Before Baker Street, there was Montague. Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough. For a little while, at the least, it was enough. That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson plan to return to London from Bucharest after the great detective has interceded in a delicate matter relating to the Rumanian Royal House, but a letter from Doctor Watson's niece sends them instead to Castle Dracula.

No mystery is too challenging for the infamous detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson. Holmes is at his best when the job seems impossible—or just plain absurd. From cases involving a strange group for red-headed men to a missing thumb, Holmes uses his powers of observation and deduction to solve even the weirdest mysteries. Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first twelve original Sherlock Holmes short stories as serials in the UK's Strand Magazine from 1891-1892. This unabridged collection of the stories is taken from the book form, originally published in 1892.

"Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly-skilled nurse ... When she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic and deductive skills, they invite her to become the third member of their deductive team. Caught up in a Holmesian mystery that spans from hidden treasure to the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880, Joanna and her companions must devise an ingenious plan to catch a murderer in the act while dodging familiar culprits, Scotland Yard, and members of the British aristocracy"--

I could have written the story with different names. I, however, wished to see if I could capture some of the same feelings engendered by Sir Athur Conan Doyle in his stories of the great detective, Sherlock homes, as related by his friend and chronicler, the eminent Doctor Watson.

This novel is an exciting fusion of a Sherlock Holmes mystery with the Ruritanian world of intrigue and skulduggery of Anthony Hope's novel "The Prisoner of Zenda"

This is the retelling of Agatha Christie's original classic by Dr. John Watson to Sherlock Holmes as Holmes provides clues and corrections along with illustrations which help the reader learn that Hastings is really Watson and Holmes is disguised as Hercule Poirot.