The Crossover UniverseTM is a companion blog to the books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1-2 by Win Scott Eckert, and the forthcoming Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1-2 by Sean Levin. Material excerpted from Crossovers Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2010-2014 by Win Scott Eckert. All rights reserved. Material excerpted from Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2014-present by Sean Levin. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Game's Afoot
This anthology contains three stories with crossovers. In M.J. Elliott's "The Adventure of the Hanging Tyrant," set in 1894, Holmes
investigates a case that involves Oswald Crawshay, who learned the
art of housebreaking from his uncle, a suspect in the theft of the
Melrose Necklace. Oswald's
uncle is Reginald Crawshay from E. W. Hornung’s Raffles stories "Gentlemen and Players" and "The Return Match," both of which
are included in the collection The
Amateur Cracksman. In Christopher Sequeira's "The Adventure of the Haunted Showman," set in October 1897, Inspector
Lestrade brings a potential client to Holmes, who says he is engaged in a pressing affair involving an unclaimed
rare book recently auctioned after the sale of the Al Hazred
Collection, and he shall not be free until a courier returns from
Amsterdam with a message he requires. After the woman and Lestrade
leave, Holmes admits to Watson he was lying about the prior case. Despite
Holmes’ falsehood, he must be aware of the real "Mad Arab"
Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon
in
H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. "The Return of the Sussex Vampire," also by Sequeira, is set in 1926. The elderly Holmes and Watson
investigate a case of vampirism plaguing Josiah Ferguson’s
daughters, similar to a case involving Josiah’s nephew Bob’s
infant son that occurred years ago. Bob Ferguson is from Doyle’s "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." Watson is uncertain what
to do with notes from some of Holmes’ cases, including that of the
Nikola Formulae. This is a reference to Guy Boothby’s master
criminal Doctor Nikola. Watson has grown children (including at least
two sons) and young grandchildren at the time of this case. However,
in Farmer’s The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer,
Watson
states Nylepthah is the only one of his four wives to bear him a son,
that child being born in November 1918. Combined with a reference to
Watson attending Mycroft Holmes’ funeral in 1919, this places
Sequeira’s tale in an alternate reality to the CU.
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