Baker Street Irregulars discussion

These books are very good. Gives you an idea how Sherlock became Sherlock.

I've seen the movie Young Sherlock Holmes, but am not familiar with the book(s). I just did a search for Andrew Lane on GR and didn't find anything. Can you give me some more details, maybe book title.

The first book is death cloud,the next is red leech, the third is black ice, and the fourth is firestorm.

And Snake Bite came out this year as #5.

Ray wrote: "The first book is death cloud,the next is red leech, the third is black ice, and the fourth is firestorm."

Thanks! I added Death Cloud by Andy Lane to my To Read list. The reason I didn't find them before is that the author is listed as Andy rather than Andrew.

Your welcome!

I have read the first two since it seems the others are no longer available. I do see that Black Ice will be re-released this coming January. I will try to get it then.

These are very clever and I do enjoy seeing a different side of Holmes. I was weary when I first started reading Death Cloud but it quickly became a favorite.

I read the first book to this series a little earlier this year. I liked it but I wasn't to crazy about it. I might some day, track down the second book and see if I might like it a little more than the first book.

Amanda wrote: "I read the first book to this series a little earlier this year. I liked it but I wasn't to crazy about it. I might some day, track down the second book and see if I might like it a little more tha..."

The second book wasn't as good in my opinion but it had a very interesting premise. Holmes was hunting down John Wilkes Booth, because he wasn't dead as everyone was lead to believe. I have yet to read the third installment but do look forward to it.

I just finished reading Death Cloud. My review:


I was a little leery digging into a YA novel that delved into the origins of Sherlock Holmes. The very origins that are so widely speculated upon and debated upon by Holmes scholars with very little consensus.

I went into the novel with fairly low expectations and was frankly, quite impressed. While, what was presented by Lane may or may not pass muster with the scholars, I found the story engaging and the characters colorful and believable and am looking forward to reading the other books in the series.


4 STARS

Well I watched the Young Sherlock Holmes movie up to the point where they mentioned/featured a girlfriend, which is when I prompted closed the youtube page. Fanfiction can do loads better than that, and shame to all similar pastiche/fanfics.
I mean, if imagining Holmes as a child is such an interesting challenge, why would you take such a debasing, unimaginative shortcut to explain his eventual temperament?

Which is why i'd cast a skeptical eye on this one. But I would like to ask, does it actually fall under this trope?

In the first book, a girl has certainly caught his eye. I'm not sure I would call her a girlfriend.... yet. No telling where Lane is heading in subsequent novels.

I'm not sure a Holmsian purist would like this one. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.

That's a pretty small-minded and stereotype-packed comment there. Twilight sure ruined the YA market. BTW, Lane's Holmes doesn't sparkle.

I haven't read any YA other than Harry Potter. Loved that whole series and didn't find it "cliché, predictable, violent, teenager-ish" and certainly not promoting incest. Apparently you're reading the wrong YA or basing your opinion on others. Being a Holmes fan I plan to give Young Sherlock a try.

As a librarian I LOVE YA Lit. Considering that it is marketed for ages 14 - 21, sure there are going to be teenage-ish themes. It is not all poorly written. Have you given The Fault in Our Stars a try before you shutdown all thoughts of YA Lit? Yes, it is about teenagers in adult situations, and handling it quite nicely. It truly is a gorgeous, beautifully written novel, and I cannot wait to see the film. In all my years of reading YA Lit, I do not remember reading about incest, and I am pretty sure they are not all about that but hey, what do I know?

I just finished Red Leech. My review:


This is the second book in Andrew Lane's "Young Sherlock Holmes" series.

This one just didn't appeal to me quite as much as the first book in the series, "Death Cloud". There were points in the book where Holmes and the antagonists appeared to be on a stage of their own, invisible to those who surround them and who could have, and most likely would have, intervened. A shootout on top of a moving train full of passengers and staff doesn't often go completely unacknowledged.

When reading this series, one has to remember that the series is meant to depict Holmes as a teen. As such, the logic and cold detachment that one would expect from Holmes is not yet developed. I feel that what Lane is consciously depicting here are some of the early steps that led to the more familiar Holmes. I did find that hard to keep in mind at times when Lane's Holmes showed a bit more compassion than I felt was beyond the Doyle character.

All-in-all, the story was worth the read. I do like the educational aspect of both of the books so far as Lane attempts to paint a fair but informative view of various historical events.


3 STARS

This topic was started quite a while ago, but I read very recently that Andrew Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes series (Holmes as a teenager - the first book was written more than 10 yrs ago) is going to be turned into a TV series (I think it was a series not a movie), developed and directed by Guy Ritchie, who directed the Robert Downey, Jr Sherlock Holmes movies.
I read a couple of the books - I wasn't really persuaded that this was a teen Holmes, but they were well written and very good stories - should take very well to filming.

Is this the series - or one of them - that Downey was producing for television? Did you post something about that a while back? I know there was a long holdup with the release of the 3rd Downey/Holmes film and also that Downey's wife is a film and television producer.

I just reviewed one of the books and I'll stick to my former comment, that even though it was a good adventure, with some original touches that should take to filming, the weakness for me was that I never believed this was a teenage Sherlock Holmes. An interesting 19th century YA hero, just not Holmes.