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

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

The Haunting of Torre Abbey (2000)

A haunting Holmes pastiche by Carole Buggé.

"Watson, do you believe in ghosts?"

With this question, Sherlock Holmes shatters the calm of a quiet evening in their London flat and, with Dr. John Watson at his side, embarks upon a particularly strange case. Holmes has received a request for aid from Lord Charles Cary, whose family is seemingly being threatened by ghosts in and around the family manor. The manor is Torre Abbey, a twelfth-century monastery in Torquay, Devon, and it has a long history of hauntings. While skeptical of the supernatural, Holmes does believe that the Cary family is in danger-a belief which proves to be horrifyingly accurate when, shortly after they arrive at Torre Abbey, a household member dies suddenly, mysteriously, and seemingly of fright. As strange sightings and threatening apparitions become almost commonplace, Holmes must uncover the secrets of the haunted abbey and the family that lives there if he is to have any hope of protecting the living and avenging the dead. In a case that taxes his wits, and seems beyond the reach of his usual methods, Holmes must grapple with his most deadly and unforgiving foe.

Title: The Haunting of Torre Abbey
Author: Carole Buggé
Year: 2000
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Purchase: Amazon.com

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

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

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

Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula (2021)

Sherlock Holmes once again tangles with the Count from Transylvania in this first volume of The Classified Dossier.

In this thrilling supernatural mystery, Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula must join forces to banish a terrible enemy... 

Sherlock Holmes is dead. His body lies in a solitary grave on the Sussex Downs, England. But Dr. Watson survives, and is now given permission to release tales in Sherlock’s ‘classified dossier’, those cases that are, dear reader, unbelievable – for their subject matter is of the most outré and grotesque nature. 

In this thrilling first installment of The Classified Dossier, a Transylvanian nobleman called Count Dracula arrives at Baker Street seeking the help of Sherlock Holmes, for his beloved wife Mina has been kidnapped. 

But Dracula is a client like no other and Sherlock and Watson must confront – despite the wild, unbelievable notion – the existence of vampires. And before long, Sherlock, Watson and their new vampire allies must work together to banish a powerful enemy growing in the shadows….

Title: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula
Author: Christian Klaver
Year: 2021
Publisher: Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Necronomicon of Solar Pons (2020)

Solar Pons is back in nine new tales with a Lovecraftian flavor.

SOLAR PONS vs. the CTHULHU MYTHOS in NINE NEW ADVENTURES 

August Derleth introduced the world to Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker in the 1920's. Pons, like Sherlock Holmes, solved crimes using deduction and ratiocination, often referring to Holmes as “The Master” or “My illustrious predecessor”. Since his first appearance, Pons has been a favorite with Sherlockians. 

In the 1930's, Derleth coined the term "Cthulhu Mythos" to describe the weird fiction written by the writers in the Lovecraft circle. After Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth created Arkham House Publishing to make certain Lovecraft and other writers of the Cthulhu mythos, himself included, remained in print. Derleth wrote a number of tales of the Cthulhu mythos including The Mask of Cthulhu, The Trail of Cthulhu, and The Watchers Out of Time (collaborating with Lovecraft). 

Now, for the first time ever, the estate of August Derleth has authorized a one of a kind anthology combining Derleth's Solar Pons, the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street, with his Cthulhu Mythos and horror tales. Join us in the foggy streets of early 20th Century London where horror is lurking on the streets and also at the veil of reality. 

The Rondure of Cthulhu by Stephen Herczeg

The Meandering Mathematician by Robert Perret

A Matter of Blood by Nick Cardillo

To Everything There is a Season by Stephen Persing

The Adventure of the Book and the Gate by Eleanor Sciolistein

Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice by Jeff Baker

The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist by I.A. Watson

The Man with the Writhing Skin by David Marcum

The Devil's Tongue of Blue John Gap by Derrick Belanger

Plus a bonus Sherlock Holmes adventure!

Title: The Necronomicon of Solar Pons
Author: Derrick Belanger
Year: 2020
Publisher: Belanger Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania (2011)

Another crossover adventure that finds Holmes and Watson tangling with the King of the Undead.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson are returning to London from Bucharest after the great detective has interceded in a delicate matter relating to the Rumanian Royal House. 

As they depart from Bucharest they receive their mail forwarded from London. Doctor Watson opens a distressing letter from his niece, Mina, now living in Budapest with her young husband, Janos, a newly qualified lawyer. It seems that the young man has not returned from a business assignment in Transylvania. 

Holmes advises that he and Watson should postpone their return to Baker Street. Watson wires ahead and they are met at the station by Mina and her friend, Lucy Westenra. 

Holmes is duly intrigued by their stay overnight at the home of Dr Westenra in the grounds of the asylum of which Dr Westenra is the Administrator. 

Holmes suspects that letters from the young lawyer may have been forged, or written under duress. Next day they set off for Castle Dracula.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania
Author: Gerry O'Hara
Year: 2011
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XVII: Whatever Remains Must Be the Truth (1891-1898)

The 17th collection of Sherlock Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The second of three new volumes released October 31, 2019.

Part XVII: In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring adventures set within the correct time period, and written by many of today’s leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. Those first three volumes were overwhelmingly received, and there were soon calls for additional collections. Since then, their popularity has only continued to grow. And now we present a new three-volume set. Like 2017’s two-volumes set, Eliminate the Impossible, this new collection, Whatever Remains . . . Must Be the Truth features tales of Holmes’s encounters with seemingly impossible events – ghosts and hauntings, cults and curses, mythical beasts and mediums, angels and demons, and more. 

The forty-eight stories in these three companion volumes represent some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found, and honor 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 XVII: Whatever Remains Must Be the Truth (1891-1898)
Year: 2019
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com  | Amazon.co.uk

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.

Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers (2014)

Dean P. Turnbloom's follow-up to his Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Vampire finds Holmes and Watson in 1888 Manhattan.

With Baron Barlucci escaping London on his way to New York with Abigail Drake, Dr. Watson is certain they've seen the last of the Whitechapel Vampire; Sherlock Holmes isn't so sure. They soon learn the Animus Lacuna, barque of the now infamous Barlucci, was reported lost at sea and a longboat carrying the body of Abigail Drake was recovered by Newfoundland fishermen. 

But when Inspector Andrews of Scotland Yard arrives to retrieve her remains, the body suddenly disappears and Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate. Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers takes up the story of the Whitechapel Vampire in New York, where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet, work with, and sometimes work against, New York detectives Mylo Strumm and Michael Murray. Holmes and Watson are on a quest to find the missing body of Miss Abigail Drake, while Strumm and Murray are investigating a string of unusual murders that bear a striking resemblance to the 'Ripper' murders in London. 

Fast-paced and well-researched, Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers sequel to Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Vampire takes the famous detective out of his familiar London environs and places him in 1888 Manhattan, a place of sin and vice, rivaling the worst London has to offer. Holmes chases his nemesis while he struggles with the enigma Barlucci presents.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Body Snatchers
Author: Dean P. Tunbloom
Year: 2014
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula (1980)

This 1980 (?) paperback reprint of Loren D. Estleman's Holmes-Dracula crossover drops the secondary title, The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count, from the cover art.

HOLMES AMONG THE UNDEAD... 

A mysterious schooner runs aground in an English harbor. Its cargo, fifty boxes of earth; its only living passenger; a black dog. The captain's lifeless body is lashed to the wheel––completely drained of blood. Soon, a rash of bizarre nocturnal crimes terrifies London. Plainly, this is the work of Count Dracula––and a case for Sherlock Holmes. 

Lovers of the Holmes stories will find their hero in a new role here, as the avenger in a realm where pale corpses rise from their graves and go forth by night to feast on blood.

Title: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula
Author: Loren D. Estleman
Year: 1980
Publisher: Penguin
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | eBay

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (2017)

A fresh take on mixing Sherlock Holmes and classic monsters, favorably reviewed by the respected blog Sherlock Peoria. Likely the first of a series.

Based on some of literature's horror and science fiction classics, this is the story of a remarkable group of women who come together to solve the mystery of a series of gruesome murders and the bigger mystery of their own origins. 

Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents' death, is curious about the secrets of her father's mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father's former friend and a murderer, may be nearby and there is a reward for information leading to his capture...a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. 

But her hunt leads her to Hyde's daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein. 

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.

Title: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
Author: Theodora Goss
Year: 2017
Publisher: Saga Press
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes (1979)

Sherlock Holmes investigates one of the most fiendish cases in all fiction -- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is the first edition hardcover. It was also released in paperback.

Sn 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson published his chilling tale, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; for a century it has intrigued millions off readers. But only recently a manuscript has materialized that reveals for the first time that the details of Stevenson's classic were purposely incomplete: that his "story" was based on fact–and that the world's most celebrated detective, Sherlock Holmes, was involved in the case. 

Here is Dr. Watson's chronicle relating the blackest mystery in Holmes's career. . . . The murder of a Member of Parliament has baffled Scotland Yard for months. Mycroft Holmes arrives at his brother's quarters in Baker Street with an urgent plea from the Queen: Holmes must take over the investigation. As Holmes and Watson stalk a diabolical foe through the nether regions of London, they uncover horrors that threaten to destroy forever the very codes that hold together Victorian society.

So terrifying were the implications of the Jekyll-Hyde case that it could only be recounted as fiction. Here finally is the entire first-hand account of this heinous crime as recorded by Dr. Watson. And an explanation of the circumstances that demanded that Holmes's involvement in the matter be kept secret. Until now.

Title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes

Author: Loren D. Estleman

Year: 1979

Publisher: Doubleday

Purchase: Amazon.

Scarlet in Gaslight (1989)

Collected edition of Martin Powell's 4-part comic book mini series featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dracula.

Professor Moriarty has coerced Dracula into plunging London into terror. Holmes, with the assistance of Professor van Helsing, and his own Dr. Watson must turn to the famed actress Sarah Bernhardt to uncover the clues that will bring this supernatural case to a close.

Author Martin Powell was recently interviewed on The Baker Street Babes Podcast #80.

Title: Scarlet in Gaslight
Author: Martin Powell
Year: 1989
Publisher: Malibu Graphics
Purchase: Amazon

The Tangled Skein (1995)

Sherlock Holmes tangles with Dracula in David Stuart Davies' second Holmes pastiche.

Following the successful conclusion of the investigation into the affair of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson little realise that fate will see them back in Devon before the year is out. Holmes receives a potentially lethal package, the first strand in the tangled skein which he will need to unravel before this new adventure is resolved. A threat to Holmes's life, murders on Hampstead Heath and a strange phantom lady lead Holmes and Watson into the most dangerous investigation they have ever undertaken...

Title: The Tangled Skein
Author: David Stuart Davies
Year: 1995
Publisher: Calabash Press
Purchase: Amazon.

Shadows Over Baker Street (2003)

A collection of original Holmes stories that mix the great sleuth with the macabre world of H.P. Lovecraft.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime. 

For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself. 

In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today’s most cutting edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
Tiger! Tiger! by Elizabeth Bear
The Case of the Wavy Black Dagger by Steve Perry
A Case of Royal Blood by Steven-Elliot Altman
The Weeping Mask by James Lowdoer
Art in the Blood by Brian Stebleford
The Curious Case iof Miss Violet Stone by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferfuson
The Adventure of the Antiquarian's Niece by Barbara Hambly
The Mystery of the Worm by John Pelan
The Mystery of the Hanged Man's Puzzle by Paul Finch
The Horror of the Man Faces by Tim Lebbon
The Adventure of the Arab's Manuscript by Michael Reaves
The Drowned Geologist by Catlin R. Kiernan
A Case of Insomnia by John P. Vourlis
The Adventure of the Voorish Sign by Ricahrd A. Lupoff
The Adventure of the Exham Priory by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
Death Did Not Become Him by David Niall Wilson and Patricia Lee Macomber
Nightmare in Wax by Simon Clark

Title: Shadows Over Baker Street
Author: Michael Reaves and John Pelan (editors)
Year: 2003
Publisher: Del Rey
Purchase: Amazon.

The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes (1984)

This irresistibly titled collection of supernatural short stories contains one (the title story) about two bibliophiles who encounter a familiar apparition while on an excursion in Sussex. The author, Leslie Halliwell, is most renown for his Halliwell's Film Guide.

HOW CAN THERE BE A GHOST 

OF A MAN WHO DIDN'T REALLY EXSIST? 

Did the dead industrialist really come back to look for his wife? Can you make love to a ghost? 

Californian poltergeists, Icelandic apparitions and tales of Monagasque menace: Leslie Halliwell may be influenced by master such as E.F. Benson, Saki and above all M.R. James but with this original and chilling volume, he has established his claim as a master of the field of ghost stories in his own right. 

In The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes you will encounter spirits wistful, benevolent – and evil . . .

Title: The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Leslie Halliwell
Year: 1984
Publisher: Granada
Purchase: Amazon.