Overall, I enjoyed the book, although I found the lack of a table of contents annoying.

Premise: an anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories, each with a dash of horror elements. That concept drew me in. As usual in an anthology, some stories I enjoyed more than others.

The Lost Boy by Barbara Hambly was more dark fantasy than horror. I liked Peter Pan as a character and thought the story well done.

The Last Arrow by Christopher Sequeira was less successful for me. I felt the ending was unexpected and I felt let down.

The Things that Shall Come upon Them by Barbara Roden was well done. Pairing Sherlock Holmes with a psychic detective allowed the reader to choose solutions.

The Finishing Stroke by M.J. Elliott was enjoyable, in a horror story way.

Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World by Martin Powell combines the two Conan Doyle tales.

The Granchester Grimoire by Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett was a quite adequate tale.

The Strange Affair of the Steamship Friesland by Peter Calamai was a good ghost story with ties to a canon Holmes mystery.

The Entwined by editor Jeff (J.R.) Campbell was another piece of dark fantasy and sent shivers down my back.

Merridew of Abominable Memory by Chris Roberson was a solid mystery with a horrific twist.

Red Sunset by Bob Madison was a delightful mixture of Holmes, hard-boiled mystery, and horror. An aging Sherlock Holmes in LA deaing with vampires -- what could be better!

The Red Planet League by Kim Newman felt a bit out of place with nary a drop of Holmes. Still Colonel Moran's Moriarty tale is well done.

You should enjoy both horror and Sherlock Holmes before picking up this book. ( )

I had a really, really hard time reading this book. One or two of the stories were entertaining and one was somewhat creepy but none were really scary or even came close to feeling like a Sherlock Holmes story. There wasn't any story that I felt compelled to read and if I put the book down I had to make myself start to read it again and this has pretty much cooled my interest in the Sherlock Holmes/horror genre mash up idea. ( )

Even though Arthur Conan Doyle was a well-known occult writer, he had to keep Sherlock Holmes, his most famous creation, grounded in reality. Doyle couldn’t weaken his popularity by giving Holmes a number of occult and fantastic cases to solve. This book takes care of that.

Watson was severely injured, and should have died, while serving with the British Army in Afghanistan. He was saved by a blue djinn who exacts a price from Watson for his help. Years later, while solving a case of what looks like suicide by crossbow, Watson suddenly stabs Holmes with an arrow. In his death throes, "Holmes" turns into the blue djinn who saved Watson’s life years before.

During World War II, Holmes is in a California nursing home. The damage to British morale would be too severe if he should be killed by the Nazis. Holmes helps a local detective discover how a man can be shot three times, twice in the chest and once in the head, and walk away. It has to do with the importation of fifty pine boxes from Romania, filled with vampires willing to work for the Allies.

In other stories, Holmes and Watson meet up with two famous literary occult detectives, Flaxman Low and Thomas Carnacki. Holmes is very much of a realist; no matter how weird and occult things may seem, there is usually a rational explanation. But he does not totally dismiss un-rational explanations.

I really enjoyed these stories. They are well done, and they are nice and weird without being too weird. Holmes fans will love this book, and so will occult fiction fans. ( )

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