"Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes has at various times to examine."

Monday, July 22, 2024

Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon (1997)

The first of a series of Holmes adventures set in Minnesota by Larry Millett.

In the summer of 1994, a workman at the historic mansion of railroad baron James J. Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota, stumbles on a long-hidden wall safe. When experts arrive to open the safe and examine its contents, they make an astonishing discovery. There, inside, is a handwritten manuscript bearing the signature of John H. Watson, M.D.

The manuscript contains the story of how Sherlock Holmes and Watson traveled to Minnesota to track a murderous arsonist—known only as the Red Demon—who is threatening both Hill and his Great Northern Railway. Set against the backdrop of the real, devastating Hinckley forest fire of 1894, Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon is the tense and atmospheric first novel in Larry Millett’s classic series of adventures that brought Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Minnesota.


Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon
Author: Larry Millett
Year: 1997
Publisher: Penguin Group
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sunday, July 7, 2024

The Grim Game (2024)

Sherlock Holmes investigates the death of Harry Houdini in this well-researched audio play by Scott McQuaid and Pop Up Theater. (The Grim Game was the title of a movie the real Houdini made in 1919.)


Click here for more Holmes and Houdini crossovers.

Monday, July 1, 2024

Five Miles Of Country (2024)

The third Holmes tale "as discovered by Gretchen Altabef." Lots of crossover fun in this one.

The year is 1896. Sherlock Holmes meets Thomas Edison. At the dawn of Cinema, a beautiful Broadway danseuse is murdered in Edison’s New Jersey Laboratory. Irene Adler encounters ghosts on Broadway. Harry Houdini mystifies the New York Vaudeville circuit. Holmes and Watson go hunting in New York City’s Badlands with Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt. Meanwhile, Rachel Holmes journeys to the Pine Barrens to film the Jersey Devil and the denizens of Poughkeepsie reel in Kipsy the Hudson River Monster.


Title: Five Miles Of Country
Author: Gretchen Altabef
Year: 2024
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Thursday, June 13, 2024

These Scattered Houses (2019)

A Holmes tale "as discovered by Gretchen Altabef." The first in a trilogy.

A client forsworn, a threatened town, and a Goliath of unimaginable proportions . ....Sherlock Holmes has survived a three-year vendetta against him by Moriarty’s remaining henchmen. Wounded and bleeding, with Mycroft’s help he clandestinely boards an Atlantic steamship. At the close of his great hiatus, Holmes finds sanctuary at Vassar Women’s College.

This radical challenge entangles him in the web of a nefarious mystery. Its unraveling involves New York’s most revolutionary residents: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. To pluck his client from danger, he drafts the twenty-year-old Harry Houdini in outrageous sleight of hand. Four villains embroil the plot. The lives of everyday citizens inexorably rise to heroism.

And it all begins when a twelve-year-old girl matches wits with Sherlock Holmes on Market Street.

These Scattered Houses is a daring adventure in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As Professor Sigerson the pansophic gentleman of justice, Holmes is confronted by the evil that lurks within the smiling and beautiful countryside.


Title: These Scattered Houses
Author: Gretchen Altabef
Year: 2019
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Sunday, June 9, 2024

The Return of Irene Adler (1983)

The Return of Irene Adler is an episode of the South African radio series The Stories of Sherlock Holmes, starring Graham Armitage as Sherlock Holmes and Kerry Jordan as Dr. Watson. Original airdate Oct. 30, 1983.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

No Holidays for Sherlock Holmes (2024)

A collection of new Holmes short stories themed around holidays with an introduction by Nicholas Meyer.

From the creative team that brought you the Sherlock Holmes: A Year of Mystery series comes an all new anthology featuring Sherlock Holmes stories that connect to holidays throughout the year. 
This anthology features some of the best known Sherlock Holmes authors today including David Marcum, Katy Darby, Geri Schear, Shelby Phoenix, Steve Herczeg, Will Murray, Greg Maughn, S.F. Bennett, Kevin Thornton, Derrick Belanger, Lee Shackleford, Hassan Akram, David Stuart Davies, and Gustavo Bondoni 
Plus, a cover by The Strand and Sherlock Holmes: a Year of Mystery artist Jeffrey McKeever! 
Introduction by Nicholas Meyer, author of The Seven Percent Solution.

Title: No Holidays for Sherlock Holmes
Author: Richard T. Ryan (editor)
Year: 2024
Publisher: Belanger Books
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes (1980)

Having had Holmes battle Dracula in an earlier novel, Loren D. Estleman next paired the great detective with Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. A strange case indeed.

"It is a business most dark and sinister, and before it is finished, I fear that more than one life may be ruined...."

Sherlock Holmes was right, as the savage murder of Sir Danvers Carew later proved. With Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes has already encountered the evil young hedonistic Edward Hyde and knew he was strangely connected with Henry Jekyll, the wealthy, respectable London doctor. It was not until the Queen herself requested it, however, that Holmes was officially on the case, the blackest mystery of his career! Although Robert Louis Stevenson published his tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as fiction, the hideous facts were true insofar as Stevenson knew them. Here, finally, is the entire firsthand account of that devilish crime as recorded by Dr. Watson, with an explanation of why Holmes's personal involvement had to be kept secret––until now....

Title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes
Author: Loren D. Estleman
Year: 1980 (first published 1979)
Publisher: Penguin Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Monday, April 22, 2024

A Taste For Honey (1964)

First published in 1941, A Taste For Honey was one of the very first Holmes pastiches. The plot features a mysterious retired beekeeper who goes by the name of "Mr. Mycroft." While the original intent seems to be that this is Sherlock himself, later publishers packaged the book as a "Mycroft Holmes Mystery." Two more Mr. Mycroft adventures followed: Reply Paid (1945) and The Notched Hairpin (1949).

MURDERED...BY BEES? 
Who is Mr. Mycroft? The true identity of this magnificent, inscrutable old gentleman is a deep secret–but there are echoes of Baker Street in his voice, and a familiar gleam in his eyes that miss no clue.
In A Taste for Honey, he meets one of the most sinister murderers of all time, and encounters one of the most fiendishly ingenious murder methods ever devised. 

Title: A Taste For Honey
Author: H.F. Heard
Year: 1964
Publisher: Lancer
Purchase: Amazon.

Friday, March 29, 2024

Eliminate The Impossible (2024)

For release in April, a collection of six Sherlock Holmes tales from Paula Hammond that challenge the possible.

Eliminate the Impossible collects six canonical tales in which Holmes and Watson encounter mummies, angels, phantoms, invisible assassins, and arcane machines ... or so it might appear to those without a carefully stocked brain attic. 
From Medieval London, to the snow-capped mountains Turkey, from dusty Admiralty vaults, to the glitz and glamour of the Orient Express, from the days of fledgling friendship, to the backdrop of World War I, this new collection invites you to celebrate deduction, forensic science, and logic ... and Eliminate the Impossible.

Title: Sherlock Holmes Eliminate The Impossible
Author: Paula Hammond
Year: 2024
Publisher: MX Publishers
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Monday, March 4, 2024

Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles (2024)

A wholly unique take on a "Holmes" mystery from Elizabeth Crowens. This is Book One of the "Babs Norman Hollywood Mystery" series. You can read an interview with the author at Dan Andriacco's Baker Street Beat.

Asta, the dog from the popular Thin Man series, has vanished, and production for his next film is pending. MGM Studios offers a huge reward, and that's exactly what young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt need for their struggling business to survive. Celebrity dognapping is now a growing trend. When the police and city pound ridicule Basil Rathbone and ask, "Sherlock Holmes has lost his dog?" Basil also hires the B. Norman Agency to find his missing Cocker Spaniel.

The three concoct a plan for Basil to assume his on-screen persona and round up possible suspects, including Myrna Loy and William Powell; Dashiell Hammett, creator of The Thin Man; Nigel Bruce, Basil's on-screen Doctor Watson; Hollywood-newcomer, German philanthropist and film financier Countess Velma von Rache, and the top animal trainers in Tinseltown. Yet everyone will be in for a shock when the real reason behind the canine disappearances is even more sinister than imagined.


Title: Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
Author: Elizabeth Crowens
Year: 2024
Publisher: Level Best - Historia
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

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