One of the parts of this story that I loved the most was its window dressing. Watson, quick witted banter, mystery, murder, and baffling clues. Everything you could want out of a Sherlock Holmes story is present in Gaiman’s offering: the insanely insightful Holmes, the ascerbic Dr. “A Study in Emerald” is a riff on the first Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel that introduced Holmes and Watson back in 1887 called “A Study in Scarlet.” Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes on the British TV series Sherlock engages this case in that show’s first episode, though there it is called “A Study in Pink.” Our story opens with Holmes meeting Watson for the first time, just as the original story does. And, if you’re a Conan Doyle devotee, the story itself will, strangely, not need much of an introduction either.

Its author, Neil Gaiman, is likely no stranger to most of you, so he doesn’t need much introduction. The opening story in the collection is a fun one, if a bit of an odd ball. Great care seems to have been taken to present the stories in chronological order according to Holmesian canon, but that care and detail is largely lost on me. I suspect that if I did, I’d enjoy this collection a lot more. I’ve seen a variety of TV shows and films, and listened to a bunch of stories on tape an age ago when I was a child, but I’ve not once read the stories out of a book, nor do I have a grasp on Holmesian canon. I’ve never read a single Sherlock Holmes story. I do have to admit though that I am only a Holmes fan in theory. We’re combining universes in a proton-smashing literary fusion event! As the dusk jacket asks, “what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself?” In some of the forums I look at from time to time and on some of the Lovecraftian podcasts out there I’ve heard a lot of folks asking the same question, “Is this collection worth while?” I admit, I was skeptical at first as I felt my purist blood rising, but then I thought, quite simply, “why not?” While I have read only two stories in the collection so far, I have enjoyed them a lot.

The collection today’s story comes from is closer to the latter, but with a twist. Sometimes that’s been a more general theme and at other times they’ve zeroed in on a particular HPL story.

Some of the works I’ve been reviewing here have come from collections put together by their authors, while others have been edited according to a theme. While I cannot say which royal line, I would hazard that he is an heir, perhaps-no, second to the throne-in one of the German principalities.” The corpse is obviously not that of a man-the color of his blood, the number of limbs, the eyes, the position of the face-all these things bespeak the blood royal. Please give me some credit for having a brain.

Gaiman a study in emerald