Relating Sherlock Holmes's part in real-life crimes of the day, Donald Thomas brings the Great Detective to life once again in six narratives that display Holmes at his most determined, inventive and downright devious. What were Holmes's views on Dr Crippen? And what happened when Oscar Wilde visited Baker Street to seek advice? How did Holmes uncover a loving husband as one of the most dangerous psychopaths of modern times? And just what horrors await Holmes in the darkened slums of Waterloo Road? 'Thomas's imitation is wryly and subtly done' Guardian

Between 1887 and 1927, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote sixty Sherlock Holmes stories, and his great Canon has become the most praised, most studied, and best-known chapter in the history of detective fiction. Over twenty thousand publications pertaining to the Sherlock Holmes phenomenon are known to have been published, most of them historical and critical studies. In addition, however, almost since the first stories appeared, such was their uniqueness and extraordinary attraction that other authors began writing stories based on or derived from them. A new genre had appeared: pastiches; parodies; burlesques; and stories that attempted to copy or rival the great detective himself. As the field widened, there was hardly a year in the twentieth century in which new short stories or novels did not appear. Many hundreds are now known to have been published, some of them written by authors well-known for their work in other literary fields. The non-canonical Sherlock Holmes literature not only constitutes a literary field of considerable historical interest, but includes many stories that are both enjoyable and fascinating in their own right. Although a large bibliography on these stories exists, and a few limited anthologies have been published, no attempt has previously been made to collect them all and discuss them comprehensively. The Alternative Sherlock Holmes does so: it provides a new and valuable approach to the Sherlock Holmes literature, as well as making available many works that have for years remained forgotten. Presented as an entertaining narrative, of interest to both the aficionado and the scholar, it provides full bibliographic data on virtually all the known stories in the field.

For more than two decades, Sherlock Holmes played a vital, though secret, role in solving the major crimes and scandals of his day - some too damaging to the monarchy, the government or the security of the nation to be fully revealed at the time. Compiled in narrative form by Dr Watson soon after the great detective's death, Holmes's notes have been kept under lock and key at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. Now, seventy years later, we can finally open the secret casebook of Sherlock Holmes. 'Seven stories about the greatest of all fiction detectives . . . all told by Dr Watson in a very credible imitation of the original style' Birmingham Post

"Including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Laurie R. King, Colin Dexter, Anthony Burgess, Anne Perry, Stephen King, P.G Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Kingsley Amis, and many, many more"--Jacket.

Europe 1911. The Great Powers vie for influence and are divided by political quarrels. War is in the air. For retired detective Sherlock Holmes, who has just suffered a coronary, these distant matters are of little concern. But politics are about to turn his quiet country life upside down. Mycroft, the detective's politician brother, has asked Holmes to investigate the murder of a powerful industrialist and the mysterious kidnapping of the King's nephew. Could these two cases be connected? Thus the legendary detective and his old friend Watson set out on an all-new adventure, one that will take them from the canals of Venice to an ancient castle in the Scottish plains. It’s an adventure they could hardly have expected as they near the ripe old age of sixty. Will Holmes lose a lifelong friend? And which villain from Holmes’s past might want to start a world war…?

This is an encyclopedic work, arranged by broad categories and then by original authors, of literary pastiches in which fictional characters have reappeared in new works after the deaths of the authors that created them. It includes book series that have continued under a deceased writer's real or pen name, undisguised offshoots issued under the new writer's name, posthumous collaborations in which a deceased author's unfinished manuscript is completed by another writer, unauthorized pastiches, and "biographies" of literary characters. The authors and works are entered under the following categories: Action and Adventure, Classics (18th Century and Earlier), Classics (19th Century), Classics (20th Century), Crime and Mystery, Espionage, Fantasy and Horror, Humor, Juveniles (19th Century), Juveniles (20th Century), Poets, Pulps, Romances, Science Fiction and Westerns. Each original author entry includes a short biography, a list of original works, and information on the pastiches based on the author's characters.

This book not only includes chapters on more than twenty new screen sleuths but also updates information on several detectives included in the first two volumes of Famous Movie Detectives. Author Michael Pitts also provides new material on sleuths in silent films and serials, as well as a listing of radio and television detective programs.