"The Sign of the Tooth" by Craig Stephen Copland

A young woman of English and Ceylonese parentage arrives at the house of Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street in London. She is carrying several golden figures of Buddha. And she has a strange story to tell. Her father, her father’s best friend and historical research colleague, and the colleague’s son have all died in exactly the same way – unexpectedly, at home, and with full rigor mortis within an hour. 

It's no coincidence that the murders have happened just as an exhibit has gotten underway at the British Museum – a sacred relic of Buddha, as in, his tooth (a molar, to be precise). Eight Buddhist attendants rotate guard over the tooth, a loan from the monastery in Ceylon (now Sri Linka). 

 

The young woman, Mary Morstan, has also been receiving notes, warning her of imminent personal danger. The game’s afoot, as Holmes tells Dr John Watson, and soon the pair are investigating the deaths, the warnings, and (surprise) the theft of the tooth. With that theft, Sherlock’s brother Mycroft and the British government get involved; the loss of the tooth could lead to an uprising and war in the Indian subcontinent. 

 

Craig Stephen Copland

Then there’s a further complication: Dr. Watson finds himself totally smitten with Miss Morstan.

 

The Sign of the Tooth is the fifth in the ever-growing Sherlock Holmes series by Craig Stephen Copland, and it’s chock full of Irish terrorists, missing monks, high-stakes foreign relations, and a love story.

 

Copland is a longtime fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. After he retired, he set himself a goal of writing a new Sherlock Holmes mystery related to and inspired by each of the 60 stories published by Conan Doyle. He’s also written monographs on Holmes and two non-Holmes mystery stories featuring a detective in the Old American West, the Reverend Ezekiel Black. He currently lives and writes in Toronto, Buenos Aires, New York, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. 

 

The Sign of the Tooth is a bit tongue-in-cheek; how could any contemporary version of the famous Arthur Conan Doyle detective not be, at least to a small extent. It’s a fast-paced, fast-reading, and entertaining short novel. 

 

Related:

 

New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Craig Stephen Copland.

 

Five Mysteries: 2 Short Stories, 2 Novellas, and a Long Story. 

 

The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists by Crain Stephen Copland.

"The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists" by Craig Stephen Copland

It’s 1912, Dr. Watson in 59 and Sherlock Holmes is 57. And in pursuit of their next case, both men are going to utilize a newfangled machine called the motorcycle. 

In The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists by Craig Stephen Copland, Holmes and Watson are consulted by a private banker. The man’s records have been stolen from the safe in his home, and they contain an account of all payments made by customers – including payments made to keep certain people quiet about everything from affairs to bribery. Some of the leading names in Britain could be threatened by blackmail.

 

And as expected, the first attempt to extort money goes to a lord and lady rather notorious for their dalliances. The titled pair laugh it off, believing the publicity will be fantastic for their upcoming tell-all book (it is). The second attempt includes a kidnapping, and it goes seriously wrong.

 

Craig Stephen Copland

The trail to the culprit, or culprits, will lead through the banker’s own family, to veterans of the Boer War, a motorcycle club, and even to a boy scout camp-out. It’s a thrilling tale with an exciting, cliffhanger-type of ending.

 

Copland is a longtime fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. After he retired, he set himself a goal of writing a new Sherlock Holmes mystery related to and inspired by each of the 60 stories published by Conan Doyle. He’s also written monographs on Holmes and two non-Holmes mystery stories featuring a detective in the Old American West, the Reverend Ezekiel Black. He currently lives and writes in Toronto, Buenos Aires, New York, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. 

 

The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists is a tale of revenge, outrage, and outright evil, with Holmes and Watson receiving last-minute help from a completely unexpected source. The emphasis is less on Holmes’s thinking and detective skills and more on an action-packed story.

 

Related:

 

New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Craig Stephen Copland.

 

Five Mysteries: 2 Short Stories, 2 Novellas, and a Long Story. 

Five Mysteries: 2 Short Stories, 2 Novellas, and a Long Story

                             

One of the benefits of the internet and digital fiction publishing is the ability to publish works of widely varying length, and have them stand on their own, without the surrounding imprimatur of a magazine, a web site, a journal, or a formal publication. This puts a burden o the author as well; your work isn’t going to tag along with works from other authors. Here are five recent mystery stories, of varying length, that I’ve read that can stand on their own.

Eighteen Months, a short story by British author Glenn McGoldrick, is one of the author’s “Dark Teesside” story series. By chance, a man sees a woman in a store and realizes she’s been released from prison, serving only 18 months of her sentence. Her crime: a hit-and-run, where she hit and killed a young man. This was the man’s son, and he begins to plot an appropriate revenge. It’s a chilling tale.

McGoldrick’s Redcar Collector is a dark tale about an unemployed man, downsized from his job, who’s having trouble finding a job. He’s walking along the beach when he finds a severed foot. His grown son advises him to tell the police, but he was ridiculed by the police before and wants no part of that. He decides to do something else.

Sherlock Holmes remains one of the world’s most popular detectives, and Craig Stephen Copland is doing his bit to keep that popularity going. He’s written some 30+ novellas starring Holmes and Dr. John Watson, and while they differ somewhat from Arthur Conan’s Doyle creation, they are close enough to stand as a solid tribute.

In Copland’s The Adventure of the Spectred Bat, Holmes and Watson are called upon (in the dead of night) by a young woman, whose sister has died and she herself attacked by what she describes as a vampire bat. As they investigate, they discover reports of attacks all over Britain, and they all seem to have something in common. The story mixes a bit of Holmes and perhaps a bit of Bram Stoker, or at least the feat inspired by Stoker’s Dracula. 

The Return of Napoleon has Holmes and Watson called to the ancestral home of Admiral Horatio Nelson, where his descendants are preparing for the 100^th anniversary of the great victory at Trafalgar. The family is concerned about all the Nelson artifacts and possible theft; the young mother of the manor also doesn’t seem quite right, and relatives may be trying to gain control of her children and the estate. And then the game’s afoot, Watson, as family problems lead to something much more momentous going on.

The “mini-mystery” (or long story) of The Case of the Attic Door by Christopher Greyson is the first of the currently published eight works in the Finn & Annie mystery series (Greyson has also published a number of the Detective Jack Stratton mystery/thriller books). Finnian Church is a crime scene investigator, who is dealing with an artificial leg. Annie Summers is the new crime scene videographer, and she risks Finn’s ire by showing up late and then ignoring his commands for photos – until Finn discovers she’s deaf. 

They’re investigating a well-kept home, where the body of a man had been found in the upstairs hallways, and detectives were assuming it was a home invasion or burglary gone bad. Finn and Annie together figure out something else entirely had happened. It’s a fun story that shows you should never rely upon first impressions, either about people or crime scenes.

Related: New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Craig Stephen Copland.

New Sherlock Holmes Stories by Craig Stephen Copland

Craig Stephen Copland is a man with a mission –to write 60 new Sherlock Holmes stories. He’s well on his way. Two of them take Holmes and Dr. John Watson well away from England – to the United States and Japan. 

In The Hudson Valley Mystery, Holmes and Watson (ably assisted by Mrs. Watson) travel to New York to investigate what appears to be an open-and-shut case. Charles McCarthy, who had made a considerable fortune in the California Gold Rush, has been murdered, and his nineteen-year-old son James has confessed, pled insanity, and is now confined in a prison for the criminally insane. The widow (and mother) has retained Holmes, not believing that her son could have committed the deed.

Involved are the nearby neighbor and Gold Rush partner John Turner and his daughter, and Holmes and Watson soon learn that few of the people in both families are telling the truth. Something is being hidden, and Holmes is determined to discover what it is.

In The Yellow Farce, Holmes and Watson travel to Japan at the behest (actually, the demand) of Holmes’ brother Mycroft. It is 1905, Japan and Russia are at war, and the Russian fleet is sailing around the world to battle the Japanese fleet. The head of the British legation in Tokyo is married to an American who happens to be a former Russian, and it looks like the woman is up to no good in trying to tilt the British toward supporting the Russians. 

Craig Stephen Copland

It’s a vastly different culture from England or the United States, and the detective duo find themselves confronting gun smuggling, spies everywhere, and even what looks to be a planned assassination. The climax will come at the summit of Mount Fuji.

Copland is a longtime fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. After he retired, he set himself a goal of writing a new Sherlock Holmes mystery related to and inspired by each of the 60 stories published by Conan Doyle. He’s also written monographs on Holmes and two non-Holmes mystery stories featuring a detective in the Old American West, the Reverend Ezekiel Black. He currently lives and writes in Toronto, Buenos Aires, New York, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. 

The stories are great fun, but readers should not expect an exact reproduction of Holmes and Watson. Copland’s Holmes make mistakes, and he often has to directed on to a better path by Watson and his wife. That said, it makes for a more realistic detective, one that is still paying homage to the original stories.