The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By John Joseph Adams

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first—and most famous—consulting detective, came to the world’s attention more than 120 years ago through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels and stories. But Conan Doyle didn’t reveal all of the Great Detective’s adventures…

Here are some of the best Holmes pastiches of the last 30 years, twenty-eight tales of mystery and the imagination detailing Holmes’s further exploits, as told by many of today’s greatest storytellers, including Stephen King, Anne Perry, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more.

These are the improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where nothing is impossible, and nothing can be ruled out. In these cases, Holmes investigates ghosts, curses, aliens, dinosaurs, shapeshifters, and evil gods. But is it the supernatural, or is there a perfectly rational explanation?

You won’t be sure, and neither will Holmes and Watson as they match wits with pirates, assassins, con artists, and criminal masterminds of all stripes, including some familiar foes, such as their old nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

In these pages you’ll also find our heroes crossing paths with H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and even Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and you’ll be astounded to learn the truth behind cases previously alluded to by Watson but never before documented until now. These are tales that take us from the familiar quarters at 221B Baker Street to alternate realities, from the gaslit streets of London to the far future and beyond.

Whether it’s mystery, fantasy, horror, or science fiction, no puzzle is too challenging for the Great Detective. The game is afoot!

Contents:

NON-FICTION

• Introduction — John Joseph Adams
• A Sherlockiana Primer — Christopher Roden

FICTION

• The Doctor’s Case — Stephen King
• The Horror of the Many Faces — Tim Lebbon
• The Case of the Bloodless Sock — Anne Perry
• The Adventure of the Other Detective — Bradley H. Sinor
• A Scandal in Montreal — Edward Hoch
• The Adventure of the Field Theorems — Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Adventure of the Death-Fetch — Darrell Schweitzer
• The Shocking Affair of the Dutch Steamship Friesland — Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Adventure of the Mummy’s Curse — H. Paul Jeffers
• The Things That Shall Come Upon Them — Barbara Roden
• Murder to Music — Anthony Burgess
• The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor — Stephen Baxter
• Mrs Hudson’s Case  —  Laurie  R.  King
• The Singular Habits of Wasps — Geoffrey Landis
• The Affair of the Forty-Sixth Birthday — Amy Myers
• The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey — Peter Tremayne
• The Vale of the White Horse — Sharyn McCrumb
• The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger — Michael Moorcock
• The Adventure of the Lost World — Dominic Green
• The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece — Barbara Hambly
• Dynamics of a Hanging — Tony Pi
• Merridew of Abominable Memory — Chris Roberson
• Commonplaces — Naomi Novik
• The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil’s Cape — Rob Rogers
• The Adventure of the Green Skull — Mark Valentine
• The  Human  Mystery  —  Tanith  Lee
• A Study in Emerald — Neil Gaiman
• You See But You Do Not Observe — Robert J. Sawyer