The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part V: Christmas Adventures (2016)

A Christmas-themed fifth volume in the ongoing series of new Holmes stories published by MX to benefit the restoration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Undershaw.

This is Volume V of the largest collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories ever created. “The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part V: Christmas Adventures” features contributions by: Bob Byrne, Derrick Belanger, Amy Thomas, David Marcum, Denis O. Smith, C.H. Dye, Marcia Wilson, Julie McKuras, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bert Coules, John Hall, Jim French, S.F. Bennett, Narrelle M. Harris, William Patrick Maynard, Vincent W. Wright, James Lovegrove, Arthur Hall, Nicholas Utechin, Mike Chinn, Tracy J. Revels, Roger Riccard, Wendy C. Fries, Paul D. Gilbert, Jan Edwards, Molly Carr, S. Subramanian, Peter K. Andersson, Matthew J. Elliott, Hugh Ashton, and Mark Mower, with a poem by Ashley D. Polasek and forewords by Jonathan Kellerman, Roger Johnson, Steve Emecz, Melissa Farnham, and David Marcum.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part V: Christmas Adventures
Author: David Marcum (editor)
Year: 2016
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon

Knife Edge (2014)

Andrew Lane's sixth Young Sherlock Holmes novel finds Sherlock in Ireland. Below is an early export edition that used the original series cover art. By the time of the general release, a new series look was adopted.

A SINISTER PSYCHIC

A DARK BEAST

A SERVANT FRIGHTENED TO DEATH

Something sinister is afoot in the house in the west of Ireland in which Sherlock is staying. There are frightened whisperings among the servants and the house's owners are clearly scared. But who - or what? - has terrified them so much that nobody will speak out? Young Sherlock must bring all his powers of deduction to unravelling his greatest mystery yet. 

Another fast-paced, brilliantly plotted adventure as teenage Sherlock investigates a new crime and comes up against a fresh crop of sinister, clever criminals.

Title: Young Sherlock Holmes: Knife Edge

Author: Andrew Lane

Year: 2014

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

The Pandora Plague (2009)

First published in 1981, this is a revised and expanded 2009 edition of The Pandora Plague by Lee A. Matthias.

London, 1902: The theft of an unusual pocket-watch brings famed magician, Harry Houdini, together with the world's foremost consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. When it leads to the appearance of a mysterious locked strong-box, it becomes a case that rocks the British Empire to its core. 

When the magician is blackmailed in order to best the box's lock, Holmes and his ally, Dr. John Watson, expose a plot against the crown, itself. Only Holmes's immense intellect, combined with the "Official" resources of his equally brilliant brother, Mycroft Holmes, can penetrate the mystery in time. 

In the tradition of Nicholas Meyer's "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution," and "The West End Horror," author Lee A. Matthias recreates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's magnificent style and characters in "The Pandora Plague," a rip roaring adventure full of magic, mystery, and murder.

Title: The Pandora Plague
Author: Lee A. Matthias
Year: 2009
Publisher: BookSurge
Purchase: Amazon

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1975)

This is non-fiction, but still worth the share. This is the 1975 paperback edition of Vincent Starrett's classic study of Sherlock Holmes with an introduction by Michael Murphy.

This work has long been out of print. In fact, those few copies found in the last decade have often brought prices usually attached to rare books and curiosa. The original edition was first published by Macmillian in 1933. Mr. Starrett revised and enlarged the work for a University of Chicago edition in 1960. This is the first paperback edition. Throughout the world this book is still recognized as the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes.

Title: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Vincent Starrett

Year: 1975 (first published 1933)

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Purchase: Amazon.

An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2015)

A collection of paranormal Holmes stories edited by A.C. Thompson.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” 

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable characters in Western literature. Conan Doyle’s inimitable detective has been the subject of literally thousands of books, movies, television shows, plays and even songs. With the rise of the BBC series and the release of most copyrights, the beloved character has found a new life among modern audiences. In An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 14 authors of horror and mystery have come together to create a unique anthology that sets Holmes on some of his most terrifying adventures. A pair of sisters willing to sacrifice young girls to an ancient demon for a taste of success, a sinister device that can manipulate time itself, and a madman that can raise corpses from the dead are just a few among the grisly tales that can be found within these pages. Curl up with a warm cuppa and leave all the lights on. This is not your grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes. 

The Fairy Pool by Lucy Blue

Sherlock Holmes & the Hungry Ghost by Katie Magnusson

The Diamond Carter Ghost by Matthew Wilson

The Case of the Haunted Branch Line by Tally Johnson

The Arendall Horror by Thomas Olbert

World's Collide by Sh. Roddey

Time's Running Out, Watson by Adrian Cross

A Voice in the Blood by Dan Shaurette

The Hunt of the Red Boar by Thomas Fortenberry

The Canaries of Clee Hill Mines by Robert Perret

The Chase by Melissa McArthur

The Adventure of the Missing Trophy by Mark W. Coulter

The Case of the Rising Dead by Trenton Mabey

The Adventure of the Slow Death by Harding McFadden

Title: An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Author: A.C. Thompson

Year: 2015

Publisher: Mocha Memoirs Press

Purchase: Amazon.com.

Snake Bite (2012)

Andrew Lane's fifth Young Sherlock Holmes novel finds Sherlock kidnapped and taken to China aboard the Gloria Scott.

A BRUTAL KIDNAPPING

A SHADOWY PURSUER

AN IMPOSSIBLE MURDER

Kidnapped and taken to China, Sherlock is plunged into mystery. How can three men be killed by the same poisonous snake at the same time, but in different pasts of town? Who wants them dead, and why? The answers seem to lie in a message that is hidden in a web-like diagram. But deciphering it leads to a more dangerous conundrum: what has all this got to do with a plot to blow up an American warship?

Title: Young Sherlock Holmes: Snake Bite

Author: Andrew Lane

Year: 2012

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets (2015)

I guess Sherlock Holmes meeting Elvis was inevitable, and it happens here in this anthology of "Holmesian tales across time and space" edited by David Thomas Moore.

The world's most famous detective, as you’ve never seen him before! This is a collection of orginal short stories finding Holmes and Watson in times and places you would never have expected!  

A dozen established and up-and-coming authors invite you to view Doyle’s greatest creation through a decidedly cracked lens.  

Read about Holmes and Watson through time and space, as they tackle a witch-trial in seventeenth century Scotland, bandy words with Andy Warhol in 1970s New York, travel the Wild Frontier in the Old West, solve future crimes in a world of robots and even cross paths with a young Elvis Presley...  

A Scandal in Hobohemia by Jamie Wyman
Black Alice by Kelly Hale
The Adventure of the Speckled Bandman by J.E. Cohen
The Rich Man's Hand by Joan De La Hayne
The Lantern Men by Emma Newman
A Study in Scarborough by Guy Adams
The Small World of 221b by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Innocent Icarus by James Lovegrove
Half There/All There by Glen Mehn
All The Single Ladies by Gina Koch
The Patchwork Killer by Kasey Lansdale
Parallels by Jenni Jill

Title: Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets

Author: David Thomas Moore (editor)

Year: 2015

Publisher: Abaddon

Purchase: Amazon.

Sherlock Holmes and the Folk Tale Mysteries (2015)

A second volumes of Holmes stories by Gayle Lange Puhl that put the great detective into adventures inspired by folk tales and children's literature.

Jewel thefts, missing persons, even murder are all elements in the world of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. What connects the stories in this book is that the cases he and his biographer Dr. John H. Watson investigate are based on adventures beloved of childhood. 

In a novel twist to the usual Holmes pastiches, Mrs. Puhl has based her plots involving Mr. Sherlock Holmes on folk tales, nursery rhymes and other snippets of children's literature. She has brought them into the Victorian era and kept them true to the expectations for Holmesian stories. 

But these are not children's tales. There are no talking rabbits, no flying carpets or magic wands. There is not always a happy ending. They are all grounded in the logical world of Holmes and Watson. 

Two men are determined to prove in a race which of them is faster. 

A child is missing and presumed dead. Can Sherlock Holmes help heal the mother's broken heart? 

A baby is found in a basket at the foot of the seventeen steps to 221b Baker Street. 

Did an ancient legend lead to a modern-day murder? 

Join Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his biographer Dr. John H. Watson as they explore the unusual cases brought to them from the land of bedtime stories and wise adages. You may never feel quite the same again about children's literature.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Folk Tale Mysteries
Author: Gayle Lange Puhl
Year: 2015
Publisher: MX Publishing
Purchase: Amazon.com

Fire Storm (2014)

The fourth "Young Sherlock Holmes" adventure from Andrew Lane, Fire Storm, was first relased in the UK in 2011. This 2014 U.S. paperback rebrands the series as "Sherlock Holmes: The Legend Begins."

SHERLOCK FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE AS HE SEARCHES FOR HIS MISSING FRIENDS

Teenage Sherlock's captivating sidekick Virginia and her father have vanished. Their house looks as if nobody has ever lived in it; the neighbors claim never to have heard of them. Sherlock begins to doubt his sanity, until a clever clue points him to Scotland. Following that clue leads him into a mystery that involves kidnapping, body-snatchers, and a man who claims he can raise the dead. Only the budding detective Sherlock can untangle the dangerous web that traps his friends.  

THINK YOU KNOW SHERLOCK HOLMES? THINK AGAIN!

Title: Fire Storm

Author: Andrew Lane

Year: 2014 (first published 2011)

Publisher: Square Fish

Purchase: Amazon.com

The Secret Files of Solar Pons (1979)

Another collection of Solar Pons stories by August Derleth's successor Basil Copper. The tenth and final book in Pinnacle's Pons series.

TALLYHO!

Come, once again, to number 7B Praed Street, where Solar Pons, the master of deduction, awaits your arrival. Slouched in the cozy cavern of his armchair, his keen eyes fixed on the door, Solar Pons puffs thoughtfully on his pipe, pondering strange and soul-chilling cases.

Here is the brilliant Solar Pons at his very best... clutching at elusive clues as he briskly sets apace into the ominous alleyways of old London in chase of crime. If you've not yet joined us in the eternal hunt, you are about to discover a new joy in a tradition that, alas, may have been lost forever, were it not for the reappearance of the remarkably ingenious and incomparable Solar Pons, whose entrancing effect on dyed-in-the-wool aficionados of detection is, indeed, elementary.

The Adventure of the Crawling Horror
The Adventure of the Anguished Actor
The Adventure of the Ignored Idols
The Adventure of the Horrified Heiress

Title: The Secret Files of Solar Pons

Author: Basil Cooper

Year: 1979

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Purchase: Amazon.com.

The Chronicles of Solar Pons (1975)

"The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street" returns for more adventures. Interesting cover art on this 1975 UK hardcover.

Sherlock Holmes's brilliant successor in a further series of bizarre mysteries.

The Adventure of the Red Leech 

The Adventure of the Orient Express 

The Adventure of the Golden Bracelet 

The Adventure of the Shaplow Millions 

The Adventure of the Benin Bronze 

The Adventure of the Missing Tenants 

The Adventure of the Aluminum Crutch 

The Adventure of the Seven Sisters 

The Adventure of the Bishop's Companion 

The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians

Title: The Chronicles of Solar Pons
Author: August Derleth
Year: 1975 (first published 1973)
Publisher: Robson Books Ltd
Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1999)

A collection of "confidential" Holmes stories from the famous tin dispatch box in the vaults of Cox & Co.

This long-awaited volume finally brings to light several cases of the worlds most famous consulting detective that were originally suppressed to avoid scandal an embarrassment to the crown, public figures, or to Holmes himself. Now, the truth is finally revealed regarding Holmes's exploits involving the Titanic, his rematch with Irene Adler, the childhoods of both Holmes and Watson, and such figures as Ida Tarbell, P.G. Wodehouse, and James McNeil Whistler. The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes is a cornucopia of Sherlockiana that will delight fans young and not so young.  

The Darlington Substitution Scandal by Henry Slesar 

The Adventure of the Old Russian Woman by H. Paul Jeffers 

The Adventure of the Noble Husband by Peter Cannon 

The Case of the Woman in the Cellar by Pat Mullen 

The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin by Kathleen Brady 

The Case of the Ancient British Barrow by Terrie McGarry 

The Adventure of the Dying Ship by Edward D. Hoch 

The Revenge of the Fenian Brotherhood by Carol Bugge 

The Affair of the Counterfeit Countess by Craig Shaw Gardner 

The Woman by Aline Myette-Volskey 

The Little Problem of the Grosner Square Furniture Van by Arthur Stanley-Jefferson 

A Ballad of the White Plague by P.C. Hodgell 

The Adventure of Vanderbilt and the Yeggman by Roberta Rogow 

The Secret Marriage of Sherlock Holmes by Shariann Lewitt 

The Case of Vittoria the Circus Belle by Jay Sheckley

Title: The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Marvin Kaye, Editor
Year: 1999
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Purchase: Amazon

Sherlock Holmes vs. Frankenstein (2015)

Another Holmes Frankenstein monster mash-up adventure, this one promising to "soon be a major motion picture." This is a novelization of an unproduced screenplay by Gautier Gazenave.

Only the most intriguing mystery could lure Sherlock Holmes from the comfort of Baler Street in the winter of 1898 ... and it came with the ghastly murder of a gravedigger in the most bizarre of circumstances. Thus it was that Holmes and Watson travelled to the tiny German village of Darmstadt to unmask a callous killer with an even more terrifying motive ... and all within the long, ominous shadow of Castle Frankenstein.

Title: Sherlock Holmes vs. Frankenstein
Author: David Whitehead
Year: 2015
Publisher: Creative Texts Publishers
Purchase: Amazon

Elementary: Blood and Ink (2016)

The second tie-in novel based on the TV show Elementary.

The Chief Financial Officer of a secretive NYC hedge fund has been found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. When Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic management guru with a doubtful past, it seems they may have their man. But is the guru being framed? 

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

Title: Elementary: Blood and Ink
Author: Adam Christopher
Year: 2016
Publisher: Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon.

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

A Three-Pipe Problem (1976)

The exploits of wannabe or delusional Sherlocks were popular in the 1970s. There was the excellent 1971 film They Might Be Giants with George C. Scott, as well as a TV movie The Return of the World's Greatest Detective with Larry Hagman. This 1976 novel by Julian Symons picked up on the theme.

Small-time actor, Sheridan Haynes, had a rather unhealthy preoccupation with Sherlock Holmes. So when the chance came for him to play the famous detective in a TV series, it seemed his dreams had come true. And when London was plagued by a series of unsolved murders, well it seemed only natural for him to take his role into real life. Was this a case of a laughable and misguided actor, or was Sherdian actually on to something?

Title: A Three-Pipe Problem
Author: Julian Symons
Year: 1976
Publisher: Avon
Purchase: Amazon

Who Done Houdini? (2015)

Who Done Houdini? by Raymond John finds Sherlock Holmes investigating the death of Harry Houdini and defending Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who is a suspect in his murder! (Click to read: The real story of Houdini & Doyle.)

Detroit Free Press reporter Timothy Wiggins learns of Harry Houdini’s death on Halloween 1926 with more than casual interest. He had been at the great magician’s final performance the night before. Wiggins had grown up as a sort of magician himself on the streets of London, stealing to survive. But then he met the real-life Sherlock Holmes, who made him his chief Bay Street Irregular. Now, years later, Holmes notifies Wiggins he is in the U.S. at the request of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is being investigated as a possible murder suspect in Houdini’s death.  

 What follows is a mad dash to New York and Boston with a deranged Spiritualist medium on the tail of Holmes and his team of investigators: Wiggins, his feminist wife, and Rose Mackenburg, Houdini’s top investigator into phony Spiritualism, which was rampant at the time. In Boston, Sir Arthur introduces the team to Margie, the most highly regarded Spiritualist of the day. Her séance and the bizarre form of treasure hunt that follows leads to a stunning climax that will change everyone’s perception of Holmes’s character. 

Title: Who Done Houdini?
Author: Raymond John
Year: 2015
Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
Purchase: Amazon

The Mammoth Book of the New Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes (2016)

A collection of 12 new Homes stories by Denis O. Smith who previously published The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes. A mouthful of a title, but a nice evocative cover.

“Is it really possible, do you suppose,” said Sherlock Holmes to me one morning, as we took breakfast together, “that a healthy and robust man may be so stricken with terror that he drops down dead?”

The much praised Denis O. Smith introduces twelve new Sherlockian stories in this collection, including “The Adventure of the XYZ Club,” “The Secret of Shoreswood Hall,” and “The Adventure of the Brown Box.” Set in the late nineteenth century before Holmes's disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls, these stories, written in the vein of the originals, recreate Arthur Conan Doyle’s world with deft fidelity, from manner of speech and character traits to plot unfoldings and the historical period. Whether in fogbound London or deep in the countryside, the world’s most beloved detective is brought vividly back to life in all his enigmatic, compelling glory, embarking on seemingly impenetrable mysteries with Dr. Watson by his side.

 For readers who can never get enough of Holmes, this satisfyingly hefty anthology builds on the old Conan Doyle to develop familiar characters in ways the originals could not. Both avid fans and a new generation of audiences are sure to be entertained with this continuation of the Sherlock Holmes legacy.

Title: The Mammoth Book of the New Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Denis O. Smith
Year: 2016
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Purchase: Amazon

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987)

I'm once again slipping in a canonical entry because I love this Penguin paperback from 1987 with the great Jeremy Brett on the cover. Still my favorite Holmes, even in this age of Cumberbatch.

SHERLOCK HOLMES RETURNS IN SEVEN SPINE-TINGLING TALES OF DETECTION

With the faithful Watson at his side, the inimitable Sherlock Holmes faces some mind-boggling puzzles–and manages to come out on top every time! Holmes's clever investigations in "The Six Napoleons," "The Musgrave Ritual," "The Empty House," and the other intriguing cases replete with treachery, duplicity, and murderous evil display the unique powers of his eagle eye and brilliant brain.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a dramatic series on Mystery!, a PBS television series presented by WGBH-TV, Boston, made possible by a grant from Mobil Corporation.

Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Year: 1987
Publisher: Penguin
Purchase: Amazon

Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy (1996)

Sherlock Holmes was on the Titanic? Apparently so. How did he survive? For that you'll have to read this 1996 pastiche by William Seil.

The world of Sherlock Holmes and the great Titanic are closely linked in this exciting Sherlock Holmes adventure by William Seil, a life-long devotee of the great detective. In 1912, Holmes and Watson board the Titanic en route to America, where Holmes is to carry out a top secret government mission.

Disguised as a Naval Commodore, Holmes is given the added task of looking after Christine Norton – a young and attractive secret agent – as she transports highly important submarine plans to the US navy. Soon after departure, tragedy strikes and the plans are stolen and concealed somewhere on board the huge luxury liner. The list of suspects is narrowed down to the most curious collection of passengers including the beautiful widow with an undisguised interest in Dr. Watson. Most notable of them all is Colonel James Moriarty, brother of the legendary late Professor Moriarty. 

As the investigation continues and the plot thickens the Titanic movies swiftly across the Atlantic towards New York. But out of the distance there is a place where the sky is dark and the water is bitterly cold. A gigantic iceberg waits, ready to take on and master mankind's latest challenge to the power of nature.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Tragedy: A Case to Remember

Author: William Seil

Year: 1996

Publisher: Breese Books

Purchase: Amazon

The Adventure of the Deadly Illusion (2013)

Holmes investigates a magical murder mystery with the help of Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll.

Before 221b Baker Street, young Sherlock Holmes lodged in his rooms at Christ Church, Oxford. Before Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes was accompanied in his adventures by his college don, Rev. Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll (yes, Alice’s Lewis Carroll). And before the tin dispatch box with its trove of unpublished adventures, there was discovered, in an old leather document case, a most unusual manuscript, published now for the first time. 

Be prepared to enter the dark underworld of Victorian London - Seven Dials, Billingsgate, and the waterfront! A world peopled with murderers and magicians, royalty and rogues! 

A series of jewel thefts suddenly turns to murder. And Holmes and Dodgson are led from an old English manor through a magician's workshop beneath the mysterious Egyptian Hall to one of her majesty's most closely guarded secrets

"Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Deadly Illusion" is Victorian mystery at its tastiest.

Title: The Adventure of the Deadly Illusion

Author: Ron Brackin

Year: 2013

Publisher: W&B Publishers

Purchase: Amazon

Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years: Japan (2015)

The first book in a "seriocomic " series of Holmes adventures set during the great detective's "great hiatus."

It’s 1893. King Kamehameha III of Hawaii declares Sovereignty Restoration Day ... Tension grows between China and Japan over Korea ... The Bengal Famine worsens ... A brilliant scientist in Calcutta challenges the system … The senior priest at Kyoto’s Kinkaku-ji temple is found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Dr John H. Watson receives a strange letter from Yokohama. Then the quiet, distinguished Mr. Hashimoto is murdered inside a closed room on a voyage from Liverpool to Bombay. In the opium dens of Shanghai and in the back alleys of Tokyo, sinister men hatch evil plots. Professor Moriarty stalks the world, drawing up a map for worldwide dominion.

Only one man can outwit the diabolical Professor Moriarty. Only one man can save the world. Has Sherlock Holmes survived the Reichenbach Falls?

In a seriocomic novel that radically ups the ante, Sherlock Holmes and Watson find their match in more than one man (or indeed, woman) as a clock inexorably ticks. History, mystery, romance, conspiracies, knife-edge tension; a train in Russia, roadside crime in Alexandria, an upset stomach in Bombay, careening through Cambodia, nasty people in China, monks in Japan–here’s a thrilling global chase that will leave you breathless (occasionally with laughter) as the Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years series begins.

Title: Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years: Japan

Author: Vasudev Murthy

Year: 2015

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

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

Locked Rooms (2006)

The adventures of Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes (!) continue in Laurie R. King's Locked Rooms. First published in hardcover in 2005. This Batman paperback is from 2006.

Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series. And this time the first couple of detection pair up to unlock the buried memory of a shocking crime with the power to kill again–lost somewhere in Russell’s own past. 

After departing Bombay by ship, Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are en route to the bustling modern city of San Francisco. There, Mary will settle some legal affairs surrounding the inheritance of her family’s old estate. But the closer they get to port, the more Mary finds herself prey to troubling dreams and irrational behavior–a point not lost on Holmes, much to Russell’s annoyance. 

In 1906, when Mary was six, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire that reduced the city to rubble. For years, Mary has denied any memory of the catastrophe that for days turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. But Holmes suspects that some hidden trauma connected with the “unforgettable” catastrophe may be the real culprit responsible for Mary’s memory lapse. And no sooner do they begin to familiarize themselves with the particulars of the Russell estate than it becomes apparent that whatever unpleasantness Mary has forgotten, it hasn’t forgotten her. Why does her father’s will forbid access to the house except in the presence of immediate family? Why did someone break in, then take nothing of any value? And why is Russell herself targeted for assassination? 

The more questions they ask of Mary’s past, the more people from that past turn out to have died violent, unexplained deaths. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective and crime writer named Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads them through the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic car “accident” that a fourteen-year-old Mary alone survived–an accident that may not have been an accident at all. What Russell is about to discover is that even a forgotten past never dies…and it can kill again. 

Title: Locked Rooms
Author: Laurie R. King
Year: 2006
Publisher: Bantam Books
Purchase: Amazon

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1963)

U.S. paperback edition of William S. Baring-Gould's fictional biography of Sherlock Holmes. The U.S. hardcover was released in 1962.

"The greatest detective of all time"

"A fascinating piece of work...new and startling... Did you know, for example, that the notorious Jack the Ripper was identified and brought to justice? Well, he was; and by no less a personage than the master sleuth, Holmes. And who was Jack? You are in for a real surprise...

"And did you know that Irene Adler bore Holmes a son, who now lives in New York and is a great detective in his own right? Read and discover for yourselves..." –Best Sellers

Title: Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street

Author: William S. Baring-Gould

Year: 1963

Publisher: Popular Library

Purchase: Amazon.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1986)

First published in 1974, this is a 1986 paperback edition of Nicholas Meyer's bestselling Holmes novel, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. Over two million copies in print then, and it's still in print today.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND SIGMUND FREUD
TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME!

First discovered and then painstakingly edited and annotated by Nicholas Meyer, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution related the astounding and previously unknown collaboration of Sigmund Freud with Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Holmes's friend and chronicler, Dr. John H. Watson. In addition to its breathtaking account of their collaboration on a case of diabolic conspiracy in which the lives of millions hang in the balance, it reveals such matters as the real identity of the heinous professor Moriarty, the dark secret shared by Sherlock and his brother Mycroft Holmes, and the detective's true whereabouts during the Great Hiatus, when the world believed him to be dead.

Title: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Author: Nicholas Meyer
Year: 1986 (first published 1974)
Publisher: Ballantine
Purchase: Amazon.

Read: The case of the non-canonical seduction.

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part IV: 2016 Annual (2016)

The fourth book in what will now be an ongoing collection of new Holmes stories published by MX to help preserve the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Release date is May 22.

In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring over sixty new traditional Sherlock Holmes adventures, all set within the correct time period, and written by many of today's leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. This first anthology, spread over three huge volumes, was the largest collection of its kind ever assembled in one place. Response was immediately and overwhelmingly positive, and there were soon calls for additional volumes. The result is this new collection, the next in an ongoing series, featuring twenty-two more Holmes investigations. 

Since his first appearance in print in 1887, the popularity of Sherlock Holmes has only increased. Although originally chronicled in just sixty exploits, the number of additional Holmes tales discovered since then is literally in the tens of thousands. Along with those original narratives published by Dr. Watson's first literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, countless other people have managed to find their way to Watson's Tin Dispatch Box in order to reveal more exciting cases featuring the Great Detective. These accounts stretch from one of Holmes's earliest cases, later recounted to Watson as they sit by the fire in the Baker Street sitting room, to an adventure just before Holmes's retirement that affects both the ancient history and the very future of England. These and all the other excellent tales contained in this volume 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. The "Part IV: 2016 Annual" features contributions by: Derrick Belanger, Deanna Baran, Daniel D. Victor, Mark Mower, Craig Janacek, Jayantika Ganguly, Denis O. Smith, Matthew Booth, J.R. Campbell, Bonnie MacBird, Arthur Hall, Bob Byrne, Andrew Lane, Roger Johnson, Hugh Ashton, David Stuart Davies, Vincent W. Wright, Daniel McGachey, Nicholas Utechin, Jeremy Holstein, David Marcum, and Marcia Wilson, as well as a poem by Andrea Mantin Levy, and forewords by David Marcum, Steven Rothman, Richard Doyle, Steve Emecz, and Melissa Farnham.

Title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part IV: 2016 Annual
Author: David Marcum
Year: 2016
Publisher: MX Publishing
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.

Black Ice (2011)

Andrew Lane's third Young Sherlock Holmes novel had Sherlock traveling to Russia with brother Mycroft.

A LOCKED ROOM

A DEAD BODY

A MAN WIELDING A KNIFE

When Sherlock's brother is discovered holding a knife and leaning over a corpse, it seems a clear-cut case of murder. But Sherlock isn't so sure.

In a mystery that will take him from London to Moscow in a thrilling search for clues, can Sherlock deduce the truth and discover the real culprit . . . or will Mycroft hang.

Andrew Lane's first three Young Sherlock Holmes novels were released as limited signed hardcovers by Goldsboro Books in the UK (below).

Other books in the series are: Death Cloud (2010), Red Leech (2010), Fire Storm (2011), Snake Bite (2012), Knife Edge (2013), Stone Cold (2014) and Night Break (2015).

Title: Young Sherlock Holmes: Black Ice

Author: Andrew Lane

Year: 2011

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

Elementary: The Ghost Line (2015)

I admit I'm not a fan of Elementary, the American version of the excellent BBC series, Sherlock, but I'm intrigued to see the series has spawned original mass market tie-in novels. This first book, The Ghost Line, was released in 2015. A second, Blood and Ink, will be released in April 2016.

Summons to a bullet-riddled body in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment marks the start of a new case for consulting detectives Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson. The victim is a subway train driver with a hidden stash of money and a strange Colombian connection, but why would someone kill him and leave a fortune behind? 

The search for the truth will lead the sleuths deep into the hidden underground tunnels beneath New York City, where answers—and more bodies—may well await them...

Title: Elementary: The Ghost Line
Author: Adam Christopher
Year: 2015
Publisher: Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon.

Mycroft Holmes (2015)

A novel about Mycroft Holmes written by basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who, it turns out, is a Sherlockian. Who knew?

Fresh out of Cambridge University, the young Mycroft Holmes is already making a name for himself in government, working for the Secretary of State for War. Yet this most British of civil servants has strong ties to the faraway island of Trinidad, the birthplace of his best friend, Cyrus Douglas, a man of African descent, and where his fiancée Georgiana Sutton was raised.

Mycroft’s comfortable existence is overturned when Douglas receives troubling reports from home. There are rumors of mysterious disappearances, strange footprints in the sand, and spirits enticing children to their deaths, their bodies found drained of blood. Upon hearing the news, Georgiana abruptly departs for Trinidad. Near panic, Mycroft convinces Douglas that they should follow her, drawing the two men into a web of dark secrets that grows more treacherous with each step they take...

 Written by NBA superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and screenwriter Anna Waterhouse, Mycroft Holmes reveals the untold story of Sherlock’s older brother. This harrowing adventure changed his life, and set the stage for the man Mycroft would become: founder of the famous Diogenes Club and the hidden power behind the British government.

Title: Mycroft Holmes
Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Year: 2015
Publisher: Titan Books
Purchase: Amazon.

Sherlock (2015)

A major collection of over 80 Sherlock Holmes pastiche and parodies assembled by famed publisher and Otto Penzler. Released in the U.S. as The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, this is the UK edition from Head of Zeus. You can read a review of the book at Baker Street Babes.

In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle put pen to paper and created a legend: Sherlock Holmes. The greatest detective of all time. His tall, slender, hawk-nosed figure with his deerstalker hat is instantly recognizable in every corner of the world. Alongside Doyle's original stories, Sherlock has spawned a literature of his own in parodies and homages. More than 25,000 books, stories and articles have been written by authors, amateurs and scholars. In this stupendous anthology, the best and most brilliant are collected together for the first time. 

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Arthur Conan Doyle, James M. Barrie, O. Henry, Stephen King, Kingsley Amis, A.A. Milne, P.G. Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, Colin Dexter and Anne Perry.

Title: Sherlock
Author: Otto Pendler (editor)
Year: 2015
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Purchase: Amazon.co.uk.

Sherlock Holmes and The Escape Artist (2014)

Sherlock Holmes, Mary Watson and Harry Houdini join forces in a spiritualist debunking adventure. Fred Thursfiled has penned several other Holmes pastiche novels including: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery Writer, Sherlock Holmes and The Discarded Cigarette, and Sherlock Holmes and the Terrible Secret.

Do Spirits Return?  

Sherlock Holmes, Mary Watson and Harry Houdini say 'No' and  prove it.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and The Escape Artist

Author: Fred Thursfiled

Year: 2014

Publisher: MX Publishing

Purchase: Amazon.

The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1976)

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet Tarzan? Sure, why not? It certainly makes for sensational cover art. The Adventure of the Peerless Peer was first published in hardcover by Aspen Press in 1974. This is the 1976 Dell paperback.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE'S

MOST PERILOUS MISSION!

WHEREIN:

Holmes and Watson take to the skies in quest of the nefarious Von Bork and his weapon of dread––a night sky aerial engagement with the deadly Fokker nearly claims three brilliant lives––the astonishing careers of the two American air aces are illuminated––and an historic alliance is formed, whereby Baker Street's enigmatic mystery-solver and Greystoke, the Noble Savage, Peer of the Realm and Lord of the Jungle, team up to bring down the Hellish Hun!

Title: The Adventure of the Peerless Peer

Author: Philip Jose Farmer

Year: 1976 (first published 1974)

Publisher: Dell

Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Check out the podcast I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere for a related Holmes-Tarzan post: Sherlock Holmes vs. Tarzan — by the Numbers.

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.

SHERLOCK: The Abominable Bride (2016)

I know this is blog devoted to literary Sherlock Holmes pastiche, but how can I not give a shout-out to tonight's airing of SHERLOCK: The Abominable Bride on PBS Masterpiece Mystery (U.S.) and BBC One (UK). For this one-off special, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock has been sent back to the Victorian era.

The title The Abominable Bride is a nod to one of the unrecorded adventures of Sherlock Holmes mentioned in the Conan Doyle story The Musgrave Ritual ("Ricoletti of the club-foot and his abominable wife"). So, yes, it is an adventure for which the world was not yet prepared...until tonight.