One of the highlights of my first BSI Weekend in 2017 was the Gaslight Gala, which was then hosted by Carla Coupe and Mary Alcaro. That evening, I met many Sherlockians from around the country who have become my good friends.    Much has changed about the weekend (and the world) since then, but the Gala remains a wonderful way to gather with fellow Sherlockians for toasts, skits, music, a quiz, and Sherlockian  camaraderie on that Friday for those not attending the BSI dinner. This year’s gala theme is “A Pawky Sense of Humour.” Ann Brauer Andriacco (designer of the beautiful l ..read more

                        Before there was the Internet, there was Classic Specialties. For almost 30 years, the Cincinnati-based mail order house operated by Carolyn and the late Joel Senter in the late 20th and early 21st Century was the place to go for all things Sherlockian. I thought of that recently when I encountered in my office one of their six-page catalogs, which sold for $1. Oh, the treasurers! Where else would you go in those days to find all in one place Holmes-themed scarves, ties, sweaters, lamps, and the beautiful “Empt ..read more

Publication of a new book is always a joy—even when it’s number 22.   The Magician’s Trunk, just out with a spectacular cover, is counted by my publisher as the 13th McCabe & Cody book, but it’s really the 15th—two of the books are collections of shorter stories. The series began with No Police Like Homes in 2011. I’ve also written seven other mystery novels: two School for Sleuths adventures, two Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and two Enoch Hale historical adventures written with Kieran McMullen. The new book, not surprisingly, is about a magician’s trunk. It once belonged to the conju ..read more

  Frederic Door Steele illustration of Barker in "Retired Colourman" “You see, Watson, it was perfectly obvious from the first,” Holmes says in “The Red-Headed League.” But Watson is not the only one who overlooks the obvious. I recently wrote a blog post about all the Sherlockian Easter eggs in Will Thomas’s Barker & Llewelyn series in which I managed to miss the most obvious connection of all. And then Will called my attention to “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.” “It was undoubtedly the tall, dark man whom I had addressed in the street,” Watson tells Holmes in that ..read more

  I just finished reading or re-reading all 15 of Will Thomas’s Barker & Llewelyn detective novels straight through in order. Man, what a ride! The series is set in the late Victorian era and follows the adventures of two “private enquiry agents,” the Scottish Cyrus Barker and the Welsh Thomas Llewelyn. Barker’s eccentricities and Llewelyn’s brisk prose make comparison to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels and novellas inescapable. (One major difference is that, unlike Wolfe and Archie, Barker and Llewelyn age as the series progresses.)   But I was struck by all Sherlockian Easter eg ..read more

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of a book that probably isn’t on your bookshelves but should be. Matthew E. Bunson’s Encylopedia Sherlockiana : An A to Z Guide to the World of the Great Detective tends to be overshadowed by Jack Tracy’s better known though similarly named The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana. Even Bunson, in the introduction to his 1994 book, calls Tracy’s 1978 predecessor “brilliant.” “Unlike that excellent tome, however,” he adds, “this encylcopedia is concerned not only with the Canon, but with the hundreds of related issues and topics that have been ..read more

  Just because a movie flopped, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. Case in point: A Study in Terror, the original Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper film. Although it failed to fill theaters when released in 1965, it holds up well all these decades later. Thirty members and potential members of the Tankerville Club of Cincinnati (which has active participants from five states) viewed the film along with three shorter presentations at our Sherlockian Film Festival last Saturday. The historic Parkland Theatre, which the club rented for the occasion, was built as a vaudeville theater in 18 ..read more

Recently I had the honor of being asked to give a Zoom talk on mystery plotting to Capital Crime Writers, based in Toronto. Art Pittman invited me specifically because of my association with the world of Sherlock Holmes as well as the more than 20 mystery novels I’ve written. And that set me to thinking about how my mystery writing about an amateur sleuth has been influenced by the greatest detective of all. T.S. Eliot wrote that “Every writer owes something to Holmes.” I owe him a lot. I don’t recall what won my heart when I borrowed The Boys’ Sherlock Holmes (an anthology) from the Cincinna ..read more

Sherlockians "on track" after the 65th running of the Silver Blaze racea Saturday saw the 65th running of the Chicago “Silver Blaze” race, now jointly sponsored by the Torists International and the Watsonians, two scion societies of the Baker Street Irregulars. It’s the longest running such race in the country. And no trainers were killed in the process. Race day details at Hawthorne Race Court were flawlessly presided over by Phil Cunningham of the Watsonians, ably assisted by his wife Loraine. The crowd included a healthy contingent of Illustrious Clients from Indianapolis, who desi ..read more

However, you define great literature, one its hallmarks is re-readability. I recently re-read the first (1927) and the last (1958) of the Freddy the Pig books, a series about which I’ve written on this blog before. Those tales of the Bean Farm’s talking animals may not be literature as snobs define it, but they are wonderful. It was interesting to see how consistent the books are—and how much I still enjoy them. Rex Stout once said about a third of his reading was re-reading. I can’t say that, but I do enjoy re-reading favorite books. And yet, that can change. I still enjoy Stout’s Nero Wolfe ..read more