John Betancourt, "The Adventure of the Amateur Mendicant Society". John Betancourt (b. 1963) is an American author and publisher whose Wildside Press is dedicated to producing quality books of fantasy and supernatural fiction. His own books have been mostly science fiction or fantasy, though Rememory contained a strong mystery element. Other novels include Rogue Pirate, The Blind Archer and Johnny Zed, plus the story collection Slab's Tavern and Other Uncanny Tales. He is currently working on a series of fantastic adventure novels featuring the Greek hero Hercules, starting with The Wrath of Poseidon.
Eric Brown, "The Vanishing of the Atkinsons". Brown (b. 1960) is best known for his science fiction, much of which has appeared in the British magazine Interzone. Several of his best stories have been collected as The Time-Lapsed Man and Blue Shifting. His novels include Meridian Days and Engineman.
Simon Clark, " The Adventure of the Fallen Star". Clark (b. 1958) has rapidly established himself as a writer of serious horrornovels, the books exploring much deeper aspects of the human psyche than the titles – Nailed by the Heart, Blood Crazy, Darker and King Blood – convey. Born and bred in Yorkshire where he still lives with his wife and two children, Clark worked for several years in local government before becoming a full-time writer in 1993.
Basil Copper, "The Adventure of the Persecuted Painter". Copper (b. 1924) is a prolific writer of thrillers and supernatural fiction. He is as popular amongst devotees of hard-boiled American detective fiction, with his long-running Mike Faraday series of novels, as he is amongst the gothic-horror brigade with his excellent brooding novels Necropolis and The Black Death. Closer to Holmes, Copper continued the adventures of Solar Pons started by August Derleth in 1929 in emulation of Sherlock Holmes. Copper's Pons is, if anything, even closer to the character of Holmes, perhaps because Copper has a deeper affinity with the fogbound streets of Victorian London. His Pons collections are The Dossier of Solar Pons, The Further Adventures of Solar Pons, The Secret Files of Solar Pons, Some Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons, The Exploits of Solar Pons and The Recollections of Solar Pons.
Peter Crowther, "The Adventure of the Touch of God". Crowther (b. 1949) is a prolific British writer and editor who hails from Yorkshire, the home of many contributors to this volume. He made a name with his series of anthologies based on superstitions which began with the award-winning Narrow Houses, and he has also produced an anthology of stories about angels, Heaven Sent. His recent work includes the well-received novel Escardy Gap, written with James Lovegrove, and the anthologies Destination Unknown and Tales in Time. His first story collection, The Longest Single Note, is in the works.
David Stuart Davies, "The Darlington Substitution Scandal". Davies is a noted Sherlockian, co-founder and Co-President of The Northern Musgraves Sherlock Holmes Society and editor of its journal the Sherlock Holmes Gazette. He has written two Sherlock Holmes novels, The Tangled Skein and Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair, plus the assiduously researched survey
Holmes of the Movies, and his biography of Jeremy Brett, Bending the Willow.
Michael Doyle, "The Legacy of Rachel Howells". To answer the obvious question, Michael Doyle (b. 1930) is not related to Sir Arthur, at least not so far as he's been able to trace, though there does seem to be a family resemblance. Although born and educated in England, Doyle settled in Canada in 1956 and has Canadian nationality. He is by profession an export trade consultant and is recognized as one of the world authorities on international trade and letters of credit. He shares Conan Doyle's interest in boxing and has even written a monograph called A Study in Sparring about Sherlock Holmes, the Prize Ring and the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight.
Martin Edwards, "The Case of the Suicidal Lawyer". Martin Edwards (b. 1955) is a practicing solicitor and has used his experience as the background for his series of novels about Liverpool solicitor and amateur detective Harry Devlin. The series began with All the Lonely People and there's been a novel a year ever since. Edwards has also edited the crime anthology Northern Blood and others in a regionally related series.
Zakaria Erzinçlioglu," The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat". Dr Erzinçlioglu is a practising forensic scientist. He has been working on criminal cases (mostly murder) for over twenty years, investigating over five hundred in Britain and abroad. He was formerly Senior Research Associate at Cambridge University and, subsequently, Director of the Forensic Science Research Centre at Durham University. He is now an Honorary Lecturer at London University. He is working on Evidence, a book which looks at the interpretation of evidence in criminal trials and historical events.
L. B. Greenwood, "Five Minutes Past Midnight". Lillian Beth Greenwood (b. 1932) is a Canadian writer who lives not too far from Michael Doyle and Barbara Roden. Her first novel, The Street Sparrows, is a historical set in the Victorian era – she describes it as a female version of Oliver Twist. She has also written three Sherlock Holmes novels listed in the appendix, and is a member of the Vancouver Holmes organization known as the Stormy Petrels.
Lois H. Gresh, "The Adventure of the Parisian Gentleman" with Robert Weinberg. Gresh works in the computer industry as a programmer and systems analyst and has written hundreds of technical manuals and related texts. She is the proprietor of Technohell, Inc., which designs and codes corporate websites, software and systems. Oh what fun Holmes would have had with the Internet! She has sold many short science fiction and horror stories and her first novel, The Termination Node, written with Weinberg, is in the works. It's the first of a series of near-future computer technothrillers.
Claire Griffen, "The Case of the Incumbent Invalid". Claire Griffen is a new writer who has previously appeared in Classical Whodunnits and the magazine Boggle. She is Australian, and spent several years as an actress and dramatist before turning to writing fantasy and mystery stories. She wrote a Sherlock Holmes play in 1986 which saw several performances with an Adelaide theatre repertory company.
Edward D. Hoch, "Vittoria, the Circus Belle". Edward Hoch (b. 1930) is a phenomenally prolific American short-story writer with over seven hundred to his credit. He has created many fascinating detectives, including Captain Leopold, Dr Sam Hawthorne, Nick Velvet, Ben Snow and Simon Ark. His stories appear regularly in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine but only a few have made it into individual story collections. Well worth tracking down is his Captain Leopold volume, Leopold's Way, his Simon Ark series, The Judges of Hades, City of Brass and The Quests of Simon Ark, the Nick Velvet books The Spy and the Thief and The Thefts of Nick Velvet, whilst a few of his Sam Hawthorne stories have been collected as Diagnosis: Impossible. His more general mystery fiction will be found in The Night My Friend. Hoch has written several Sherlock Holmes stories including "The Return of the Speckled Band" in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "The Manor House Case" in Resurrected Holmes and "The Christmas Client" in Holmes for the Holidays.