"The Singular Habits of Wasps" is a science fiction/horror story by Geoffrey A. Landis, about Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Analog Science Fiction, in April 1994.
Sherlock Holmes is mutilating corpses in Whitechapel... but for a reason no one could have suspected.
"The Singular Habits of Wasps" was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette of 1994[1] and the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.[2]
Publishers Weekly called it a "stunner".[3] Writing in Locus Online, however, Nick Gevers faulted it as "polished but pointless", and a "curious violation of the spirit of its enterprise".[4] When interviewing Landis for Infinity Plus, Gevers further described it as "pretty improbable [for a Sherlock Holmes [[pastiche]]] and thus subversive"; Landis specified that he was "horrified" by the idea that the story could be seen as "contemptuous of Holmes".[5]
In 2000, the story was published in the magazine Leading Edge, credited to Phillip S. Barcia; Barcia was subsequently identified as a Florida prisoner who had plagiarized at least two other published stories. Leading Edge formally apologized to Landis, paid him standard reprint fees,[6] and physically modified all the printed copies of Leading Edge so as to correctly credit him.[7]