Sherlock Holmes in Pursuit

First, I’ll say: It’s not all bad. Some of the stories have clever bits, and the author isn’t afraid to take chances. (We learn that Watson’s wife AFTER Mary was named Kate, and she had a nephew who was part owner of an automobile factory!) But you wouldn’t mistake this for an original book by Doyle, for a number of reasons. While he doesn’t portray Watson as a bumbling old fool, the relationship between Holmes and the Doctor feels - off. Too much conflict, some genuine animosity, where they should get along better. Also, Holmes sometimes conducts his investigations in a rather slipshod manner, casually waiting to visit important scenes, or disregarding them altogether. The reader is often not given enough data to figure things out (but Doyle was guilty of this sometimes, too!). Also, there’s a certain lack of professional polish in the writing style - subtle things, like beginning successive sentences with the same word. And the most egregious problem? The amateurish formatting. This may be the ONLY book I’ve ever seen without any indentations - not for paragraphs, not for dialogue, nowhere! It boggles my mind that it made in into print like that. When you factor in the occasional long dialogue with multiple participants, and the skipping of attributions, it’s sometimes hard to know who’s speaking. Overall? Two out of five, or maybe 25%. Desperately needs an editor. The completist will find interesting bits, but it wasn’t ready for prime time.