Whenever You've Eliminated the Impossible, You're Still Left with the . . . Improbable

THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
By Various Hands. Edited by John Joseph Adams.
Night Shade Books.
2009. 350 pages.

More than two dozen Holmes pastiches which most reviewers seem to like. These excerpts are from Rod Lott's review (BOOKGASM, December 10, 2009):

Short of revisiting Arthur Conan Doyle’s original texts, you may not have more fun with the great detective than in Night Shade Books’ collection THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. For this anthology with a nearly all-star cast of authors, editor John Joseph Adams has rounded up 28 genre-hopping mysteries, as old as 20 years and as new as this year. A handful have never seen print before.

From pirates to spirits, IMPROBABLE covers a lot of genre-fiction tropes, yet every author hews closely to Doyle’s winning, winsome storytelling style.

Another, slightly different take (excerpt):

Some of my favorite stories in this collection are the ones that follow the traditional Doyle formula. And then there are the stories that push the boundaries, taking the reader out of his or her comfort zone and pitting Holmes and Watson against dinosaurs, aliens, demonic spirits, pirates and the like. Some of these unconventional tales are entertaining while others are just too far removed from the Doyle canon for my tastes. — John

A review of the audio book is here.

Category: Detective fiction