The Welbeck Abbey Shooting Party


Book Description

A prequel to “His Last Bow.” Can Holmes save a threatened heir-apparent without compromising his more vital mission to outwit a German spy? Can Watson spend a week in the country with two beautiful, aristocratic ladies and still go home to his third wife?




Sherlock Holmes and the Crowned Heads of Europe


Book Description

This collection contains four cases that chronicle Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's quarter-century of espionage against the German Empire. As most readers know, that campaign ended in triumph on the night of August 2, 1914. Along the way, there were many ups and downs, some of them recorded in this series… The Case of the Dying Emperor (1888). Our Heroes journey to Charlottenburg to defend Frederick III, Germany's stricken emperor, from the wily machinations of the “Iron Chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck, and Frederick’s cold and calculating son, the future “Kaiser Bill.” The Inconvenient Heir-Apparent (1898). Holmes is summoned to Geneva by the legendary “Sisi,” Empress Elisabeth of Austria, to “rake through the coals of Mayerling” and learn the true fate of Crown Prince Rudolf, her dead son. A Scandal in Serbia (1903). The actual events behind “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Get ready for surprising revelations about that story’s heroine and meet two non-Bohemian kings, a hapless queen, and conspirators who will light “the Balkan Powder Keg” that sets off World War I. The Welbeck Abbey Shooting Party (1913). A prequel to “His Last Bow.” Can Holmes save a threatened heir-apparent without compromising his more vital mission to outwit a German spy? Can Watson spend a week in the country with two beautiful, aristocratic ladies and still go home to his third wife?




The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories - Part XXVII


Book Description

Featuring Contributions by: Tracy J. Revels, John Davis, John Lawrence, Stephen Herczeg, Tim Gambrell, Craig Stephen Copland, Jeremy Branton Holstein, Thomas A. Turley , Arthur Hall, David Marcum, S.C. Toft, Leslie Charteris and Denis Green, Roger Riccard, Will Murray, John Lawrence, and Marcia Wilson, and forewords by Peter Lovesey, Roger Johnson, Steve Emecz, and David Marcum Here, though the world explode, these two survive, And it is always eighteen-ninety-five. So wrote Sherlockian Vincent Starrett in his 1942 poem 221b, soon after the United States entered World War II. Even as those years brought terrible challenges, so too has 2020 been a year of great testing for so many of us, as a global pandemic rages and good people are called to stand against evil. For Sherlockians, comfort can be found in climbing those seventeen stairs to the Baker Street sitting room, where it is always eighteen-ninety-five - or a few decades on either side of it. In 2015, the first three volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories arrived, containing over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner. That was the largest collection of new Holmes stories ever assembled, and originally planned to be a one-time event. But readers wanted more, and the contributors had more stories from Watson's Tin Dispatch Box, so the fun continued. Now, with the release of Parts XXV, XXVI, and XXVII, the series has grown to nearly 600 new Holmes adventures by almost 200 contributors from around with world. Since the beginning, all contributor royalties go to the Stepping Stones School for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's former homes, and to date the project has raised over $75,000 for the school. As has become the tradition, this new collection features Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes's retirement. Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as "the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known." 59 new traditional Holmes adventures in three simultaneously published volumes The game is afoot! All author royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.




The Adventure of the Inconvenient Heir-Apparent


Book Description

Holmes is summoned to Geneva by the legendary “Sisi,” Empress Elisabeth of Austria, to “rake through the coals of Mayerling” and learn the true fate of Crown Prince Rudolf, her dead son.










Truth


Book Description




The Real Life Downton Abbey


Book Description

Step back a hundred years to the world of the pampered, privileged upper classes and look inside Downton Abbey to find out exactly what goes on behind the magisterial doors of TV's favourite stately home. They were the super rich of their times, pampered beyond belief - the early 20th century Edwardian gentry, who lived like superstars, their every desire or need catered to by an army of butlers, servants, footmen, housekeepers and grooms. Class, money, inheritance, luxury and snobbery dominated every aspect of the lives of the upper crust Edwardian family, led by Robert Crawley, The Earl of Grantham - played in the hit show by Hugh Bonneville. While below stairs the staff, including Carson the Butler (Jim Carter), Bates the Valet (Brendan Coyle), O'Brien the Ladies' Maid (Siobhan Finneran), and Daisy the Kitchen Maid (Sophie McSherra), inhabited a completely different world, their very lives dependent on servicing the rich, pandering to their masters' every whim, rubbing shoulders with wealth and privilege, privy to their most intimate and darkest secrets - yet faced ruin and shame if they ventured to make the smallest step outside the boundaries of their class ridden world. From manners and morals to etiquette and style, The Real Life Downton Abbey opens the doors to TV's favourite stately home.




The Long Weekend


Book Description

From an acclaimed social and architectural historian, the tumultuous, scandalous, glitzy, and glamorous history of English country houses and high society during the interwar period As WWI drew to a close, change reverberated through the halls of England's country homes. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, the shadows lengthened on the lawns of a thousand stately homes. In The Long Weekend, historian Adrian Tinniswood introduces us to the tumultuous, scandalous and glamorous history of English country houses during the years between World Wars. As estate taxes and other challenges forced many of these venerable houses onto the market, new sectors of British and American society were seduced by the dream of owning a home in the English countryside. Drawing on thousands of memoirs, letters, and diaries, as well as the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls and bibulous butlers, Tinniswood brings the stately homes of England to life as never before, opening the door to a world by turns opulent and ordinary, noble and vicious, and forever wrapped in myth. We are drawn into the intrigues of legendary families such as the Astors, the Churchills and the Devonshires as they hosted hunting parties and balls that attracted the likes of Charlie Chaplin, T.E. Lawrence, and royals such as Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. We waltz through aristocratic soiré, and watch as the upper crust struggle to fend off rising taxes and underbred outsiders, property speculators and poultry farmers. We gain insight into the guilt and the gingerbread, and see how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs. Through the glitz of estate parties, the social tensions between old money and new, the hunting parties, illicit trysts, and grand feasts, Tinniswood offers a glimpse behind the veil of these great estates -- and reveals a reality much more riveting than the dream.




The Growing World


Book Description