Showing results by author "Richard T Ryan" in All Categories

With the arrival of 1887, Sherlock Holmes's reputation had begun to grow. Now, in the year of the classic tales "The Reigate Squires" and "The Five Orange Pips", Holmes is becoming ever more sure of himself –– a trend that will continue as we make our way through his literary chronology. The game is afoot!

1888 was a busy year for Holmes and Watson. If Dr. Watson is to be believed, The Sign of Four, A Scandal in Bohemia, and The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor all took place in this year (I would also argue that The Valley of Fear is set in the same year — ed.). As if that weren’t enough, 1888 is remembered (albeit infamously) as the year that Jack the Ripper unleashed an autumn of terror on the citizens of London. While there are no Holmes vs. the Ripper stories in this volume, the authors of the later stories have all alluded to the atmosphere of terror permeating Holmes’s London at that time.

When the papal apartments are burgled in 1901, Sherlock Holmes is summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XII. After learning from the pontiff that several priceless cameos that could prove compromising to the church, and perhaps determine the future of the newly unified Italy, have been stolen, Holmes is asked to recover them. In a parallel story, Michelangelo, the toast of Rome in 1501 after the unveiling of his Pieta, is commissioned by Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgia pontiffs, with creating the cameos that will bedevil Holmes and the papacy four centuries later.

After a mysterious woman arranges an appointment at Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes finds himself thrust into an inquiry with far-reaching implications. What begins as a simple investigation into a missing person soon morphs into a mystery that threatens to have unprecedented turmoil for both the British Empire and perhaps the rest of the world. As a result, Holmes and Watson soon find themselves racing to uncover the fiendish plot that might well spell death for hundreds of thousands and untold suffering for millions more.

On the morning of the vernal equinox in 1899, Holmes is roused from his bed by Lestrade. The inspector has received a report of a girl brutally murdered at Stonehenge. Upon arriving at the famed site, Holmes discovers the body of a young woman. On her forehead, painted in blood, is a druidic symbol. On her side, also in blood, is a message written in a strange language that neither Holmes nor Lestrade can decipher. The girl was also eviscerated and her organs placed around her body. As a final touch, branches from yew trees had been artistically arranged around the corpse. Holmes senses a malevolent force at work, but without data, he is powerless. As the weeks pass, he slowly gathers information about the ancient druids and Celtic mythology and begins to assemble a small army of experts to assist him.

After surviving an attempt on his life in Paris, Sherlock Holmes returns to London, where the great detective is almost immediately enlisted by his brother to secure the safety of the delegates at a top-secret peace conference. With Europe a veritable powder keg in the years before World War I, Holmes understands any misstep on his part could prove fatal and possibly plunge the continent into war. However, after pledging to do his utmost for "King and Country", Holmes suddenly finds himself overwhelmed by an onslaught of cases.

Reluctantly, Sherlock Holmes agrees to assist Inspector Lestrade who is being hounded by an obnoxious nobleman whose jewel-encrusted dagger has gone missing. However, what Holmes initially believes to be a simple theft turns out instead to be his first encounter with a master criminal, who is as ruthless as he is brilliant and whom Watson dubs "The Merchant of Menace".

During the elaborate funeral for Queen Victoria, a group of Irish separatists breaks into Westminster Abbey and steals the Coronation Stone, on which every monarch of England has been crowned since the 14th century. After learning of the theft from Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes is tasked with recovering the stone and returning it to England.

In the early- and mid-1880s, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the forerunner of the modern IRA, waged a bombing campaign that terrorized the citizens of London for more than four years. The bombings were carried out in an attempt to secure Ireland's freedom from England. The Fenians, as they were called, hoped citizens would put pressure on the government to resolve the dispute. Implored by the government to end the reign of terror, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson pose as dock workers in order to learn more about the shadowy group and ingratiate themselves with its members.

The Discoveries Of Sherlock Holmes is a series of Sherlock Holmes stories exclusively released on Kindle Unlimited to give fans the opportunity to sample Sherlockian writers from all over the world. One story per writer will appear each month. Number I is Richard T. Ryan After Holmes learns that his new client suspects he is being poisoned, he ensconces him in a hotel under an alias, hoping to keep the man safe from his antagonist. However, when the man is found dead in his room, Holmes, feeling he has failed his client, is determined to bring the malefactor to justice.

Early one morning the curator of the Wallace Collection calls upon Sherlock Holmes requesting the Great Detective's assistance. Over the past few weeks, someone has been paying nocturnal visits to the gallery and apparently spending a great deal of time in one of the rooms devoted to medieval arms and armour. Although nothing appears to have been taken, the curator wants to know who is visiting after hours and why. When Holmes inspects the room, he makes a startling discovery that sets in motion a chain of events which ends up pitting Holmes against a modern day Templar.

A quiet morning at Baker Street is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Inspector Lestrade, who informs Holmes a man's body has been discovered in the Tower Bridge that was then under construction. That grisly event proves to be the opening salvo in a terrifying game of wits between Holmes and an unknown adversary.