Sherlock Holmes

The Tangled Skein (various reprints – most recently Wordsworth edition 2009 and Big Finish audio CD 2012)

It is autumn 1888, and following the successful conclusion of the Baskerville case, Sherlock Holmes is faced with an even darker mystery. A lethal package, an attempt on Holmes’ life, murders on Hampstead Heath and a strange phantom lady lead Holmes and Watson to return to Devon and the bleak terrain of Dartmoor where they encounter the true embodiment of evil, Count Dracula, Lord of the Undead.

‘One of the best Holmes pastiches of all.’ Crime Time

The Shadow of the Rat (various reprints – most recently Wordsworth edition 2009)

A body is found floating in the river – a body that has been deliberately infected with the plague virus. Holmes and Watson find themselves seeking answers at The Bridge of Dreams, a club where a person’s darkest wish can be granted – for a price. Holmes falls under the control of a will stronger than his own which threatens the life of his closest friend Watson and leaves the government - indeed Britain inself – open to a deadly terror, the monstrous Giant Rat of Sumatra.

‘Another excellent Holmes tale from the pen of David Stuart Davies.’

Roger Johnson, Sherlock Holmes Journal

The Hentzau Affair (various reprints – most recently Wordsworth edition 2009)

Colonel Sapt of the Ruritanian Court journeys to England on a secret mission to save his country from anarchy. He is to engage the services of Rudolf Rassendyll once more to impersonate the King while the monarch recovers from a serious illness. But Rassendyll had mysteriously disappeared. In desperation Sapt consults Sherlock Holmes who with Watson travels to the Kingdom of Ruritania in an effort to thwart the plans of the scheming Rupert of Hentzau in his bid for the throne.

‘Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair is a wonderful blend of detective story and rousing adventure yarn.’

The Baker Street Journal

The Veiled Detective (Hale 2004; Titan 2009)

It is 1880 and the young Sherlock Holmes arrives in London to pursue a career as a private detective. He soon attracts the attention of criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty, who is driven by his desire to control this fledgling genius. Enter Dr John H. Watson, soon to make history as Holmes’ famous companion…

‘Davies does a wonderful job of reimagining Holmes’ and Watson’s adventures in this slightly bent world,

but he does an even more masterful job with the people in it’

wellreadsherlockian.com

‘This is the best Sherlockian mystery novel I have seen all year… I do not hesitate to recommend it.’

Classic Specialities

‘I just can’t keep quiet about this book. It is a real page turner, an exhilarating roller coast ride of suspense,

appalling crimes, hidden clues,with more twists and turns than a dark foreboding maze.

Come! Join the chase… after all the game is afoot!’

Mystery Net Community

‘The novel gives us a uniquely intelligent, thought-provoking and fresh view

of one of the great friendships in all literature.’

Roger Johnson, The District Messenger

Sherlock Holmes & The Devil’s Promise (Titan, November 2014)
Holmes and Watson are holidaying on the English coast when they discover a corpse on the beach... which then disappears. They can get little help from the nearby village, populated by strange and unfriendly characters. Then the corpse suddenly reappears in their cottage and they are attacked by persons unknown. Watson suffers amnesia as a result and discovers that months have passed since the attack, and Holmes is not the man he remembers. What has happened to his friend? Does it have something to do with a dead devil worshipper, whose children happen to live in the cursed village?

David's latest Sherlock Holmes novel from Titan Books has a foreword by the brilliant co-creator of BBC TV's Sherlock, Mark Gatiss.

'Sherlock now lives in other people's stories, too, as he does in The Devil's Promise, penned by the great Davies,

whose Sherlock Holmes writings have brought me hours of pleasure.'

Mark Gatiss

Coming Soon: Sherlock Holmes & The Ripper Legacy (Titan, Spring 2016)

More from Titan Books:

You can read a fascinating article 'The Anatomy of a Cover Design' on the Titan Books website, which looks at how the publishers arrived at the cover style for their successful series of Sherlock Holmes novels, using David's The Veiled Detective as the starting point.

SHERLOCK HOLMES NON FICTION

The Sherlock Holmes Book (Dorling Kindersley, October 2015)

Co-Editor, with Barry Forshaw.

Another in DK's award winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The Sherlock Holmes Book is a fascinating exploration of the great detective, his creator and the character's ongoing influence.

Starring Sherlock Holmes (Titan, 2009)
A definitive illustrated history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. Every Sherlock Holmes film and television series is covered including overseas and lesser known productions (up to 2007). The book is illustrated with an amazing collection of 450 posters, photographs, lobby cards, press books and other rare Holmes memorabilia, much of it from the collection of Richard Lancelyn Green.

‘An absolutely lovely coffee table book giving the history of Holmes in film (and television) from the earliest silent versions through 2007.

Tons of pictures and excellent reviews and synopses by Davies. Five stars for a wonderful reference book.’ Good Reads

Bending the Willow: Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes (Calabash Press, 1996; Revised editions 2002, 2006 and 2010. Currently out of print)

An in depth look at Jeremy Brett's masterly portrayal of Sherlock Holmes for Granada TV's landmark series. The actor said that he wanted his Holmes to 'bend the willow', not break it. He succeeded brilliantly in bringing the character to life, while battling his own personal demon: the manic depression that haunted him for many years.

The book draws on the many conversations David had with Jeremy Brett and key people involved with both the TV series and Jeremy Paul's stage play The Secret of Sherlock Holmes. The result is the first detailed study of all of Jeremy Brett's performances as the great detective.

'Bending the Willow is a wonderful tribute to Jeremy, a clear and understandable explanation of his illness, and a full, fair portrait of the man.' Edward Hardwicke

'This is a fine memorial and a fine book.' The Sherlock Holmes Journal

'Bending the Willow will become a cornerstone of Sherlockian theatrical history and a model for all future work in the area.

A pity that other great screen Sherlocks had no historian like Davies.'

The Baker Street Journal

Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act

A one-man play which premiered at Salisbury Playhouse in 1999 and won an award at the Edinburgh Festival the same year. Starring Roger Llewellyn as Holmes, the play toured until the spring of 2014.

It is 1914 and Holmes has just returned to Baker Street from Watson’s funeral and he feels compelled to tell his absent friend all that he should have told him when he was alive, including a shocking secret.

‘This is perhaps the best way to enjoy the master detective at his best, direct from his own thoughts, the hesitancy, the grandeur, the voice of a man who fought Professor Moriarty, who struggled with his intellectual feelings for Irene Adler

and who throughout it all is the benchmark for great British detective stories.

David Stuart Davies’ script is near perfect.’

Liverpool Sound & Vision Reviews

Sherlock Holmes: The Death & Life

Another one man play commissioned by Roger Llewellyn, which premiered at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford and toured until the spring of 2014.

Conan Doyle has grown tired of his detective creation and employs the services of a certain mathematical professor to bring about his demise, but things do not go as the author intended and Sherlock Holmes learns of his true nature.

‘This unusual, challenging and often highly amusing drama not only presents

a fresh and intriguing insight into the Sherlock Holmes saga

but also explores the nature of the strange and unnerving relationship between creator and creation’.

Sherlock Holmes Journal

DVD COMMENTARIES

David has provided DVD commentaries for the digitally remastered Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Basil Rathbone films and the Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett. Recntly he has recorded commentaries for Ian Richardson's Sherlock Holmes films.

AUDIO

Both of David's Holmes plays, Sherlock Holmes: The Death and Life and Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, have been recorded by Nick Briggs and the brilliant team at Big Finish and are available on audio CD.

'Thanks to Llewellyn's superb performances, Davies's inspired scripts,

and to the careful supervision of Nicholas Briggs, these are productions to treasure.'

The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton

MISCELLANEOUS SHERLOCK HOLMES

EDITORIAL WORK

BOOKS

David is General Editor for Wordworth Editions' Mystery and Supernatural series and has written the Introductions to all the Wordsworth paperback editions of the Conan Doyle stories, those for Collectors’ Library and…

Sherlock Holmes: The Game's Afoot (Wordsworth)

Twenty new Sherlock Holmes adventures in a volume edited by DSD and featuring his short story 'The Reichenbach Secret'.

The Best of Sherlock Holmes (Wordsworth)

A collection of twenty of the very best of the Holmes short stories from the fifty six penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with an in-depth Introduction by DSD.

JOURNALS & MAGAZINES

Sherlock Magazine

David edited Sherlock Magazine, which covered crime fiction as well as the great detective.

Society Publications

David was also co-editor of The Musgrave Papers, The Ritual and The Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society.

SHERLOCK HOLMES SOCIETIES

David is a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and ran their film evening for ten years.

He is an invested member of the New York Baker Street Irregulars.

With his wife, Kathryn, and Carol Whitlam, he was a co-founder of the Northern Musgraves and was involved with the society from 1987 until 2004. He is also a Scandalous Bohemian.