News — sherlock holmes society of london

“Sherlock Holmes and the Dead Boer at Scotney Castle by Tim Symonds. Once again Holmes and Watson become entangled in a potentially devastating political conspiracy. In 1904 an invitation to address the exclusive Kipling League at a Sussex country house has unexpected consequences for them. Holmes suspects that the lecture was arranged to provide an alibi for the murder at nearby Scotney Castle, but uncovering the truth stretches his powers to the limit as the killers have learned more from him then he supposed – and the Kipling League’s schemes, like those of Baron Maupertuis, are colossal. It’s an engrossing...

“As Randall Stock notes in his foreword, a chronology is not a biography, but A Chronology of the Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, May 22nd 1859 to July 7th 1930, the magnum opus of Brian W Pugh, is more valuable than most of the published lives of Conan Doyle. The new edition adds about fifty pages, seven of them containing a chronological summary of the journal recently published as ‘Dangerous Work’: Diary of an Arctic Adventure(enthusiastically reviewed in DM 325). Here are lists of ACD’s various homes, his sporting career, the burial places of the Doyles, statues and plaques, and more, including some fascinating photographs. But...

“The title of The 1895 Murder by Dan Andriacco (MX Publishing, www.mxpublishing.co.uk; £9.99/$16.95/€12.99) refers neatly to a play based on ‘The Bruce-Partington Plans’, written by Professor Sebastian McCabe of St Benignus College, Erin, Ohio. As he proved in No Police Like Holmes and Holmes Sweet Holmes, Mac is a devoted Sherlockian and a highly skilled detective, so when a man is shot dead outside the theatre where he’s playing Mycroft Holmes, he and his brother-in-law Jeff Cody are pleased to help find the killer. Well, mostly. Jeff‘s mind, naturally, is on his impending wedding and the need for diplomacy with...

Philip K Jones (aka The Ill Dressed Vagabond) is one of the USA's leading Sherlock Holmes Reviewers. Here he reviews 'Baker Street Beat' by Dan Andriacco - a collection of Holmes items that the Sherlock Holmes Society of London describes as "it gives you the same sort of feeling as when you're chatting over a drink with a knowledgeable fellow-Holmesian". "This is a collection of personal reminiscences, early fiction and literary commentary by a long-time Sherlockian. It contains a personal history of one man’s lifelong fascination with the Canon. It also presents glimpses of other Sherlockians, their personalities and foibles,...

From the District Messenger, the newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, comes a review of Dan Andriaccos unusual and fascinating new collecition of "scribblings" about Sherlock Holmes. "Baker Street Beat by Dan Andriacco is subtitled An Eclectic Collection of Sherlockian Scribblings, which sums up the book rather well. There’s nothing particularly profound or abstruse in its 140 pages. Rather, it gives you the same sort of feeling as when you’re chatting over a drink with a knowledgeable fellow-Holmesian. After explaining how he came to be an enthusiast – his principal allegiance is to the Tankerville Club of Cincinnati...