The Papers of Solar Pons: New Adventures of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street (2017)

An all-new authorized collection of Solar Pons stories by David Marcum.

In 1928, college student August Derleth wrote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, asking if any more Sherlock Holmes adventures were going to be published. Upon receiving a negative reply, Derleth decided to provide some of his own. However, rather than relating more tales of Holmes and Dr. Watson, he ended up introducing the world to Solar Pons and Dr. Lydon Parker, living in London during the 1920's and 1930's. Pons 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.

Between the 1920's and the early 1970's, Derleth produced over seventy Pons short stories and novels. In the mid-1970's, the Derleth Estate authorized a number of new Pons narratives to be prepared for publication by Basil Copper. Since then, additional lost stories from Derleth's files were found, and Copper released various revised versions of his own works, but there have been no new Pons stories for years...until  now. 

The August Derleth Estate, Arkham Housie, and Belanger Books are pleased to present this authorized collection of twelve new Pons adventures by Sherlocian autor and editor David Marcum. Join Pons and Parker as they venture forth into the mysterious London fogs during that murky period between the two World Wars. Along the way, meet some old friends, and discover why Pons is called "The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street." 

The Adventure of the Doctor’s Box

The Park Lane Solution

The Poe Problem

The Singular Affair of the Blue Girl

The Plight of the American Driver

The Adventure of the Blood Doctor

The Additional Heirs

The Horror of St. Anne’s Row The Adventure of the Failed Fellowship

The Adventure of the Obrisset Snuffbox

The Folio Matter

The Affair of the Distasteful Society  

The Adventure of the Other Brother

Title: The Papers of Solar Pons: New Adventures of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street
Author: David Marcum
Year: 2017
Publisher: CreateSpace
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography (2007)

Another fictional biography of the great detective, this one by Nick Rennison. Cover art is taken from an image of William Gillette.

He has been called a genius and a fraud, a hero and an addict. He advised kings in their glittering palaces, then disappeared into the darkest alleys of London’s criminal underworld. He was (and remains) a global icon, but who was this Sherlock Holmes? 

With an attention to detail that would make his subject envious, Nick Rennison gathers the clues of a life lived among the stars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from Oscar Wilde to Sigmund Freud, and uncovers startling, previously unknown information. How did a Cambridge drop-out and bit player on the London stage transform himself into a renowned “consulting detective”? Did he know the identity of “Jack the Ripper”? When did Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty first cross paths? To where did Sherlock Holmes disappear after his presumed “death” in 1891? 

Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography answers these questions and many more as it careens through the most infamous crimes and historic events of the era, all in pursuit of the real man behind the greatest detective in modern fiction—and, just perhaps, non-fiction.

Title: Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography
Author: Nick Rennison
Year: 2007
Publisher: Grove Press
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

Sherlock Holmes and the King of Clubs (2014)

The third Holmes pastiche by Steve Hayes and David Whitehead teams the great detective with a familiar escape artist.

A BRAZEN DAYLIGHT ROBBERY... 

...at Christie's becomes the talk of London, but Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are no longer in the business of solving crime. Holmes has retired to Sussex, to keep bees, and Watson, recently widowed, has returned to general practice. 

But when Watson, desperate for distraction, agrees to accompany his old friend to Vienna, to visit eminent neurologist, Sigmund Freud, it is not long before the pair are pulled back into the murky world of ruthless criminals bent on abduction, intimidation and murder. 

A shadowy terrorist group, The Black Hand, is plaguing the city, and when the tentacles of a crime committed in England reach across to Vienna to cil around Harry Houdini, the famous American escapologist, the Great Detective and his Boswell relish the chance of solving yet another puzzle.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the King of Clubs
Author: Steve Hayes and David Whitehead
Year: 2014
Publisher: Robert Hale, Ltd.
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

Sherlock Holmes and the Knave of Hearts (2013)

Steve Hayes and David Whitehead's follow-up to their first Holmes pastiche Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of Diamonds (2012). Nice cover art.

WATSON WAS WORRIED 

Following a prolonged cocaine binge, Sherlock Holmes is closer to death than Dr. Watson has ever seen him before. Fearing for his friend's wellbeing, he arranges for the the pair to repair to France, to enjoy a leisurely convalescence at the home of Holmes's old friend Henri Gillet. 

But even before they reach Paris they become embroiled in a perilous mystery of the like even they have never encountered before. Who, for example, is the strange man with the peculiar fascination for raindrops? And why does someone want one of France's most beloved novelists dead? 

Before the final explosive confrontation, Holmes and Watson must tangle with a cold and calculating brotherhood for which no crime is too ghastly, especially if it helps to further their own sinister ends.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Knave of Hearts
Author: Steve Hayes & David Whitehead
Year: 2013
Publisher: Robert Hale, LTd.
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part VIII: Eliminate the Impossible 1892-1905 (2017)

The latest collection of 48 new Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. To be released concurrently with Part VII on October 31, 2017.

Part VIII - Eliminate the Impossible: 1892-1905 features contributions by: Deana Baran, Tim Symonds, Sandor Jay Sonnen, Ben Cardall, Andrew Lane, Michael Mallory, Wendy C. Fries, Aaron Smith, Arthur Hall, Robert Perret, Nick Cardillo, Paul D. Gilbert, Cindy Dye, Tracy Revels, Derrick Belanger, William Meikle, Marcia Wilson, David Friend, Roger Riccard, Craig Janacek, Jeremy Branton Holstein, Will Murray, David Ruffle, Daniel McGachey, and David Marcum, with a poem by Christopher James, and forewords by David Marcum, Lee Child, Rand Lee, Michael Cox, and Melissa Farnham.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part VIII: Eliminate the Impossible 1892-1905
Author: David Marcum
Year: 2017
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon  (U.S.) | Amazon (UK)

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible 1880-1891 (2017)

Another new collection of 48 Holmes stories published to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This will be released concurrently with Part VIII on October 31, 2017.

Part VII - Eliminate the Impossible: 1880-1891 features contributions by: Mark Mower, Jan Edwards, Daniel D. Victor, James Lovegrove, Gayle Lange Puhl, Thomas Fortenberry, Mike Hogan, Thomas A. Turley, Adrian Middleton, James Moffett, Hugh Ashton, Geri Schear, S. Subramanian, John Hall, Jayantika Ganguly, S.F. Bennett, Steven Philip Jones, Jim French, John Linwood Grant, Mike Chinn, Robert V. Stapleton, Charles Veley and Anna Elliott, and Shane Simmons, with a poem by Jacquelynn Bost Morris, and forewords by David Marcum, Lee Child, Rand Lee, Michael Cox, and Melissa Farnham.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible 1880-1891
Author: David Marcum
Year: 2017
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

A Samba for Sherlock (1998)

Sherlock Holmes heads to Rio de Janeiro in the 1998 novel originally published in Brazil.

Set in Rio de Janeiro in 1886, this internationally acclaimed literary thriller opens with the theft of a priceless Stradivarius violin that has been presented by Dom Pedro, emperor of Brazil, to his favorite mistress. At the same time a hideously inventive killer is prowling the boulevards and back alleys of Rio, leaving a violin string entangled in the intimate parts of his beautiful victims. Only one man possesses the genius, the valor, and the discretion that both cases demand: Sherlock Holmes. 

In this witty, charming, and highly original novel, the Brazilian author Jô Soares boldly reimagines Conan Doyle's legendary sleuth, introducing a very distracted and debauched Sherlock Holmes, one who trades cocaine for "Indian cigarettes" and falls head over heels for a sultry actress. Overflowing with suspense and historical erudition, A Samba for Sherlock is a novel that combines the authenticity of The Alienist with the exuberant fantasy of carnaval.

Title: A Samba for Sherlock
Author: Jô Soares
Year: 1998
Publisher: Vintage
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK)

Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Globe Murders (1997)

Holmes and Watson tackle a Shakespearian murder mystery. This was the first of a series of Holmes pastiches by Barry Day published as mass market originals by Oberon Books.

London 1889 and a matter of grave national importance. American impresario, Florenz Adler, has rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe playhouse. Then grand opening is to take place in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Amidst the excitement, the actors receive sinister warnings in the form of cryptic quotations from Shakespeare's plays and a drawing of a rose. A hoax? A literary joke? But not for long – the joke turns sour as the murders begin, each an exact copy of a death in a Shakespeare play. Even the Queen receives a warning, and so Sherlock Holmes is called in to fathom out the plot – assisted, of course, by Dr. Watson.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Globe Murders
Author: Barry Day
Year: 1997
Publisher: Oberon Books
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).

The Crucifer of Blood (1979)

Paul Giovanni's semi-original Sherlock Holmes play is based largely on Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four.

Unpack your deerstalker cap, your calabash pipe and your pocket magnifying glass––the great detective is back! It seems that, among the effects of the renowned Dr. John Watson, was found a memoir which begins: 

"The dreadful case of the blood crucifer occurred in London in 1887 and formed one of the most painful and alarming episodes in my long association with Mr. Sherlock Holmes. We were young, and most of our career lay before us. If some other hand be tempted to present it to the public in narrative form, it will, I hope, become apparent why I considered it best to leave unrendered, the heart of this appalling story. 

It begun, some thirty years before, in India, during the Great Mutiny of the Red Fort of Agra..." 

Thus, playwright Paul Giovanni has stepped into the illustrious shoes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and presented an ever-increasing audience of Holmesian admirers with a new spine-chiller. 

From The Red Fort's hundred gates to an opium den in London's Limshouse district, Holmes' astounding deductive powers unravel the mystery of a bloody curse. Nefarious actions and delicious thrills abound.

When The Crucifer of Blood played in Los Angeles in 1980-81, it featured Charlton Heston as the great detective. But check out who is second billed as Dr. Watson!

Title: The Crucifer of Blood
Author: Paul Giovanni
Year: 1979
Publisher: Nelson Doubleday
Purchase: Amazon.

Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes (1986)

A fictional biography of Sherlock Holmes by the prolific Sherlockian writer Michael Hardwick.

Sherlock Holmes settled back into his chair, filled his pip with tobacco, and, with a nightcap libation in hand, found his mind drifting over the career that had made him the most famous detective in the world. Although his old friend Dr. Watson believed that he has chronicled faithfully many of his cases, the time had come to set the record straight.... 

This fictional biography by a Holmesian expert and biographer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the first totally convincing account of the great detective's life. A vanished world is magnificently evoked as Holmes recounts a career that began with methodical self-training in criminal investigation, an apprenticeship with the famous Pinkerton Agency in Chicago, a fateful meeting with Dr. Watson in the laboratory of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the move to Baker Street, which began their long partnership in adventure. Holmes also reveals the sensational details of what really append at his confrontation with his archenemy Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls and during the three "missing" years before he tuned up again in Dr. Watson's rooms in London. 

Ingeniously based on Sherlockian scholarship, this book demonstrates the author's uncanny abilities to use the immortal characters and their surroundings with an understanding that has been praised as making the book worthy of a place alongside the great originals.

Title: Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes
Author: Michael Hardwick
Year: 1986
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Purchase: Amazon (U.S.) | Amazon (UK).