Sherlock Holmes' Further Adventures
In Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the world’s most enduring and admired literary characters, one who has become known as “The World’s Greatest Detective.” Doyle gave his famous master sleuth and his assistant, Dr. Watson, many wonderful adventures. But many of his fans, including some well-known authors, have refused to let Mr. Holmes stay retired. Here are some of those “further adventures.”
The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr
Mycroft Holmes, Queen Victoria's head of intelligence, calls upon his brother and Dr. Watson to help solve a mystery. Men have been killed at Holyrood in Edinburgh in a fashion similar to the slaying centuries before of David Rizzio, an Italian confidant of Mary, Queen of Scots. Are the killings the work of Scottish nationalists? Or are they perhaps the sign of a restless ghost?
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
An 89-year-old former detective in rural England during World War II becomes involved with a young mute boy – a refugee from Nazi Germany – whose sole companion, an African grey parrot, spews out a series of numbers in German that could hold the key to a dangerous secret.
Deadly Season by Tim Champlin (Western)
This novel is perhaps the only one in which the Great Victorian-era detective meets Old West cowboys. When Jay McGraw helps his friend Detective Fred Casey investigate the flow of opium into San Francisco's Chinatown and the murder of a squad member, they enlist the aid of Sherlock Holmes.
A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
It is 1947 and the long-retired Holmes, now 93, lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse, where his memories and intellect begin to go adrift. He lives with a housekeeper and her young son, Roger, whose patient, respectful demeanor stirs paternal affection in Holmes. Holmes has also recently returned from a trip to Japan to discuss bees with a man who thinks Holmes knew his father 50 years ago and pesters Holmes to remember anything he can. Meanwhile, memories are also stirred up of an unknown case in which Holmes fell in love.
Mrs. Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse by Martin Davies
When a traveler recently returned from the Far East enlists the assistance of her employer, master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, after nearly being killed under mysterious circumstances, housekeeper Mrs. Hudson and Flottie, a young orphan in her care, undertake their own investigation into the case, which may involve an exotic Sumatran curse. Also try Mrs. Hudson and the Malabar Rose.
Good Night Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas
Here is the story of the mysterious singer Irene Adler, the only woman Sherlock ever admired. Adler once kept herself going by being a private detective much like Holmes. As she rose to stardom, she left sleuthing and became romantically entangled with the King of Bohemia, then was forced to outwit not only the King, but Holmes himself. Also try the rest of the Irene Adler Norton series.
The Holmes Inheritance by Brian Freemantle
Sebastian Holmes's brilliant father Sherlock and even more brilliant uncle Mycroft ship him off to America aboard The Lusitania to thwart a German alliance on the eve of WWI. At loose ends after graduating from Heidelberg, Sebastian is thrilled his forebears think him savvy enough to discover German sympathizers who will force the U.S. to support the Kaiser. Meanwhile, coded telegrams cross the Atlantic, lovely Anna keeps popping up, and munitions are headed for Germany unless he can stop them, a task complicated by the death of a double agent and an explosion. Also try The Holmes Factor.
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King
Sherlock Holmes takes on a young, female apprentice in this delightful addition to the master detective's casework. In the early years of WWI, 15-year-old American Mary Russell encounters Holmes, retired in Sussex Downs where Conan Doyle left him raising bees. Mary impresses the sleuth with her intelligence and acumen, and Holmes initiates her into the mysteries of detection. Also try the rest of King’s popular Mary Russell series, the most recent of which is Locked Rooms.
The Empress of India: a Professor Moriarty Novel by Michael Kurland
England:1890. A cargo ship, the Empress of India, is about to dock with a large shipment of gold, but somehow, the gold vanishes while the ship is still at sea. The British government turns to the one man they know can solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes, who soon surmises that only one villain is clever enough to pull off such a feat: Professor James Moriarty. But, Moriarty is innocent. Of course, nobody believes him, so he decides to solve the crime himself and, soon enough, winds up face-to-face with a villain at least as fiendishly clever as he is.
Son of Holmes by John Lescroart (Adult Fiction)
A young chef named Auguste Lupa is asked to join the weekly homemade-beer-and-conversation sessions of undercover French spy Jules Giraud, who is on the trail of a master German saboteur during World War I. An armory is blown up and an attempt is made on Lupa’s life before he unmasks the German spy, but the supposed proof of Lupa’s true heritage via his illegitimate father is the real focus of this detective novel.
Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders by Larry Millett
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to St. Paul, Minnesota, in the midst of the tumult of St. Paul's annual Winter Carnival and match wits with a pesky American would-be detective to solve a murder. Also try Millett’s other Sherlock Holmes novels.
Sherlock Holmes – The Missing Years: The Adventures of the Great Detective in India and Tibet by Jamyang Norbu
As we now know, Holmes did not die from his battle with Moriarity and subsequent fall from the top of Reichenbach Falls. Here, the "lost years" of Sherlock Holmes are revealed through the scroll of a Bengali scholar who traveled with the great detective in Asia. (Published in paperback as The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes.)
Shadows Over Baker Street – Story Collection, shelved under ‘Shadows’
Sherlock Holmes enters the macabre and nightmarish world of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos to solve a series of bizarre cases in a collection of short fiction by 16 Fantasy and Horror authors, such as Neil Gaiman, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry, Brian Stableford and Poppy Z. Brite; edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan.
Sherlock Holmes: the Hidden Years – Story Collection, shelved under ‘Sherlock’
This lively all-original anthology chronicles the "Great Hiatus," that period when Sherlock Holmes was believed dead following a tumble into Reichenbach Falls with archfiend Professor Moriarty. These original stories include contributions by such writers as Peter Beagle, Rhys Bowen, Bill Pronzini and Michael Kurland: the Editor.
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice From the Crypt by Donald S. Thomas
The Great Detective is challenged with six cases taken from the true-crime annals of late 19th- and early 20th-century crime, presented by Dr. Watson as "unpublished" cases of Sherlock Holmes. Nothing, it seems, is too challenging for Holmes' deductive powers, and a large part of the reader's fun comes from watching poor Watson's attempts to figure out, let alone keep pace with, the course of Holmes' inquiry.