Sherlock Holmes & Mark Twain: The Adventure of the Whyos (Electronic book text)

Mark Twain's fans know that he did not approve of Sherlock Holmes. He even parodied the detective and his methods in "A Double Barreled Detective Story." But why? "The Adventure of the Whyos" hints at an answer. The first in a series of short stories reveals that Twain had participated in several misadventures with Holmes. Reeling from financial disaster after the failure of his publishing house, Twain's flight to Europe is interrupted by a friend who is negotiating to marry off his daughter to an English lord. She is resisting and has fallen ill. Could Twain talk her into agreeing? There is also a little matter of blackmail, and for that, Twain reluctantly calls on Holmes for help. The Twain/Holmes stories promise to open an unsuspected aspect of Twain's life. The 8,000-word story also comes with excerpts from Bill Peschel's "Writers Gone Wild" and annotated editions of novels by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.