Scotland, 1831. With her wedding to fellow investigator Sebastian Gage only a day away, Kiera is counting down the hours. But just when matrimonial jitters threaten to consume her, Kiera receives a welcome distraction in the form of a mysterious gold necklace. The Celtic torc, thought missing for decades, was directly involved in a recent investigation. Now, Kiera feels compelled to uncover the truth behind its sudden reappearance. But with an overwhelming flock of wedding guests, a muddled cat, an unpaid favor, and a ferocious storm throwing things into disarray, it’s anyone’s guess whether Kiera and Gage will actually make it to the altar... Includes an exclusive preview of the next Lady Darby Mystery, As Death Draws Near.

    All the tales contain some science fiction or fantasy element, and all remain true to the spirit and personality of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous and enduring creation.Contents; * Introduction: The Detective Who Refused to Die (Sherlock Holmes in Orbit) • essay by Mike Resnick * The Musgrave Version (1995) / short story by George Alec Effinger * The Case of the Detective's Smile / short story by Mark Bourne * The Adventure of the Russian Grave / short story by William Barton and Michael Capobianco * The Adventure of the Field Theorems / novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre * The Adventure of the Missing Coffin / short story by Laura Resnick * The Adventure of the Second Scarf / short story by Mark Aronson * The Phantom of the Barbary Coast / novelette by Frank M. Robinson * Mouse and the Master / short story by Brian M. Thomsen * Two Roads, No Choices / short story by Dean Wesley Smith *The Richmond Enigma / short story by John DeChancie * A Study in Sussex / short story by Leah A. Zeldes * The Holmes Team Advantage / short story by Gary Alan Ruse * Alimentary, My Dear Watson / short story by Lawrence Schimel * The Future Engine / novelette by Byron Tetrick * Holmes Ex Machina (1995) / short story by Susan Casper * The Sherlock Solution / short story by Craig Shaw Gardner * T he Fan Who Molded Himself / short story by David Gerrold * Second Fiddle / short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch * Moriarty by Modem (1995) / short story by Jack Nimersheim * The Greatest Detective of All Time / short story by Ralph Roberts * The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek / short story by Josepha Sherman * The Adventure of the Illegal Alien / short story by Anthony R. Lewis * Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers / short story by Barry N. Malzberg * You See But You Do Not Observe / short story by Robert J. Sawyer * Illusions / short story by Janni Lee Simner *The Adventure of the Pearly Gates / short story by Mike Resnick.

    Published in the USA simultaneously in hardcover and paperback.Lovers of historical mystery will relish this chilling Victorian tale based on real events and cloaked in authenticity. Best of all, it casts British literature's most fascinating and controversial figure as the lead sleuth. A young artist's model has been murdered, and legendary wit Oscar Wilde enlists his friends Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Sherard to help him investigate. But when they arrive at the scene of the crime they find no sign of the gruesome killing -- save one small spatter of blood, high on the wall. Set in London, Paris, Oxford, and Edinburgh at the height of Queen Victoria's reign, here is a gripping eyewitness account of Wilde's secret involvement in the curious case of Billy Wood, a young man whose brutal murder served as the inspiration for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Told by Wilde's contemporary -- poet Robert Sherard -- this novel provides a fascinating and evocative portrait of the great playwright and his own "consulting detective," Sherlock Holmes creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. (Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance was first published in the UK as Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders.)

    It's also where twenty-one-year-old Sophie Collier vanished eighteen years ago.Francesca has spent the last twenty years haunted by the disappearance of her best friend. But when she receives a phone call from Sophie's brother saying that a body has been found, she knows she can't keep hiding from what happened. With her own secrets to keep, Francesca doesn't relish the idea of digging up the past or returning to Oldcliffe. But it is time to go back to where she grew up, and it looks like she isn't the only one there hiding truths.

    Auguste Dupin.Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune, although much less of the second during his lifetime. Decades later, Dorothy Sayers would describe “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as “almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.” Indeed, Poe’s short Dupin mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.Librarian's note: this entry is for a collection of C. Auguste Dupin short stories under the above title. There are three stories in the series: 1. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 2. “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and 3. “The Purloined Letter.” Entries for the individual stories are located elsewhere on Goodreads.

    Jerusalem lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end. Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer, robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight's protagonist, Crowner John learns of its dark history. In Oxford in 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson's academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic. In 1323, in Exeter, Michael Jecks' Sir Baldwin has reason to suspect its involvement in at least five violent deaths. Thirty years later, several suspicious deaths occur in Cambridge - and, once again, the tainted relic has a crucial part to play. Finally, it's despatched to London, where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.

    The wealthy residents of New Town live in comfort, while Old Town’s cobblestone streets are clotted with criminals, prostitution, and poverty.Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh’s darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park.With little evidence aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind. But the body count is rising. As newspapers spin tales of the “Holyrood Strangler,” panic sets in across the city. And with each victim, the murderer is getting closer to Hamilton, the one man who dares to stop him.

    John Watson investigate a series of previously unrecorded cases in this new collection of original tales. In the Scottish Highlands and Afghanistan, in the cases of a dying doctor and a mooning sentry, of a black basalt bird and white chalk horse, popular contemporary mystery writers—among them Sharyn McCrumb, Carolyn Wheat, Anne Perry and Malachi Saxon, Jon L. Breen, Bill Crider, Colin Bruce—craftily celebrate the mind, methods, and manners of the peerless Sherlock Holmes. In addition, with one foot in the Victorian age and the other in the computer age, Christopher Redmond illuminates the vast possibilities that new technology offers Sherlockians in "Sherlock Holmes on the Internet," while in "A Sherlockian Library" editors Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower provide a new list of fifty essential titles on Arthur Conan Doyle and the Holmes canon. Finally, an essay by mystery novelist Philip A. Shreffler explores one of English literature's most famous friendships in "Holmes and Watson, the Head and the Heart."(front flap)

    Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear the story of the death from four witnesses: an Italian physician intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of an alleged Royalist traitor; a master cryptographer who has worked for both Cromwell and the king; and a renowned Oxford antiquarian. Each tells his own version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.With rights sold for record-breaking sums around the world, An Instance of the Fingerpost is destined to become a major international publishing event. Deserving of comparison to the works of John Fowles and Umberto Eco, Iain Pears's novel is an ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.

    But in the dead of night Sir Neville is murdered. Who did it? As suspicion falls on each of the house guests in turn, Knox finds himself faced with deception and betrayal on all sides, and only the enigmatic Angela Marchmont seems to offer a solution to the mystery. This 1920s whodunit will delight all fans of traditional country house murder stories.

     Before Jack the Ripper terrorized London, Police Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft patrolled the grimy streets of Whitechapel – but he’s no Inspector Abberline. Malvern, 1887. Clever and hard-working, Ravenscroft nonetheless has the worst record in the force. He lets a murderer escape during a chase and is banished to the spa town of Malvern for a water treatment to cure his asthma. MURDER FOLLOWS THE INSPECTOR Ravenscroft accepts a dinner invitation from a new acquaintance, Jabez Pitzer. Before the dinner gong can sound, the maid finds Pitzer slumped over his desk – dead. Ravenscroft sees two glasses on a small side table. One has a powdery residue at the bottom and the faint smell of bitter almonds. A BODY IN THE LIBRARY Ravenscroft immediately recognizes the signs – Pitzer has been poisoned. But the local authorities are reluctant to believe there is a murderer in Malvern. He may be recovering his strength, but Ravenscroft has all his wits intact. He finds himself pulled into the investigation. Hungry to prove himself, Ravenscroft is determined to solve the case. But the bodies mount up. Someone is killing local luminaries. WHO WILL BE NEXT? A mysterious woman in black was witnessed speaking to each of the victims. Who is she and why does death seem to follow her? And does a local cartel of businessmen have anything to do with it? RAVENSCROFT IS OUT OF THE SMOKE BUT MALVERN HAS ITS OWN DEADLY FIRES THE MALVERN MURDERS is packed with delicious dialogue, sly humour and Victorian atmosphere.

    The science of forensics is in its infancy but a few detectives – Trevor Welles among them – recognize that they are dealing with a different sort of killer, a “modern criminal” who chooses his victims at random. If Jack is to be caught, he won’t be caught with Scotland Yard’s normal methods of deduction for there is no logic to this madness. The question is no longer “Why was the victim killed?” but rather “How was the victim killed?” For the first time in the history of detection, science is trumping deductive reasoning.When a twist of fate puts Trevor in charge of the case, he hastily assembles Scotland Yard’s first forensics team: Davy Mabrey, the first bobby on the scene of the grisliest of the murders, whose working class common sense proves an invaluable asset, Rayley Abrams, a cautious intellectual whose future at the Yard is marginalized due to his Jewish heritage, Tom Bainbridge, a medical student with aristocratic connections and a secret drinking problem, and Emma Kelly, sister of the Ripper’s last victim who has a troubled past and a gift for linguistics. The team finds an unlikely ally in the form of Queen Victoria herself, who takes an unusual level of interest in the Ripper case and secretly funds the unit. But will they stop Jack in time to spare Leanna Bainbridge, the young heiress with whom Trevor has fallen madly and improbably in love?While City of Darkness takes place in London, its sequel, City of Light, will travel to Paris on the eve of the Exposition Universalle, the ultimate World’s Fair which debuted Edison’s phonograph, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Eiffel Tower The third book, City of Silence, will take place in St. Petersburg where Victoria’s beloved granddaughter Alexandria is on the verge of marrying the young czar Nicolas, much to her grandmother’s dismay. Throughout the series the Scotland Yard forensics team, which serves as a sort of Victorian-era CSI, will circle the world to investigate high-profile cases, most often at the urging of the Queen.

    Besides his practice, Bartholomew is teacher of Medicine at Michaelhouse, part of the fledgling University of Cambridge. In 1348, the inhabitants of Cambridge live under the shadow of a terrible pestilence that has ravaged Europe and is travelling relentlessly eastward towards England. Bartholomew, however, is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated. When three more scholars die in mysterious circumstances, Bartholomew defies the University and begins his own enquiry. His pursuit for the truth leads him into a complex tangle of lies and intrigue that causes him to question the innocence of his closest friends, and even his family. And then the Black Death finally arrives and Bartholomew is dragged deeper and deeper into a quagmire which threatens not only his life, but the continued existence of the University and the future of the town.

    Watson has brought to light his personal papers. These include a number of stories that Dr. Watson suppressed at the time for various reasons. As all involved are long dead, the inheritor has agreed to the publication of a set the most interesting adventures.Overall, The Lost Stories is a collection of entertaining, canonically consistent tales whose intentionally understated plots are refreshingly limited in scope, relishing in the quotidian of everyday ‘bad behavior’ – opposed to falling prey to that great pastiche writer’s temptation of crafting a short story of epic proportions populated by an abundance of big name historical figures and playing the ‘what really happened’ game where Massive Historical Event X actually hinged on Holmes’ secret intervention.TONY REYNOLDS, makes Holmes come alive, he has been able to capture the style of Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing in this book, a series of nine adventures. The fact that this novel captures Doyle’s writing style is one of the greatest advantages for this series of stories.

    After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.