The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sherlock Holmes and the Crusader's Curse

by Stuart Douglas

Overview

A new novel from the author of acclaimed Sherlock Holmes patisches The Albino's Treasure, The Counterfeit Detective and The Improbable Prisoner

A CURSED LEGACY

The last Lord Thorpe, reclusive owner of Thorpe Manor, has died. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are invited to the auction at which the estate will be sold off, in hopes Holmes can uncover the whereabouts of the missing De Trop Diamond, a jewel-encrusted gemstone brought back from the Crusades by an earlier member of the Thorpe dynasty - and the source of a legendary curse.

Making the acquaintance of the various potential bidders for the Manor, and visiting the nearby village, the two men learn local legends from the local publican, before exploring the grounds of the Manor itself.

All seems well until first one of the guests, and then the publican are found dead.

Trapped in the Manor by a ferocious snow storm, and cut off from his network of London assistants, Holmes must convince the remaining guests that the curse is not real, and that there is a murderer in their midst...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789091595
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	12/29/2020
Series:	Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Series
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
Sales rank:	280,863
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Stuart Douglas is the author of numerous short stories and novellas, and has edited several anthologies. He set up Obverse Books in 2009, a small press imprint. He contributed a story to Titan's Encounters of Sherlock Holmes in 2013, and is the Features Editor of the British Fantasy Society journal. He lives in Edinburgh.
Stuart Douglas is the author of numerous short stories and novellas, and has edited several anthologies. He set up Obverse Books in 2009, a small press imprint. He contributed a story to Titan’s Encounters of Sherlock Holmes in 2013, and is the Features Editor of the British Fantasy Society journal. He lives in Edinburgh.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/17/2021

In Douglas’s excellent fourth novel-length pastiche (after 2018’s The Improbable Prisoner), Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to Thorpe Manor in Yorkshire at the request of solicitor Faraday Thompson, who is selling the property and its contents after the death of Lord Thorpe. But first, Thompson hopes the detective can locate some missing valuables, which include the Thorp ruby, a jewel supposedly stolen in the Holy Land during the Crusades by an ancestor. According to legend, the ruby’s rightful owners followed the thief back to England, but failed to recover it, despite torturing the nobleman. Since then, the lord’s ghost is reported to haunt Thorpe Manor to preserve the gemstone’s secret location. Prospective bidders for the estate are guests there when one of them is murdered. A snowstorm isolates the manor, setting up a classic closed-circle inquiry. Besides mastering Watson’s narrative style, Douglas successfully conveys the doctor’s friendship with Holmes. This is several levels above the author’s previous efforts and makes the prospect of more welcome. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly