The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man (1985)

This Halloween marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Harry Houdini. This is one of several books that team Sherlock Holmes with the great escapologist. Author Daniel Stashower would later pen three "Harry Houdini Mysteries."

Sherlock Holmes and Harry Houdini? The World's greatest detective and the king of magic–together? 

Yes, together, astounding all England and confounding the crooks who would commit "the crime of the century." Here, for the first time, are the details of this legendary case. 

Even while London is applauding Houdini for such incredible feats as "Walking Through A Brick Wall" and "The Ancient Hindu Water Torture Cell Escape," his devoted wife, Bess, fears for his safety. A rival magician is plotting against him. When Houdini is framed for espionage and incarcerated, Holmes vows to clear his name. 

So begins one of Sherlock Holmes's most colorful adventures. You'll meet such exotic characters as the beautiful and mysterious Countess Valenka, who attempts to blackmail the Prince of Wales, and Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother, whose bulk is matched only by his intellect (said to be even more formidable than Sherlock's). 

You'll see Houdini reduce his body to ectoplasm–and Holmes deduce how he did it. You'll witness Houdini perpetrate the most astonishing escape of his career–from Scotland Yard! And, best of all, you'll see Holmes in action: his celebrated deductive technique, his uncanny talent for confounding disguise, and his hitherto unrevealed skill of flying aeroplanes. 

The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man is a magical entertainment, glittering with suspense, comedy, and romance. It is a must for Sherlock Holmes fans, and for all lovers of adventure and mystery in a grand style.

Title: The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man

Author: Daniel Stashower

Year: 1985

Publisher: William Morrow & Co.

Purchase: Amazon | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula (1978)

Here's one that seems right for the season. I could hardly believe my eyes when I found this on bookstore shelves back in 1978. My two great interests combined: Sherlock Holmes and Dracula! It's a good book, too. Happy Halloween.

HOLMES AMONG THE UNDEAD... 

A mysterious schooner runs aground in an English harbor. Its cargo is fifty boxes of earth; its only living passenger, a black dog. The captain's body is lashed to the wheel––lifeless, drained of blood. Soon, a rash of bizarre nocturnal crimes terrifies London. This, plainly, is the work of Count Dracula. And just as plainly, it is a case for Sherlock Holmes. Lovers of the Holmes stories will find their hero here in a new role––avenger in a realm where pale corpses, rising from their graves, go forth by night to feast on blood...

Title: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count
Author: Loren D. Estleman
Year: 1978
Publisher: Penguin
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Murder By Decree (1979)

Novelization of the 1979 film starring Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Dr. Watson. A good Holmes vs. Jack The Ripper tale incorporating a popular Royal conspiracy theory of the day. 

THE MOST INFAMOUS MURDERER IN THE ENTIRE CENTURY––

He terrorized a city.

He committed acts of unspeakable horror.

He ruled the shadows and the back alley.

He was called Jack the Ripper––

THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS INVESTIGATOR OF ALL TIME––

He commanded boundless admiration.

He possessed ruthless intelligence.

He pursued his suspects with unfailing instincts.

He was Sherlock Holmes.

Title: Murder By Decree

Author: Robert Weverka

Year: 1979

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Purchase: Amazon | Amazon.co.uk

The Adventure of the Stalwart Companions (1978)

Holmes joins forces with future U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt in a New York set adventure. Bully! This is the first U.S. hardcover edition.

NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW 

In this story, written by future President Theodore Roosevelt long before The Great Detective’s first encounter with Dr Watson, Holmes visits America to solve a most violent and despicable crime. A crime that was to prove the most taxing of his brilliant career... 

Recently discovered in the basement of the New York Police Department, The Stalwart Companions is one of Holmes’ most exciting and unusual chronicles.

Title: The Adventure of the Stalwart Companions
Author: H. Paul Jeffers
Year: 1978
Publisher: Harper & Row
Purchase: Amazon.

Sherlock Holmes and the Drood Mystery (1973)

A rare Holmes and Edwin Drood crossover pastiche. This appears to have been a Baker Street Irregulars publication limited to 400 copies.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Drood Mystery
Author: Edmund L. Pearson
Year: 1973
Publisher: The Aspen Press
Purchase: eBay

The Canary Trainer (1995)

Nicholas Meyer's third original Sherlock Holmes novel finds the great detective at the Paris Opera House, tangling with a familiar Phantom. This is the paperback edition released in 1995.

Located by a computer in the bowels of a major university, this missing manuscript by Dr. John Watson, the biographer of Sherlock Holmes, reveals for the first time a hitherto unknown episode in the life of the Great Detective.

The year is 1891, Paris is the capital of the western world, and its opera house is full of surprises. First and by no means least is the sudden reappearance of the great love of Holmes's life, an accomplished singer from Hoboken, New Jersey. Second is the series of seemingly bizarre accidents―each more sinister than the last―allegedly arranged by the "Opera Ghost," an opponent who goes by many names and is more than equal to Holmes. Alone in a strange and spectacular city, with none of his normal resources, Holmes is commissioned to protect a vulnerable young soprano, whose beautiful voice obsesses a creature no one believes is real, but whose jealousy is lethal.

In this dazzling sequel to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, the detective pits wits against a musical maniac, and we are treated to an adventure unlike any other in the archives of Sherlock Holmes.

Title: The Canary Trainer
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1995
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Cry for Thunder (2014)

An unusual pairing that seems right for this Halloween season. Kolchak: The Night Stalker was a popular TV show in the 1970s starring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak, who uncovers paranormal mysteries and his fair share of monsters. This is the 2014 hardcover. It was also released in paperback.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS... a historic unveiling! Not a dream, not a hoax, not a parallel universe! Two of the most unique investigators of all time try to untangle the same mystery... one hundred years apart from each other! The lawless Wild West; the hidden world of Victorian London; the present-day hell of Hollywood... there... and back again. Follow Holmes' trail of a man who was wrongfully - and willingly - imprisoned, to shocking New World Order anarchy, to a beautiful woman who needs Kolchak to delve into the surreal past, to the shunned man who has the key!

Title: Cry For Thunder
Author: Joe Gentile
Year: 2014
Publisher: Moonstone
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Under a Raven's Wing (2021)

A collection of shorts stories by Stephen Volk that finds a young Sherlock Holmes in Paris under the mentorship of Auguste Dupin.

The Apprenticeship of Sherlock Holmes 

In 1870s Paris, long before meeting his Dr Watson, the young man who will one day become the world’s greatest detective finds himself plunged into a mystery that will change his life forever. 

A brilliant man―C. Auguste Dupin―steps from the shadows. Destined to become his mentor. Soon to introduce him to a world of ghastly crime and seemingly inexplicable horrors. The spectral tormentor that is being called, in hushed tones, The Phantom of the Opera . . . The sinister old man who visits corpses in the Paris morgue . . . An incarcerated lunatic who insists she is visited by creatures from the Moon . . .  A hunchback discovered in the bell tower of Notre Dame . . .  And―perhaps most shocking of all―the awful secret Dupin himself hides from the world. 

Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and Terror. Investigated in the company of the darkest master of all.

Title: Under a Raven's Wing
Author: Stephen Volk
Year: 2021
Publisher: PS Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes Solves the Mystery of Edwin Drood (1924)

A very early Holmes pastiche by Harry B. Smith published in Munsey magazine in December 1924.

THE FAMOUS DETECTIVE APPLIES HIS CRITICAL METHOD TO THE MOST FASCINATING OF ALL LITERARY PUZZLES

Title: Sherlock Holmes Solves the Mystery of Edwin Drood
Author: Harry B. Smith
Year: 1924
Publisher: Munsey Magazine
Read: Roy Glashan's Library

The Adventure of the Frankenstein Monster (2006)

Here's an irresistible pairing for Halloween. Sherlock Holmes investigates the monster of Frankenstein. It's alive!

Victor Frankenstein creates life from the dead, alone, in his Geneva laboratory. His friend, Clerval, becomes concerned for Victor's health when he is suddenly missing and travels to London, England, to consult 'privately' with his old schoolmate Dr. John Watson. Hearing a strange lie about events told to Watson, Sherlock Holmes takes it upon himself to delve into the strange particulars of the matter. Holmes, Watson and Frankenstein embark on a fantastic journey across the frozen wastelands of icy terror and helplessly observe as all around them meet their most gruesome death at the hands of the Frankenstein Monster.

Title: The Adventure of the Frankenstein Monster

Author: Don W. Baranowski

Year: 2006

Publisher: Infinity Publishing

Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes and the Houdini Birthright (1995)

Sherlock Holmes and Harry Houdini set out to save Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from fraudulent psychics.

Here's another Sherlock Holmes pastiche from the fertile pen of Val Andrew. Again two areas of mystery are linked: the exploits of Shelock Holmes and the secrets of master escapologist, Harry Houdini. Doctor Watson's collaborator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, finds himself drawn into the world of fake psychics and Houdini is anxious for Holmes to unmask the perpertrators who prey on the innocent believers.

Once he has been torn away from his beekeeping activities, Holmes's investigations lead him to some surprising locations including a Ruritanian castle. Sherlockians, historians and magic buffs will all be intrigued and delighted with this classic detective story which links fact and a little fiction to suggest what may have happened to Houdini after death.

Again .... the game is afoot.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Houdini Birthright
Author: Val Andrews
Year: 1995
Publisher: Breese Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1974)

The 1974 hardcover edition of Philip Jose Farmer's Holmes-Tarzan mashup, The Adventure of the Peerless Peer. Published as a Dell paperback in 1976.

The "Peerless Peer" of the title is none other than Lord Greystroke, the jungle-born scion of a noble English family, a duke in Britain, but in his larger estate of Central Africa, a king. The time is 1916, at the height of the Great War. The foreign office learns that a deadly formula has been stolen from the allies by Sherlock Holmes's old foe, the German agent, Von Bork. Sherlock Holmes & Watson are called to travel to Africa to retrieve the formula. A meandering adventure story by Philip Jose Farmer, a three time Hugo award winner.

Title: The Adventure of the Peerless Peer

Author: Philip Jose Farmer

Year: 1974

Publisher: Aspen Press

Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

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.

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

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.com | Amazon.co.uk

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

The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man (1985)

Paperback edition of Daniel Stahower's 1985 novel that teams Sherlock Holmes with Harry Houdini. Stashower would go on to pen a series of "Harry Houdini Mysteries" in the early 2000s. Cover art below is by Neil Stuart (design) and Doug Henry (illustration). You can see the hardcover HERE.

THE WORLDS GREATEST DETECTIVE AND THE KING OF MAGIC TEAM UP TO SOLVE "THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY"

When Harry Houdini is framed and jailed for espionage and Sherlock Holmes vows to clear his name, the two join forces to confound the crooks who are out to blackmail the Prince of Wales. It's a case that requires all their special skills––and then some. As Houdini reduces his body to ectoplasm, Holmes deduces how he does it. And when Houdini makes a daring exit from Scotland Yard, Watson becomes the only person ever to actually see him escape from a prison cell. The magical entertainment, glittering with suspense, comedy, and romance, is a must for Sherlock Holmes fans of lovers of adventure and mystery in grand style.

Title: The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man

Author: Daniel Stashower

Year: 1985

Publisher: Penguin

Purchase: Amazon.

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (1979)

A Holmes-Ripper pastiche with the most shocking solution of them all! First published in hardcover in 1978. This is the first Ballantine paperback.

LONDON 1888: 

MANIAC STALKS WHITECHAPEL!

Three female paupers of dubious morals are gruesomely murdered. Their corpses are horribly mutilated. Instantly, London is thrust into a state of terror. A monstrous ghoul is prowling the night, untouchable by Scotland Yard. 

Baffled and desperate, the yard turns to Sherlock Holmes. Holmes challenges this diabolical adversary in the most extraordinary case of his career.

Title: The Last Sherlock Holmes Story
Author: Michael Dibdin
Year: 1979
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes in Oz (2021)

Here's a crossover that I never expected to see. And now that I'm seeing it, I still don't believe it! But I guess there's no place like home.

Gary Lovisi presents a new Sherlock Holmes adventure set in the magical land of Oz, as Holmes and Watson take on their most fantastic case—the Red Poppy Menace! Sure to delight all fans of both Sherlock Holmes and Oz, this edition is profusely illustrated by Lucille Cali.

Title: Sherlock Holmes in Oz
Author: Gary Lovisi
Year: 2021
Publisher: Wildside Press
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes Meets Annie Oakley (1986)

Stanley Shaw's follow-up to his first Holmes pastiche, Sherlock Holmes at the 1902 Fifth Test. Unlike that first book, it appears this was only published as a hardcover.

The sensation of 1887 is the visit to London of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The exploits of Buffalo Bill, Chief Red Shirt and the sharpshooting Annie Oakley are exciting everyone's imagination. But not that of Sherlock Holmes. Not even Doctor Watson's enthusiasm for the visitors can, it seems, save Holmes from the clutches of one of his profound depressions. Until, that is, a telegram arrives to summon the Great Detective to Windsor Great Park and a baffling mystery which will involve Holmes and Watson in the affairs of Annie Oakley, The 'Peerless Lady Wing-Shot' herself...

Title: Sherlock Holmes Meets Annie Oakley
Author: Stanley Shaw
Year: 1986
Publisher: W.H. Allen
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk