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Review of The Literary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 1 and 2

It is wonderful having these stories collected in one volume. What a pleasure to traipse through them again, each previously encountered separately, all gathered in a single splendid cornucopia, with all of Victor’s brilliances on full display, an exquisite end-piece to the Sherlock Holmes & The American Literati series. As with Victor’s novels, each of these stories pairs Sherlock Holmes with a notable (though not exclusively American) author and, as is Victor’s forté, captures, with pitch-perfect accuracy, the distinct voices of the literary figures depicted as well as the verbal tropes of Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes himself. Whether Guy de Maupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, David Graham Phillips, H.G.Wells, Raymond Chandler, or, poignantly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Victor emulates each author’s style and incorporates those inflections and tendencies into the way they speak. While remaining ever true to Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson characters, Victor has delicious and devious fun blurring fact and fiction, excavating Holmes lore and adding to it, warping time, weaving ironies, atmospheric reveries, clever twists, and intertextual echoes across the tapestry. If you are a fan of Victor’s American Literati series, this collection is a must-have. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes or any of the authors he encounters in these tales, you will be most pleased with where Victor takes things. A grand and glorious addition to the genre and to the already impressive Victor oeuvre. Bravo!

Reviewed by The Group W Bench

The Literary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 1 and 2 is available from all good bookstores including  Amazon USABarnes and Noble USA,  Amazon UKWaterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository.

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Publishers Weekly reviews The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part XIV

Did Dr. Watson’s published accounts of Holmes’s cases affect future investigations? Has the Ripper returned to slaughter prostitutes in Whitechapel years after his Autumn of Terror ended? Was a stolen manuscript about Sir Lancelot and King Arthur actually a lost Shakespeare play? Those are just three of the striking plot lines in this standout anthology of 21 short stories written in the spirit of Conan Doyle’s originals. Marcum’s own “The Carroun Document,” perhaps the first among equals, supposes that Holmes’s popularity as a result of the publication of his adventures in the Strand Magazine has resulted in unsought-for celebrity, complete with souvenir hunters visiting Baker Street. “The Threadneedle Street Murder” by S. Subramanian not only features a locked-room puzzle but an amusing tweak of Conan Doyle’s penchant for teases about untold cases. For example, Holmes is interrupted before he can recount the details of a mystery involving a husband who smeared his wife’s face with egg yolk every night before singing “God Save the Queen.” More than 300 pastiches later, this MX series shows no sign of running out of steam.” – Publishers Weekly

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are available from all good bookstores including The Strand MagazineAmazon USABarnes and Noble USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK, for free shipping worldwide Book Depository and in ebook formats.

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A Biased Judgement: The Sherlock Holmes Diaries 1897

Sherlock Holmes thrives on danger. Sudden knife attacks, being stalked, and facing a network of assassins present little more than a cheery break in the monotony. But the enigmatic Lady Beatrice presents danger of a different kind. Is she a murderer or a potential victim? Or something even more perilous? Uncovering her secrets could change Holmes’s life forever, and in ways even he cannot anticipate. The newly-discovered Holmes diaries shed light on a tale so potent, Watson was never permitted to reveal it.

The plot is multilayers, characters fleshed out and alive with suitable backstories. Just a joy to read! I look forward to Geri Schear’s sequel. Highly recommended! I was thoroughly entertained and touched and not at all disappointed.” –  Robert Pater

This is the most “authentic-feeling” work I have read. Doyle himself would be pleased with this. Every detail reeks of authenticity. It was difficult to put this down, and I’m sorry I’m finished!” – Charlie Deckard

A Biased Judgement: The Sherlock Holmes Diaries 1897 is available from all good bookstores including   Amazon USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository . In ebook format it is in KindleKoboNook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone). Available on Audio.

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Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt

Nothing that is secret can remain secret forever. But is it possible that some crimes are better left undiscovered? Join Holmes and Watson as they travel from London to storm-wracked Bedfordshire, where the Great Detective finds himself uncovering the grisly truth concerning a half-century old murder.

David Marcum has again managed to write a brilliant Holmes pastiche!” –Raven’s Reviews

A Quantity of Debt fully satisfies as a detective story, but it is the strange fate of Martin Briley that lifts this pastiche above the common run. While David Marcum’s editing of MX Publishing’s ongoing anthology remains a boon to all Sherlockians, his novel’s pending re-release reminds us that he is also an exceptionally fine writer.” –  Thomas A. Turley

Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt  is available from all good bookstores including The Strand MagazineAmazon USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Amazon KindleKoboNook and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone). Available on Audio.

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The Stone of Destiny – A Book Review

The mystery, with all of the twists and turns are amazing and funny at the same time. The way Holmes’ brain works is the most interesting thing I have ever read. Dr. Watson always seems to be a bit bumbling, but yet, he is just as intelligent as Holmes himself, just in a different way…All in all, I loved the book. It was funny, smart, and entertaining. That is all I ask for from a book, so this one succeeded brilliantly. Consequently, I award this book a full 5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good, solid, quick reading mystery. There is no disappointment in this pastiche.

Reviewed by My Bookish Bliss

The Stone of Destiny: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure is available from all good bookstores including The Strand MagazineAmazon USABarnes and Noble USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in KindleKobo and Nook. Available on Audio.

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The Riddle of Foxwood Grange – A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

An invitation to take lunch at the Great Western Hotel at Paddington station leads Sherlock Holmes into a baffling mystery. Who is it that is watching every move made by popular journalist, Farringdon Blake, and why? When the trail goes cold in London, Holmes and his friend, Dr Watson, must travel down to Foxwood Grange, Blake’s home in rural Oxfordshire, to seek a solution to the mystery there. But Foxwood Grange, a 300-year-old Elizabethan mansion, is a house with a chequered past and holds mysteries of its own.

In this superb evocation of both the spirit and the style of Conan Doyle’s earlier Sherlock Holmes stories, Denis O. Smith, acclaimed author of numerous Sherlock Holmes short story collections, here presents the great detective on a larger stage, in a gripping mystery which builds remorselessly to a thrilling and dramatic climax.

There’s a rich cast of characters, the setting is splendidly evoked, and Holmes’s solution to Harley’s puzzle is a tour de force.” – The Sherlock Holmes Society of London

The Riddle of Foxwood Grange is available from all good bookstores including  Amazon USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in KindleKobo and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone). Also available on Audible.

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Publishers Weekly reviews The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XIII 2019 Annual (1881-1890)

This outstanding anthology focuses on the early years of the Baker Street duo’s partnership. Sherlockians with a soft spot for Nigel Bruce’s buffoonish portrayal of Dr. Watson will appreciate S.F. Bennett’s homage to the Basil Rathbone movie series, “The Case of the Enthusiastic Amateur,” one of the volume’s many high points. In Bennett’s tale, an old acquaintance asks Watson for help when he suspects that an investment failed because of fraud; the doctor decides to undertake the inquiry himself, with hilarious consequences. The author successfully emulates the playful byplay between Watson and Holmes in the service of a clever mystery plot. Almost as good is Tracy Revels’s “The Adventure of the Winterhall Monster,” a variation on the legend of the Monster of Glamis, in which a nurse who once worked with Watson is alarmed by the bizarre circumstances of her new job caring for an infirm child. Amazingly, Marcum has found 22 superb pastiches, almost all from unknown authors. This is more catnip for fans of stories faithful to Conan Doyle’s originals.” – Publishers Weekly

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are available from all good bookstores including The Strand MagazineAmazon USABarnes and Noble USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK, for free shipping worldwide Book Depository and in ebook formats.

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Out on Kindle

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XV

In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring stories set within the canon’s correct time period, written by the very best of today’s Sherlockian authors from around the world. That first anthology, spread over three huge volumes, contained sixty-three stories and was the largest collection of its kind assembled at the time. Response was immediately and overwhelmingly positive, and soon there were calls from fans for additional collections.
Over 150 contributors so far have joined together from around the world to produce well over three hundred new adventures to honour Sherlock Holmes, the man described by Watson as “the best and wisest whom I have ever known.”
We now proudly present Parts XIII, XIV, and XV, three volumes which break the record of the initial triple offering, with an incredible sixty-six new adventures featuring the eternal duo Watson and Holmes.

Part XV in the popular MX series of new Sherlock Holmes stories features contributions from Mark Mower, Thomas Fortenberry, Robert Perret, Tracy J. Revels, Robert Stapleton, Peter Coe Verbica, Maurice Barkley, Edwin A. Enstrom, William Todd, Roger Riccard, Kelvin I. Jones, Arthur Hall, Jack Grochot, David Marcum, Dick Gillman, Will Murray, Tim Symonds, Mike Hogan, Leslie Charteris, Denis Green, Ian Dickerson, Nick Cardillo, Darryl Webber, with forewords from David Marcum, Will Thomas, Roger Johnson, Steve Emecz and Melissa Grigsby, and two poems from Christopher James.

298 Sherlock Holmes Books on Pinterest Amazon USA Kindle Board

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are available from all good bookstores including The Strand MagazineAmazon USABarnes and Noble USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository.

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The top 5 Sherlock Holmes audio books so far this month

#1    In Pursuit of the Dead:  The Rediscovered Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Book 5 by Arthur Hall and Nick Crosby

#2   The Demon of the Dusk: The Rediscovered Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Book 1 by Arthur Hall and Nick Crosby

#2   The Druid of Death: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure by Richard T. Ryan and Nigel Peever

#4    Murder in the Library by Felicia Carparelli and David Bufton

#5   Scarlet Thread of Murder by Luke Kuhns and Joff Manning

176 books on the Sherlock Holmes Audio Books Pinterest Board

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Entrevista con Ana María Trigo Alonso

¿Cuál fue la inspiración para tu pastiche “El secreto de la caja de sándalo”?

Soy tasadora de arte y antigüedades. Un día, después de estar trabajando en una tasación especialmente difícil, me encontré con muchos de mis libros de arte desperdigados sobre mi escritorio. De entre todos ellos, destacaba uno de arte egipcio con un precioso escarabeo del Imperio Nuevo en la portada.  Pensé: “¿Y si su inscripción fuera la clave de un importante secreto?”. Y, entonces, de alguna manera, la historia surgió por sí misma y me encantó.

¿De qué trata la historia? ¿Cuándo y dónde tiene lugar?

La historia comienza en el Valle de los Reyes en Egipto en 1880, cuando un joven arqueólogo inglés descubre una tumba intacta. Tres años después, cuando los objetos descubiertos van a ser expuestos por primera vez en el Museo Británico, tiene un lugar un misterioso robo en el que desaparecen quince de ellos. Es entonces cuando Sherlock Holmes entra en la historia con el propósito de encontrar las piezas robadas, descubrir al ladrón y sus motivos.

Hay momias, ladrones de tumbas, aventura, amor y magia. Y, al final, Sherlock Holmes lo solventará todo… o tal vez no.

¿Qué crees que es lo que más les gusta a los lectores de tu historia?

Creo que es la combinación de arqueología, antiguo Egipto y Sherlock Holmes.

¿Cuál es tu historia favorita del canon y por qué?

Mi historia favorita es “El ritual de los Musgrave”, por la ambientación gótica y porque me encanta cómo Sherlock resuelve un misterio que se ha estado resistiendo durante siglos a través de una vieja fórmula, aparentemente sin sentido. De hecho, en el Círculo Holmes, la asociación sherlockiana de la que soy miembro y donde todos tenemos que elegir un nombre canónico al entrar, el mío es Rachel Howels, uno de los personajes de esta historia.

¿Cuál es tu lugar sherlockiano favorito?

No es estrictamente sherlockiano, pero sin duda es uno de mis lugares favoritos en el mundo: el Museo Británico. Está situado en Montague Street, donde Sherlock Holmes vivía antes de trasladarse a Baker Street. Así que no me cuesta imaginármelo paseándose por sus salas, sin saber aún que está a punto de convertirse en el detective más famoso del mundo.

Dinos tres cosas sobre ti que pocos adivinarían.

Mi ciudad favorita es Venecia, colecciono libros antiguos, aunque soy minimalista y uno de mis mayores deseos es hacer un viaje en el Orient Express. Quién sabe, quizás algún día…

¿Algún proyecto a la vista?

Sí, una nueva historia de Sherlock Holmes verá la luz en unos meses. Pero antes, hay una nueva novela no sherlockiana en camino. ¡Deséame suerte!

Sherlock Holmes El secreto de la caja de sándalo is available from all good bookstores including  Amazon USABarnes and Noble USAAmazon UKWaterstones UK and for free delivery worldwide Book Depository.

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