HOLMES AND WATSON LIVE!

One of my favorite things to listen to lately has been the Sherlock Holmes radio play podcast in iTunes. The majority of the ones broadcast are the ones starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, which oddly brings a measure of believability to them. I enjoy them immensely. They have led me to read he Hound of the Baskervilles (I Break for Holmes), which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Normally, I am not one to read books by one authoring featuring another author's characters, but when it comes to author Caleb Carr, I'm willing to make an exception. He is one of the most thorough, masterful tellers of mystery stories I've ever read. His books on Lazslo Kreizler, the Alienist and the Angel of Darkness are two of my favorite books. I reread them repeatedly. My sister Ginna and I both reread them often. They are amazing. When I saw the Italian Secretary, it looked very interesting. I didn't read it right away -- I believe I was in the middle of the final Harry Potter.

I finally picked up the Secretary last Monday (and finished it on Thursday). Carr was faithful to the method Conan Doyle used to tell his stories -- Watson's point of view. Carr was once again masterful in his method of storytelling. I could almost hear Nigel Bruce telling this story, which for me, was like having Watson himself tell me. The story had an element of the supernatural that was never fully explained, which bothered me a little because I don't really care for loose ends. But this loose end had a purpose, and that purpose was for the reader, as well as Watson, to draw her one conclusions. It bugged me enough (not in a bad way) that I was thinking about it for days afterward, wondering what Holmes believed.

There was plenty of history, one of the things Carr, as a history professor, is wonderful at weaving into his stories. It takes place in Edinburgh, a city I have been able to visit, and that made a difference in being able to "be there."

If you like mystery and history, check this one out. Perhaps it will lead you to read the original Holmes stories, or more of Caleb Carr, both of which I highly recommend.

SLEEPY HOLLOW

Not only is it one of my favorite movies, but it's also one of my favorite short stories. Every year that I taught, I read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow to my classes on Halloween, or whichever day we celebrated it. It was always a big hit. I would turn the lights off and sit in the middle of the room with just a flashlight. It was just spooky enough not to scare anyone.

Still, if you are reading that story in the dark, it is creepy enough to make you sit on the edge of your seat. If you've never actually read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, you really should give it a read tonight. It's fantastic!

FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE

Last year, while leading a tour through England, my students and I had the opportunity to see a powerful, two-man play: The Woman in Black. I had never heard of it, and before leaving, I endeavored to do a little research. I found that the play was an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Susan Hill. The play was magnificent. It was so terribly frightening and thought-provoking that it had my three teenaged students talking about it for days afterwards.

I finally was able to find the novel and read it, more than a year after seeing the play. As I read, I could see the play replaying (no pun intended) in my head, mentally comparing one to the other. I know it appears that I read a lot of literature that has been interpreted visually, but I usually don't. Fortunately, I'm equipped with a vivid imagination, and it doesn't always take a movie to make me "see" the story. Still, when you have, you can't help it.

The novel was short, just 160 pages, and it was very stream-of-consciousness, which I normally don't like. But the story was also very personal and once again frightening. One of the nights I was reading it, I had to put it down because it was late, and I was more than a little scared.

Still, the climax of the novel was nothing compared to the climax of the play, and even a year later, I remember the screaming, the train, and the fear that the play induced in us all.