Eliminate the Impossible

An Examination of the World of Sherlock Holmes on Page and Screen

By: Alistair Duncan

Narrated by: Nigel Peever

The book begins with a brief examination of the effect that the stories have had on modern crime literature. It goes on to examine the origins of the character of Holmes himself from his appearance to his drug use and supposed dislike of women. We then move onto a mini-biography of some of the significant characters in the series. Each of the original stories by Conan Doyle is examined in an effort to explain some of the more esoteric aspects and an examination is made of the attempts to form a proper chronology for the stories - as Doyle did not write the stories in strict chronological order. The second half of the book focuses on Holmes's career on the screen. There is a brief examination of some of the more notable actors to have portrayed Holmes and the films in which they appeared. Finally we look at the possible requirements for a definitive screen portrayal of the canon.

©2010 Alistair Duncan (P)2017 MX Publishing

A closer look

With complaints and comparisons of the various media adaptions , including the problems found within the canon.

No more secrets for Holmes

Sherlock Holmes has always been, ever since I was a child, one of my favorite characters. I have been fascinated by his ability to take in the smallest details and convert that information into a supposition that is 99% correct in every capacity.

This book takes on the immense task of chronicling Appearances of Sherlock Holmes in books outside of, sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s purview as well as movies. As you can well imagine it’s a daunting task, because just movies alone, there are hundreds of them books and forget about it. I can’t even count that high.

Still, this book does try and succeeds largely in its attempt to tally up every appearance of Sherlock Holmes and provide you with information on those appearances. It’s a rather good listen, and I quite enjoyed it. I think this is a really good book for new people, people who are just now experiencing Sherlock Holmes for the first time.

The icing on the cake is the amazing job in Nigel Peever does as the narrator. I have said this on several reviews, but Nigel is my number two Sherlock. It’s kind of like how Kevin Conroy is probably the best Batman ever the only reason why Nigel is it number one is because I absolutely cannot find a fault with Jeremy Brett and his portrayal. I have watched homes as portrayed by basil Rathbone, amongst others, and Nigel just seems to nail the character for me, the narration is top dog quality. Sort of like the hound of the Baskervilles in her ears you can’t go wrong with this book.

A good book :D

I liked it, but I'm pretty sure I'd have liked it more if I hadn't previously listen to David McGregor's Sherlock Holmes: The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Volume One and Sherlock Holmes: The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Volume Two.

There is a lot of information about different incarnations of the Great Detective and there is also an attempt of dating the stories from the canon using the different annotated editions. It's really interesting reading/listening about it, particularly when it comes to authors who are playing 'The Game'. I love that, I love the playfulness of it and how much effort they put into it :D

All in all, a good book for those who are immersing themselves into the vast world of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

A fun bit of Holmesian research

This was a nice collection of essays and notes about the Great Detective. I felt that I learned some interesting facts about the world of Baker Street. The discussion of chronology and dating of the Canon in particular was quite interesting to me.

The narrator was outstanding. My only note against him would be the way he pronounced the ‘u’ in adventure and century like the ‘u’ in burr. But I presume that that is simply a matter of accent, rather than outright mispronunciation.

So if you want to look “behind the scenes” at 221B, this book is for you!