A slim but nonetheless impressive collection of new Sherlock Holmes short stories has recently come my way. Paula Hammond’s new book is entitled Eliminate the Impossible, after Holmes’s famous remark, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
There’s a deal of improbability in these yarns, among them a case of apparently spontaneous combustion, a shooting presided over by the Angel of Mons and the apparition of Lady Hatton holding her heart in her hands in the self-same Bleeding Heart Yard where centuries before she had sold her soul to the devil. With his customary disdain for the supernatural, Holmes manages to blow away the fogs of irrationality to reveal the very physical explanations for these events.
What I particularly enjoyed, apart from the tales themselves, were the notes following each story, showing them to be grounded in historical accuracy. Real people make appearances, usually with their names changed. Thus Hiram Maxim, inventor of the Maxim machine gun, appears as Dodson Hughes; Hannah and John Courtoy, whose Egyptian style mausoleum is one of the sights of Brompton cemetery in London appear here as Hannah and John Chester (deceased).
The Courtoy mausoleum in Brompton cemetery
There’s fascinating and sometimes grisly incidental detail, too, regarding the combustibility of pigs or the fact that in certain circumstances quicklime preserves bodies rather than destroys them, the deleterious effect of prolonged ultra-low frequency sounds on the human brain, causing fear, vertigo, disorientation and even heart attacks, used to sinister effect in certain regimes to this day.
The story in the collection that particularly caught my attention, since I myself am in the process of finishing a new Mrs Hudson novel set in Constantinople, is The Case of the Impossible Assassin, in which Holmes and Watson travel via the Orient Express to the then Turkish capital. It’s an intriguing tale and one which, I am relieved to say, bears no resemblance to my own story, apart from the setting.
What is a well-established fact, however, is that Sultan Abdul Hamid II was a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. When Sir Arthur and his new wife, Jean, honeymooned in Constantinople in 1907, the Sultan conferred on him the Order of the Medjidie (second class) and on Jean The Order of the Chefakat, which (spoiler) Mrs Hudson too may hope to receive quite soon.
All in all, a thoroughly engaging collection. I shall certainly look out for more of Paula Hammond’s books.
Sherlock Holmes: Eliminate the Impossible by Paula Hammond, edited by David Marcum (MX publishing, 2024)
I recently had the great pleasure of visiting the lively and beautiful city of Istanbul for a few days. On my return I started wondering what Turkish people make of Sherlock Holmes, if anything. It surprised and pleased me therefore to learn that not only was the last Ottoman Sultan a great fan, but had even conferred on Conan Doyle the Order of the Medjidie (2nd class, an honour only bestowed on 150 people).
This Sultan, Abdülhamid II (right), came to the throne in 1876 as a reformer, but soon established a conservative and absolutist reign as the ancient empire disintegrated about him. In his personal life, however, he was a cultured man, loving opera in particular. He was also an accomplished carpenter of high-quality furniture, examples of which still grace various palaces. Moreover, as an enthusiastic practitioner of the Turkish sport of grease wrestling – yes indeed – he was considered its unofficial patron saint. And he loved detective stories.
He is quoted in the memoirs of his daughter as saying, ‘I have problems sleeping, so I ask someone to read a book, which sounds like a lullaby to me… I avoid deep thought-provoking books with the fear that they might keep me from sleeping later on.’ Detective stories fitted the bill admirably.
Abdülhamid first met Sherlock Holmes in 1903 when his translator noticed the story ‘The Empty House’ in the Strand magazine and, knowing his master was keen on the genre, translated it for him. The Sultan was so taken with the tale that he asked the Ottoman Ambassador in London to send all works by Conan Doyle to him. Thus, he was able to read the stories some years before the published translations of Faik Sabri Duran in 1908.
When Conan Doyle subsequently visited Turkey, he received the medal bestowed on him by one of his greatest fans. According to Doyle, his wife was presented with the Order of Chevekat at the same time. ‘As this is the Order of Compassion and as my wife, ever since she set foot in Constantinople, had been endeavouring to feed the hoard of starving dogs who roamed the streets, no gift could have been more appropriate.’
In fact, the award to Jean Lecky was the Shefkat Nishan, given to women for charity work.
Among the many ‘untold stories’ in the canon, I was intrigued to find the following mentioned in the late tale The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier of 1926, as narrated, unusually, by Holmes himself:
‘It happened that at that moment I was clearing up the case which my friend Watson has described as that of the Abbey school… I had also a commission from the Sultan of Turkey, which called for immediate action, as political consequences of the gravest kind might arise from its neglect.’
Having already written up a couple of untold tales myself, published in the MX books of new Sherlock Holmes stories, I have to say I am greatly tempted by this. Watch this space.
30 plus volumes of the MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, edited by the indefatiguable and ever enthusiastic David Marcum, are available to order with three new volumes on the way.
Susan Knight 