A rollicking look at popular culture’s most beloved sleuth: “For even the casual fan, the history of this deathless character is fascinating” (The Boston Globe). Today he is the inspiration for fiction adaptations, blockbuster movies, hit television shows, raucous Twitter banter, and thriving subcultures. More than a century after Sherlock Holmes first capered into our world, what is it about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s peculiar creation that continues to fascinate us? Journalist and lifelong Sherlock fan Zach Dundas set out to find the answer. The result is The Great Detective: a history of an idea, a biography of someone who never lived, a tour of the borderland between reality and fiction, and a joyful romp through the world Conan Doyle bequeathed us. In this “wonderful book” (Booklist, starred review), Dundas unearths the inspirations behind Holmes and his indispensable companion, Dr. John Watson; explores how they have been kept alive over the decades by writers, actors, and readers; and visits locales—from the boozy annual New York City gathering of one of the world’s oldest and most exclusive Sherlock Holmes fan societies; to a freezing Devon heath out of The Hound of the Baskervilles; to sunny Pasadena, where Dundas chats with the creators of the smash BBC series Sherlock. Along the way, he discovers the ingredients that have made Holmes go viral—then, now, and as long as the game’s afoot.

What if Sherlock Holmes Wasn't Alone?Sherlock Holmes -the name immediately brings to mind an image of the great detective sitting in his rooms in 221B Baker street, his fingers steepled before his hawkish nose, his sharp grey eyes focused on the client who has brought a little puzzle for him to solve. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said when one reads the names of the other literary detectives of the time period, sometimes referred to as the rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, names like Lois Cayley, Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, The Old Man in the Corner, or Dr. Thorndyke are meaningless to all but the most ardent admirers of Victorian and Edwardian mysteries. The Great Detective Universe series hopes to rectify this problem and expand the world of Sherlock Holmes by bringing the consulting detective and his purported rivals into a shared universe, in other words, a universe where not just Holmes and Watson lived but also Carnacki, Father Brown, The Grey Seal, and many other great detectives.Sherlock Holmes and the Great Detectives has Holmes partnering with these other noted sleuths to fight crime and stop master criminals. See Sherlock Holmes partner with: -Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen a.k.a The Thinking Machine-Carnacki, the Ghost Finder-The Grey Seal-Doctor Thorndyke-"The Old Man in the Corner"-Lois Cayley-Father BrownAnd many, many more

All New Malevolent Mysteries and Perplexing Puzzles where Sherlock Holmes works with Classic and New Occult DetectivesAs Carnacki the Ghost Finder, the famous literary occult detective, once said: "I view all reported 'hauntings' as unproven until I have examined into them, and I am bound to admit that ninety-nine cases out of a hundred turn out to be sheer bosh and fancy."In these pages, a range of contemporary authors explore 'what happens next' when the Great Detective confronts mysteries which question reason. A summons from Irene Adler's daughter; a chance encounter with one of Houdini's fraud investigators; the enigma of Dr John Silence. Mysterious events at Mary Morstan's old school, and a threat to Queen Victoria. The return of the German agent Von Bork, somewhat changed, and a desperate hunt for a killer through the alleys of London with none other than Professor Van Helsing.Join us in the first volume of this two volume anthology as Holmes finds himself working with psychic investigators old and new in pursuit of answers, and must confront his own scepticism. Tales in the traditional style - but with a twist. Can Holmes's logic work alongside the occult detectives' willingness to embrace another set of rules entirely? Paranormal - or poppycock?

This masterful collection of seventeen classic mystery stories, dating from 1837 to 1914, traces the earliest history of popular detective fiction. Today, the figure of Sherlock Holmes towers over detective fiction like a colossus—but it was not always so. Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin, the hero of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” anticipated Holmes’ deductive reasoning by more than forty years. In A Study in Scarlet, the first of Holmes’ adventures, Doyle acknowledged his debt to Poe—and to Émile Gaboriau, whose thief-turned-detective Monsieur Lecoq debuted in France twenty years earlier. If Rue Morgue was the first true detective story in English, the title of the first full-length detective novel is more hotly contested. Among the possibilities are two books by Wilkie Collins—The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868)—Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) or Aurora Floyd (1862), and The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-3) by the pseudonymous “Charles Felix.” As the early years of detective fiction gave way to two separate golden ages—hard-boiled tales in America and intricately-plotted “cozy” murders in Britain—and these new sub-genres went their own ways, their detectives still required the intelligence and clear-sightedness that characterized the earliest works of detective fiction: the trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, and of all the detectives featured in these pages.

"Donald Thomas is the all-time best at Sherlockian pastiche." —Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine "Have you ever seen a ghost, Mr. Holmes?“ asks Victoria Temple, and Sherlock Holmes, at the height of his powers in 1898, must face a new challenge, one that plunges the great detective into the realm of the supernatural. Miss Temple has been found guilty—but also insane—at her trial for murdering a child under her care. She is locked away in the Broadmoor lunatic asylum and, worse still, she believes fully in her own guilt. But were the hauntings at the Elizabethan manor house of Bly a vision of the walking dead, perhaps, rather than delusions of her tormented mind? Or could it be that a criminal conspiracy is to blame for the psychic phenomena? In the company of Dr. Watson, the indefatigable Holmes will track down the perpetrators through the occult underworld of Victorian London.

Meet spunky sleuth Shelby and her sports loving sidekick Watson, as they take on a dog-napper in this fresh twist on Sherlock Holmes.

Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime! This is the shocking and amazing true story of the first female U.S. District Attorney and traveling detective who found missing 18-year-old Ruth Cruger when the entire NYPD had given up. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective, and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime-fighters during an era when women were still not allowed to vote. After agreeing to take the sensational case of missing eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man, in a desperate race against time. Brad Ricca's Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is the first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. Her poignant story reveals important clues about missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is a nominee for the 2018 Edgar Awards for Best Fact Crime.

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. -Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four. Pit your wits against the greatest detective of them all with this collection of over 130 fiendish and hugely entertaining puzzles and enigmas.Some involve riddles, some plays on words, and some rely on mathematical principles. Use your powers of logical deduction, and see if you can match the towering intellect of Sherlock Holmes. Not only does this collection include brilliant puzzles to ponder over, but it presents these quandaries within exchanges between Holmes and Watson. In this way, this puzzle book retains the same cosy Victorian charm that Holmes' tales are so loved for. Featuring the original pen and ink illustrations by Sidney Paget and George Hutchinson, this gorgeously designed puzzle book will immerse you in Holmes's mysteries and keep you entertained for hours!

For over a century, readers have thrilled to the exploits of Sherlock Holmes through the tales narrated by his sidekick and official chronicler, Dr. John Watson. But do Dr. Watson's tales really tell the true story of the great detective? In this collection of thirteen original tales, each told by a side character in the original canon, ranging from the famous (Irene Adler, Professor James Moriarty, and Mycroft Holmes) to the decidedy minor (Billy the page boy, Wiggins of the Baker Street Irregulars, and both Mrs. Watsons), readers finally get to hear another side of the legend. From what Inspector Lestrade really thought of Holmes to the untold tale of his encounter with Dr. Fu Manchu, from the bitter reminiscences of him by C. Auguste Dupin to the thoughts of his longtime landlady Mrs. Hudson, the totality of the veil of mystery over the legend that is Sherlock Holmes is at last removed. With stories from Barbara Hambly, Cara Black, Peter Tremayne, and Michael Kurland, among others, My Sherlock Holmes is a unique and compelling entry into the literature of the world's most famous detective.