When I was asked to write a blog for SFF World, I thought it would be nice to talk about some of the major influences on Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell. Well, I’d already talked a lot about myself and the novel in the accompanying interview, so here’s a look at some of the books, TV shows and movies that went into the inspirational soup that made up my latest novel.
The first two influences should be quite obvious to anyone who simply glances at the cover: in short, the original Holmes stories and Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart. As I think I’ve already mentioned, I came across these at roughly the same time when I was growing up, but I really can’t underestimate the influence of their visual counterparts. Thinking about watching the Granada TV series with Jeremy Brett – my personal favourite screen Holmes – and Hellraiser on video, as I wasn’t old enough to see it at the cinema, it isn’t hard to work out how the edges of the two became a little blurred in my mind (I might even have watched both in the same day, come to think of it – having borrowed the latter from a school friend’s brother) And you’d have to be blind not to see the parallels between Brett’s controlled performance and Doug Bradley as Pinhead. If anyone might be able to figure out these masters of order, the Cenobites, and their world, then it’s Holmes in the form of Brett! Though, I’m at pains to add that he’s not the only version of Holmes who ended up in the Servants mix – after so many years of adaptations, and especially the more recent high-profile incarnations, how could there not be others? But I’ll come back to that in a moment…
In the meantime: other influences. The comic series that Marvel/Epic put out in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, took the premise of the Hellraiser films as a jumping off point and really opened up its world. These showed me that not only could you tell Hellraiser stories in different time periods – ranging here from medieval times, through to the American West and right up to the present day – you could also bring in Cenobites other than Pinhead and his usual gang of Chatterer, Butterball and Female Cenobite. The scope was literally endless, as evidenced by the fact that the BOOM! Hellraiser comics picked up the mantle a few years ago to produce more… another definite influence on my book. It’s worth noting here, as well, that people such as Neil Gaiman and Larry – now Lana – Wachowski wrote for the original comic series, while artists included such luminaries as Dave McKean, Mike Mignola and John Bolton.
As regards prose fiction, I have to mention not only the Titan series of novels and anthologies – that cross Holmes with various science fiction and horror characters – but also the Gaslight anthologies from Canadian publisher Edge. There are some truly fantastic Titan novels out there from the likes of George Mann and James Lovegrove – I absolutely love The Will of the Dead and The Stuff of Nightmares – but have to admit it was Guy Adams’ books The Breath of God and The Army of Dr Moreau which more directly inspired me with my novel. In the former, Adams draws black magician Aleister Crowley and William Hope Hodgson’s supernatural detective Thomas Carnacki into the action, while the latter is quite clearly influenced by one of H.G. Wells’ most popular characters.
The Gaslight trilogy of anthologies, meanwhile – edited by J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec – featured Holmesian horror from a whole host of great writers (such as Kim Newman, Stephen Volk, Barbara Roden and Simon Clark) and captivated me from the get-go. Holmes investigating the supernatural, including ghosts and vampires and everything in-between? Who wouldn’t fall in love with that? It was after reading these that I had a go at my first couple of Holmes’ tales – with an aim to getting into the third book of the series. ‘The Crimson Mystery’ didn’t quite make it in, but is experiencing a second lease of life – or maybe that should be a first lease? – as an SST release coming soon. But ‘The Greatest Mystery’, a story I’m still extremely proud of, was included in Gaslight Arcanum, then reprinted in my collection from PS The Butterfly Man and Other Stories. Without that, my first published Holmes story, there would definitely be no Servants of Hell.
And, speaking of Holmesian horror, we have to give credit to the original and best. Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is a terrific tale in the gothic tradition, presenting us with a curse, an ancient mansion – Baskerville Hall – and a ghostly glowing beast. If that doesn’t trigger the terror reflex, I don’t know what will. Add to that the fact that it splits up our heroes, something I wanted to do in Servants as well for a little while – adding to their woes – and you have pretty much a perfect story. There have, of course, been various adaptations of the tale over the years including the obligatory Brett incarnation, but the BBC’s 2002 offering starring Richard Roxburgh as Holmes and Ian Hart as Watson is probably my favourite. It really does embrace its horror roots, and I defy anyone to sit through the dinner scene when the hound smashes through the window and not jump. It also boasts one of the boldest depictions of Holmes as an addict there’s ever been, something I definitely picked up on for my novel: with my version pushing the limits of his mind and body in various dangerous ways, not to mention the obsession he develops with the puzzle box.
Finally, I need to mention Clive’s novel from last year, the long-awaited Scarlet Gospels. In this, he famously killed off Pinhead, but it was the journey itself and the descriptions of Hell and its social structure – including religion and politics – that I took my inspiration from. The more observant amongst you will notice nods towards this excellent book, but I’m not going to go into any more details because I don’t want to spoil it for those who might not have read it yet.
There are other influences, of course – shout outs for Cenobites from the anthology I co-edited, Hellbound Hearts, and from Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde, who also kindly provided the introduction for Servants – but I’ll leave you in peace for now. And leave you in the hopes that you’ve enjoyed the novel if you’ve finished it, or that you will do if you haven’t picked it up yet.
See you all in Hell!
Paul Kane is the award-winning, bestselling author and editor of over sixty books – including the Arrowhead trilogy (gathered together in the sellout Hooded Man omnibus, revolving around a post-apocalyptic version of Robin Hood), Hellbound Hearts and Monsters. His non-fiction books include The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy and Voices in the Dark, and his genre journalism has appeared in the likes of SFX, Rue Morgue and DeathRay. His work has been optioned and adapted for the big and small screen, including for US network television, plus his latest novels are Lunar (set to be turned into a feature film), the Y.A. story The Rainbow Man (as P.B. Kane), the sequel to RED – Blood RED – and Sherlock Holmes and The Servants of Hell from Solaris. He lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife Marie O’Regan, his family and a black cat called Mina. Find out more at his site www.shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz and Guillermo del Toro.
