Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street

by Margie Deck (Editor), Nancy Holder (Editor), Leslie S. Klinger (Foreword)

A Sherlock Holmes Book Like No Other Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street contains 37 essays, personal reflections, and short stories that use baking as a springboard, and a springboard only—it is not a cookbook. Subjects range from a progressive dinner mystery to the revelation that one of the original Holmes stories is actually a secret code for a recipe that will probably kill you; a very nice traybake of kitchen fire adventures; death by flour; thoughts about dopamine as it relates to milk, cookies, and Sherlock Holmes; and the power of Japanese bean paste to turn Sherlock into a very real boy by way of the movie Mr. Holmes. The anthology is the brainchild of Margie Deck, a long-time Sherlockian and skilled amateur baker devoted to the Great British Baking Show. The pun of Baking Street and Baker Street was too much for her busy brain to resist during lockdown, when everyone with an oven decided to start baking. She invited New York Times best-selling author, avid Sherlockian and baker Nancy Holder onto the project. For the last eight months they have collected and edited contributions to Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street from Sherlockians in Italy, India, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, the US, and the UK. The work also includes an interview with the screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher and two illustrations by the Australian artist J. Scherpenhuizen.The book features superstars in the Sherlockian world and seasoned writing stars from other genres.

371 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2021

Reviews

[Colin Garrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compilation of essays, personal reflections and short stories using the general theme of baking as a starting point. As with any anthology, some pieces are more appealing than others but for fans of the detecting duo Holmes and Watson, there’s definitely something for everyone.

Several of the stories such as Julie Ditrich’s ‘The Adventure of the Tempting Tower’ are written very much in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle and could easily fit in with any of the original adventures. Of course, if I wanted to nit-pick, I’d say stories written by American writers using American spellings couldn’t possibly be expected to pass for the work of ACD! Though ‘Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street’ is certainly not a recipe book, there are a few recipes included, such as ‘Win-a-Ginger Clod’, contributed by Paul Thomas Miller and ‘Mrs Hudson’s Curried Salmon’, by Enrico Solito and Gianluca Salvatori. It should be noted that produce created from these recipes aren’t necessarily designed to be eaten!

Noteworthy pieces include Margie Deck’s ‘The Child in the Wood’, written in a true Holmesian style, ‘What She kneaded’ by Elise Elliot (in which Kitty Winter from ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ appears) and Morton Duffy’s ‘The Childhood of Sherlock Holmes’, which investigates how the world’s only consulting detective honed his skills on the family estate.

An interesting and thought-provoking collection that will delight Holmesian fans everywhere.

[Lari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection, with a mix of essays, stories, and even a few recipes. There were many delightful stories, but of the non-stories, I think my favourite would have to be Win A Ginger Clod, just for the sheer absurdity!