"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, December 16, 2019

Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon (2019)

A new Holmes for the holidays by James Lovegrove.

The new Sherlock Holmes novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Odin and Firefly - Big Damn Hero. 
It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe - eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty - is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit. 
Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick's calling card... 
Eve stands to inherit a fortune if she is sound in mind, but it seems that something - or someone - is threatening her sanity. Holmes and Watson travel to the Allerthorpe family seat at Fellscar Keep to investigate, but soon discover that there is more to the case than at first appeared. There is another spirit haunting the family, and when a member of the household is found dead, the companions realise that no one is beyond suspicion.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon
Author: James Lovegrove
Year: 2019
Publisher: Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Mechanical Men and Otherworldly Endeavours (2019)

The second volume of a collection of steampunk adventures of Sherlock Holmes complied and published by Derrick Belanger.


The WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE 
in the Retro Futuristic Realms of 
STEAMPUNK! 
Imagine a slight change to our historical timeline where the Industrial Revolution heated up much quicker than expected. Technological marvels such as airships, trains, battleships, and submarines came into being much earlier. They were followed by steam-powered wonders such as mechanical men, flying ships, and even crafts capable of reaching the deepest fathoms of the sea or traveling to distant celestial orbs. 
That is the world where Sherlock Holmes and his Boswell, Dr. Watson find themselves in Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk
Mechanical Men and Otherworldly Endeavours - Volume two of the anthology features stories with a focus on robotic creatures and otherworldly adventures. See Holmes team up with intelligent animals from an alternate Earth, switch bodies with Dr. Watson, and travel to another dimension: 
The Adventure of the Purloined Piston Valve by L.S. Reinholt & Minerva Cerridwen
The Deductive Man by Paul Hiscock
The Adventure of the Tiger’s Topaz by Derrick Belanger
Sherlock Holmes and the Moongate Sabotage by Derek Nason 
The Adventure of the Brompton Mausoleum by Paula Hammond
A Second Case of Identity by S. Subramanian
Doctor Bear, I Presume! by Harry DeMaio
The Adventure of the Violent Violets by Dr. Watson

Title: Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Mechanical Men and Otherworldly Endeavours
Editor: Derrick Belanger
Year: 2019
Publisher: Belanger Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, November 9, 2019

A Study In Terror (1966)

One of the more novel novelizations is this adaptation the 1966 film A Study in Terror written by none other than Ellery Queen. The film starred John Neville as Holmes and Donald Houston as Dr. Watson and was released on this day in 1965.

SOLVED!  
The savage killer roamed the dark streets and alleys of London. No woman was safe from his swift, gory attacks as murder followed murder. No man could stop the menace or even guess the identity of the brute called . . . 
JACK THE RIPPER 
No man . . .  except Sherlock Holmes. 
Now it can be told––in this gripping modern thriller. Sherlock Holmes did stalk Jack the Ripper in 1888, and through a quirk of fate that is a mystery in itself, Ellery Queen follows in his footsteps in 1966. The two greatest detectives of all time match wits with each other––and together arrive at a solution that will stun you. 
WHO WAS JACK THE RIPPER? read the answer in this brand new, full authentic Sherlock Holmes adventure, by today's greatest living mystery writer, 
ELLERY QUEEN
Title: A Study in Terror
Author: Ellery Queen
Year: 1966
Publisher: Lancer
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Thursday, October 31, 2019

The Holmes-Dracula File (1978)

For Halloween, here's a look back at Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File, the second book in his ten-book Dracula series. This is the first U.S. paperback edition.

From the writing of the late John H. Watson, M.D. 
It is with emotions doubly strange that I at last take up my pen to write the story involving the creature I have elsewhere referred to as the Giant Rat of Sumatra–a story, I may add that until quite recently I had thought likely would remain forever unrecorded . . . surely the most bizarre case in all the long and illustrious career of my friend Sherlock Holmes.
By Holmes' own instructions, it must go with some few private papers of his own, into the deepest vaults of the Oxford Street bank. There it is to remain for years or decades, for centuries if need be, until a mist singular password shall be presented for its removal . . . .
And so, at last:
THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE 

Title: The Holmes-Dracula File
Author: Fred Saberhagen
Year: 1978
Publisher: ACE Science Fiction
Purchase: Amazon.com.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1977)

This is the 1977 movie tie-in edition of Nicholas Meyer's bestselling Holmes pastiche, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. The movie starred Nicol Williamson as Sherlock Holmes, Robert Duvall as Dr. Watson and Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud.

Little could Dr. Watson believe that the pathetic figure huddle before him was the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Alas it was his old friend Holmes, but a Holmes in bondage – not to any arch villain – but to a 7% solution of cocaine and sterile water. Driven by the drug to wild ravings, Holmes had to be duped into rehabilitation – before it was too late....

Title: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1977 (first published 1974)
Publisher: Ballantine
Purchase: Amazon.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

The Earthquake Machine (1976)

I've not read this Holmes pastiche by Austin Mitchelson & Nicholas Utechin, but I do love the cover!


EXPERIMENT IN TERROR
In the autumn of 1906, a telegram was delivered to 221B Baker Street. It contained a message which was to plunge Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson into their most terrifying adventure, which would threaten the very existence of the British Empire and bring the world to the edge of destruction.

This message set the two detectives on a relentless search for a group of terrorists bent on world war. It read simply: "Come at once, your country at stake."

Title: The Earthquake Machine
Author: Austin Mitchelson & Nicholas Utechin
Year: 1976
Publisher: Belmont Tower Books
Purchase: Amazon.

Also seeHellbirds (1976).

Monday, September 2, 2019

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Undead Client (2019)

A new final case of Sherlock Holmes by M. J. Downing. Sounds like Jack the Ripper is also in the mix.

Sherlock Holmes' devoted friend Dr John Watson takes the lead in a case so bizarre that it could only be revealed after Holmes’ death. 
Sherlock Holmes has only been deceased a month when Dr. John Watson, still grieving, recounts his final case with Holmes. A terrifying mystery, it sends Watson and Holmes into the dark reaches of London’s back alleys – and the human soul. 
It begins when Anne Prescott, a lovely Scottish nurse, begs Sherlock Holmes and Watson to help her find her fiancé and her sister, who have gone missing in the teeming streets of London. Immediately, Watson feels an attraction to her that shocks him. Newly married to Mary, and deeply in love with her, he struggles to put Anne out of his mind. 
As Watson and Holmes dig into the slums and sewers of London looking for Anne’s fiancé and sister, they uncover a deadly web of bloody murders, horrific medical experiments, and even voodoo ritual that threatens not only London, but the entire British empire, and beyond. 
Watson must call on his unique combination of expertise in the medical sciences, as well as his military training to stop this killer before London – and Anne -- are lost to the killer’s bloody plan. But time is short and the mystery ever more complex. How can he manage his feelings for Anne? What about his loyalty to Mary? He can’t have both.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Undead Client
Author: M. J. Downing
Year: 2019
Publisher: Burns and Lea Media
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Monday, August 19, 2019

The Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes (1960)

Likely the first collection of Sherlock Holmes science fiction self published by four Sherlockians from Denver who called themselves The Council of Four. Includes two stories co-authored by August Derleth of Solar Pons fame.

"But", you say, "Conan Doyle never wrote any science fiction stories involving Holmes." Well, this is a debatable point, for the opposing viewpoint see Anthony Boucher's introduction. Regardless of whether or not he did, there are some science fiction authors who felt that Holmes should have had some more adventures, preferable in the future. Now not only did they feel this way but they actually sat down and did something about giving the world more Holmes stories. 
The Council of Four of Denver, scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, has published this book for science fiction fans and Holmes enthusiasts wherever they may be. We trust you will enjoy the book.
The Martian Crown Jewels by Poul Anderson
The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
The Anomaly of the Empty Man by Anthony Boucher
The Greatest Tertian by Anthony Boucher
The Adventure of the Stitch in Time by Mack Reynolds & August Derleth
The Adventure of the Ball of Nostradamus by Mack Reynolds & August Derleth
The Return by H. Beam Piper & John McGuire

Title: The Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes
Editor: Robert C. Peterson
Year: 1960
Publisher: The Council of Four
Purchase: Amazon.com

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Island of the Mad (2018)

The 15th Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes adventure from Laurie R. King. The popular series kicked off in 1994 with The Beekeepers Apprentice.

The last thing Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, need is to help an old friend with her mad, missing aunt. Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, since the loss of her brother and father in the Great War. Although her mental state seemed to be improving, she’s now disappeared after an outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital . . . better known as Bedlam. 
Russell wants nothing to do with the case—but she can’t say no. To track down the vanished woman, she must use her deductive instincts and talent for subterfuge—and enlist her husband’s legendary prowess. Together, the two travel from the grim confines of Bedlam to the murky canals of Venice—only to find the shadow of Benito Mussolini darkening the fate of a city, an era, and a tormented English lady of privilege.

Title: Island of the Mad
Author: Laurie R. King
Year: 2018
Publisher: Bantam
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, August 3, 2019

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XV: 2019 Annual (1898-1917)

The latest collection of Sherlock Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Third of three new volumes for 2019.

Part XV: Mark Mower, Thomas Fortenberry, Robert Perret, Tracy J. Revels, Robert Stapleton, Peter Coe Verbica, Maurice Barkley, Edward A. Enstrom, William Todd, Roger Riccard, Kelvin Jones, Arthur Hall, Jack Grochot, David Marcum, Dick Gillman, Will Murray, Tim Symonds, Mike Hogan, Leslie Charteris and Denis Green, Nick Cardillo, and Darryl Webber with Two Poems by Christopher James and Forewords by Will Thomas, Roger Johnson, Melissa Grigsby, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum. 66 Stories New Holmes Adventures in 3 Simultaneously Published Volumes. 
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XV: 2019 Annual (1898-1917)
Editor: David Marcum
Year: 2019
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com  | Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, July 27, 2019

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XIV: 2019 Annual (1891-1897)

Latest collection of Sherlock Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Second of three new volumes for 2019.

Part XIV: Charles Veley and Anna Elliott, Mark Sohn, David Marcum, S. Subramanian, Roger Riccard, Marcia Wilson, Tracy J. Revels, Arthur Hall, GC Rosenquist. Edwin A. Enstrom, Jayantika Ganguly, C.H. Dye, Matthew Booth, Stephen Herczeg, Geri Schear, Liz Hedgecock, Carl Heifetz, Gayle Lange Puhl, Harry DeMaio, I.A. Watson, and Thomas A. Burns, Jr. with a Poem by Jacquelynn Morris and forewords by Will Thomas, Roger Johnson, Melissa Grigsby, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum. 66 Stories New Holmes Adventures in 3 Simultaneously Published Volumes. 
Over 150 contributors (so far) to the accumulated volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories have joined together from around the world to produce over 330 new Holmes adventures, each donating their royalties to the Stepping Stones School and the continuing restoration of Undershaw, as well as to honor Sherlock Holmes, the man described by Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.” 
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XIV: 2019 Annual (1891-1897)
Editor: David Marcum
Year: 2019
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com  | Amazon.co.uk

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XIII: 2019 Annual (1881-1890)

Latest collection of Sherlock Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. First of three new volumes for 2019.

Part XIII: Derrick Belanger, Mark Mower, Brenda Seabrook, David Marcum, Robert Stapleton, S.F. Bennett, Edwin A. Enstrom, M.J.H. Simmonds, Andrew Bryant, Tim Gambrell, Tracy Revels, Hugh Ashton, Sean M. Wright, Marino C. Alvarez, Paul Hiscock, Arthur Hall, Kevin P. Thornton, Stephen Seitz, Jim French, David Friend, Shane Simmons, Peter Coe Verbica, and Mark Wardecker with a Poem by Jacquelynn Morris and Forewords by Will Thomas, Roger Johnson, Melissa Grigsby, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum. 66 Stories New Holmes Adventures in 3 Simultaneously Published Volumes. 
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XIII: 2019 Annual (1881-1890)
Editor: David Marcum
Year: 2019
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com  | Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, July 6, 2019

Art in the Blood (2015)

The first of several Holmes pastiche novels by Bonnie MacBird.

London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris. 
Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre. 
Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man. 
Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft. 
This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson's friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes' own artistic nature to the limits.

Title: Art in the Blood
Author: Bonnie MacBird
Year: 2015
Publisher: Collins Crime Club
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Thursday, June 27, 2019

The Feats of Sherlock Holmes (2018)

Six new Sherlock Holmes stories from author Nick Cardillo and MX Publishing.


Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return in six further adventures which display the great detective's brilliance once more. In these adventures set across the span of the duo's lives at 221b Baker Street, Holmes and Watson travel from the highest realms of society to the lowest dens of criminality across London in pursuit of the solution to a host of baffling mysteries. What secret does a simple wedding ring hold? What has become of a young woman fleeing the country? Can Holmes uncover the truth of a haunted house which has baffled all of London? These are but a few of the questions which shall be answered as the pages of Dr. Watson's notebooks are opened once more to reveal The Feats of Sherlock Holmes.

Title: The Feats of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Nick Cardillo
Year: 2018
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Monday, June 10, 2019

The Case of the Hampstead Ponies (2015)

The second collection of "The Final Tales of Sherlock Holmes" by John A. Little.

In this series of five short stories, Holmes and Watson continue their late investigations into dark crimes in 1920s London, joined by their excitable housekeeper at 221B Baker Street, the brilliant, buxom Miss Lily Hudson, and by Jasper Lestrade of Scotland Yard, the ambitious, respectful son of the late George Lestrade. Thanks to Royal Jelly, Holmes is a fit 71-year-old, who has lost his interest in bees and returned to detecting, joining forces again with his colleague and friend, Dr. John Hamish Watson, a 73-year-old unfit twice-widower, who hankers after the good old days of derring-do. Together they explore the case of the Hampstead Ponies, where a murdered baby is found upon the Heath; the Chelsea Necrophile and the mysterious organ that plays itself; the Holland Park Cannibal with a taste for home-made sausages; the truly nightmarish Richmond Werewolf; and the dangers of contagion in the search for the Hammersmith Hound.

Title: The Case of the Hampstead Ponies
Author: John A. Little
Year: 2015
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Friday, May 31, 2019

Sherlock Holmes and the Musical Murders (2014)

The first volume of "The Final Tales of Sherlock Holmes" by John A. Little.

Holmes and Watson are plunged into the secret underworld of 1925 London, where a serial killer of musical (gay) men is afoot. The killer has a little list, and Sherlock is on it. Why? And what have the Bloomsbury Group and the Diogenes Club got to do with anything? Thanks to Royal Jelly, Holmes is a fit 71-year-old, who has lost his interest in bees and returned to detecting. He's not quite as sharp as he used to be, but he's still pretty sharp, and a bit of a vigilante in his old age. He meets up with his colleague and friend, Dr. John Hamish Watson, a 72-year-old not-quite-so-fit-at-all twice-widower, who hankers after the good old days of derring-do. They are joined by their excitable new housekeeper at 221B Baker Street, the brilliant, buxom Miss Lily Hudson and are helped in their work by Jasper Lestrade of Scotland Yard, the ambitious, respectful son of the late George Lestrade.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Musical Murders
Author: John A. Little
Year: 2014
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (2019)

A new Sherlock Holmes novel by Nicholas Meyer is headed to bookstores in October 2019. The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols will be Meyer's fourth Holmes outing following The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer.

With the international bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Dr. John H. Watson. Now Meyer returns with a shocking discovery―an unknown case drawn from a recently unearthed Watson journal. 
January 1905: Holmes and Watson are summoned by Holmes' brother Mycroft to undertake a clandestine investigation. An agent of the British Secret Service has been found floating in the Thames, carrying a manuscript smuggled into England at the cost of her life. The pages purport to be the minutes of a meeting of a secret group intent on nothing less than taking over the world. 
Based on real events, the adventure takes the famed duo―in the company of a bewitching woman―aboard the Orient Express from Paris into the heart of Tsarist Russia, where Holmes and Watson attempt to trace the origins of this explosive document. On their heels are desperate men of unknown allegiance, determined to prevent them from achieving their task. And what they uncover is a conspiracy so vast as to challenge Sherlock Holmes as never before.

Title: The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 2019
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Investigations of Sherlock Holmes (2014)

Dr. Watson's tin dispatch-box yields more untold stories. That's one deep box!

It is over a century since Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance, and readers throughout the world still clamour for more of his exciting adventures. 
We are happy to announce that seven stories from the despatch-box of John Watson, M.D. have recently come to light. In them you will meet such characters as the Reverend Nathaniel Flowerdew, vicar of Great Mowl; Professor Hendricks and his aquarium; the Right Honourable Robert Bonnington Smythe, once expected to become Premier of England; and the man in the red flannel waistcoat who was at both ends of the street at the same time. 'My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built,' Holmes said of himself in his darker moments. 
In these stories the engine is fully engaged and at full throttle as Holmes brings all his daring and intelligence to bear on the puzzle of the Quiet Crescent, the case of the Apprentice's Notebook, and other mysteries in this collection.

Title: The Investigations of Sherlock Holmes
Author: John Heywood
Year: 2014
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Enter The Lion (1980)

Holmes's brother Mycroft gets his own adventure. But which brother is this supposed to be on the cover of this 1980 paperback from Playboy Press?

An incredible manuscript is unearthed, containing an astounding tale told by Mycroft Holmes, the mysterious elder brother of the world-famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

It is 1875, and Mycroft is embroiled in a fantastic scheme to overthrow the American government and restore the Confederacy under British rule. The conspiracy involves spies, counterspies, murder and kidnapping – and extends to William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, a young Sergeant Lestrade, and the villainous Moriarty family.

As the Holmes brothers dash through Victorian London, following clues and culprits alike, their dramatic discoveries end in a thrilling chase through the sky.

Title: Enter The Lion
Author: Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright
Year: 1980 (first published 1979)
Publisher: Playboy Press
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Saturday, March 23, 2019

The Whitechapel Horrors (1992)

An epic Holmes novels that not only tells the story of Jack the Ripper, but also encompasses into its timeline canonical adventures such as The Hound of the Baskervilles. An ambitious and very well done Holmes pastiche.

Grotesque murders are being committed on the streets of Whitechapel. Sherlock Holmes comes to believe the murders are the skillful work of one man, a man who earns the gruesome epithet of Jack the Ripper. As the investigation proceeds, Holmes realizes that the true identity of the Ripper puts much more at stake than merely catching a killer––the most fundamental British institutions may very well be threatened. He is faced with the most difficult decision he has ever made, a crisis of conscience that shakes him to his very core. Holmes must decide where his allegiance truly lies––with his code of honor as a detective and champion of justice, or with his strong feelings of patriotism and love of England. 
The Whitechapel Horror is vintage Holmes, a ripping good mystery worthy of the great detective and his eminent creator.

Title: The Whitechapel Horror
Author: Edward B. Hanna
Year: 1992 (paperback published 1993)
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sword Princess (2015)

It was inevitable. "The Great Detective in Love" series! Behold book one.

Mirabella Hudson soon learns that the Great Detective has more in store for her than washing jars and labeling specimens: pistol shooting, fencing, boxing, and Jiu-Jitsu. This she can master, but Mirabella must face the greatest horror of all: Miss de Beauvais' Finishing School for Distinguished Young Ladies. 
Sherlock Holmes gets more than he bargained for when he hires his landlady's young ward to keep his laboratory in order. Mrs. Hudson's niece might be clever, but Mirabella Hudson is insubordinate, talks too much, is an accident waiting to happen--and, worst of all, is distractingly pretty. 
Unfortunately, 'pretty' is just what Sherlock Holmes needs. 
Sherlock might be a master of disguise, but pretty he is not. The Great Detective requires a female operative to go under cover at London's premier finishing school where Princess Elena Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro is a client--and the target of an assassination plot. If the inexperienced Miss Hudson and her employer do not succeed in saving the princess, there is trouble brewing across the globe leading to war on a massive scale. Montenegro is a small Serbian country, but she has among her allies the Mother Russia. 
One unsuccessful case could ruin this young detective's career before it starts. Above all, Sherlock must have work. Work is the blood in his veins. Work is life. 
The game is afoot! And there can be no greater puzzle than what he receives in the form of one Mirabella Hudson--who might stump even Sherlock Holmes.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sword Princess
Author: Suzette Hollingsworth
Year: 2015
Publisher: Icicle Ridge Graphics
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells (2017)

Sherlock Holmes dabbles in science fiction in stories penned by various Sherlockian pastiche authors. Released concurrently with a Volume 2.

The World's Greatest Detective in the Realms of the Master of Science Fiction! 
Imagine Holmes trying to solve the case of an invisible man attacking London - matching wits with a traveler from out of time - tracking down a human/feline hybrid - using his deductive skills to help fight Martian and lunar invaders! These are just some of the stories included in Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells. 
This one-of-a-kind two volume anthology features traditional Sherlock Holmes stories blended with one or more tales from H.G. Wells including • The War of the Worlds • The Island of Dr. Moreau • The First Men in the Moon • The Time Machine • The Invisible Man • The New Accelerator • The Man Who Could Work Miracles • The Country of the Blind • And many more!!

Title: Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells
Author: Derrick Belanger, C. Edwards Davis (editors)
Year: 2017
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Monday, February 18, 2019

Sherlock Holmes: The Lost Radio Scripts (2017)

I'm not sure if this qualifies as "pastiche", but it's certainly worth adding to any collection of lost Holmes tales. And that cover!

For seven years, beginning in 1939, Basil Rathbone was Sherlock Holmes, not just in a successful series of fourteen films, but in almost 220 half hour radio shows as well. Sadly, many of those radio shows no longer exist and for much of the 1944-45 season not even the scripts could be found. Until now. Here are twelve of the scripts for those missing radio shows. Twelve adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, unheard of and unread for over seventy years, written by Leslie Charteris, creator of Simon Templar The Saint, and Denis Green. Come with us now, for we have a Doctor's appointment. Let's go and listen to what Doctor Watson has to say...

Title: Sherlock Holmes: The Lost Radio Scripts
Author: Leslie Charteris & Denis Green (Author), Ian Dickerson (Editor)
Year: 2017
Publisher: Purview Press
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Prisoner of the Devil (1979)

Hardcover edition of Michael Hardwick's first original Holmes pastiche. Hardwick also wrote the centennial Holmes novel The Revenge of the Hound and the novelization of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Not even the last-hope pleas of Alfred Dreyfus's wife can move Sherlock Holmes to take on the case of the unjustly accused artillery officer convicted of treason--until the aging Queen Victoria issues a direct command.

Title: Prisoner of the Devil
Author: Michael Hardwick
Year: 1979
Publisher: Protus
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy (1987)

The paperback edition of L.B. Greenwood's first Holmes pastiche. Jon L. Lellenburg said on behalf of the Conan Doyle Estate: "It is exactly the sort of faithful, straightforward, entertaining Sherlock Holmes mystery we like to see."

 
ONLY THE MASTER HIMSELF
COULD DECIPHER THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER
THAT WAS THE RALEIGH LEGACY
The mystery stretched back to Sir Walter Raleigh. His cryptic letter, with its mention of a great treasure, was the only legacy young Aleck Raleigh had. And for almost three centuries every Raleigh heir had sought the treasure. Now only Aleck is left in the somber, decaying mansion of Nightsead–with his stepfather, Mr. Moseley, a gaunt man filled with suspicions and secrets. 
And as the mystery deepened with the appearance of a vivacious American girl and strange events at Nightsead, it was sure to end with murder...a devious, diabolical act that made this a case only the great Holmes could solve.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy
Author: L.B. Greenwood
Year: 1987 (first published 1986)
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Friday, January 11, 2019

The Apocrypha of Solar Pons (2018)

A new authorized collection of little-known Pons stories by August Derleth, including the author's only Sherlock Holmes story. Restored by David Marcum.

From the late 1920’s until his too-early death in 1971 at age 62, August Derleth lived, to greater or lesser degrees, in The World of Solar Pons. Already an admirer of Sherlock Holmes when he was a Wisconsin college student, Derleth wrote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, asking if there would be any more Holmes adventures. Upon receiving a negative response, he set about creating some of his own – but set in (then) contemporary times of the 1920’s. Having never been to England – and in fact, he never made it there during his entire life – he relied on travel books and commentaries to fashion a very believable representation. In these stories, Solar Pons made use of the classic methods of Sherlock Holmes. 
After his death, a posthumous collection of Pons stories, The Chronicles, was published in 1973, and it was believed for many years that these were the final Pons adventures. But others began to turn up, including a number that were found in Derleth’s papers – some having been written when he was in his twenties and the subsequently filed and forgotten. 
Now, thanks to Derleth’s heirs and the August Derleth Estate, which still retains full ownership of Solar Pons and these apocryphal adventures, this new easily available and affordable collection of these “lost” tales has been made possible. In addition to adventures such as “The Burlstone Horror” and “The Muttering Man”, there are all four of the “Off-Trail” Pons adventures that Derleth co-authored with Mack Reynolds, the complete compiled entries “From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker”, Derleth’s rare companion volume A Praed Street Dossier (1968), and Derleth’s only Sherlock Holmes story, “The Circular Room” (later rewritten as a Pons tale!) 
Join us one more time at 7B Praed Street, where again The Game is Afoot!
The Adventure of the Gresham Old Place
The Adventure of the Burlstone Horror
The Adventure of the Viennese Musician
The Adventure of the Muttering Man
The Adventure of the Green Stars
The Adventure of the Snitch in Time
The Adventure of the Ball of Nostradamus
The Adventure of the Nosferatu
The Adventure of the Extra-Terrestrial
The Adventure of the Circular Room

Title: The Apocrypha of Solar Pons
Author: August Derleth, David Marcum (editor)
Year: 2018
Publisher: Belanger Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Baskerville (2015)

A comedic take on Holmes by Ken Ludwig performed on stage in 2015 (review). Ludwig also wrote the 2012 play about William Gillette, The Game's Afoot; Or Holmes for the Holidays.

Get your deerstalker cap on-the play's afoot! Comedic genius Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo) transforms Arthur Conan Doyle's classic The Hound of the Baskervilles into a murderously funny adventure. Sherlock Holmes is on the case. The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their ingenious killer, Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 40 characters. Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can our heroes discover the truth in time? Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be.

Title: Baskerville
Author: Ken Ludwig
Year: 2015
Publisher: Samuel French
Purchase: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

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