In these three novels, all bargain-priced as of this writing (on 4/18/16), each author has found a way to put a new spin on the characters and world of Holmes, Watson, Mycroft and Moriarty.
Art in the Blood: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at 99 cents)
London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris.
Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre.
Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man.
Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft.
This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson’s friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes’ own artistic nature to the limits.
Sherlock Holmes: A Duel with the Devil (5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
As a series of bizarre, seemingly unconnected, cases unfold around Europe, Holmes and Watson must use all their skills and expertise to connect and solve these three puzzling cases, which have been devilishly orchestrated by the world’s greatest criminal mastermind, Professor Moriarty.
The case begins, as usual, at 221B Baker Street when Jonathan Thatcher, brother of acclaimed Mathematics professor, Aubrey Thatcher, reports that his brother has been missing for three days following the announcement of his engagement. The plot thickens when Jonathan reveals his brother is also embroiled in the murder of a clerk from the university. Holmes and Watson travel to Durham in search of Professor Thatcher, who withdrew five thousand pounds before his disappearance, perhaps to the Americas, and who also, after arriving in Durham, is found to have the murder weapon in his lodgings.
In the second case a representative of the allusive Henri Victoire approaches the solicitor, Howard Montclair. Mr Montclair is instructed to deliver a sealed envelope to the Royal Hotel in Bristol by five o’clock for the faceless Victoire. After delivering the envelope to the hotel and meeting nobody, Montclair returns to London. Upon arriving back it is reported that the Brereton Emerald has been stolen from Rome. Rome, being the city where Montclair’s brother was stationed whilst working for the diplomatic corps. Only Sherlock Holmes can connect the delivery of a letter in Bristol to the robbery of one of the world’s largest jewels.
In the final case, Holmes and Watson are called upon by Lestrade to help take down the Crimson Vandals who have been adorning British monarchs with lashings of red paint, leaving an undecipherable code in their wake. Holmes begins to make tracks, but not quickly enough as an attempt is made upon his life by the most unlikely of people – Dr John Watson.
Roger Jaynes’ Sherlock Holmes: A Duel with the Devil is an exhilarating tale that pits two of the greatest minds against one another in a battle of intellectual wit – the game is afoot!
The Clockwork Scarab: A Stoker & Holmes Novel (4.5/5 stars, priced at $1.99 TODAY ONLY as a Kindle Daily Deal)
Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business.
But when you’re the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood. And when two society girls go missing, there’s no one more qualified to investigate.
Now fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, navigate the advances of not just one but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve a murder with only one clue: the strange Egyptian scarab. The stakes are high.
If Stoker and Holmes don’t unravel why the belles of London society are in such danger, they’ll become the next victims.
Note that this is the first novel in the Stoker & Holmes YA series.
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