The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman

The late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is rightly acclaimed for creating the first great private detective Sherlock Holmes but perhaps has not been given sufficient credit for also creating the first super villain, Professor James Moriarty.   As Sherlock Holmes was always accompanied by the faithful Watson so at Moriarty's side would always be found that blackhearted bounder Colonel Sebastian Moran.   Doyle did not write a great deal about Moriarty and even less about Moran often their names are merely mentioned as an aside during discussion of another case.   Kim Newman has decided that it is time to rectify this and so gives us the memoirs of Moran.   Presented in seven chapters each entitled with a variation on a Holmes case,  A Shambles in Belgravia for example, the stories are original not just parodies but do include Holmesian characters such as Irene Adler.   Newman presents Moran's narrative in the self-deprecating, slyly cynical style of the man of the world who has reached the "don't care" age just prior to shuffling off this mortal coil.   Above all it is laugh out loud funny, his annotated version of "The Ballad of Mad Carew" is a classic but is only one example from a book full of black humour.   I had thought that George MacDonald Fraser had cornered the market in this kind of thing with his Harry Flashman books but Newman has shown that he is a match for the old master.