A collection of stories featuring detectives, criminal agents and debonair crooks from the golden age of crime fiction: a time when Sherlock Holmes was esconsced in his rooms at 221B Baker Street and London was permanently wreathed in a sinister fog.

In Dust and Shadow Sherlock Holmes hunts down Jack the Ripper with impeccably accurate historical detail, rooting the Whitechapel investigation in the fledgling days of tabloid journalism and clinical psychology. This astonishing debut explores the terrifying prospect of hunting down one of the world's first serial killers without the advantage of modern forensics or profiling. Sherlock's desire to stop the killer who is terrifying the East End of London is unwavering from the start, and in an effort to do so he hires an "unfortuate" known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow streetwalker who was one of the Ripper's earliest victims. However, when Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel attempting to catch the villain, and a series of articles in the popular press question his role in the crimes, he must use all his resources in a desperate race to find the man known as "The Knife" before it is too late. Penned as a pastiche by the loyal and courageous Dr. Watson, Dust and Shadow recalls the ideals evinced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most beloved and world-renowned characters, while testing the limits of their strength in a fight to protect the women of London, Scotland Yard, and the peace of the city itself.

It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan. Badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity, Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London. Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before. Moreover, there are disturbing reports of creeping shadows that inspire dread in any who stray too close. Holmes deduces a connection between the deaths and a sinister drug lord who is seeking to expand his criminal empire. Yet both he and Watson are soon forced to accept that there are forces at work far more powerful than they could ever have imagined. Forces that can be summoned, if one is brave – or mad – enough to dare…

Waking up in Morocco with no memory of her identity, Mary Russell is enmeshed in the political and military uprisings of Europe, while Sherlock Holmes taps the assistance of T. E. Lawrence to restore Mary's memory and prevent a full-scale war that threatens countless lives.

The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s champion of rational deduction, in these stories by twenty top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime. For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself? In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today’s most cutting-edge writers provide their answers to that burning question. “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it—and only one man can hope to stop it. “A Case of Royal Blood” by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost—or perhaps something far worse than a ghost. “Art in the Blood” by Brian Stableford: One man’s horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind. “The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone” by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible cannot be eliminated. “The Horror of the Many Faces” by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London—and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. With thirteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot: “Tiger! Tiger!” by Elizabeth Bear “The Case of the Wavy Black Dagger” by Steve Perry “The Weeping Masks” by James Lowder “The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece” by Barbara Hambly “The Mystery of the Worm” by John Pelan “The Mystery of the Hanged Man’s Puzzle” by Paul Finch “The Adventure of the Arab’s Manuscript” by Michael Reaves “The Drowned Geologist” by Caitlín R. Kiernan “A Case of Insomnia” by John P. Vourlis “The Adventure of the Voorish Sign” by Richard A. Lupoff “The Adventure of Exham Priory” by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre “Death Did Not Become Him” by David Niall Wilson and Patricia Lee Macomber “Nightmare in Wax” by Simon Clark

A GAME OF SHADOWS is a 375-page collection of the very best adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This volume includes 23 original stories written by the master, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes features 21 stories published during the earliest days of detective literature, 1862 to 1910. These stories are stand-outs in the field, and though not well-known today, they easily match or beat Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective in whose shadow they have been relegated. IDW corrects that literary oversight in this "best of the best" collection.