Shadows Over Baker Street
Michael Reaves
Language: English
Pages: 464
ISBN: 0345455282
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime.
For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself.
In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today’s most cutting edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.
“A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it–and only one man can hope to stop it.
“A Case of Royal Blood” by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost–or perhaps something far worse than a ghost.
“Art in the Blood” by Brian Stableford: One man’s horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind.
“The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone” by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible cannot be eliminated.
“The Horror of the Many Faces” by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London–and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
With these and fourteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot.
The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s champion of rational deduction–in these brand-new stories by twenty of today’s top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers, including:
• Steven-Elliot Altman
• Elizabeth Bear
• Poppy Z. Brite
• Simon Clark
• David Ferguson
• Paul Finch
• Neil Gaiman
• Barbara Hambly
• Caitlin R. Kiernan
• Tim Lebbon
• James Lowder
• Richard A. Lupoff
• F. Gwynplaine McIntyre
• John Pelan
• Steve Perry
• Michael Reaves
• Brian Stableford
• John P. Vourlis
• David Niall Wilson & Patricia Lee Macomber
her own gun case as well as her reticule. “Ah, Magnus!” Von Hammerstein charged down the iron steps from the rail coach and clasped my hand heavily, in the European style. “Allow me to present your charges.” Remembering himself, he turned to the American, and I saw that she was traveled enough to recognize his courtesy. “Fraulein, this gentleman is the noted author and hunter of heavy game, Mr. Magnus Larssen. Magnus, may I present the talented contralto, Miss Irene Adler.” * * * “So what
and followed the excited boy, who told me his name was Edward and that his father was a cobbler, through the narrow, winding streets of Whitby and once again down to West Cliff. The body of the drowned man lay on the sand and clearly the gulls had been at him for some considerable time before he was discovered by a beachcomber. Yet, despite the damage done by the cruel beaks of the birds, I had no trouble in recognizing the face of Elijah Purdy right off. Several men had crowded about, including
care what alliances and wars the Tsar and the British Queen make against and upon each other? They seemed determined to tear Afghanistan in two between them, in their so-called Great Game: an endless series of imperialist intrigues and battles. A game, to my eye, whose chiefest victims were simple folk like my Rodney. The best the rest of us— I thought then— could manage was a sort of detached distaste for the whole proceedings. The morning found us all awake early and unsettled. It was bold
wall of glass, and the Creature screamed again— this time, in agony. It turned this way and that, frantic to escape the raindrops, like a dog that seeks to elude a beating. Each drop sizzled and steamed as it struck, and with each drop the devil’s light flickered, spots appearing on its hide like the speckles on a coal sprinkled with water. It twisted about itself, shrieking, and finally seemed to collapse. A sickening scent of char rose from the wet ashes that were all that remained. My leg
the Necronomicon, and the Great Old Ones in the pages of Weird Tales, scores of other writers have been inspired to compose their own visions of his outré mythology. The Mythos implies that the reality we know is narrow and constricted— that lurking just beyond the boundaries of sanity are beings of vast power and malice that ruled this world before mankind, and that intend to do so again. What strange events were caused by these powerful alien entities in the twilight days of the nineteenth