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Our top 5 bestselling books in print in July in the USA so far are:   A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes  Dead Ringers  The Monographs  Imogene and The Case of The Missing Pearls  Practical Handbook of Bee Culture  

In this fifth adventure, John Openshaw visits Baker Street to consult Sherlock Holmes as to the mysterious deaths of both his uncle and father upon the arrival of letters containing five dried orange pips and bearing the mark “K.K.K.”. The young gentleman further relates that he too has received a similar envelope with instructions to surrender some papers. Holmes quickly deduces that his client faces imminent danger from a secret society in America.   “Shook out five little dried orange pips.”   The death of clients This adventure is notable as the client of the Great Detective is murdered after...

Review by: Wendy Heyman-Marsaw, author of Memoirs from Mrs. Hudson’s Kitchen Ms. Whittaker has a remarkable achievement in Jeremy Brett Playing a Part. She goes far beyond a simple chronology of all his performances by documenting them with excellent primary sources, hundreds of photographs (many of them heretofore unpublished), anecdotes and a unique insight into Jeremy Brett as a humble man and a generous and brilliant actor. There is a charming and intimate forward by David Burke - Brett’s first Watson.  The section devoted to Brett’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is a tour de force. Ms. Whittaker clearly knows the Canon and provides...

In this fourth adventure, Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard summons Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to Herefordshire to investigate the murder of a wealthy landowner named Charles McCarthy. Holmes, donning his “travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap”, carefully examines the crime scene and soon unravels the mystery involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail. The depiction of Sherlock Holmes The very first illustration of this adventure by Sidney Paget, which is presented below along with my LEGO® rendering of this drawing, is quite notable in that Paget chose to depict Sherlock Holmes wearing a deerstalker cap and Inverness cloak....

In this third adventure, Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a substantial income, visits Sherlock Holmes to request his assistance regarding the mysterious disappearance of her fiancé, Hosmer Angel, from the carriage that was conveying him to their wedding. Holmes effortlessly deduces what has really happened from his residence on Baker Street, but chooses not to inform his client as he fears she will not believe him. “She laid a little bundle upon the table.”   Sherlock Holmes and forensic science Among the illustrations for this adventure, I am fond of the image of Sherlock Holmes in deep contemplation about...