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Another very busy month with the much anticipated new release from Denis Smith topping the charts. It's the first new book from him in several years and he's widely recognised as one of the leading pastiche writers in the world. Caiden Cooper Myles clocks another top two finish for his debut collection, Volume II launching this week on Kickstarter. Another new collection, from Nick Cardillo, rounds out a very strong top three consisting of all short story collections. 1.   The Six-Thirteen from Fairfield Junction and Other Cases of Sherlock Holmes – Denis O Smith and Kevin E Green 2.   The Further Memoirs of...

The Historical Novel Society Cruel September is set in the scholastic world of Los Angeles at the time of the Vietnamese War and the teachers’ strike of 1970. It concerns the experience of Mandy Sayer, a newly qualified teacher, her relationship with Art Malamud, the union rep at the school in which she takes her first job – and the destructive power of Vivian Laws, the school’s principal. As the academic year progresses and the internal politics of the school emerge, we meet other members of the staff whose stories embellish the situation in which Mandy and Art find themselves. As...

One of the great pleasures of being a publisher is meeting up with our authors and one of the most important for Sherlock Holmes is Alistair Duncan. His book 'Eliminate The Impossible' was the very first Holmes related book that started us on a journey that, nearly two decades later, see us with over five hundred Sherlock Holmes titles. This particular meet up this Saturday was a pretty special one. We met for a meal at The Langham, which is one of the key hotels in history of Sherlock Holmes. We're pictured underneath the plaque that commemorates an important meeting...

By far our largest Sherlock Holmes audiobook month ever this June - helped along by the top selling book Sherlock Holmes Investigates by Susan Knight being featured in the June Audible sale. It kept The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes off the top spot but it may well be heading back there if early July sales are anything to go by. Short story collections once again dominated filling all top five slots. We expect Denis Smiths new collection The Six-Thirteen from Fairfield Junction and Other Cases of Sherlock Holmes  launched in June to climb up the charts fast too.   1.   Sherlock Holmes Investigates –...

Tom Turley Sherlockian pasticheurs (myself included) often forget that Conan Doyle’s primary purpose in the Canon was to exhibit his detective’s skills in observation and deduction. Assuredly, Denis O. Smith is not among them. Each of the five cases in his new collection is a flawlessly constructed chain of logical analysis, in which (as Watson put it elsewhere) every link rings true.  There is commendable variety among them: two are obviously inspired by canonical stories; another is an “untold tale.” A whimsical offering about a stolen artifact gives way to grimmer sagas of international conspiracy, thwarted love, and murder. Smith...