The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Greatest Detective Stories: 1837-1914

by Graeme Davis (Editor)

This masterful collection of seventeen classic mystery stories, dating from 1837 to 1914, traces the earliest history of popular detective fiction.

Today, the figure of Sherlock Holmes towers over detective fiction like a colossus—but it was not always so. Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin, the hero of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” anticipated Holmes’ deductive reasoning by more than forty years. In A Study in Scarlet , the first of Holmes’ adventures, Doyle acknowledged his debt to Poe—and to Émile Gaboriau, whose thief-turned-detective Monsieur Lecoq debuted in France twenty years earlier.

If Rue Morgue was the first true detective story in English, the title of the first full-length detective novel is more hotly contested. Among the possibilities are two books by Wilkie Collins— The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868)—Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) or Aurora Floyd (1862), and The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-3) by the pseudonymous “Charles Felix.”

As the early years of detective fiction gave way to two separate golden ages—hard-boiled tales in America and intricately-plotted “cozy” murders in Britain—and these new sub-genres went their own ways, their detectives still required the intelligence and clear-sightedness that characterized the earliest works of detective the trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, and of all the detectives featured in these pages.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Classics

364 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2019

About the author

Graeme Davis was born at an early age and has lived ever since.

His enduring fascination with creatures from myth and folklore can probably be blamed equally on Ray Harryhausen and Christopher Lee. He studied archaeology at the University of Durham before joining Games Workshop in 1986, where he co-wrote the acclaimed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game among others.

He has worked on over 40 video games, countless tabletop roleplaying game products, and a few more sensible books in the realms of history, mythology, and folklore. Most recently, he has written multiple titles for Osprey Publishing's Dark Osprey and Myths and Legends lines.

He blogs at graemedavis.wordpress.com and tweets as @GraemeJDavis. His Facebook author page is at https://www.facebook.com/Graeme-Davis...

Reviews

[Graham Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this, to enjoy it more than I did. I had to talk myself into giving it 3 stars! I am a Sherlock Holmes fan, but, in recent years I realised that I have read very little of Holmes's contemporaries. So, when I saw this book, I thought it was providence, my opportunity to correct the ledger. I was excited and intrigued. It did not last. Now, that is not to say that this is a poor collection. It just didn't do for me what I had hoped it would.

There are seventeen stories in this collection, and, for me, only about 4 of them are truly great. A few are actually snippets from or truncated elements of novels in their own right. One seemed like a parody of Holmes, the sleuth being Herlock Sholmes! Confounded!! Listen, it was great to read these stories, but it only put the grá (pronounced "graw," which is Gaelic for "love") on me to read more Sherlock Holmes!

Would I recommend this book? This is a yes and a no, yes if you love Holmes, no if you have no interest in Holmes as some of these stories may very well turn you off late 1800's/early 1900's detective fiction.

[Library Queen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 of these were absolutely fantastic. However, there were a few I was completely bored by and skipped, and most were just meh.

Apparently I am not a fan of Poe, but very much enjoy Emmuska Orczy.

[Jo Berry ☀️]

A DNF, after several failed attempts to find a story I liked in this collection. I love cosy crime, I love short stories and I love Victorian literature, so this should have been a good book for me. Unfortunately, all the ones I started were stuffy, slow and boring. I think there’s a reason these stories have dropped into the background of detective fiction.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any anthology, this one had its brighter and duller moments. I didn’t read any of the extracts from the novels: they were there to give the flavor of the author’s writing, I think, so for documentary purposes rather than pleasure reading. I did discover a couple of writers I would read again, notably Ernest Bramah and Arthur Morrison, and I was reminded of the enjoyment of reading Wilkie Collins and Baroness Orczy.

[Edward Monrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit or miss, some of the stories quite compelling others pretty meh

[Jill Rebryna · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Hutchinson Hatch.
For Doctor Jervis.
For Mary Granard.
For Gus (Augustus) Darley.
For M. Plantat.
For Brett.
For Sainclair.
For Walter Jameson.
For Wilson. (That poor, cheap copy.)
For Dupin's nameless roommate.
Mostly for Bunny Manders.
For all these pieces who aren't missing because we have an expectation for them to be there. The rivals of Sherlock Holmes? Yes. But there is no rival to John Watson. They may be reflections, but they are needed, all of them. They are most worthy to stand beside their protagonists and play the part that was written for them because I hope a story could never be written without them.

[Rubin Carpenter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of early
Detective stories that predate compete with and even emulate Sherlock Holmes are very dry,dull,and underwhelming as a whole while 2 stories are excellently narrated by Maxwell Caulfield the rest are substandard and the only 2 stories that actually good are the Man with Nailed Shoes and the superfluous finger
The history of the genre and the authors given here before each tale is interesting with huge literary names such as Poe and Dickens both whom I love but the Detective stories here only prove that Sherlock Holmes may have rivals but certainly no equals

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly a DNF. I never much cared for mystery, crime, or detective stories before I fell down the Sherlock Holmes hyperfixation rabbit hole recently and evidently I still can’t maintain interest if it’s not Holmes the sleuthhound and good old Watson. As a young person I enjoyed the aesthetic texture of Poe but that attraction to Gothic Romanticism is about as far as it goes. I appreciated the essay at the very beginning of the collection, though!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this book its rating based on the collection; too difficult to do otherwise since it's a collection of detective stories written before or shortly after Conan Doyle's stories. The collection includes two tales written by women. I feel that the stories were more interesting the later they appeared in the book.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew there were so many contemporaries of Holmes? I didn't, but I'm glad I found this book. The majority of the stories were entertaining and enjoyable - one or two could've been left out, in my opinion - but I'd no clue the genre was as expansive as it was at that point in history.

[Silena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of detective stories published before or during Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. One story is very difficult to read as the author created a gentleman thief to face off with "Herlock Sholmes."

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[R Neil McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun look at other writing at the time we don't usually get to see. Would've been great if, instead of Enola Holmes, they'd looked to the female detective here and brought her back to prominence.

[Tom Rechtien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting if you like old-timey detective stories, or the history of the genre.