An Investees' Anthology: Selected Contributions to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Members of The Baker Street Irregulars

By David Marcum

Featuring Contributions by: Mark Alberstat, Marino C. Alvarez, Peter Calamai, Catherine Cooke, Carla Coupe, David Stuart Davies, John Farrell, Lyndsay Faye, Sonia Fetherston, Jayantika Ganguly, Jeffrey Hatcher, Roger Johnson, Leslie S. Klinger, Ann Margaret Lewis, Bonnie MacBird, Stephen Mason, Julie McKuras Nicholas Meyer, Jacquelynn Morris, Otto Penzler, Christopher Redmond, Tracy J. Revels, Steven Rothman, Nancy Holder, Mark Levy (and Arlene Mantin Levy), Nicholas Utechin, and Sean M. Wright (and DeForeest B. Wright, III)

In 2015, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories burst upon the scene, featuring traditional Canonical adventures set within the correct time period, and written by many of today's leading Sherlockian authors from around the world. Those first three volumes were overwhelmingly received, and soon there were calls for additional collections. Since then, their popularity has only continued to grow, and the series is currently up to 36 massive volumes (and more in preparation!) with over 750 new Holmes adventures from over 200 contributors worldwide.

Since the beginning, all royalties from these volumes have gone to the Undershaw school for special needs children, (formerly known as "Stepping Stones"), and as of mid-2022, the books have raised over $100,000 for the school, with no end in sight.

From the very beginning, members of The Baker Street Irregulars stepped up to contribute, providing stories, poems, and forewords. Now, in this collection, we present something from nearly all of those previous BSI contributors and, as always, the royalties go to support the Undershaw school.

These stories, poems, and forewords, along with the those in the original 36 volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, represent some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found, and honor the man described by Watson as "the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known."

Stories, Forewords, and Poems in this volume have previously appeared in Parts I - XXXVI of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories.

All royalties from this collection are being donated for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, a school for special needs students located at one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MX Publishing
• Release date: Jan 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781804241394

David Marcum

David Marcum and Steven Smith travel the world teaching people to utilize the corporate asset of ego and limit its liabilities. With decades of experience and degrees in management and psychology, they¹ve worked with organizations including Microsoft, Accenture, the U.S. Air Force, General Electric, Disney, and State Farm. Their work has been published in eighteen languages in more than forty countries.

Book preview

An Investees’ Anthology

Selected Contributions to the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Members of the Baker Street Irregulars

Poems

Two Sonnets

by Bonnie MacBird

From Part III: 1896-1929 (2015)

Out of the Fog

When electronic clutter clouds our minds

With trifles, and presentiments of doom

There’s always a retreat we know to find

Up seventeen stairs to that gaslit room.

Perhaps a brandy, in our easy chair

We turn the pages of a well-worn book.

Now, there beside the fire, sit our pair.

Two gentlemen, a smile, a knowing look.

And so with pipe in hand, our man unmasks

With reason, knowledge and a touch of art,

A source of horror, which he takes to task

And sets the evil, from us, far apart.

The side of angels and the depths of hell

Emerge from fog; are dealt with. All is well.

The Art of Detection

The world is puzzling, that we know for sure

To tame its mysteries a worthy goal.

For this we turn to science, but the lure

Is to unmask the secrets of the soul.

For Sherlock Holmes, the boundaries are clear.

The facts are clay, and scientists need bricks

To build a solid construct, yet appear

To some like a magician playing tricks.

But inferential logic can go wrong

And fail to parse out motives or mistakes.

The mind of man is like a complex song

And a musician’s ear is what it takes.

Holmes uses all – his knowledge, mind and heart,

Because to practice science… is an art.

No Ghosts Need Apply

by Jacquelynn Morris

From Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible 1880-1891 (2017)

Modern and medieval,

Practical and fanciful,

The mysteries of the commonplace.

A window with a yellow face,

A spectral hound,

A speckled band,

An intricate suicide, a bridge, a gun,

Three glasses of wine, with beeswing in one.

The cyclist forced to wed,

An anarchist left for dead.

A lodger that’s veiled,

A soldier who’s paled.

The goose with a crop,

A plaster bust shop.

The dog that did nothing – a curious incident.

A coffin bearing twice its content.

The print of a thumb

And a thumb that was gone.

Tenacious black clay,

A horse with a blaze.

A sinister cripple,

A vial of vitriol.

The typewriter and its relation to crime,

A world which oysters have overrun.

Hair of chestnut or red,

The pig that was dead.

Two ears in a box,

Paregoric’s the stuff.

Red to the elbow in murder,

The Cornish horror.

Lowenstein of Prague,

Robert’s sister’s dog.

The trifles observed,

Reached improbable truth,

Standing flat-footed when the game’s afoot.

For the love of his art

Living by his wits

Seeing things as they are is as good as it gets.

To the untrained mind it appears supernatural

When in fact the solution is frankly, discernible.

No vampires nor ghosts will our Holmes accept,

His criminals must be fully-fleshed.

Unrecorded Holmes Cases: A Sonnet

by Arlene Mantin Levy and Mark Levy

From Part XI: Some Untold Cases (1880-1891) (2018)

The master Sherlock Holmes found many clues,

John Watson wrote them up and made them great;

His cases ranged from opal rings and shoes

And stains and smoke, to those of heavy weight;

But really those of most intrigue to us

Are unrecorded tales of quirky guys,

Like Ricoletti with his club foot plus

Abominable wife, or Upwood’s lies;

Persano had a matchbox and big worm,

James Phillimore’s umbrella disappeared;

A rat (Sumatran giant) took its turn

As did Vittoria, circus belle with beard;

So these and more add fun to Canon lore

We wish Doc Watson would have written more.

Adventures

The Adventure of the Defenestrated Princess

by Jayantika Ganguly

From Part I: 1881-1889 (2015)

I have often remarked on the variety and oddity of clients who sought the aid of my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, at our shared quarters. More often than not, our visitors would be accompanied by an aura of drama and intrigue. An especially dramatic entrance sprung to my mind when I last visited Holmes in Sussex Downs, and he finally gave his assent to reveal the details of the case. The parties involved are beyond human reach now, and the only sufferer of this narration would be Holmes’s own perception of his sentimentality – or rather, the lack thereof.

It was towards the end of autumn in the year 1882, and in the months that I had known Holmes by then, I was truly convinced that he was as coldly logical and unfeeling as he projected himself to be. He had been generous enough to permit me to accompany him on several of his cases, and I was as much in awe of his genius as I was appalled at his apparent lack of empathy. While he was mostly polite to his clients, and unfailingly gentle with the fairer sex, I had come to realize that he did not much care for their plight; it was the puzzle which appealed to him. I know better now, of course, but in those early days, Holmes and I were not as close, and he kept much of his thoughts to himself.

This particular case began with a gunshot at the ungodly hour of three in the morning. The terrible noise roused me from my sleep. I hurriedly threw on my dressing gown, pocketed my bull pup and rushed downstairs to find Holmes similarly dressed and armed.

What happened? I enquired, my voice barely a whisper.

From the sound, I can only tell you that a .476 caliber Enfield Mk I revolver has been fired within twenty yards of our abode, Watson, Holmes replied grimly. I intend to step out to investigate further.

I should like to keep you company, if you do not object, I offered.

"Thank you, Doctor. Your assistance may be invaluable. I suspect we shall have an injured person at hand