Showing results by author "Craig Copland" in All Categories

Reader: Do you remember Lady Frances Carfax from my account of her two years ago? Do you recall how she was very nearly murdered by being buried alive? I thought you might. She’s back. She returned to 221B Baker Street a few weeks back asking for help from Sherlock Holmes. She acknowledged that years earlier she gave birth to a love child. That child has now been kidnapped and a ransom demand has been received. If not paid, the child, who is now a young woman, will suffer the same fate and Lady Carfax almost did two years ago. She will be buried alive. Holmes and I set off to Europe to ...

Someone murdered a university student. They found him lying in his bed. Dead. His head smashed by a cricket bat. The local police arrest another student, claiming it was a case of jealous rage over the affections of a beautiful girl. The arrested student’s formidable mother demands Sherlock Holmes prove her son’s innocence. Holmes investigates and deduces that several people had reason to commit murder. At least one want top kill him too. This new mystery is a tribute to the original Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier. Like that story, it is told directly by ...

The Adventure of the Coiffured Bitches. A young woman about to receive a massive inheritance disappears. Her little brother believes she has become a zombie and is trapped in the graveyard. His governess knows something is very wrong in the strange family. She appeals to Sherlock Holmes …who she finds rather attractive. Holmes and Watson travel to Winchester. We encounter a tyrannical stepfather, a weird mother, twisted servants, and an earnest lover … or two. Not to mention the enormous mastiff that could tear our throats out. This New Sherlock Holmes Mystery is a tribute to The ...

THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVILISH FOOTNOTE. The wealthy owner/publisher of England's most prestigious literary journal holds a soirée for the writers, critics and intelligentsia of London (modelled on the Bloomsbury Group) and is poisoned by one of the departing guests. Her brilliant secretary/editor almost dies too. Scotland Yard calls for Sherlock Holmes and he soon discovers that almost everyone in the literary world wanted the woman dead. Holmes starts to investigate, but matters become complicated when Dr. Watson, now a widower, becomes romantically attracted to the editor. Then more of ...

“Holmes, this is more dangerous than anything Moriarty could have imagined “Precisely,” said Holmes. This new adventure began with a single counterfeit £100 note. Scotland Yard demanded that Sherlock Holmes take the case. Soon, there were many more counterfeit notes, coming back to England from all corners of the Empire. Then a man’s dead body appeared in a church graveyard, with counterfeit notes in his pocket. The next day, Holmes and Watson are off to Europe in search of a dangerous conspiracy who are threatening the security of the British Empire. Holmes will need help if he is...

THE ADVENTURE OF THE PRIORESS'S TALE. A GIRLS' SCHOOL HOCKEY TEAM VANISHES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. CAN SHERLOCK HOLMES FIND THEM IN TIME? The senior field hockey team from an elite girls’ school goes to Dover for a beach holiday … and disappears. Have they been abducted into White Slavery? Did they run off to Paris? Are they being held for ransom? Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, the Prioress of the school, and a new gang of Irregulars must find them before something terrible happens. A tribute to The Adventure of the Priory School in The Canon. “A ...

“I have heard it in the wind," said the prophet. "Someone will die. Murdered. Soon. Only you, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, can stop it.” The man who uttered these words had forced his way up the stairs and into 221B Baker Street. At first, I thought he was merely mad. He was dirty, disheveled and only somewhat coherent. Yet there was in his eyes a burning intelligence, a passion, and an unholy fear. “Who is going to die?” asked Holmes. “That has not been revealed to me. All I know is that you, Sherlock Holmes, must save that life.” Holmes was about to ask more questions when the ...

The Naval Knaves. On September 15, 1894, an anarchist attempted to bomb the Greenwich Observatory. All he succeeded in blowing up was himself. But he did not act alone. Sherlock Holmes discovers that he was part of an intricate web of spies, foreign naval officers, and a drop-dead-gorgeous, not-English princess. Once again, suspicion lands on poor Percy Phelps. Now he’s in a senior position in the Admiralty. Holmes has to rescue Percy, But he has a much bigger worry. A massive, terrorist explosion is planned. It will take many lives. But where? And when? This New Sherlock Holmes Mystery ...

The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists. Did the sons betray their father? Did they steal the confidential records of the clients of his bank? Did they give those records to a gang of miscreants who will use them for blackmail? The banker begs Holmes to investigate. Was it really his sons? Or maybe his daughter? Or maybe her boyfriend? Or maybe the voluptuous maid? The sons and the Anarchists have something in common. They are all besotted with the latest craze — riding motorcycles. Holmes and I make inquiries. And things get worse. A young girl is murdered. We give chase to the villains ...

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MORNING GLORY MURDERS. Sherlock Holmes confronts the horrible racial and religious prejudice that was rampant in the Victorian era and helps the heroic victims of those evils discover a new life. A family from Argentina has disappeared and it is feared that they were abducted. Their lives are in danger. The father, a colonel in the Argentine army has enemies from years ago that may be seeking revenge. The gigantic ‘mulatto’ who was the cook in the story about Wisteria Lodge (remember him?) is falsely accused. With his help, Sherlock Holmes must find the family ...

IN OCTOBER 1805, NAPOLEON'S FLEET WAS DEFEATED IN THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. NOW HIS GHOST HAS RETURNED TO ENGLAND FOR THE CENTENARY OF THE BATTLE, INTENT ON WREAKING REVENGE ON THE DESCENDANTS OF ADMIRAL HORATIO NELSON AND ON ALL OF ENGLAND. The mother of the great-great-grandchildren of Admiral Nelson contacts Sherlock Holmes and asks him to come to her home, Victory Manor, in Gravesend to protect the Nelson Collection. The invaluable collection of artifacts is to be displayed during the one-hundredth anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar. First, Dr. Watson comes to the manor ...

The Grecian, Earned Wilson Kemp and Harold Latimer, the villains from the story of The Greek Interpreter, ran off to Budapest, Where they were stabbed multiple times … and died. The killer ran away … a long way away. Holmes and Watson go to Budapest. They meet with one of Holmes’s former assistants … one who is smart, but despised. The trail then takes then to Athens, Where the first Olympic Games in modern times will soon take place. Something is not right. A massive fraud? Cheating to win gold for national pride? Only one thing is for certain … timeo danaos et dona ferentes. ...

Six students receive death threats. For a lark over the summer, they wrote a satirical book. It made fun of the crimes and foibles of a fictional baron. Some real baron somewhere does not think it’s funny. They got too much of his story right. And now he is out to kill them. They appeal to Sherlock Holmes. But he is too busy with his bees, and so he sends Dr. Watson. What Watson discovers is terrifying. Soon he, Holmes and the students are in a race against time to unmask the villain and take him down before more lives are destroyed. This New Sherlock Holmes Mystery is the 55th in the ...

During the course of the series, New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, I sent Holmes and Watson to both Canada and the United States. To commemorate Canada Day and Independence Day 2023, these two stories are available for a limited time. Enjoy them and celebrate the freedoms and blessings of two great countries.

At ten o’clock on Sunday morning, the twenty-second of October, 1882, in an abandoned house in the West Bottom of Kansas City, just a stone’s throw from the stockyards, a fellow named Jasper Harrison did not wake up. His inability to do was the result of his having had his throat cut sometime during the previous night. At the same time, in the same location, in the very same house, another fellow, by the name of Eddie Kepler did wake up. Now, it is trying enough to wake up on a Sunday morning after getting drunk on Saturday night in a saloon on the other side of the state line. However,...