Traditional Publishing

Press agent Jake Justus doesn’t care if all of Chicago drops dead. He’s just tied the knot with debutante Helene Brand, and a Bermuda honeymoon is only three in-flight martinis away. But the shooting death of a man in broad daylight, on the busiest shopping day of the year, with plenty of witnesses, is particularly ill-timed. Jake’s pal, attorney John J. Malone, agrees. Only a day before, wedding guest Mona McClane, notorious jet-setter and tipsy big-game hunter, bet the two men she could bag an innocent stranger and they’d never be able to prove a thing.

Many people have asked why the paths of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper never crossed, since the two men were contemporaries in London in 1888. There have even been some scurrilous suggestions that Holmes was himself the Ripper. The paths of the two men did indeed cross. Holmes and Watson knew precisely who the real Ripper was and even where he lived. They also knew exactly what happened to him. If you have the stomach for it, listen and all will be revealed!

Here are a few essays about puzzlers in and about Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

It is summer 1895 and a lost play by William Shakespeare is discovered. While being authenticated by scholars in Oxford there is a break-in and the 300-year-old quarto is stolen. Holmes is engaged in the most unusual of circumstances and together with the faithful Dr. Watson, they are soon on a trail which takes them from the Epsom Derby to Epping Forest and the great city of Florence itself. But this is not the only case brought to 221B Baker Street during this eventful year.

When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder. Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of his colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together the most complex and confusing of jigsaws. But not everyone wants the puzzle solved - perhaps not even Rebus himself.

Spring 1937. While German Chancellor Adolf Hitler ceaselessly talks of peace, his actions seem deliberately calculated to make the Western allies lose patience. The schizophrenic geopolitical atmosphere even can be felt as far away as Fulworth, England, the home of the retired Sherlock Holmes, where the Steiners, a German migrant couple, have recently found a refuge and have assumed care of the detective's household after the passing of Mrs Hudson.

At nearly 18, easy-going Benedict Juliard has no stronger ambition than to ride in steeplechases as an amateur jockey. His father, George, driven towards a life of public service and politics, asks his son to enter into a pact that neither of them will commit any act that could destroy the father's growing reputation and career.

When notorious millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from the old oak tree in front of his Kent mansion his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of self-serving is widespread, the carnage most acute amongst those he ought to be protecting: his family. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered in her home. The genteel community is stunned by what appears a vicious, random attack.

When we think of martial arts in “old China,” we get visions of violent convulsions of dynastic change, devastating rebellions, civil wars, and banditry. Throughout the centuries there was a need for masters who possessed highly effective martial skills for positions in the military, protection services, and law enforcement. Out of this historical reality emerged a national treasure we call taijiquan. Chen t’ai chi's mystique remains fundamentally a true fighting art, including bare-handed forms and applications, plus an arsenal of weapons that includes the spear, straight sword, ...

Elizabeth Bennet and Sherlock Holmes begin to uncover some of London’s darkest kept secrets. Lizzie and Mr. Holmes are approached by an odd man with a scar above his right eye. He says he requires their help but refuses to tell them what he needs help with or who he is. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and they are swept into this man’s dark and mysterious world. He is the ring leader of a circus, and as they dive deeper into this seedy world of showmanship, Lizzie begins to feel danger creeping up behind her. She must not only face this danger, but she must do it alone.

Are librarians meek and mild bookish types with orthopedic shoes and granny glasses? Or are they ruthless killers with voracious appetites for wine, women, and song? Can a young widow solve a murder with the help of a Chicago policeman and an affinity for Sherlock Holmes? The Murder in the Library reveals all. It is elementary, my dears.

Christopher Kent, worth a quarter of a million pounds yet not a penny in his pocket, stands hungrily in Piccadilly one snowy morning looking up at the huge hotel when a piece of card bearing a number floats down to him. He enters the hotel and is served with breakfast, giving the waiter the room number to charge. Then an unlucky chance compels him to go up to room 707....

Previously published in the print anthology Partners in Crime. Throwing on an almost convincing French accent, Tommy is determined to act the Great Detective Hanaud to his and Tuppence's latest, lovely client. Miss Hargreaves has recently received a box of chocolates from nobody knows who, and, due to her dislike of chocolates, was the only one to not fall afoul of the arsenic-spiked treats. But, Miss Hargreaves is not the first recipient of such a gift; three other large country houses have received arsenic-laced chocolates.

"The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" by Agatha Christie presents a delightful short story featuring the incomparable Hercule Poirot. In this intriguing tale, Poirot finds himself drawn into the mysteries surrounding a seemingly affordable apartment in London. As Poirot investigates the curious circumstances surrounding the flat, he uncovers a series of peculiar events and unexpected connections. Agatha Christie's signature wit and clever plotting shine through as Poirot unravels the layers of deception and intrigue.

On a break from the Windy City, aspiring crime novelist Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, are acquainting themselves with Manhattan’s finest cocktail lounges when they befriend Dennis Morrison, a blind-drunk groom. The handsome former male escort thought he’d found his bounty in homely heiress Bertha Lutts, but while their wedding night may have been a bust, the morning after turned out to be the real horror. It seems Bertha has vanished from their bridal suite and in her place is an unidentified beheaded woman.

The Sherlockian, the magazine that the indefatigable Holmesian, Kelvin I. Jones, edited in the mid-1980s for publication by Magico Magazine, is re-published in one volume. New material includes essays and stories by leading Sherlockians in the UK, USA and Canada.

Sherlock Holmes, his trusted friend, Dr. John Watson, and his older brother, Mycroft, successfully unraveled a devious assassination plot against one of Queen Victoria's family. Aided by a colorful assortment of associates, a clever trap was set to attempt to stop the gang of villains from carrying out their deadly intent.

DI Joe Faraday, badly injured on holiday in the Middle East, is convalescing in the UK. Four deaths in a suspicious farmhouse fire drag him back to work before he’s truly fit. His partner, meanwhile, wants to adopt a young Palestinian child. Both privately and professionally, Faraday is under threat. Bazza Mackenzie, Pompey drug-lord, is facing financial meltdown as property markets collapse across the globe.

In The Crackler, the sound of deception crackles through the quiet streets. When counterfeit notes begin to circulate in London, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are drawn into a world where danger hides behind every seemingly innocent corner. As they chase down shadows and clues, their path is lined with double-crosses, false leads, and an untraceable mastermind. Who's the puppet master, pulling strings from the shadows? With a sense of irony and a hint of humor, this case pushes Tommy and Tuppence to their limits, unraveling a scheme more intricate than they could ever imagine.

When a beer barrel containing the body of a man is delivered to the door of 221b Baker Street, an intoxicating new adventure begins for Sherlock Holmes. Together with his faithful companion, Dr. John Watson, Holmes travels north to Burton-upon-Trent to investigate the poisoning of a regiment in India from a contaminated batch of pale ale. The incident threatens the reputation of the mighty brewer, Houghton's, which supplies beer to half the world. But Holmes is not the only detective working the case.