Sherlock Holmes in Ethiopia

Hello -

I'm brand new to this forum. My purpose is to point out my "Listmania!" on Amazon.com entitled "'Sherlock Holmes' Brand New & Upcoming: Listed Spring 2005" at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../19W62IAALS4OB . There are some interesting new books listed there that some dedicated Sherlockians may have overlooked or not be aware of. Of course, there are the five "best-sellers" by Cullin, Douglas, King, Chabon, and Carr that one sees everywhere--including features in both the New York Times and USA Today. But there are some other notable works that treat the canon with enormous respect--especially the three volume "The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" by Klinger. Another in particular is "The Great Detective at the Crucible of Life; Or, The Adventure of the Rose of Fire" by Thos. (abbreviation for Thomas) Kent Miller. Though a carefully researched Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Holmes in this book is entirely incognito! in what is otherwise a new adventure of H. Rider Haggard's hero Allan Quatermain in Ethiopia in 1872! The following recent Amazon.com customer review really captures the essence of the novel:

"'The Great Detective at the Crucuble of Life' is truly a great adventure story of the lost race/hidden civilization genre. [Thos.] Kent [Miller] weaves a masterful tale recovered from the legendary Allan Quatermain that is 'edited' by such literary giants as Dr. John Watson and H.P. Lovecraft. The true joys of this book lie in its tendencies toward the epistolary. Quatermain has an epic adventure in which he crosses paths with our itinerant hero Holmes; however, Quatermain's narrative is actually 'revealed' several times over in the course of the document's existence--as recorded by Watson and edited by others, including Lovecraft, Jim Turner (Arkham House) and [Thos.] Kent [Miller] (predominantly). In other words, the real story lies in the front material and the editor's notes to the text. Not reading this material does the reader a terrible disservice. I found the book to be very entertaining and difficult to put down. I have this nagging itch for stories that reveal the mysteries of time, and this little exfoliate especially provided me gratification as I sifted through its many layers because of its qualities as a "lost" story that is discovered and revealed through happenstance and vision. Excellent work!"

Thank you for your indulgence. And I would appreciate responses--if any--to be "flame" free.

Doyle Elmo Collins