Moriarty (2008)

John Gardner's long-delayed third book in his Professor Moriarty trilogy, originally titled The Redemption of Moriarty, was published posthumously in 2008 as just Moriarty.

Bestselling British novelist John Gardner published two books purporting to be the true history of Professor James Moriarty, archenemy of Sherlock Holmes, the Napoleon of crime. The books - The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty - were praised as stand-alone volumes set in a vividly accurate Victorian London and a stunning vision of the underworld of the time, inhabited by the kind of men and women who lived and preyed on the society of the late 19th century. 

Now it is the turn of the century and Moriarty has been away from London for several years, realizing his plans to set up crime syndicates in major U. S. cities. He is suddenly called back to London where his vast criminal society has been overrun by a rival concern led by the shadowy Sir Jordan 'Mad Jack' de Levant - a supposed gentleman hoodlum who is acting on behalf of the leaders of well-known criminal elements in France, Italy, Spain and Germany. 

Moriarty lives again and revolts against the upstart criminals who have attempted to oust him from his rightful place as king of all criminal endeavour.

Title: Moriarty
Author: John Gardner
Year: 2008
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Infernal Device (1979)

Another novel that puts Professor Moriarty front and center. Michael Kurland also penned sequels: Death By Gaslight, The Empress of India, The Great Game and Who Thinks Evil. Great cover art on this first paperback edition from 1979.

SCOTLAND YARD WAS HELPLESS.
SHERLOCK HOLMES WAS HOPELESS.
AND JUST ONE MAN COULD SAVE THE QUEEN,
THE EMPIRE, THE WORLD.

Who was the single figure who alone could foil the most cunning plot ever to threaten civilization with unspeakable horror?

None other than that archenemy of the law...that mastermind who obsessed Sherlock Holmes to the point of madness...that extraordinary hero whose true natures is revealed on these thrilling pages for the first time–

Professor James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime, and now the world's last hope to circumvent the villainy of a loathsome Russian for.

Title: The Infernal Device
Author: Michael Kurland
Year: 1979 (first released 1978)
Publisher: Signet
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Revenge of Moriarty (1981)

First published in 1975, this is a 1981 U.S. Berkley paperback edition of John Gardner's The Revenge of Moriarty. As with Gardner's first Moriarty book, this cover art refresh tied in with the Berkley Conan Doyle paperbacks, making is appear pseudo-canonical. 

San Francisco, 1896. The foggy mists are lifting, and who should emerge from the sinister back alleys to reclaim his title as the most dangerous scientific criminal of his time but the nefarious Professor James Moriarty! Rising like a wicked phoenix from the ashes of his own destruction, Moriarty vows to launch a vendetta against the European underworld leaders who turned on him and left him in the clutches of Sherlock Holmes.

Title: The Revenge of Moriarty

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1981

Publisher: Berkley

Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Return of Moriarty (1981)

First published in 1974, this is a 1981 U.S. Berkley paperback edition of John Gardner's The Return of Moriarty. The series cover art ties it in with Berkley's Conan Doyle paperbacks, making is appear pseudo-canonical. Gardner would pen a sequel, The Revenge of Moriarty.

London is in a terror. The streets are filled with dippers, makers and bullies of every description, all collecting "contributions for the Professor." But Holmes saw Professor Moriarty swept over a waterfall in Switzerland! Could it be that Europe's Master Criminal somehow survived, and has returned to battle Holmes again in the greatest crime due of all time? It could indeed.

Title: The Return of Moriarty

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1981 (first published 1974)

Publisher: Berkley

Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK)

The Case of the Revolutionist's Daughter (1983)

Sherlock Holmes meets Karl Marx in an adventure by Lewis S. Feuer published in 1983. I'm currently selling my copy on eBay.

At last, devotees of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes can learn of his most challenging, and, ultimately, his most disappointing investigation. Fortunately, a codicil in the past will and testament of socialist historian and Holmes admirer Professor Harold J. Laski has finally released the one remaining copy of this tale of intrigue from the custodial care of Lewis Feuer.

"The Case of the Revolutionist's Daughter" begins with Holmes getting with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles. The task? To locate Marx's missing daughter, Eleanor, and to return her safely to her parents home.

Holmes search leads him into the Bohemian socialist intellectual world of London in 1881. With his trusted friend Dr. Watson in tow, Holmes traces Eleanor's trail from the dark archives of the British Museum library to Kelmscott House, a socialist meeting place where Ibsen plays were read aloud. The famous superseleuths me such luminaries as George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice Potter, and William Morris. They confront the ominous atheist Edward Aveling and his villainous cohort, professor Moriarty, who holds the key to the mystery, and to Eleanor Marx's fate––which Holmes argues, may have been determined long ago by her father's philosophical stance and human failings.

Title: The Case of the Revolutionist's Daughter
Author: Lewis S. Feuer
Year: 1983
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | eBay

Death By Gaslight (1982)

Michael Kurland's second Professor Moriarty novel. Once again the paperback sports nice cover art with a Rathbone inspired Holmes.

BLUE BLOOD WAS FLOODING LONDON WITH HORROR

A killer who made Jack the Ripper seem gentle was slitting the throats of the cream of England's aristocracy. Naturally Scotland Yard launched total war against this monster, enlisting the great Sherlock Holmes himself.

Only when this ultimate weapon of the law failed to stem the blue-blodded deaths were they forced to play a last desperate card–Professor James Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime, who had his own methods of fighting an evil that went beyond mere murder by gaslight to hell-lit depths of diabolical depravity and satanic sin....

Title: Death By Gaslight
Author: Michael Kurland
Year: 1982
Publisher: Signet
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Last Moriarty (2015)

The first in a series of  Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mysteries by Charles Veley.

She needs protection, and only Sherlock Holmes can help her.

On a cold November morning in 1895, a young American actress visits 221B Baker Street. She is desperate for Holmes to protect her from the threats of a mysterious, menacing man who has recently appeared in her life. Holmes agrees to help the young actress, even though he has just promised the Prime Minister to solve the murder of John D. Rockefeller's security agent and prevent the incident from derailing an upcoming British-American summit. But then clues to the murder point to the late Professor Moriarty. And another lovely woman, this one from Holmes's past, reappears. Now the famously analytical detective must also look inward. Can Holmes prevent chaos on both sides of the Atlantic and unmask his newest client's shadowy antagonist? For Holmes and Watson, this is the adventure that changes everything. 

Title: The Last Moriarty
Author: Charles Veley
Year: 2015
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Adventures of Moriarty (2015)

Thirty-seven short stories devoted to the man we love to hate, Professor James Moriarty.

We think of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, but far more seductive is the pairing of Holmes and Professor James Moriarty, 'the Napoleon of crime' - a rivalry unparalleled in the world of crime fiction. Fiercely intelligent and a relentless schemer, Moriarty is the super-villain as megastar. 

This wonderfully diverse collection by writers such as Martin Edwards, Jürgen Ehlers, Barbara Nadel, L. C. Tyler, Michael Gregorio, Alison Joseph and Peter Guttridge reveals not just the evil side of Moriarty's personality, but his humanity, his motivations and his human failings. Some of the stories are humorous, some scary, but all are hugely entertaining.

Title: The Adventures of Moriarty
Author: Maxium Jakubowski
Year: 2015
Publisher: Robinson
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)

Sad news today that Sir Roger Moore has passed away at 89. Roger played Sherlock Holmes in the 1976 made for television movie Sherlock Holmes in New York co-starring Patrick MacNee as Watson, John Huston as Moriarty and Charlotte Rampling as Irene Adler. This is the novelization by D.R. Benson.

"WATSON – THERE'S NOT A MOMENT TO BE LOST! WE MUST SET OUT FOR NEW YORK THIS VERY DAY!" 

With this hasty entreaty the world's most dauntless detective is off on adventure once again. Here in the sin capital of the New World–where his beloved Irene Adler faces a nameless peril, where his evil nemesis Professor Moriarty plans "The Crime of the Century," where danger waits in countless shadows, HOLMES MEETS HIS GREATEST CHALLENGE!"

Title: Sherlock Holmes in New York

Author: D. R. Bensen

Year: 1976

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Purchase: Amazon.com.

Moriarty (2014)

Anthony Horowitz followed up his successful Holmes pastiche The House of Silk with another bestseller about Professor Moriarty. The author has promised more Holmes and Moriarty adventures to come.

The game is once again afoot in this thrilling mystery from the bestselling author of The House of Silk, sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate, which explores what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls.

Internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s nail-biting new novel plunges us back into the dark and complex world of detective Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty—dubbed the Napoleon of crime” by Holmes—in the aftermath of their fateful struggle at the Reichenbach Falls.

Days after the encounter at the Swiss waterfall, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. Moriarty’s death has left an immediate, poisonous vacuum in the criminal underworld, and there is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.

Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction originally introduced by Conan Doyle in “The Sign of Four”, must forge a path through the darkest corners of England’s capital—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the London Docks—in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty’s successor.

A riveting, deeply atmospheric tale of murder and menace from one of the only writers to earn the seal of approval from Conan Doyle’s estate, Moriarty breathes life into Holmes’s dark and fascinating world.

Title: Moriarty
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Year: 2014
Publisher: Harper
Purchase: Amazon

The Revenge of Moriarty (1984)

This is a UK paperback edition of John Gardner's second Moriarty novel. First published in 1975, this Star paperback is from 1984. Star also reprinted Gardner's first book, The Return of Moriarty, in 1983.

In the foggy autumn of 1886 a sobre and strangely reserved gentleman arrived in Liverpool off the American steamer. Moriarty was back...

The world has rejoiced in the dramatic return of Sherlock Holmes from the Reichenbach Falls – but who would mourn Moriarty? Who, indeed, ever gave his presumed death a second thought? Until the discovery some years ago of three bulky leather-bound volumes...

Now, using the hitherto unknown journals of the Napoleon of Crime himself, John Gardner tells the unfinished tale of Moriarty. The evil genius returns from exile and, within the mysterious depths of the Victorian underworld, works to bring his treacherous allies to heel. Superintendent Crow's suspicions are raised – but perhaps too late. For he too has been marked down for an ingenious and subtle revenge – revenge that will place Moriarty at the pinnacle of criminal power... 

Title: The Revenge of Moriarty

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1984 (first published 1975)

Publisher: Star

Purchase: Amazon

Memories of Sherlock Holmes (1949)

This is canon, not a continuation, but this cover is wild enough to be a pastiche! This is a 1949 Bantam paperback edition of Conan Doyle's Memories of Sherlock Holmes. Below is a description of the cover from the inside flap.

About THE COVER

The Reichenback [sic] Falls! In a homely Alpine village, set down among lonely mountain pass, Sherlock Holmes at last met Moriarty, King of the Underworld.

There, in the spray that steamed up from the boiling pit below, where the swollen torrent crashed down on the cold black rocks, balanced in a battle over the edge of the giant abyss, Holmes and Moriarty held their last contest, a fight to the death for one–or both.

Title: Memories of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Year: 1949
Publisher: Bantam Books
Purchase: Amazon

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (2016)

Nicholas Meyer's bestselling Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution published as a graphic novel by IDW.

The best-selling Sherlock Holmes novel by writer/director Nicholas Meyer is adapted in this graphic novel by writers Scott Tipton and David Tipton with artist Rob Joseph. The real story behind Sherlock Holmes’ final confrontation with Professor Moriarty is at long last revealed! Who is the real Moriarty? Why did Holmes disappear for so long? The game is afoot!

Title: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Author: David & Scott Tipton, Nicholas Meyer

Year: 2016

Publisher: IDW Publishing

Purchase: Amazon.

Exit Sherlock Holmes (1979)

Robert Lee Hall's Exit Sherlock Holmes offered up a sci-fi resolution to the mystery of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. This is the 1979 U.S. paperback edition with nicely atmospheric cover art by Jordi Penalva.

THE GREAT DETECTIVE'S FINAL DAYS 

Through the sounds and fogs of Victorian London and a tangled maze of deception, the resurrected Sherlock Holmes and his archenemy, the wicked Professor Moriarity, once again engage in a terrifying battle between good and evil. When the master sleuth decides to "disappear" in order to deal with the villain, his loyal assistant, Dr. Watson, frantically searches for him, traveling deep into Holmes' mysterious past, until he must face the shocking discovery that his old friend has lied to him for years about who he really is and where he comes from. Indeed, Watson learns the master's incredible lifelong secret–a truth which is, in the Great Detective's own words, "infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

Title: Exit Sherlock Holmes
Author: Robert Lee Hall
Year: 1979 (first published 1977)
Publisher: Playboy Press
Purchase: Amazon.com.

Exit Sherlock Holmes (1987)

This is a 1987 UK paperback edition of Robert Lee Hall's intriguing novel, Exit Sherlock Holmes. I always thought this one would have made a good movie.

THE ASTOUNDING SOLUTION TO THE ENIGMA OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 

October 1903. Moriarty is back in London–he too survived the Reichenbach Falls. Holmes goes to ground, leaving Watson like so much bait to draw the quarry. But the subsequent astonishing revelation and confrontation at 221B Baker Street is only the first in a shattering series of blows to be dealt Watson's (and our) view of Holmes. Until now we have known only the skimpiest details of his early life–and then only what he himself, a fiercely secretive man, chose to reveal. Where did he acquire his many different skills? Why did he tell Watson so little about his brother Mycroft? And what was the true relationship between Holmes and his arch foe Moriarty? Mysteries and enigmas rise to envelop Watson in his quest for the truth like the yellow fogs of Victorian London. Can he ever pin down the true identities of Holmes and Moriarty–and the true meaning of their lifelong duel?

Title: Exit Sherlock Holmes
Author: Robert Lee Hall
Year: 1987 (first published 1977)
Publisher: Grafton
Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

The Return of Moriarty (1983)

First published in 1974, this is a 1983 UK paperback edition of John Gardner's The Return of Moriarty. The cover refers to Gardner as the author of Licence Renewed, the first of 14 original James Bond novels. Gardner would also pen a sequel, The Revenge of Moriarty.

'Watson and the world thought that Holmes lay dead beneath the dark and swirling waters of the Reichenbach; but Holmes in 1894 was very much alive . . . SO WHY NOT MORIARTY?' 

An evil genius never dies. The sworn enemy of Sherlock Holmes is back, manipulating turn-of-the century unrest to his own deadly advantage. From the murky haunts of Limehouse, punishers, forgers, cash-carriers, cracksmen, blackmailers, murders and Moriarty's whore-mistress, the celebrated Sal Hodges, carry out the will of the Napoleon of crime. How far do the tentacles of evil stretch? What was the connection between Moriarty and Jack the Ripper? Or the famous de Goncourt case in which the Metropolitan police first faced charges of corruption in court? The answer for Inspector Crow, sworn to bring Moriarty to justice, lie deep in the labyrinthine darkness of the Victorian underworld.

Title: The Return of Moriarty

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1983 (first published 1974)

Publisher: Star

Purchase: Amazon (2013 edition)

The Revenge of Moriarty (1975)

Long before the Anthony Horowitz bestseller, Moriarty, author John Gardner penned two novels about Sherlock Holmes' arch nemesis: The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty. The long delayed third book, originally to be called The Redemption of Moriarty, was published posthumously in 2008 as just Moriarty. This Berkley paperback edition of Gardner's second book was the first U.S. edition.

THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME IS BACK!

San Francisco, 1896. The foggy mists are lifting, and who should emerge from the sinister back alleys to reclaim his title as the most dangerous scientific criminal of his time but the nefarious Professor James Moriarty! Rising like a wicked phoenix from the ashes of his own destruction, Moriarty vows to launch a vendetta against the European underworld leaders who turned on him and left him in the clutches of Sherlock Holmes.

Back in London to take revenge! Baiting them with their favorite vices––spectacular German jewels, a delectable Italian beauty, the prized Mona Lisa, a very accommodating servant girl––Moriarty plays on their sinful weaknesses, and one by one ropes them in as only he can. Then, daring to commit his most horrible scheme, the professor masterminds a plot to destroy the legendary Holmes by cutting off his cocaine supply and bringing him to public disgrace.

Is there no stopping this dastardly genius? Does this really mean the end of the Baker Street Sleuth––and a gruesome triumph of Professor Moriarty??

Title: The Revenge of Moriarty

Author: John Gardner

Year: 1975

Publisher: Berkley

Purchase: Amazon (hardcover).

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1962)

A fictional "biography" of the great detective by noted Sherlockian, William S. Baring-Gould. In the UK the book was titled just Sherlock Holmes. Pictured here is the first U.S. hardcover edition.

Although millions know of Sherlock Holmes through the chronicles of Dr. Watson, it is only now that, owing to his recent death, the full biography and facts of his life can be brought before the public. This volume brings together for the first time every known fact that can be fully authenticated about the life of one of the world's most extraordinary men, and reveals much more about him that has not been heretofore generally known. From twenty years' research into every possible source, the author has written as definitive and account as could ever be assembled. 

SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET reveals far more than Watson ever could, including the whole story of his running battle with the infamous Professor Moriarty, his dangerous brush with Jack the Ripper, his long association and love for Irene Adler, the question of his own son, the story of his retirement, the writing of his great book, and the circumstances of his death.

Title: Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street

Author: William S. Baring-Gould

Year: 1962

Publisher: Bramhall House

Purchase: Amazon.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1987)

For the Sherlock Holmes centennial in 1987, the Conan Doyle Estate authorized this collection of new short stories written by prominent authors, including Stephen King. Pictured here is the first hardcover edition.

This year marks the 100th birthday of the first appearance in print of the most popular detective of all time. This volume of new Sherlock Holmes stories, written by some of the finest contemporary practitioners of the mystery story, is a centennial celebration of that event. This is the only official book authorized by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Infernal Machine by Jon Lellenberg

The Final Toast by John Lutz

The Phantom Chamber by Gary Alan Ruse

The Return of the Speckled Band by Edward D. Hoch

The Adventure of the Unique Holmes by Jon L. Breen

Sherlock Holmes and "The Woman" by Michael Harrison

The Shadows on the Lawn by Barry Jones

The Adventure of the Gowanus Abduction by Joyce Harrington

Dr. and Mrs. Watson at Home by Loren D. Estleman

The Two Footmen by Michael Gilbert

Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin by Dorothy B. Hughes

The Curious Computer by Peter Lovesey

The Adventure of the Persistent Marksman by Lillian de la Torre

The House that Jack Built by Edward Wellen

The Doctors Case by Stephen King

Afterword: Moriarty and the Real Underworld by John Gardner

Title: The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Editors: Martin Harry Greenberg & Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh
Year: 1987
Publisher: Carroll & Graft
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The case of the non-canonical seduction

Here's another reason that I have no business starting a Sherlock Holmes blog, but I suppose I need to confess this upfront. My first experience of Holmes was not the Canon. In fact, I came to Doyle late. My first experience of Sherlock Holmes in print was a pastiche novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer.

In my defense, this is a great novel. It was a sensation of its day and a New York Times Bestseller. And while there had been Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels before this book, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was the one that kicked off the tidal wave of Holmes mash-up pastiche adventures that continue to this day. (The mash-up here being Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud.)

Part of what made this book special was that Meyer wrote it as John Watson and presented it as a lost adventure with himself credited only as "editor." Today that is almost the standard way to present a Holmes pastiche, but this was a pretty original idea back in 1974 when the book came out. I'm not Holmes expert enough to know whether Meyer was the very first person to write a Holmes novel in the voice of John Watson, but he might have been. He also brilliantly turns the Moriarty story on its head and shows us Holmes as a drug addict, but you know all this.

Pictured above is my cherished signed first edition hardcover. No, it's not Doyle, but I think Meyer's book could be the most significant non-canonical work of them all. It certainly seduced me into the world of Baker Street.

Title: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1974
Publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co.
Purchase: Amazon.

Also see: The West End Horror (1976)