Short
Takes is a new feature here that reviews generally short works (“short” defined
as able to be read in under an hour).
Jack’s Wager
Both
Halloween and Samhain in
Ireland happen at roughly the end of the harvest season. Both have
pre-Christian roots. And both share an emblem – the jack o’lantern, a hollowed
pumpkin with a light inside. Such decorations sit on American front porches on
Oct. 31 each year (including my own). The decoration spread in the United
States with the large Irish immigrations in the 19th century.
But
where did the jack o’lantern come from? Writer Wirton Arvil has a creative
suggestion, and describes it in detail in Jack’s
Wagers. Using some of the legends and stories that have grown up around
the jack o’lantern over the centuries, Arvil tells the story of Jack, a poor man
for whom nothing ever seems to go right, but who manages to trick the devil not
once but twice.
It’s
a folk tale, written for contemporary readers, and it is great fun. One can
image the story being told around a campfire on a moonlit Halloween night, the
harvest finished, and the farmers and field hands fascinated with the a story
of the devil being tricked.
The
story is told in both English and Italian.
The Three Monarchs
Anthony
Horowitz, writer for the popular British (and PBS) series Foyle’s War and the long running mystery series Midsomer Murders. In 2011, he wrote a
Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, that was
authorized by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate. And last year, he published a
second Holmes novel, Moriarty (reviewed
here last month).
He’s
also written a Holmes short story, The
Three Monarchs, available as a single story. It is remarkably like the
original Holmes stories, so good that it could have been written by Conan Doyle
himself.
Dr.
John Watson has been married for a year, living happily with his wife Mary not
far from 221B Baker Street. But, rather naturally, he’s seen little of Holmes during
that time, pursuing his medical career to provide for his new family. But he
misses the excitement, and one say his wife suggests he visit Holmes.
He
arrives as Holmes is talking with Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard (a
major character in Moriarty) about a
most puzzling case. A burglar has been shot dead by a homeowner. And, as it
turns out, the burglar had also visited two neighboring homes, stealing the
exact same thing from each – a figurine of Queen Victoria for her Golden
Jubilee, of which millions were made and sold. In other words, the figurines
are worth virtually nothing. So why would they be stolen?
Leave
it to Holmes to find the larger meaning in what seems inconsequential. The
Three Monarchs is a story solidly within the Sherlock Holmes tradition.
Top photograph of a jack o’lantern licensed
under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia
Commons.
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