Autumn 1898. London. A scandal in the making. Dockworkers are stunned by the arrival of the Matilda Briggs, a long overdue tea cutter returning from Calcutta. Abandoned by its crew, the dust-covered vessel has seems to have drifted into a vacant berth guided by an unseen hand. The only member of the crew aboard is a lone cabin boy in the throes of death, following a murderous attack. The ship's log has also vanished without a trace. All that remains is a series of indecipherable markings have been scratched into the ship's decking. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful Watson are called to divest the Matilda Briggs of its secrets, only to be subtly warned off by the ship's insurers. Then a young man appears at 122B Baker Street with a mysterious packet from his missing father - who disappeared journeying to London from Calcutta. A confounding conspiracy seems set to boil over. What was in the cargo besides innocent tea chests? Will the violence and rebellion that follow shift the tides from the favour of the Great Detective? Is the world finally ready for this tale?

A seemingly impossible murder in a London rooming house sends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on a perilous search for a killer that leads them from England to Egypt, India, and Singapore.

Someone’s determined to sabotage a new play that’s come to town. Part of the set crashes on stage. Death threats are painted on the walls. Stage props are transformed into sinister weapons. And if Frank and Joe don’t catch the villain, the climax could be crushing.

A swashbuckling tale of thievery and revenge The Giant Rat of Sumatra is the most notorious pirate ship in the Pacific. Its ferocious figurehead, a rat with crooked teeth and gouged-out eyes, strikes fear in the heart of every seafaring crew. Now the ship has dropped anchor in San Diego. Twelve-year-old cabin boy Shipwreck -- so named after he was rescued from the sea by the pirates -- is anxious to begin his long journey home to Boston. Instead, he finds himself swept up in a treacherous plot. It seems his adventure is only just beginning. . . .

Holmes and Watson’s exploits during the Great Hiatus are revealed in a series of short stories and novellas. These adventures include how they separately helped stop the Moriarities from starting a world war and using a legendary stone to destroy London. Also revealed are the facts behind the Giant Rat of Sumatra and Holmes’s encounter with Jack the Ripper.

From the fertile crescent to the far east, the great adventures of Holmes and Watson during the three-year gap between Holmes's "death" and his dramatic return. What exactly happened during Sherlock Holmes's “great hiatus” after his supposed death and triumphant return three years later? Riccardi images his travels in Europe and Asia during those years in nine original short stories set in places as far flung as Sumatra and Tibet. Given the uncertain grip of the British empire over its colonies, the murders and other mayhem Holmes confronts often have potentially grave political repercussions. Filled with local color and Holmes’ signature wit and logic, Sherlockians the world over will relish this missing chapter in the life of the world’s greatest detective.

Mr. Robert Ferguson thinks his wife might be a vampire. He’s caught her sucking their baby’s neck and since that discovery, she has locked herself in her room, only allowing their Peruvian maid to bring her food. Her behaviour had been strange before that and she had struck Ferguson’s son from an earlier marriage twice. The boy, fifteen, has been left handicapped by a childhood accident. Holmes is immediately convinced he has solved the case upon hearing the story but he follows Ferguson back home to clear the mystery. "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" is part of "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes". Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After his studies, he worked as a ship’s surgeon on various boats. During the Second Boer War, he was an army doctor in South Africa. When he came back to the United Kingdom, he opened his own practice and started writing crime books. He is best known for his thrilling stories about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He published four novels and more than 50 short-stories starring the detective and Dr Watson, and they play an important role in the history of crime fiction. Other than the Sherlock Holmes series, Doyle wrote around thirty more books, in genres such as science-fiction, fantasy, historical novels, but also poetry, plays, and non-fiction.

Finally available after thirty years, MARCHING TO SHIBBOLETH collects all the words (and sound effects) to Firesign's favorite audio comedies of the Seventies, including Waiting For the Electrician; How Can You Be In Two Places At Once; Nick Danger; Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers; I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus, and The Giant Rat of Sumatra. MARCHING TO SHIBBOLETH, now under the imprint of Bear Manor Books, reproduces both of Firesign's "Big Books," originally published in 1972 and 1974 by Straight Arrow. Designed by Jon Goodchild and Richard Silverstein, the texts are full of photographs, collages and weirdly cool typography typical of High Seventies Style. Phil Proctor edited the visuals and David Ossman the album transcripts for Firesign. Alan Rinzler was editor for Straight Arrow. Both books have been collector's items for a couple of decades. Collecting both under one cover puts the best known Firesign works together for the first time and provides readers with the unique word-for-word wordplay which was often confusing - er, confused with that of James Joyce during Firesign's heyday. The four major titles - Electrician, How Can You Be, Dwarf and Bozos collectively present Firesign's prescient look at technology, the media, American history and paranoia (especially in the classic "Beat The Reaper " gameshow.) The Giant Rat is their tribute to British "Goon Show" humor and Nick Danger, Third Eye has become the classic send-up of both the "noir" detective story and Golden Age radio.