood. When Sherlock learns that a friend of one of his Irish cousins has mysteriously vanished in the city, he decides to investigate further.
Some suspect a vampire of the mysterious disappearances and deaths, but Sherlock dismisses this theory, finding it irrational. However, he agrees that the perpetrator is after human blood, for reasons that need to be investigated. While doing research on the case at the Library of Trinity College, in Dublin, Sherlock runs into a young man who turns out to be Bram Stroker. Stoker is looking into the death of a friend who was killed recently and “left bloodless in an alley.” Finding that they have a mission in common, the two decide to collaborate. (At this time, Stoker has not yet written Dracula, but the bloody details of his adventures with Sherlock would seem to give him plenty of inspiration for the novel.)
From here, the story takes several unsettling twists and turns, leading Sherlock and Bram Stoker into dark (and gory) territory that I’ll keep in the shadows, in the interest of not spoiling the tale. But I will say that eventually, the two young men find themselves facing down the blood seeker, who is closely connected to perhaps the most famous tale of reanimation: Frankenstein. In addition to being truly chilling, the story cleverly balances Sherlock’s skepticism and scientific mind-set with the seemingly unexplainable. This tale, and other stories in the collection, also lays the groundwork for sensibilities and habits that Sherlock becomes known for in the Doyle stories. In “Lady Corwynne’s Legacy,” for example, he is injected—unwillingly–with a “seven per cent solution” of cocaine, leaving him feeling a euphoria that the Sherlock Holmes of the Doyle tales seeks repeatedly, also through the use of cocaine.
The final story in the collection, “The Matter of Time,” gives Sherlock an opportunity to solve the ultimate mystery: the cause of his own death, years in the future. The possibility of doing so arrives in the form of a time traveler, who is able to take teenaged Sherlock into the future, shortly before the time of his death. This would seem to give Sherlock the opportunity to prevent his own demise, but the story is more complicated than that and offers an intriguing twist. As an aside, the story includes elements of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, another connection between the Sherlock of these tales and classic literature.
The time traveler hints at Sherlock’s future meeting with an “amanuensis,” no doubt Dr. John Watson. If Sirois plans to capture the life of young Watson in future stories, or to release another collection of stories about young Sherlock, I’m very much looking forward to reading these tales. The ones in this collection were inventive, engaging, and lots of fun.
Would My Pick be Your Pick?
If you're interested in ________, the answer may be "Yes":￭ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (and adaptations of them)
￭ Detective or mystery tales
￭ Origin stories
￭ Coming-of-age stories