David Marcum

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About David Marcum
"Marcum could be today's greatest Sherlockian writer, . . . ." Lee Child - New York Times Bestselling Author
"David Marcum is the reigning monarch of all things Sherlockian . . . ." John Lescroart - New York Times Bestselling Author
"Among the best I must number David Marcum, who, by this point has written more Holmes stories than Doyle himself. Characterized by unflagging imagination and ceaseless ingenuity, along with felicitous prose, these tales continue to provide what we all crave: more Sherlock." - Nicholas Meyer - New York Times Bestselling Author
"Marcum himself again demonstrates his gift for emulating the feel of The Canon . . . ." - Publishers Weekly
David Marcum plays The Game with deadly seriousness. He first discovered Sherlock Holmes in 1975 at the age of ten, and since that time, he has collected, read, and chronologicized literally thousands of traditional Holmes pastiches in the form of novels, short stories, radio and television episodes, movies and scripts, comics, fan-fiction, and unpublished manuscripts.
He has edited over sixty books, most Sherlockian-related anthologies, and is the author of nearly 90 Sherlockian pastiches (so far), some published in anthologies and others collected in his own books, "The Papers of Sherlock Holmes", "Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt", and "Sherlock Holmes – Tangled Skeins". He has edited over 800 Holmes pastiches and over sixty books, including several dozen traditional Sherlockian anthologies, including the ongoing series "The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories", which he created in 2015. This collection is now up to 30 volumes, with several more in preparation.
He was responsible for bringing back August Derleth’s Solar Pons for a new generation, first with his collection of authorized Pons stories, "The Papers of Solar Pons", and then by editing the reissued authorized versions of the original Pons books. He is now doing the same for the adventures of Dr. Thorndyke.
He has contributed numerous essays to various publications, and is a member of a number of Sherlockian groups and Scions. He is a licensed Civil Engineer, living in Tennessee with his wife and son. His irregular Sherlockian blog, "A Seventeen Step Program", addresses various topics related to his favorite book friends (as his son used to call them when he was small), and can be found at http://17stepprogram.blogspot.com/
Since the age of nineteen, he has worn a deerstalker as his regular-and-only hat from autumn to spring, and often summer as well. In 2013, he and his deerstalker were finally able make his first trip-of-a-lifetime Holmes Pilgrimage to England, with return Pilgrimages in 2015 and 2016, where you may have spotted him. If you ever run into him and his deerstalker out and about, feel free to say hello!
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Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in "Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge", the journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, edited by Jayantika Ganguly, BSI, Vol. 8, No. 2, December 2020]
I tend to be cautious when it comes to actors' portrayals of Holmes and Watson, finding that, for one reason or another, the version of Holmes in my mind is rarely reflected by the actors who have portrayed him – even those who make a sincere effort. I believe that this1 year ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared on the Undershaw website, August 23, 2017] NOTE: This essay refers to the Stepping Stones School at Undershaw. In September 2021, the school changed it's name to "Undershaw".]
[Updated Febraury 26, 2022]
I have to warn you: This is written from the perspective of a Sherlockian. I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I was ten years old, in the mid-1970’s. In the forty-five-plus years since then, I’ve collected literally2 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay appeared in The Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge, the official journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India (Volume 8, Issue 1, June 1, 2020)]
In December 1939, a mystery novel entitled Red Threads by Rex Stout was published, apparently to little acclaim then, and today it’s mostly forgotten.At that point, Stout had been serving as the literary agent to Archie Goodwin for five years, and he’d been involved in the publication of six Nero Wolfe adventur2 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in Vol. 7, No. 2 (December 2019) of "Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge", the journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India]
“In the beginning was The Canon, and it was good.
But it was not enough.”
– The Book of Holmes, (Chapter I, Verses 1-2)
As an energetic missionary for The Church of Holmes, spreading The Word about the world’s first (and for a time only) consulting detective, I honor Th2 years ago Read more -
Blog post[The Fall 2020 edition of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories will be "Some More Untold Cases" - Thus, this essay is being presented on my irregular blog, a version of which originally appeared as my Editor's Foreword of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories: Some Untold Cases - Part XI (1880-1891) and Part XII (1894-1902)]
There are certain numbers that are triggers to deeply passionate Sherlockians. One of these is 221. I’ve discussed this with other people o3 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in Volume 7, Issue 1 (June 1st, 2019) of Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge, the official journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India, edited by Jayantika Ganguly]
The question of Dr. Watson’s wives has been addressed elsewhere in countless scholarly inquiries. Although there will never be agreement – because agreement in Sherlockiana is as common as when it occurs in religion or politics – there are some theories – such as the one3 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in The Watsonian (Spring 2018, Vol. 6, No. 1)]
Sherlock Holmes and the Deerstalker
The deerstalker hat is probably the most identifiable symbol associated with Sherlock Holmes. The silhouette of a profile wearing such a hat is universally connected with him - although some purists maintain that Holmes actually had no connection with the deerstalker at all, based on the fact that it isn’t specifically mentioned in The Canon. <3 years ago Read more -
Blog post[The following essay originally appeared in a slightly different form in "Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge" (Vol. 6, Issue 2, December 1, 2018), the journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India]
Children in The Canon
Very early in The “Official” Sherlock Holmes Canon, made up of those pitifully few sixty stories that crossed the First Literary Agent’s desk, there is one of the few recorded instances of Holmes’s Canonical interactions with children. Spec3 years ago Read more -
Blog post[Portions of this essay appeared as the Editor’s Foreword to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part V: Christmas Adventures (MX Publishing, 2016)] It was updated on December 1st and 24th, 2021]
“I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season.”
– “The Blue Carbuncle” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
It has been said that Charles Dickens invented our mo4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[The following is modified from the Editor’s Forewords to "The Complete Dr. Thorndyke”, edited by David Marcum, and available from MX Publishing]
Dr. John Thorndyke was once one of the well-known Great Detectives. Now, his adventures have been reissued for a new generation. What? You aren't familiar with the amazing Dr. Thorndyke? Read on . . . .
When Sherlock Holmes began his practice as a “Consulting Detective”, his ideas of scientific criminal investigations ca4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared as the Editor's Foreword to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - 2018 Annual: Parts IX (1875-1895) and Part X (1896-1916)]
In his introduction to The Return of Solar Pons (1958), Edgar W. Smith, a legendary member of the Baker Street Irregulars, wrote:
There is no Sherlockian worthy of his salt who has not, at least once in his life, taken Dr. Watson’s pen in hand and given himself to the production of a veritable Ad4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in "Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge", the newsletter of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India (Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1, 2018)]
England has called to me as long as I can remember.
I’ve always been fascinated by all of it. If something comes on television about England, I’ll stop and watch. I look at maps and old photos, and wonder about the various pieces of history that have happened in so many corners. And I like4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[The following initially appeared in a somewhat different form in
The Watsonian Vol 5, No. 1, 2017]
Not only do I read and collect all the traditional Canonical Holmes adventures that I can find – literally several thousand of them now – I chronologicize them. Along with being a devout Holmesian, I am a Sherlockian Chronologicist – and not just of the pitifully few sixty stories in the original Canon. While some agonize over where to put those stories, I’ve long since settled4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of this essay originally appeared in "The Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge", the newsletter of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India, Volume 3, Issue 1, June 1, 2017]
It was once a long-held belief that no Sherlock Holmes film was set in the correct Victorian or Edwardian period until 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. This idea was disproven with the discovery and release of the “lost” William Gillet4 years ago Read more -
Blog post[A version of the following was originally published in the "Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge", the official journal of The Sherlock Holmes Society of India (Vol. 5, Issue 2, December 1, 2017), edited by Jayantika Ganguly, BSI]. Also updated a little bit on April 18th, 2021
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable figures on the planet. Just the sight of his profile, or those objects associated with him – a deerstalker, a magnifying glass, or a pipe – is enough4 years ago Read more -
Blog postWith the release of the fifth – and latest – filmed version of Murder on the Orient Express, interest has increased even more from an always high level in the world-famous Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot. With that in mind, I was prompted to weigh in with some of my own rambling thoughts and observations.
Discovering Hercule Poirot
I first became aware of M. Poirot in the fall of 1978, when the film Death on the Nile was released. I was thirteen, and had been a developin5 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe Papers of Solar Pons - New Adventures of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street by David Marcum
Solar Pons – If you’ve already met him, then you know that he’s the next best thing to Sherlock Holmes. And if you don’t yet know him, what are you waiting for?
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognized figures in the world. Just his profile, or the items associated with him – the deerstalker, the magnifying glass, and the pipe – are enough to suggest “detective” to peop5 years ago Read more -
Blog postOn January 1st, 1881, Dr. John H. Watson, a recently returned wounded veteran from Afghanistan, happened to mention to an old acquaintance that he was in need of new lodgings, having recently realized that he could no long afford to keep living in a hotel in the Strand on his wound pension of eleven shillings and sixpence per day. His acquaintance, Stamford, mentioned that he’d heard someone else mention upon that very day a desire for comfortable rooms at a reasonable price. Intrigued, Watson5 years ago Read more
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Blog post(The following essay originally appeared in a slightly different form in The Watsonian, Fall 2016, Vol.4, No.II)
I play The Game with deadly seriousness. It started early. I first discovered Sherlock Holmes when I was ten, in the mid-1970’s, and not long after, I received a copy of Baring-Gould’s Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. I began to learn of The Game, the belief that Holmes and Dr. Watson were living historical characters, and not simply fictional creations. It’s been a grea5 years ago Read more -
Blog postI’ve been collecting Sherlock Holmes stories, both Canon and Pastiche, since 1975. One of the busiest and most important periods in Holmes's life was in the fall of 1888, during The Autumn of Terror. There have been dozens narratives about this subject over the years, each offering different and sometimes conflicting versions of the battle with Jack the Ripper. What follows is an explanation of how none of these accounts actually contradict each other, with only one version being “true”, thereb5 years ago Read more
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Blog postThe following is an essay that I wrote which was originally published in The Baker Street Journal (Vol.63, No.4, Winter 2013). Over the past few years, whenever I've seen discussion about the modern settings of the Basil Rathbone films produced by Universal, I've referenced this essay, and then sent PDF's of it to those who showed an interest. After doing so again today, I realized that I could just as easily place it on my Irregular Blog, and then just post the link whenever the discussion res6 years ago Read more
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Blog postIMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENTS FOR August 7th, 1852 – The birth of Dr. John H. Watson
Happy Birthday, Dr. Watson!
Although January 6th, 1854 has become the traditionally celebrated birthday for Sherlock Holmes, remembered ‘round the world, it sometimes happens that his Boswell’s birth anniversary tends to be forgotten. It does tend to sneak up on one, or get lost in the summer shuffle (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.) I know that I neglect it in far more years than I6 years ago Read more -
Blog postA few weeks ago, I offered an entry on the way that I re-read the Nero Wolfe Corpus, as the collection of Wolfe novels, novellas, and related ephemera are known. It was an essay that I wrote a couple of years ago for The Gazette, the journal of the Wolfe Pack.
http://www.17stepprogram.blogspot.com/2016_01_01_archive.html
At the same time that I initially produced that essay, I also wrote a companion piece, parallel in many ways, regarding how I return regularly to the world o6 years ago Read more -
Blog postAs I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. To me they’re as important as the Canon, because if they’re done right – set in the correct time period, and presented so that Holmes isn’t some drug-addicted sloppy barely-functioning murdering sociopath who can’t crawl out the door without Watson propping him up – then they add wonderfully to the World of Holmes in incredible ways. There are literally thousands of these correct pastiches in my collection, all of various lengths6 years ago Read more
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Blog postMany people – including me – think that Nero Wolfe is the son of Sherlock Holmes.
I’ve been reading the Nero Wolfe novels since I was a teenager in 1981. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read and re-read these books, but I’m well past being able to count it on two hands. Wolfe is my second favorite “book friend” (as my son calls them) after Holmes. His adventures cannot be recommended highly enough.
Recently, and even though I don’t have time to do so, I’ve been o6 years ago Read more
Titles By David Marcum
A Wall Street Journal holiday 2021 pick
A Suspense Magazine Best Book of the Year
Lee Child selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more.
Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller Lee Child has selected the twenty most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.
Includes stories by:
- Alison Gaylin
- David Morrell
- James Lee Burke
- Joyce Carol Oates
- Martin Edwards
- Sara Paretsky
- Stephen King
- Sue Grafton (with a new, posthumously-published work!)
And many more!
Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII 2022 Annual 61 New Holmes Adventures Collected in Three Companion Volumes.
In 2015, the first three volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories arrived, containing over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner, revisiting Holmes and Watson in those days where it is “always 1895” . . . or a few decades on either side of that. That was the largest collection of new Holmes stories ever assembled, and originally planned to be a one-time event. But readers wanted more, and the contributors had more stories from Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, so the fun continued. Now, with the release of Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII, the series has grown to nearly 700 new Holmes adventures by over 200 contributors from around with world. Since the beginning, all contributor royalties have gone to the Undershaw school (formerly Stepping Stones) for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes, and to date the project has raised nearly $100,000 for the school – as well as helping provide a world-wide awareness of its mission. As has become the tradition, this new collection of 61 adventures features Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes’s retirement. Along the way they are involved in dozens of fascinating mysteries, all progressing along completely unexpected lines. Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
61 new traditional Holmes adventures
in three simultaneously published volumes
The game is afoot!
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII 2022 Annual 61 New Holmes Adventures Collected in Three Companion Volumes.
In 2015, the first three volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories arrived, containing over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner, revisiting Holmes and Watson in those days where it is “always 1895” . . . or a few decades on either side of that. That was the largest collection of new Holmes stories ever assembled, and originally planned to be a one-time event. But readers wanted more, and the contributors had more stories from Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, so the fun continued. Now, with the release of Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII, the series has grown to nearly 700 new Holmes adventures by over 200 contributors from around with world. Since the beginning, all contributor royalties have gone to the Undershaw school (formerly Stepping Stones) for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes, and to date the project has raised nearly $100,000 for the school – as well as helping provide a world-wide awareness of its mission. As has become the tradition, this new collection of 61 adventures features Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes’s retirement. Along the way they are involved in dozens of fascinating mysteries, all progressing along completely unexpected lines. Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
61 new traditional Holmes adventures
in three simultaneously published volumes
The game is afoot!
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII 2022 Annual 61 New Holmes Adventures Collected in Three Companion Volumes.
In 2015, the first three volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories arrived, containing over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner, revisiting Holmes and Watson in those days where it is “always 1895” . . . or a few decades on either side of that. That was the largest collection of new Holmes stories ever assembled, and originally planned to be a one-time event. But readers wanted more, and the contributors had more stories from Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, so the fun continued. Now, with the release of Parts XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII, the series has grown to nearly 700 new Holmes adventures by over 200 contributors from around with world. Since the beginning, all contributor royalties have gone to the Undershaw school (formerly Stepping Stones) for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes, and to date the project has raised nearly $100,000 for the school – as well as helping provide a world-wide awareness of its mission. As has become the tradition, this new collection of 61 adventures features Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes’s retirement. Along the way they are involved in dozens of fascinating mysteries, all progressing along completely unexpected lines. Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
61 new traditional Holmes adventures in three simultaneously published volumes
The game is afoot!
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?
To help fill the void, we have asked today’s top Sherlockian writers to rummage through their Watsonian correspondence and uncover the many mysteries left untold until now. There’s a new story for every month of the year!
The years passed, and David collected, read, and chronologicized literally thousands of traditional Canonical Sherlockian pastiches. Then, in 2008, with time on his hands while laid off from his civil engineering job during the Great Recession, David finally found his way to Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, producing The Papers of Sherlock Holmes. These first nine short stories originally sat on a shelf in his Holmes book collection before he eventually decided to share them with others. That first collection was initially published by a small press in 2011, and then in 2013 by the premiere Sherlockian publisher, MX Publishing - and after that, there was no turning back.
Since then, in addition to editing over 60 volumes (most of which are Sherlockian anthologies), David has written and published over 80 Sherlockian adventures in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Now these are being collected - along with a few others that haven’t been seen before. These first five volumes contain the majority of David’s Holmesian stories - so far, with additional adventures to be collected and published as part of this ongoing series in 2022.
Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the man described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
The game is afoot!
Volume I - Tales
(9 Short Stories and a Novel)
The Papers of Sherlock Holmes (9 Short Stories)
The Adventure of the Least Winning Woman
The Adventure of the Treacherous Tea
The Singular Affair at Sissinghurst Castle
The Adventure of the Second Chance
The Haunting of Sutton House
The Adventure of the Missing Missing Link
The Affair of The Brother’s Request
The Adventure of the Madman’s Ceremony
The Adventure of the Other Brother
and
Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt (A Novel)
Deanna Baran, Mark Mower, Thomas A. Turley, Will Murray, Brenda Seabrooke, Tim Gambrell, Thomas A. Burns, Jr., Amy Thomas, David Marcum, Jeffrey A. Lockwood, John Lawrence, Martin Daley, Dick Gillman, Liz Hedgecock, Paul Hiscock, Mike Hogan, Stephen Herczeg, and Roger Riccard, and forewords by Nancy Holder, Roger Johnson, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum
“Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to examine...”
– Dr. John H. Watson
So wrote Dr. Watson in “The Problem of Thor Bridge” – and ever since, Sherlockians have been bringing us new adventures from this legendary tin dispatch box. While Watson’s original First Literary Agent only edited the pitifully few sixty stories that make up the original Canon, there have since been literally thousands of traditional adventures about the true Sherlock Holmes – and there will never be enough!
In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring adventures set within the correct time period, and written by many of today’s leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. Those first three volumes were overwhelmingly received, and there were soon calls for additional collections. Since then, their popularity has only continued to grow.
In Fall 2016, the series presented its first “themed” collection – Part V: Christmas Adventures – containing 30 new adventures that proved to be extremely and enduringly popular. With that in mind, we now revisit that season, with 57 more Christmas Adventures, ranging from a consequential case that occurred when Holmes was still a teenager, to another in the late 1920’s when Holmes – in retirement – was still at the top of his game.
The fifty-seven stories in these three companion volumes are a thrilling mix of mysteries, whatever the season. Some are directly involved with Christmas, while others occur during and in around that season. These represent some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found by the best pasticheurs, and once again they honor the man described by Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
57 new traditional Holmes adventures in three simultaneously published volumes
The game is afoot!
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The years passed, and David collected, read, and chronologicized literally thousands of traditional Canonical Sherlockian pastiches. Then, in 2008, with time on his hands while laid off from his civil engineering job during the Great Recession, David finally found his way to Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, producing The Papers of Sherlock Holmes. These first nine short stories originally sat on a shelf in his Holmes book collection before he eventually decided to share them with others. That first collection was initially published by a small press in 2011, and then in 2013 by the premiere Sherlockian publisher, MX Publishing – and after that, there was no turning back.
Since then, in addition to editing over 60 volumes (most of which are Sherlockian anthologies), David has written and published over 80 Sherlockian adventures in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Now these are being collected – along with a few others that haven’t been seen before. These first five volumes contain the majority of David’s Holmesian stories – so far, with additional adventures to be collected and published as part of this ongoing series in 2022.
Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the man described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
The game is afoot!
Volume IV – Narratives
(19 Holmes Adventures)
The London Wheel
The Two Different Women
The Coffee House Girl
The Regressive Man
The Gordon Square Discovery
The Secret in Lowndes Court
The Sunderland Tragedies
No Good Deed
The Dorset Square Business
The Brook Street Mystery
The Colchester Experiment
The Keeper’s Tale
The Village on the Cliff
The Tuefel Murders
The Unpleasant Affair in Clipstone Street
The Lincoln Street Minister
The Tea Merchant’s Dilemma
The Dowser’s Discovery
The Triangle of Death
For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?
To help fill the void, we have asked today’s top Sherlockian writers to rummage through their Watsonian correspondence and uncover the many mysteries left untold until now. There’s a new story for every month of the year!
D.J. Tyrer, Andrew Bryant, Tim Gambrell, Geri Schear, Jayantika Ganguly, Paula Hammond, Susan Knight, Arthur Hall, Kevin Thornton, Arthur Hall, Michael Mallory, J.S. Rowlinson, Julie McKuras, Kevin Thornton, Naching T. Kassa, David Marcum, J. Lawrence Matthews, Jane Rubino, Shane Simmons, Chris Chan, Paul Hiscock, and forewords by Nancy Holder, Roger Johnson, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum
“Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to examine . . . .”
– Dr. John H. Watson
So wrote Dr. Watson in “The Problem of Thor Bridge” – and ever since, Sherlockians have been bringing us new adventures from this legendary tin dispatch box. While Watson’s original First Literary Agent only edited the pitifully few sixty stories that make up the original Canon, there have since been literally thousands of traditional adventures about the true Sherlock Holmes – and there will never be enough!
In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring adventures set within the correct time period, and written by many of today’s leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. Those first three volumes were overwhelmingly received, and there were soon calls for additional collections. Since then, their popularity has only continued to grow.
In Fall 2016, the series presented its first “themed” collection – Part V: Christmas Adventures – containing 30 new adventures that proved to be extremely and enduringly popular. With that in mind, we now revisit that season, with 57 more Christmas Adventures, ranging from a consequential case that occurred when Holmes was still a teenager, to another in the late 1920’s when Holmes – in retirement – was still at the top of his game.
The fifty-seven stories in these three companion volumes are a thrilling mix of mysteries, whatever the season. Some are directly involved with Christmas, while others occur during and in around that season. These represent some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found by the best pasticheurs, and once again they honor the man described by Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
57 new traditional Holmes adventures in three simultaneously published volumes
The game is afoot!
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir
Now, these cases are available to readers 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 Ph.D. who spent nearly 40 years as a top staff person in the U.S. House of Representatives, the last 8 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.
The years passed, and David collected, read, and chronologicized literally thousands of traditional Canonical Sherlockian pastiches. Then, in 2008, with time on his hands while laid off from his civil engineering job during the Great Recession, David finally found his way to Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, producing The Papers of Sherlock Holmes. These first nine short stories originally sat on a shelf in his Holmes book collection before he eventually decided to share them with others. That first collection was initially published by a small press in 2011, and then in 2013 by the premiere Sherlockian publisher, MX Publishing - and after that, there was no turning back.
Since then, in addition to editing over 60 volumes (most of which are Sherlockian anthologies), David has written and published over 80 Sherlockian adventures in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Now these are being collected - along with a few others that haven’t been seen before. These first five volumes contain the majority of David’s Holmesian stories - so far, with additional adventures to be collected and published as part of this ongoing series in 2022.
Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the man described by the estimable Dr. Watson as “the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known.”
The game is afoot!
Volume II - Records
(5 Short Stories and a Novel)
Sherlock Holmes - Tangled Skeins
The Mystery at Kerrett’s Rood
The Curious Incident of the Goat-Cart Man
The Matter of Boz’s Last Letter
The Tangled Skein at Birling Gap
The Gower Street Murder
and
Sherlock Holmes and The Eye of Heka (A Novel)
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