Showing results by author "Craig Copland" in All Categories

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S MOM: A brilliant young Cambridge University engineer is carrying out secret research for the Admiralty. It will lead to the building of the world's most powerful battleship, The Dreadnaught. His adventuress mother is kidnapped and having been spurned by Scotland Yard he seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes. Was she taken by German spies, or an underhanded student, or by someone else? Whoever it was is prepared to commit cold-blooded murder to get what they want.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE BELT BUCKLE: AN AMERICAN ARTIST WAS MURDERED AND THE CROWN JEWELS MAY BE AT RISK. A young street urchin, one of the Baker Street Irregulars, discovers a man's belt and buckle under a bush in Hyde Park. He brings it to Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a reward. The buckle is unique and stunning, gleaming turquoise stones set in exquisitely carved silver; a masterpiece from the native American west. A body of an American Indian is found in a hotel room in Mayfair. Scotland Yard seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes in solving the murder.

Artists are singularly passionate people. Some are so intense, they commit suicide. Some commit murder. A popular French artist living in London has an appointment to see Sherlock Holmes. He fails to appear. Why? Because he is dead. Suicide? Or murder? Holmes is asked to investigate. He quickly learns that nothing in the world of art is what is seems. Two thousand years ago, Aristotle said that all art was mimesis, a representation of reality. It seems that artists themselves, and their wives, are also not what they appear to be. This new mystery takes Holmes and Watson into the world of ...

"Ah, Watson, how good of you to join me. I trust I did not disturb your work at the hospital." "Not at all. We younger doctors are not exactly choc-a-block with patients." "Not yet, my dear chap. Not yet. However, I am very grateful that you are here, and I expect that you will quite enjoy recording my meeting with this fellow."

"I was under the impression that you were dead," said Sherlock Holmes to the man who had entered the front room of 221B Baker Street. "I am now inclined to think that you were not murdered after all." The gentleman was of the same age as Holmes and me but sported a full beard, gray-on-its-way-to-white hair, and a short suit jacket that immediately identified him as an American. He grinned and gave his fingers a snap.

He was not much more than a child. I estimated his age at fourteen. He was a handsome boy, with the raven-black hair and deeply tanned skin color that marks a person who came from the lands under the Raj. His young body was beginning to show the signs of an emerging well-made sportsman. From his place, lying on his back on the pavement, his dark-brown eyes stared up at the morning sky ... lifeless. Behind his head was a pool of blood, now darkened and congealed.

On September 15, 1894, an anarchist attempted to bomb the Greenwich Observatory. He failed, but the attempt led Sherlock Holmes into an intricate web of spies, foreign naval officers, and a beautiful princess. Once again, suspicion landed on poor Percy Phelps, now working in a senior position in the Admiralty, and once again Holmes has to use both his powers of deduction and raw courage to not only rescue Percy, but to prevent an unspeakable disaster.

Oxford University is famous throughout the world for its splendid architecture, lovely manicured lawns and gardens, and passionate pursuit of research, teaching and learning. But it turns out to be at the center of a case involving fraud, theft, treachery, and, maybe, murder. The Rhodes Scholarship has been recently established and is seen at one of the greatest prizes available to young men throughout the Empire. So much so that some men are prepared to lie, steal, slander, and, maybe murder, in the pursuit of it.

What happened after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson pardoned Captain Jack Croker for killing Sir Eustace at the Abbey Grange. Have you imagined that he sailed the seven seas for a year and then returned to his beautiful, beloved Mary Fraser? That didn't happen. A year later, murder, treachery, and international intrigue descended on Abbey Grange and, once again, Sherlock Holmes was called upon to bring criminals to justice and assist in the course of true love.

Dushanka, a beautiful young Moslem girl has no choice. Either she must act or her mother and sisters will be raped and her little brother murdered. That's what happens to people living in war zones. Just a few years earlier the beautiful ancient city of Sarajevo was the site of the Winter Olympics. People from all parts of firmer Yugoslavia came together to build the facilities. The Games were a triumph of international goodwill, sport, and joyful celebration. Dushanka grew up in that idyllic setting. And then it ended. This peaceful corner of Europe entered the worst period of war and ...

Baron Gruner survived the sulfuric vitriol hurled in his face. He was left almost blind and horribly disfigured. A year later, when he was shot twice in the back of his head, he did not survive. Violet de Merville, the young woman of ethereal beauty who had been engaged to him, was accused by Scotland Yard of his murder. She appeals to Sherlock Holmes for help. Where does he start? There are a score of women in England and Austria who Gruner exploited, betrayed and humiliated. They all have fathers and brothers and uncles. There are many more men who he swindled and who hate him. Holmes and...

THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLOTTE EUROPA GOLDERTON. SHERLOCK HOLMES ENCOUNTERS A FEMME FATALE. THE ONLY WAY TO STOP HER IS TO MARRY HER. In the original Sherlock Holmes story about Charles Augustus Milverton, “the worst man in London,” was shot and sent to his just reward. But now another diabolical scheme of blackmail has emerged centered in the telegraph offices of the Royal Mail. It is linked to an archeological expedition whose director disappeared one night. Someone is prepared to do murder to protect their ill-gotten gain and possibly steal a priceless treasure. Holmes is hired by not ...

Kill a man because of his hat? Ridiculous. But it happened. In New York City. Twice. The Big Apple saw countless absurd events during the 1920s. The most moronic took place in September 1922, when gangs of young men--and a few women—roamed the streets of the financial district and the better-off neighborhoods, and knocked the straw hats off those who dared to wear them after the 15th of the month. Many straw-hatters were bullied. Some were assaulted. A few were beaten. And two were murdered. All because of their hats. That’s what the police said. Beaten to death by anonymous thugs. Or ...

Someone murdered a university student. They found him lying in his bed. Dead. His head smashed by a cricket bat. The local police arrest another student, claiming it was a case of jealous rage over the affections of a beautiful girl. The arrested student’s formidable mother demands Sherlock Holmes prove her son’s innocence. Holmes investigates and deduces that several people had reason to commit murder. At least one want top kill him too. This new mystery is a tribute to the original Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier. Like that story, it is told directly by ...

The Spy Gate Liars “Your friend, Monsieur Sherlock Holmes is near death. Come at once.” Having received this telegram, Watson rushes to eastern France, where Holmes is investigating the serial murders of former German army officers. The events that led to this murder mystery began in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. But the evil that was done back then has continued until the present day … and vengeance will be had. All the victims were killed in the same way, a dagger through the eye socket. Another likely victim has moved to England, so we rush to find him before the assassin does. ...

The Adventure of the Coiffured Bitches. A young woman about to receive a massive inheritance disappears. Her little brother believes she has become a zombie and is trapped in the graveyard. His governess knows something is very wrong in the strange family. She appeals to Sherlock Holmes …who she finds rather attractive. Holmes and Watson travel to Winchester. We encounter a tyrannical stepfather, a weird mother, twisted servants, and an earnest lover … or two. Not to mention the enormous mastiff that could tear our throats out. This New Sherlock Holmes Mystery is a tribute to The ...

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVILISH FOOTNOTE. The wealthy owner/publisher of England's most prestigious literary journal holds a soirée for the writers, critics and intelligentsia of London (modelled on the Bloomsbury Group) and is poisoned by one of the departing guests. Her brilliant secretary/editor almost dies too. Scotland Yard calls for Sherlock Holmes and he soon discovers that almost everyone in the literary world wanted the woman dead. Holmes starts to investigate, but matters become complicated when Dr. Watson, now a widower, becomes romantically attracted to the editor. Then more of ...

The Grecian, Earned Wilson Kemp and Harold Latimer, the villains from the story of The Greek Interpreter, ran off to Budapest, Where they were stabbed multiple times … and died. The killer ran away … a long way away. Holmes and Watson go to Budapest. They meet with one of Holmes’s former assistants … one who is smart, but despised. The trail then takes then to Athens, Where the first Olympic Games in modern times will soon take place. Something is not right. A massive fraud? Cheating to win gold for national pride? Only one thing is for certain … timeo danaos et dona ferentes. ...

“Holmes, this is more dangerous than anything Moriarty could have imagined “Precisely,” said Holmes. This new adventure began with a single counterfeit £100 note. Scotland Yard demanded that Sherlock Holmes take the case. Soon, there were many more counterfeit notes, coming back to England from all corners of the Empire. Then a man’s dead body appeared in a church graveyard, with counterfeit notes in his pocket. The next day, Holmes and Watson are off to Europe in search of a dangerous conspiracy who are threatening the security of the British Empire. Holmes will need help if he is...

THE ADVENTURE OF THE PRIORESS'S TALE. A GIRLS' SCHOOL HOCKEY TEAM VANISHES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. CAN SHERLOCK HOLMES FIND THEM IN TIME? The senior field hockey team from an elite girls’ school goes to Dover for a beach holiday … and disappears. Have they been abducted into White Slavery? Did they run off to Paris? Are they being held for ransom? Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, the Prioress of the school, and a new gang of Irregulars must find them before something terrible happens. A tribute to The Adventure of the Priory School in The Canon. “A ...