Matthew Bartholomew, unorthodox but effective physician to Michaelhouse college in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated.

The apparition of a lady dressed in white and long thought dead, a deadly and shadowy form that wreaks terror on the heath, and a figure from the past who has accrued the power to commune with the dead! Here is collection of cases, some new, together with a few old favorites which sorely test Holmes' long-held beliefs to their very limits!

When Mrs. Hudson asks Holmes and Watson to find a missing girl, neither men expected what they would find. Along with Lestrade, they are plunged into a case of abduction and murder. As they race from Marylebone, to Finchley, to Wapping, and back again, time is running out for them to solve the case without further casualties. With two of their own under threat, the pressure is mounting to catch and stop the group known as "Hellfire Heirs".

When misadventure led a schoolboy in London to employment at Baker Street, few could have guessed where his introduction to Sherlock Holmes would lead. But as the lad matures and he finds himself caught in the middle of a murder investigation, his friendship with Holmes and Watson lures him into the role of detective. 'Billy' documents his experiences, and soon his sleuthing skills not only bring him to another murder, but also lay the foundation for his metamorphosis into a famous mystery writer.

This is the fourth story from The Art of Sherlock Holmes project and first appeared in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part V.

More tales from the dispatch box of Doctor John Watson. These 10 stories have appeared previously in various volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories and other anthologies. They come together as a collection for the first time.

From some clear pieces of glass and a raven's feather, the great detective must divine exactly who the client was and what prompted him to seek assistance at 221B. Fortunately, Holmes has a number of experts upon whom he can rely as well as his own vast store of esoteric knowledge. Treading a twisted path, Holmes soon finds himself matching wits with an unseen criminal, who appears to be the equal of the late Professor Moriarty. At the same time, he is tasked with sparing the monarchy any possible embarrassment that may stem from the investigation.

In the year 1908, Holmes believed himself to be in retirement. Watson was once again in private practice and unwed. Mrs. Hudson had gone to Sussex to act as Holmes's housekeeper. But the fates had agreed that Martha Hudson and John Watson should be together. Or had they? When Dr. Watson proposes to Martha Hudson, it sets off a series of events that only Sherlock Holmes can deal with. Watson has already had three wives—all have died under unfortunate circumstances. Colm Campbell, Martha Hudson's nephew, thinks there is more here than meets the eye.

On the eve of Newgate Prison's demolition, Watson spies Holmes leaving a public sale of the prison's miscellany in the company of a beautiful stranger, and in possession of an unusual trophy–the death mask of a woman who, more than 20 years earlier, had been executed for the murder of her three children. Holmes agrees to satisfy Watson's curiosity about the memento by recounting the decades-old history of its subject.

On concluding a long day of house calls, Dr. Watson receives an urgent summons to attend his friend, Sherlock Holmes. He arrives at 221B Baker Street to find Holmes in a state of deep shock and wearing scorched clothing that reeks of excrement.

As young men go to the trenches in their millions, they take with them A. E. Housman’s collection of poetry, A Shropshire Lad. “Easy to read in the most difficult circumstances and full of happy memories of home,” opines Mycroft Holmes. But has Housman succumbed to German influence? Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are sent to investigate and come up with a finding unexpected to them. Mycroft lets their finding pass, but Watson is then witness to some Machiavellian political machinations from Mycroft as he deals with Irish rebel Roger Casement.

In real life, 221B Baker Street is the home of a bank. When fans send letters to Sherlock Holmes, bank employee Addy Zhuang, known as "Sherlock's Secretary," replies. One day, the bank is robbed, but the thieves only take three letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes. The police conclude it was all a harmless prank, but Addy suspects something more malicious is happening.

Sherlock Holmes' adventures continue in seven surprising cases. Holmes and Watson investigate an alleged haunting at the Diogenes Club, vandalism at a prominent art gallery, the case of a frightened amnesiac, the takeover of 221B by vicious criminals, the sequel to "The Engineer's Thumb," the defiling of Holmes' Stradivarius violin, and a Christmas story featuring a graveyard with angry insults carved into the headstones. The game is afoot!

Séamas Duffy’s fourth novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Sixty Steps, follows a similar format to his previously published Holmes collections: a novella together with some shorter stories. The four stories are: “The Tragedy of Langhorne Wyke” (1890); “The Mystery of the Thirteen Bells” (1895); “The Adventure of the Sixty Steps” (1897); and “The Problem of the Coptic Patriarchs” (1898).

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist." On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels.