A review by ghostbasil
A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes by Steve Berman, Elka Cloke, Ruth Sims, Joseph R.G. DeMarco, Rajan Khanna, Stephen Osborne

This was the best collection of pastiches i've read so far! i appreciated that they were pg or pg-13. not all of the stories features holmes/watson, and i really liked how the different authors interpreted and brought in lgbtq+ themes in their works. that said, a lot of them still frustrated me either because of the characterization or tropes/clichés in the supporting characters. also, ther short intros before every story were kind of redundant and in some cases, kind of spoiled what was to come! they felt unnecessary and i would have preferred, if necessary, to have them in the introduction. i heard from someone that at some point lethe press was toying with releasing another anthology of lgbtq+ holmes stories, and i would definitely read it, despite a few weak links in this one! wouldn't recommend unless you are a holmes fan who deeply cares about lgbtq+ retellings/pastiches, because otherwise it won't be worth your time. glad i read it though! and i'm also glad that there were some non-women contributors, that felt nice.


(faves: “The Case of the Wounded Heart” by Rajan Khanna, “The Adventure of the Hidden Lane” by Lyn C.A. Gardner, “The Adventure of the Unidentified Flying Object” by Michael G. Cornelius (this one, out of every holmes pastiche i've read, seemed to me to actually have the most holmesian mystery and deduction) and “The Adventure of the Poesy Ring” by Elka Cloke)