'Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles' is an undemanding and fun read, therefore eminently suitable pandemic reading by my standards. In his usual fashion, Newman stuffs the narrative with references to 19th century crime, adventure, and supernatural fiction. Some are explained in endnotes, as the book purports to be the recently rediscovered memoirs of Colonel Sebastian 'Basher' Moran, annotated by an acerbic academic. I gather it doesn't take place in the Anno Dracula universe, t...

This book is written as the memoirs of Col. Sebastian Moran and details his life of crime with Moriarty ending with Moriarty's death. It is written in a similar manner to Sherlock, as each chapter is a different criminal undertaking. I expected this to be a story where Moran tries to elicit some sort of sympathy or empathy for himself or Moriarty, however, it was far from that. Newman's Col. Moran is unflinching in his honest portrayal of himself and Moriarty. Moran is a racist, homophobic, woma...

I'd put off reading this one for a while, faced with the obvious fact that no book could ever live up to a title like Hound of the D'Urbervilles, but of course I am now filled with chagrin for underestimating Newman's literary skill. The underlying concept (what if Professor Moriarty had had his own Watson, a rough second back from the wars and given sometimes to scribbling accounts of his boss's similar and often-in-fact-analogous clever exploits) never descends into any rote formula. Newman's

More than just a spoof of Sherlock Holmes stories. in in this inverted tale told from the criminal point of view, Professor Moriarty is the hero with the "thin man" Sherlock Holmes more nuisance than Nemesis of the Napoleon of crime. Colonel Moran, the crackshot criminal who brought back Sherlock Holmes from the presumed dead in the in "The Adventure of the Empty House" plays a meaner, deadlier Watson to Moriart's "consulting criminal." Author Kim Newton's novel is a hilarious mash up of victori...

If you love Holmes, you really must get Newman's latest. Colonel "Tiger" Moran, aka "Basher" Moran to the ladies, tells his side of the Moriarty story. As always, Newman is extremely erudite (the footnotes alone are worth the price of the book) and, compared to Professor Moriarty' evil ways, Moran is patriot and a saint. Hound of the D'urbervilles bears more than a passing relationship to the Flashman novels (in at least one of which, Flashman and the Tiger, Moran makes an appearance). So be war...

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.You really are a heel.You're as cuddly as a cactus,You're as charming as an eel,Mr. Grinch.I discovered Sherlock Holmes at about age 12, when I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's entire collected Holmes stories. Brilliant gems of Victorian literature, and fortunately for Hollywood and Kim Newman, now long in the public domain, Sherlock Holmes occupies a place in modern Western mythology not far below Santa Claus, and probably above Uncle Sam and Ronald McDonald.There hav...

This is brilliant! Sheer brilliance from the first page to the last. If – for whatever reason – you want to skip the rest of this review, then just take away I loved this book and I insist you go off and read it.I suppose it’s not that long ago since I read Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty book, and – really – I am no stranger to the ancillary fiction around Sherlock Holmes. This though is the best I’ve ever encountered. Witty, clever and – even with all the borrowed characters and literary allusions...

“The Hound of the d’Urbervilles” is a wonderful novel by Kim Newman set (more or less) in Conan Doyle’s world of Holmes and Watson, but follows the exploits of Professor James Moriarty, as seen through the eyes of his Number 2 – Colonel Sebastian ‘Basher’ Moran.The book is several novellas linked together to make a novel. I originally came across two of the stories in Charles Prepolic’s “Gaslight” anthologies and fell in love with Kim’s Sebastian Moran. An utter rogue who would make a good runni...

I thought this sounded quite interesting - an opportunity for a Sherlock Holmes fan to find out more about the nefarious Professor Moriarty. I had high hopes for the book, but found it very disappointing.First off the book is written - in style similar to the Holmes stories - by Moriarty's version of Watson. Colonel Sebastien "Basher" Moran is a former soldier turned hired assassin, who's become Moriarty's second in command in the Professor's criminal corporation. Moran is a singularly rude, vio...

I've had this for several years and recently unearthed it from a box of books I have had in the garage since our move to California four years ago. Glad I finally got around to reading it -- a very fun retelling of some of the Sherlock Holmes tales from the point of view of Colonel Sebastian Moran, who is portrayed as the Watson to Moriarty. Moriarty is portrayed as a "consulting criminal" as opposed to Holmes categorization as a "consulting detective" and Moran is hired by Moriarty to be his nu...

“Dullards would have you believe that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth... but to a mathematical mind, the impossible is simply a theorem yet to be solved. We must not eliminate the impossible, we must conquer it, suborn it to our purpose.” - Professor James Moriarty"You know how this ends. Someone goes over a waterfall." - Colonel Sebastian "Basher" Moran.A brilliant and hilarious retelling/parody of holmesian tales (just look at th...

If love Sherlock Holmes this anti hero book because this other side of the coin.Instead of Holmes & his dective solving this Moriarty & crime

Initial response: So far, pretty darned funny. Like a Holmes and Watson through the looking glass, with a sprinkling of Flashman for fun!Final Review: Professor Moriarity: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles is a collection of short stories by Kim Newman, the author of the Anno Dracula novels. The collection features a series of tales recounting the memoirs of Colonel Sebastian Moran, being written or dictated in some remote spot, long after retiring. The seven stories and introductory material recou...

There are books that you just EXPECT to love. For me this is one of those. The narrative itself mirrors the basic line of the infamous Watson/Holmes stories.. but with a intriguingly different slant. Instead of the familiar John Watson - a wounded soldier presenting us with stories of his adventures with Sherlock Holmes - we have Colonel Sebastian 'Basher' Moran - a wounded soldier presenting us with stories of his adventures with Professor James Moriarty. And, honestly, it's an angle I just cou...

A collection of Victorian pulp adventures from the viewpoint of Moriarty's sidekick Colonel Sebastian Moran, parodying vast swathes of Victorian and Edwardian pulp and lit. The title pretty much covers the basic principles at play here but we also get HG Wells, Raffles, Dr Nikola, Riders of the Purple Sage, the Prisoner of Zenda, much Hardy, Fu Manchu and a zillion minor pulp villains playing their parts. The story about the one eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu is a particular bit of g...

This story is a very imaginative story from the what if genere. Read my complete review on my book blog: https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...

My overall impression with Newman's novel is mostly "meh" but also a lot of eye-rolling. I found that I was initially excited for Moran's viewpoint and then everything sort of fell flat. From the forced slang, to the descriptions of, "Look how bad I am, I'm so bad I drown puppies," to the weird reptilian thing Moriarty had going on. Oscillation is not a word you use or read that often but the number of times I read that word in reference to Moriarty probably filled my quota of how many times I n...

For me, it was hard to get into. Once you get into it more, Basher Moran does become a good way in to the story, but overall, I felt the stories dragged on and there wasn’t much of a reward for getting to the end of each story. Certain stories were boring and definitely made me lose interest (to the point where I wanted to stop reading) but I must admit, I really liked the Hound of the D’Ubervilles story and the Problem of the Final Adventure. So it was a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion, though...

Professor Moriarty and his new sidekick Colonel Sebastian (Basher) Moran take on a whole series of dastardly deeds in this tale of Victorian ne’er-do-wells. They team up with a variety of villains, including the wicked Irene Adler (when she turns up with an interesting proposition), encounter the likes of Black Michael (The Prisoner of Zenda), jewel-thief Raffles and his daft side-kick and end up doing battle with the Thin Man and Doctor Watson in a showdown at the Reichenbach Falls.Taken from t...

Extremely disappointing. Characters are bland, stories meh and I didn't like the tone of the book. After I noticed how similar Dr Temple and Moran's voices are I shouldn't have accepted it to be enjoyable read.