Showing results by publisher "MX Publishing" in Historical Fiction

A dazzling collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories, which sees the detective solving fiendish crimes, many involving methods beloved of Victorian murderers, poison by arsenic or cyanide, or even by venomous arachnids and reptiles. The colourful cast of characters includes villains bent on vengeance, traitorous revolutionaries, unfaithful and greedy wives wishing to rid themselves of their husbands, unfaithful and greedy husbands ditto, gullible widows, charming seducers, and captivating con artists out to fleece the innocent.

As we know, Watson, the law is not always justice. So, on this occasion, justice cannot be the law." Presented within this volume are a further eight, previously unpublished, accounts by John H. Watson, M.D. These adventures bring Holmes and Watson face-to-face with thieves and murderers as well as bringing them into contact with the murky worlds of espionage and spiritualism. Why does a widow refuse to meet the orphaned daughter of her oldest friend? Who is responsible for the theft of monogrammed napkins from a dinner party?

Did you ever wonder where Sherlock Holmes found the Persian slipper he keeps his shag tobacco in? Had Holmes and Watson ever met before that day at St. Barts? Did Holmes really believe in curses when he said he did? Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Persian Slipper and Other Stories, along with cases involving the putative Naval Man, a night spent at a gentlemen’s club, Holmes’ second marriage proposal, a movable tree, and a surprising wedding ending.

From the curious clauses in a miser’s will, to a plea for help on a tiny scrap of paper, these six cases, from the early years of Holmes’s career in the 1880s, present a singular collection of mysteries for the world’s first consulting detective to resolve. What is the significance of the arrival in the post one morning of a cardboard packet of children’s bricks? Who is the man found dying in a deserted warehouse in London’s East End, and what is he doing there?

Enough time has passed. Dr. John Watson can finally reopen his tin box of chronicles. In this astonishing collection, a treasure trove of new accounts of Sherlock Holmes’s extraordinary skills finally comes to light. What is the connection between murderous attacks on a colonel’s wife and the legend of King Arthur? Why is a disgraced former ship captain stalking his neighbor? Who stole the statue of The Dying Gaul from a completely secure museum in Rome? Find the answers to these confounding mysteries and more in seven exhilarating new short stories.

From some clear pieces of glass and a raven's feather, the great detective must divine exactly who the client was and what prompted him to seek assistance at 221B. Fortunately, Holmes has a number of experts upon whom he can rely as well as his own vast store of esoteric knowledge. Treading a twisted path, Holmes soon finds himself matching wits with an unseen criminal, who appears to be the equal of the late Professor Moriarty. At the same time, he is tasked with sparing the monarchy any possible embarrassment that may stem from the investigation.

Here are ten more traditional tales spanning Sherlock Holmes's illustrious career. Beginning with “The Matter of the Missing Mortician,” which London’s greatest detective solves without ever leaving his Baker Street sitting room to “The Conundrum of the Disputed Canvas,” which brings Holmes to Richmond Hill to resolve the authenticity of a painting of questionable origins. In between, an audacious new rival rises up to challenge Sherlock Holmes over two vexing cases. Then, an old enemy cleverly strikes at the hated detective from afar in “The Difficulty of the Distant Antagonist.

When Mrs. Hudson asks Holmes and Watson to find a missing girl, neither men expected what they would find. Along with Lestrade, they are plunged into a case of abduction and murder. As they race from Marylebone, to Finchley, to Wapping, and back again, time is running out for them to solve the case without further casualties. With two of their own under threat, the pressure is mounting to catch and stop the group known as "Hellfire Heirs".

In the fog of London town, a man is hounded by mysterious attackers. Each morning, John Harden is silently menaced by a different passenger on his train. Objects keep disappearing in his house, then reappearing in bizarre places. Is he losing his mind, or can Holmes and Watson find a pattern to this sly terrorisation? Holmes and Watson are just coming to grips with this mystery when another lands on their doorstep.

A murder is committed on Baker Street in broad daylight, and the culprit is captured, but one man still has his doubts. Six new cases featuring Victorian England's greatest detective, these mysteries are sure to delight Holmes fans old and new.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson reunite after a long and hazardous journey through the icy mountains of Bavaria. They face a dramatic encounter within the walls of a secluded castle. Sherlock Holmes and his brother, Mycroft, give chase, only for their quarry to escape. The three men, in the company of a new and mysterious ally, return to London knowing that an old adversary will be seeking a deadly revenge.

Holmes and Watson journey to the Lake District at the bidding of Squire Foley, who claims to be tormented by a man he believes he has killed in a duel. After an unsatisfactory conclusion they return to London, where they investigate the abduction of a woman in most peculiar circumstances.

On the morning of the vernal equinox in 1899, Holmes is roused from his bed by Lestrade. The inspector has received a report of a girl brutally murdered at Stonehenge. Upon arriving at the famed site, Holmes discovers the body of a young woman. On her forehead, painted in blood, is a druidic symbol. On her side, also in blood, is a message written in a strange language that neither Holmes nor Lestrade can decipher. The girl was also eviscerated and her organs placed around her body. As a final touch, branches from yew trees had been artistically arranged around the corpse. Holmes senses a malevolent force at work, but without data, he is powerless. As the weeks pass, he slowly gathers information about the ancient druids and Celtic mythology and begins to assemble a small army of experts to assist him.

It has taken over 80 years, but at long last, the British government’s embargo on reporting this slice of diplomatic history has been lifted. It was in November 1940 that a senior minister at the British foreign office in blacked-out London commissioned Holmes and Watson to go to Berlin to negotiate a prisoner of war swap with the German high command. And the price demanded by Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Göbbels, for any prisoner's release? That the two work with the Berlin police to capture a serial killer who is stalking the city’s railway network.

Reluctantly, Sherlock Holmes agrees to assist Inspector Lestrade who is being hounded by an obnoxious nobleman whose jewel-encrusted dagger has gone missing. However, what Holmes initially believes to be a simple theft turns out instead to be his first encounter with a master criminal, who is as ruthless as he is brilliant and whom Watson dubs "The Merchant of Menace".

Sherlock Holmes confronts the unknown in ten baffling tales that test his formidable mental powers, as well as his unshakable conviction that the world is a sane and rational place. From the enigma of spontaneous human combustion to the possibility that coins minted during the era of supposedly mythical Atlantis survived into Victorian times, London’s premier consulting detective is tested and tried as never before, as his investigations cross the path of Algernon Blackwood‘s famed psychic physician, Dr. John Silence.

As Holmesians are aware, the literary works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are referred to as the Canon of the Sacred Writings. The title of this collection of short stories reflects my desire to belong to the extensive list of authors and fans that want to grow the literary and entertainment history of Sherlock Holmes. In the five short stories, listeners will note Holmes' continued mastery of forensic science and logical reasoning as the cornerstones of resolving the thorny issues presented.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are summoned to Theobald Grange, the Warwickshire home of Lady Heminworth. Being of a nervous and superstitious disposition, her Ladyship lives in fear. Her husband and elder son were recently murdered, apparently by the ghost of a court jester who was executed on the site centuries before. The apparition has warned that she, too, is to die. Holmes rejects a supernatural explanation, although his adversary seems unaffected by gunfire and is able to take flight and disappear.

Sherlock Holmes has been missing and is presumed dead for some time, and his grief-stricken landlady, Mrs. Hudson, is anxious for a distraction. However, she is in for a culture shock when she travels to Ireland with her friend, Kitty Melrose, to try and stop a forced marriage. What she finds is a countryside steeped in superstition and beliefs in the old ways, a place of fairy forts and holy wells, and of changelings and banshees. A place, moreover, where an impoverished peasantry remains under the heel of oppressive English landlords, but not for much longer.

Following the success of the earlier volume, A Farewell to Baker Street, we have another collection of previously unknown Holmes and Watson tales that will excite the interests of listeners across the globe - The Baker Street Case Files. A decade before his death, Dr. Watson let it be known that with his passing he wished his nephew, Christopher Henry Watson MD, to be the executor of his will and guardian of all his personal and pecuniary affairs.