"Never Mind your Usual Petty Puzzles" [BRUC]

In the early 20th century, Sherlock Holmes was as seamless a part of the media as he is today. Case in point: regularly produced picture puzzles in which Sherlock Holmes invited the reader to make sense of a number of clues (or, “clews”) found in the picture. He appeared in a variety of situations, and all of the puzzles rely on the double meaning of words. The Musgraves Sherlock Holmes Society in the UK has now compiled twelve of these puzzles, along with answers and explanatory notes, into a 26-page monograph by John Addy.

The puzzles themselves are from Eliot Keen's original 1905 illustrations that originally appeared in American newspapers (can you see the William Gillette portrayal coming through?), with solutions following in subsequent publications.

I tried one of the puzzles, with little initial success. As the flyer above states, the trick is that one has to think as though one is still at the turn of the twentieth century. This proved to be more challenging than I thought it would be, but if it weren't a challenge then it wouldn't be as fun. I freely confess to resorting to the internet to verify (or, ahem, discover) the solutions I came up with. Some practice in the art of ‘punning’ is also helpful (in the below example, he’s pointing to a sawhorse - ha).

The idea to make some of these puzzles available again is brilliant; it is both a fun mental exercise and a neat way to look at life and customs of the time. If you're interested in purchasing a copy of the monograph, you can find the ordering information on the link above.

This might make for an interesting challenge at your next Sherlock Holmes society meeting, or simply a bit of good fun and a mental challenge on your own. Go ahead - what do you make of it?

See the sample puzzle below to try your hand at it.

Read more...

"I Think That We May Get Started" [LAST]

No doubt you're familiar with the board and video game Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

Well, it's the digital era and that means there are all sorts of ways to enjoy the great detective and the various forms of media about him. Or at least, there should be.

Until now, no one has thought to make it a priority to make this fun and interactive game available on multiple devices - such as PC, Mac and mobile devices. But Zojoi has decided to take it on, and here's how they describe how the game will work:

The game is a storytelling/mystery/adventure based on an award-winning board game and revolves around using game "tools" where you choose who/what to investigate and where to direct Holmes and Watson to solve a mystery that appears to be stumping Scotland yard. Using many of these tools will costs you "clue points." Your goal is to solve the case in the fewest number of "clue points" as possible.

The new version of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective is being developed via a Kickstarter campaign. What's that, you ask? You contribute to the cause (and get others to help as well), and get the satisfaction of collectively bringing a product to market.

And in this case, you may get a credit in the game as well: levels of donation reap different accolades, such as London Constable ($9 or more), Hound of the Baskervilles ($20 or more) Moriarty's Henchman ($30 or more, targeted for the mobile app), Inspector of the Yard ($50 or more) and Reporter of the Times ($100 or more). Each level comes with some benefit, described on the Kickstarter page.

Here's a video to describe the project (please click through to the article link if you're reading this on email or an RSS reader):




And some screenshots of the game itself as it will appear on various devices. The full set is also available on Flickr.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


But this vision will never come to life without your help. Will you join me in making a donation to this very worthy cause? It's a great way to help spread the word of Sherlock Holmes and another fun way to experience his world.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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“Your Good Man Should Have No Want of Drink” [COPP]

The Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game is back, fresh with a brand-new installment. This time, we drink along to “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” a truly terrifying tale for all the characters involved, but especially tough for the women who reside in the building of the title. 


Lucky for us, dear reader, we have the inestimable Violet Hunter to lead us through the story, and to prove that smart women really are something to be reckoned with, even in Victorian times. In fact, in honor of Miss Hunter and how plucky she is, we will be raising a glass not only for the original rules of The Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game (which can be found here: The Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game), but also every time Violet Hunter does something awesome.

For the drink itself, I wanted to stir up something special, because it’s not everyday we meet a female character in the Canon who can hold her own like Violet Hunter can. And also, it needed to be coppered-colored (of course). Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• 3 parts scotch whiskey
• 1 part violet liqueur

Now, yes, violet liqueur can be hard to come by (although with the amount of flavored spirits nowadays, it shouldn’t give you too much trouble). If you are feeling slightly adventurous like our friend Miss Hunter, and you have access to actual real violets, I say try making your own! There are a lot of great tutorials out there for making flavored liqueurs, but my old stand-by is to put my ingredient (in this case, violets) in a jar with vodka and let it sit for a few weeks in the dark. Strain it and enjoy your very own, personally-made flavored liqueur!

Now, on to the tale!

Number of Drinks Taken: 13

• Take one drink for Violet entering 221b Baker Street.
• Take one drink for Holmes and Watson dashing off in a cab (this time a trap, going out to meet Miss Hunter).
• Take one drink for Holmes letting the villain go free (but not without tussling with the giant dog, first, of course).
• Take ten drinks for Violet Hunter being incredibly smart, willing and able throughout the entire piece, and also for Holmes to take notice of her abilities, which is really something. Gems include concealing a piece of glass in her handkerchief so she could see through the window behind her; her investigation of the extra wing in the house, and, something that makes me smile, Holmes telling her “I should not ask it of you if I did not think you a quite exceptional woman.” 

Cheers to that!


Bonus: if you enjoy the women of the Canon - particularly the flowery Violets, you might like to pick up a copy of Violets & Vitriol. 

Editor's note:  Jill Brumer is a small business owner, college drama professor, and all around creative type who has lived all over the States. She has her father to thank for purchasing her first Sherlock Holmes story when she was twelve years old- the fascination has never stopped!

NB: the Baker Street Blog does not advocate the consumption of alcohol. Please behave responsibly and take heed of all local laws and ordinances. Know your limits and don't overimbibe.
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"Playing a Game With Us" [NORW]

In the fall of 2011 Focus Home Interactive will publish a new Sherlock Holmes video game developed by Frogwares Game Development Studio. You may recall our original post on the matter ("With My Hands on the Testament" [IDEN]) back in February. The game, titled The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is specially designed for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles, while also playable on PC. New screenshots of the game can be found at The Adventure Games of Sherlock Holmes as well as information on all of Frogwares’ other games in their Adventure of Sherlock Holmes series.

If you prefer your gaming to happen on a table rather than a screen, BoardGameGeek News reports:

Ystari Games will release a new edition of the 1985 Spiel des Jahres winner, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, with the mysteries rewritten to match the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This game will likely appear in 2011, with both a regular and a deluxe edition.

A bit vague, but something to look forward to. The game is currently out of print (although rare copies are occasionally available from merchants), making the Ystari reprint welcome news to fans and to anyone who's ever wanted to try it. From what I understand, players assume the role of a Baker Street Irregular and are given a mystery to solve. There are no dice, and no board; players use a map of London, a 'clue book', an archive of newspaper articles and a directory of people and places to solve the case. Designed for 1-6 people, the game can be played competitively, cooperatively or solo. Many reviews I've read compare it to a 'choose your own adventure' book, in that there is a lot of reading and the gameplay is very free form - you really do choose who to interview and where to go based on your own observations of the clues. For an added challenge, there is a 'Holmes score' for each case - can you solve the mystery faster than the Great Detective did?

I look forward to trying. Hopefully "likely appear in 2011" happens sooner rather than later.


Editor's note: Kate writes at The Diary of Dr. Watts.

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"As Cool as Ice" [ABBE]

This is tea, correct? 

Hello thirsty friends-- and welcome to the latest entry in the Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game! I am excited to be bringing this intensely researched treatise (i.e., enormously fun drinking game) to you this week at our new home on the internet!


As the Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game is new to The Baker Street Blog, let me take a moment and run down the rules so all of you who are of age can play along. They are as follows:

1. Take one drink every time Holmes makes an amazing deduction
2. Take one drink every time Holmes speaks badly about the police
3. Take one drink every time Holmes lets a perpetrator go free
4. Take one drink every time Holmes chastises Watson for not 'observing'
5. Take one drink every time someone rushes into the rooms at 221B
6. Take one drink every time Holmes and/or Watson dash off in a hansom cab

You can also check out the beginning of the Game and my first nine entries to The Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game by clicking here.

We're so excited to be sipping a cocktail in our new home here at the Baker Street Blog, so get ready for an epic and delicious time! This week's tale is "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet," a work of love, deception, jewels, and royal heads of state. In honor of the snowy location of the story, assemble the following:

Beryl Coronet Cocktail
2 parts vodka
1 clementine slice
2 cranberries
Ginger ale
Shaved ice

Muddle the fruit and shake with the vodka. Pour over shaved ice (the snow!) and add a splash of ginger ale. Top with three cranberries (one for each of the missing beryls). You are now ready to enjoy your Beryl Coronet cocktail!

We'll be following The Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game rules as always, but this tale needs a little added extra. For "The Beryl Coronet," take a drink every time the word 'beryl' or 'coronet' is mentioned. Ready? Off we go!

Number of Drinks Taken: 32

• Take one drink for Alexander Holder dashing in to 221B.
• Take one drink for Holmes and his amazing deduction ("And he is a man with a wooden leg?")
• Take one drink for the attempted thief getting away from Holmes in the end.
• Take 29 drinks for the word beryl or coronet being used in this short story.

Sober up from that and plan to meet me back here next time as I continue to drink my way through the Canon. After all, it's no fun to be drinking alone!

Editor's note: This is Jill Brumer's first post for the site. Jill Brumer is a small business owner, college drama professor, and all around creative type who has lived all over the States. She has her father to thank for purchasing her first Sherlock Holmes story when she was twelve years old- the fascination has never stopped!

NB: the Baker Street Blog does not advocate the consumption of alcohol. Please behave responsibly and take heed of all local laws and ordinances. Know your limits and don't overimbibe.
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"Drinking His Beer" [SOLI]

[Editor's note: this is the first contribution by Kate, who writes at The Diary of Dr. Watts. If you would like to be considered as a contributor to the Baker Street Blog, please see the About page above.]


In the United States at least, Saint Patrick’s Day (March 17th) has become a comically irreverent excuse to wear ridiculous hats, paint oneself green and consume excessive amounts of alcohol. If you are a Sherlockian who intends to participate in this silly but entertaining tradition, I suggest taking a look at the “Sherlock Holmes Drinking Game.”

Take along your copy of the Canon to a party or a pub, choose your favorite case and have your friends take turns reading aloud - or if you happen to be dramatically inclined, do it yourself. The important thing is to have fun with it!

The rules are as follows:

1. Take one drink every time Holmes makes an amazing deduction
2. Take one drink every time Holmes speaks badly about the police
3. Take one drink every time Holmes lets a perpetrator go free
4. Take one drink every time Holmes chastises Watson for not 'observing'
5. Take one drink every time someone rushes into the rooms at 221B
6. Take one drink every time Holmes and/or Watson dash off in a hansom cab

The creator of this game is Jill Brumer, “Sherlock Holmes Examiner” on Examiner.com. You can find her article introducing the game and from there you can find some inventive cocktail recipes inspired by the adventures. Ms. Brumer is making her way through the Canon, creating a drink to go with each story and providing an account of every drink taken. Even if you don’t drink, it’s an entertaining read. As she says at the start of her article for “The Blue Carbuncle,” “I knew my interest in both drinking and Sherlock Holmes would pay off eventually.”

Note: the Baker Street Blog does not advocate for the consumption of alcohol. Please behave responsibly and take heed of all local laws and ordinances. Know your limits and don't overimbibe.
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"With My Hands on the Testament" [IDEN]

For those interested in the intersection of the worlds of gaming and Sherlock Holmes, the latest news is bound to be welcome.

Frogwares Game Development Studio just announced the release of a new game for Playstation and XBox: The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Testament of Sherlock, to be released in the fall of 2011. The announcement on the Frogwares site outlines the plot:

A mainstay genre of computer games, this new Holmes game is playable with a gamepad in a third person view, with revamped controls that suit the console. The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes will immerse gamers in 1898 London as they conduct an incredible investigation. All the evidence suggests our hero is the main suspect in a case involving theft, fraud and double-crossings. Unable to prove his own innocence, Holmes is rapidly losing London's trust as doubt spreads through the city like wildfire. Even Doctor Watson's faith in his friend begins to waver, as the famous detective flees Scotland Yard and raises further suspicion; prowling around at night, destruction of evidence... would Holmes go so far as to commit murder?

Sounds intriguing to us! Below are some early screenshots of the game.

We'll be interested to see how the game turns out when it's finally released to the public. Are you a Sherlockian who also happens to be a gamer? Let us know if you'd be interested in becoming a game reviewer for our site by filling out the form on the About page.



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"One Large Pad" [GREE]

Sherlock Holmes on the iPad
Originally uploaded by Scott Monty

Unless you've been living under a rock - or perhaps in a home with absolutely no connection to the outside world - you've probably heard that Apple Computers plans to release the iPad next week.

While some herald the iPad as nothing more than a supersized iPhone, there are elements of the larger version that lend themselves to a different array of applications. Certainly, one is akin to an e-reader, so Sherlockians will undoubtedly be able to get their fair share of Holmes stories on this very portable device.

In addition, there will be distribution deals for digital outlets. Think the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. And lots ot games to keep the readers occupied otherwise. As part of this, we understand (via TouchGen) that Warner Bros. Digital Distribution will introduce their first iPad game - Sherlock Holmes Mysteries: The Case of the Innocent Man. The game is built exclusively for the iPad. While there aren't yet any details on the game itself, we're expecting to learn more as this burgeoning new media type expands.

For those of you inclined to try these devices - not to replace the good old fashioned paper, but rather to complement it - say, when traveling or when laying in bed and not wanting your New Annotated Sherlock Holmes to crush you to death - one of these devices below might be worth a try.

"We Could Plainly See the Figures on Her Deck" [SIGN]

In the continued marketing effort for the upcoming Warner Bros. "Sherlock Holmes," we're seeing more of an online push.

Tweetdeck, which is a desktop application for people who use Twitter, has developed a new theme called the Tweetdeck Telegram Co. - prominently featuring the 221B game we reviewed here last month.

If you use Twitter, there are applications such as Tweetdeck that allow you to sort your followers into groups, in order to manage the flow of information. You can create a number of columns, to make the scanning easier. For example, you can create a column with just replies to you; a column that features results from a search term you've input (such as "Sherlock Holmes"); and the Sherlockian version of Tweetdeck allows you watch a column called "Inside 221B" which shows you updates of characters in the game, such as Madame Rowena and Mrs. Hudson's Diary.

It's a very nice interface, with a Victorian / Steampunk flavor to it. Here's what it looks like after you get things going.

"Quite a Little Parlour Game" [3STU]

Last month, I wrote about a PC computer game that had just been released in the U.S. called Sherlock Holmes: the Awakened. Well, the guys over at Frogwares evidently aren't resting on their laurels, as they've got something else up their sleeves.

First, let's recall that they've already had two other successful computer games related to Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy and The Silver Earring. And their latest creation, the aforementioned The Awakened, has been well received in the gaming world: IGN (I would imagine International Gamers' Network) has proclaimed in a recent review: "This is how adventure games should be made," giving the game an 8.1 out of 10. And Gamespot.com showed their praise by giving the game and 8.3 and lauding "An engaging story, logical puzzles, and nice visuals combine to make The Awakened a great adventure game."

So, I would imagine then, that the next game out will be equally as fun and exciting, as it has Holmes meeting up with Arsene Lupin. If you're not aware of Lupin, he is the gentleman thief created by Maurice LeBlanc, who himself was a contemporary of Conan Doyle. In fact, LeBlanc had the two characters meet in a story he wrote in 1906, but Conan Doyle, who was hot on the comeback trail with The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Return of Sherock Holmes series, objected and LeBlanc changed the detective's name to Herlock Sholmes.

The summary of Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsene Lupin, the game that pits the master detective and the genteel criminal, goes something like this:

It's the end of teh 19th century and an amazing battle of wits and wills
is going to take place between two great figures: Sherlock Holmes, armed
with his vast crime-fighting experience, and Arsène Lupin, the ultimate
criminal mind and gentleman thief. Lupin has announced that he plans
to rob the capital of five objects of immense value over the course of five
days. The objects are housed in highly prestigious locations such as the
National Gallery, the British Museum, the Tower of London and even
Buckingham Palace! Sherlock Holmes will have to muster all his courage
and ingenuity to save England from terrible humiliation.

If the copy doesn't move you, then perhaps the just-released trailer will:

Click on any of the above links for more information about this fascinating series.

"My Interest Is Already Awakened" [NAVA]

If you're reading this blog, then no doubt you know how to turn on the computer and navigate the Web. But how are you with using your machine's DVD drive? And arrowing around the screen? And figuring out solutions based on clues? If you think you've got all of those traits, then perhaps it's time to look into the new computer video game Sherlock Holmes : The Awakened.

As of yesterday, the web site of Sherlock Holmes: the Awakened had been drastically overhauled and gave way to the announcement that the game was ready to be shipped to U.S. customers.

If you're not familiar with the concept behind the game, it's a crossover of sorts, from mystery to horror - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle meets H.P. Lovecraft - in a seemingly routine investigation that tests the limits the great detective as he attempts to thwart the plans of a sect of the Cult of Cthulhu.

This new adventure of Sherlock Holmes marks the first time Sherlock Holmes has ever been presented in a three-dimensional virtual world. From the game's web site:

19th century England: Following a string of shocking disappearances on London’s fog-choked streets, an entire nation trembles in fear. As history’s most famed detective, loosen terror’s grip by tailing the perpetrators to the ends of the earth in epic 3D adventure Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.

Inspired by the works of author H.P. Lovecraft, this globe-spanning saga of suspense and horror pits the master sleuth against his most dangerous foe yet – a fanatical cult seemingly devoted to ancient, evil god Cthulhu. From Baker Street to Bale, Louisiana to Scotland, hunt for hidden clues with the help of faithful companion Dr. Watson, solve fiendish puzzles and thwart the forces of darkness.

But beware – behind the façade of everyday life lurk terrifying places and truths best forgotten. There are some secrets man was never meant to know: Dare you uncover them? Either way, the clock’s ticking. So what are you waiting for? The game is afoot!

While I'm not a gaming fan, I have spent some time in the virtual world Second Life. If this game helps bring some younger people into our midst and entices them to learn more about the sleuth of Baker Street through his original ventures, I'm all for it.