Ken Greenwald

There never has been anything quite like old-time radio in America. It was pure magic. Each week comedy, adventure and drama, mystery and suspense drifted through the night air into homes lit only by the glow of a radio dial. Families gathered around the radio, carried away by their imaginations.

Author Ken Greenwald was one of those listeners, and one of his favorite shows growing up was Sherlock Holmes. For most of us, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will always be Holmes and Watson. The films and radio shows are still watched on late-night television and listened on radio by film and radio buffs like myself.

When radio archivist Ken Greenwald and a small group of friends discovered a long list of missing radio shows from 1945, written by great radio writers Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher, the idea of turning their original radio scripts into short stories was born. Greenwald has done a marvelous job of blending the two distinct mediums together without ruining their radio vibe.

You can easily picture Rathbone and Bruce in these fun adventures as Greenwald has kept the fast pace of the radio plays while fleshing them out just a bit, and adding the transitions necessary for the short story form. Greenwald gives us a baker's dozen here, and tasty they are. My personal favorites are "The Adventures of the Headless Monk" and "The Adventure of the Iron Box." The former is filled with atmosphere of the foggy moors and a dash of the supernatural, making it a lot of fun. In the latter, Holmes hatches a clever scheme to solve a mystery shortly after the Christmas rush, that will include, of all people, Sir Walter Scott!

All that prevents me from giving this five stars is that it most likely will not appeal to Conan Doyle aficionados. These stories are strictly for those who loved radio, and find the old films with Rathbone and Bruce irresistible. The stories are fun, but they definitely have an old radio show feel to them. If that's not your bag, you probably won't enjoy them as much.

How did Sherlock Holmes first meet Moriarity? Why in the world did Holmes buy that Sussex bee farm? Telling you in which stories you'll find the answers to these questions would only ruin the fun. Enjoy!… (mais)

This is a collection of a lost season of Sherlock Holmes radio plays from 1945-1946, originally written by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher, and re-written in short story format by Ken Greenwald. The radio plays, as it happens, were performed by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, who also played Holmes and Watson in the film adaptations.

This is an able collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, written in the manner of Arthur Conan Doyle. I doubt that I would be able to pick them out from anything written by Conan Doyle on the basis of style. There are a couple of stories that feature the first meeting between Holmes and Moriarty (I think that worthy villain is featured more prominently in the stories written after Conan Doyle, than in the original body of work), and that presage Holmes' desire to retire one day to the country and run a bee farm. An enjoyable addition for any fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories.… (mais)