My Cultural Diet

When a member of the royal family is brutally murdered, London’s only consulting detective and his right-hand man are tasked with finding the assassins, and in the process, stopping a vile conspiracy that seeks to free humanity from the centuries-old rule of the Great Old Ones. Originally published as a short story in 2003 that subsequently won a Hugo Award, A Study in Emerald is a pitch-perfect blend of Sherlock Holmes and H. P. Lovecraft. Indeed, the premise is forehead-smackingly obvious, but Gaiman — being the master storyteller that he is — introduces a few twists and wrinkles that make his story all the more delightful. I’ve read the original short story several times, but this was my first time reading Dark Horse’s comic adaptation, and it’s just as delightful. Back in 2018, Gaiman expressed his desire to write a sequel to A Study in Emerald, something that I really hope comes to pass; in his hands, the fictional worlds of Holmes and Cthulhu are just meant to be together.

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