Maybe Mystery Mashups

Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula Graphic Novel
Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula: This graphic novel is the REAL follow-up to Sherlock Holmes vs. Zombies
Trends may come and trends may go (though I’ve got a case of Pet Rocks stashed in the basement for when they make a comeback). One recent publishing trend that may have already seen its heyday come and go is the so-called mashup novel.The first of these, apparently, was the rather popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was a collaboration, of sorts, between Jane Austen and one Seth Grahame-Smith. Other titles in this vein have included Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Little Women and Werewolves, and Mansfield Park and Mummies.

Whether or not this particular trend has fizzled out is not for me to say. But I have it from a dubiously reliable source that there are a number of classic crime and mystery titles about to be subjected to the mashup treatment:

The Hound of the Baskervilles and Scooby-Doo

The Big Sleep and Bedbugs

The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Reanimated Drummers from Spinal Tap

Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Plumbers with Low-Riding Pants

The Postman Always Rings Twice and Cujo

The League of Frightened Men with Reality Show Producers

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and J.R. Ewing

The Maltese Falcon and Count Chocula

Murder on the Orient Express with Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders

The Talented Mr. Ripley and Smurfs

Farewell, My Lovely Winged Monkeys


William I. Lengeman III is a freelance journalist with a fondness for gourmet tea and traditional mysteries. He writes about the former at Tea Guy Speaks and the latter at Traditional Mysteries.

Comments

  1. Deborah Lacy

    I must admit, I love the concept of Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, but only if Sherlock wins.

  2. Christopher Morgan

    Now I already think that a majoriy of the genre mash-ups tend to lean more towards lazy writing than imaginative storytelling, so theres my bias out on the table, but I think the whole Sherlock Holmes vs “Random Supernatural Being” isn’t even stretching it.

    I mean Sherlock was already quasi-gothic in nature, just look at Hound of The Baskervilles, so really to make him a mashup all you have to do is make his villian real instead of a guy in a costume. There is you one right there, Sherlock Holmes vs The Hell Hound/Black Dog/Padfoot the Floopy-Eared Mastiff

  3. Laura K. Curtis

    Deb, I like it, too…especially if Dracula were to bite Sherlock & make him immortal. More Sherlock! Sherlock in the modern era!

  4. Deborah Lacy

    Laura – I hadn’t even thought about Sherlock getting bitten and becoming immortal. In a way, I guess he is already immortal because he is still so popular more than 100 years after his creation. Dracula too.

  5. Jerrie Adkins

    Fred Saberhagen wrote that book: _The Holmes-Dracula File_. Iirc, it’s been reprinted recently.

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