Literature / Basil of Baker Street

Wait, The Great Mouse Detective was based off of books? Plural?

Basil: Elementary, my dear Dawson.

Children's book series written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone about Basil of Baker Street, the Sherlock Holmes of the Mouse World, and his personal biographer, Dr. David Q. Dawson. Not as well known as its Animated Adaptation, The Great Mouse Detective. It was out-of-print for a number of years, but the entire series was republished in May of 2016 by Aladdin.

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These books provide examples of:

In general

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Basil worships Sherlock Holmes in a hero like fashion, and takes his status as the Sherlock Holmes of the Animal Kingdom with all the seriousness it deserves. He leads by example, and refuses to back down when and where it matters most.
• Badass Bookworm: Basil is quite able to hold his own in a fight against multiple opponents.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: While mostly averted in The Great Mouse Detective, Galdone's illustrations show a lack of shoes for any of the characters.
• Big Bad: Professor Padraic Ratigan, who serves as the lead villain for the first four books.
• Canon Welding: Basil in the Wild West states that Basil's cousin is the title character of the Anatole series by the same author.
• Cats Are Mean: Throughout the series but averted in Basil and the Pygmy Cats since, you know, the cats are the same size as the mice.
• Detective Animal: Basil, being a mouse who's learned from observing Sherlock Holmes.
• Dreadful Musician: Sort of. While Basil can't play the violin like his mentor to save his life, he is quite good at playing the flute.
• Evil Counterpart: Ratigan is Basil's.
• Great Detective: Basil
• Master of Disguise: Basil
• Mysterious Middle Initial: The "Q." in Dr. David Q. Dawson, which is never explained.
• Narrator: Dawson throughout the series, but the role is taken over temporarily for one chapter of Basil in Mexico by Basil since at the time Dawson was kidnapped by Ratigan.
• Police Are Useless
• Private Detective: Basil
• Sherlock Scan
• Shout-Out:
  • Plenty of shoutouts throughout the series to Titus' other mouse-related series, Anatole, (and of course, to The Canon itself.
  • Basil's name is a shoutout to Basil Rathbone, who played Sherlock Holmes in numerous films and a radio series.
• Sidekick: Dawson to Basil.
• Tuckerization: Titus has a habit of naming fictional characters after real life Sherlockians, including Vincent Starrett and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's son, Adrian.
• Victorian London: The books' setting.
• The Watson: Dr. David Q. Dawson is a literal case, being the mouse equivalent of Dr. John H. Watson.

Basil of Baker Street

• Alliterative Name: Harry Hawkins, Sam Stilton.
• GPS Evidence: How Basil and Dawson manage to find The Terrible Three.
• Location Theme Naming: Basil and Dawson sign the Greymouse Inn registry as "Captain Baker" and "Mr. Street".
  • Genius Bonus: "Captain Basil" was one of Holmes's aliases in the original stories.
• The Magnificent: Barney the Bank Robber, Clarence the Crook, Freddie the Forger, Percy the Pickpocket.
• "No Peeking!" Request: Hiram tells Olivia not to peek while he gets her present out. She takes a small peep, but not long enough to actually see what he's doing.
• Sweet Tooth: The Proudfoot twins have an affinity for sweets, particularly French chocolate. Their kidnappers lure them into their clutches by exploiting this.
• Theme Twin Naming: Angela and Agatha Proudfoot.

Basil and the Lost Colony

• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Adorable Snowmouse.
• Theme Twin Naming: Flora and Fauna Faversham.
• Noodle Incident: The Sealed Mousehole Mystery.

Basil and the Pygmy Cats (retitled Basil and the Cave of Cats)

• Doppelgänger: The characters note Basil's uncanny resemblance to the deceased Prince Semloh. (Whether this is a case of Identical Grandson or Famous Ancestor isn't explained.)
• Sdrawkcab Name: This book loves this trope. Elyod, Nairda, Semloh, Relda.
• The Magnificent: Elyod the Good, Semloh the Poet Prince.

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