Although the illustrious career of Sherlock Holmes has been documented in innumerable stories over the decades, some accounts have remained classified due to their extremely sensitive nature…until now. Cases involving major historical figures and topics–Winston Churchill’s request to investigate the emerging Nazi Party, the emergency surgery on the British monarch, the apparent suicide of a leading suffragist, and the strange death of an American president–have been locked away, sometimes with explicit instructions that they be kept from public view well into the future.

Now, these cases are available to listeners in the collection The Undiscovered Archives of Sherlock Holmes. Each of these seven stories is linked to a major historical figure or event. The actual nature of the case had often been misunderstood for a century and more because of the need to respect the privacy of those involved and, in some cases, to avoid potentially embarrassing disclosures and diplomatic controversies.

The author of these “history mysteries” is John Lawrence, a University of California-trained history PhD who spent nearly 40 years as a top staff person in the US House of Representatives, the last eight as chief of staff to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The author uses his professional training to blend historical fact with Holmesian embellishments that produce unique stories any devotee of The Canon will enjoy.

These are all traditional-style pastiches published in various anthologies from 2015–2020, including The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories.