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    Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Murders

    Author Stuart Douglas
    Hardcover
    $27.99 US
    Titan | Titan Books
    On sale Nov 03, 2026 | 256 Pages | 9781835417973
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    A fiendish seasonal mystery in which Holmes and Watson must discover the connections between a series of Christmas-themed murders in London. For fans of Gareth Rubin’s Holmes and Moriarty.

    In the week before Christmas, Dr Watson convinces an unwilling Sherlock Holmes to accompany him into the centre of London to go shopping for a gift for Mrs Hudson. Unwilling to trail around lots of smaller establishments among the seasonal crowds, Holmes insists they leave early and go to only a single shop – Whitley’s, the capital’s first ‘department’ store, in which everything and anything can be found – ‘from a pin to an elephant’, in the words of its founder, William Whitley. 

    What they did not expect to find, however, is the body suspended in the branches of the large decorated Christmas tree just inside the entrance way. It looks as though the dead man has fallen from the high workman’s gantry standing to one side and broken his neck. Only Holmes hears a steady, slow drip and notices the pool of blood in the shadows beneath the tree, and recognises that a murder has taken place.

    They are still at the store watching an ambulance take the body away when a runner appears from Scotland Yard with the news that another body has been discovered, again left in public. This time it is a young man, throttled with a thin rope, dangling from a beam in the changing rooms at Regents Park Boating Lake. Holmes is able to identify the dead man as a postman, and a search of the area round the lake uncovers his post bag in reeds by the water.

    Led to Hampstead by an address on the now fashionable Christmas cards in the post bag, Watson peers through a window and sees someone with their back to him, sitting at a table, with a hand resting on a cup of tea. He knocks furiously, but the seated figure gives no sign of hearing him. They go round the back and find the back door unlocked. Cautiously they enter – to discover the sitter is an elderly woman, obviously dead, with her throat cut. On closer examination, they discover a bloody knife near her right hand, and that her mouth is stuffed to overflowing with Christmas cake. 

    Can Holmes and Watson find the pattern between these Christmas-themed murders, and bring an end to the killings before the festive season truly begins?
    Stuart Douglas is an author and editor based in Edinburgh. He runs Obverse Books, and has written four Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books. In 2016, he co-created the award winning Black Archive series of books, and has also written and edited novellas and short story anthologies for several publishers.
    Stuart Douglas View titles by Stuart Douglas
    Praise for Stuart Douglas’ Sherlock Holmes novels


    “A masterfully constructed tale... a true love letter to Doyle and his creation.”
    George Mann, author of Sherlock Holmes: The Spirit Box


    “Douglas replicates Conan Doyle’s style down to a tee”
    Crime Fiction Lover


    “Stuart Douglas presents us with is that rarest of things: a completely original Holmes story, which remains true to the work of the original author.”
    We Are Cult


    “Sherlockians are in for another treat”
    Booklist

    “An original plot and prose that convincingly emulates Conan Doyle's”
    Publishers Weekly




    Praise for the Lowe & Breton series


    “Death at the Dress Rehearsal is certain to find a place in the hearts of cosy crime readers everywhere, with its breezy prose, its witty observations and the often hilarious interplay between its two thespian leads – not to mention the cracking mystery at its heart. Stuart Douglas has just delivered the best cosy crime novel since The Appeal.”
    George Mann, author of the Newbury & Hobbes series


    “It was a joy to be in the company of these Dad's Army Detectives. I read the whole book in one sitting. Hugely enjoyable and lots of fun.”
    Nev Fountain, author of The Fan Who Knew Too Much


    “Glorious and ingenious! What a lovely start to what I hope will be a long-running series!”
    Paul Magrs, author of Exchange


    “Death at the Dress Rehearsal is a real tootsy-pop of a mystery thriller, with an irresistible conceit and enough twists and turns to bamboozle the most conscientious of armchair sleuths. Think you won’t love it? Who do you think you are kidding…?”
    Steve Cole, author of the Young Bond series


    “Holmes and Watson by way of Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier; a wonderfully mismatched duo who you can't help falling in love with.”
    Amy Walker, Trans-Scribe


    “Not many authors can write a book where each character has a unique voice. In most cases the inner monologues are much the same, the authorial voice thinly veiled. But not many authors are Stuart Douglas. Edward Lowe and John Le Breton are two of the most unique and disparate crime solvers you could find. Actors as unalike in their dispositions as their methods.”
    Elizabeth Lefebvre, Strange & Random Happenstance

    About

    A fiendish seasonal mystery in which Holmes and Watson must discover the connections between a series of Christmas-themed murders in London. For fans of Gareth Rubin’s Holmes and Moriarty.

    In the week before Christmas, Dr Watson convinces an unwilling Sherlock Holmes to accompany him into the centre of London to go shopping for a gift for Mrs Hudson. Unwilling to trail around lots of smaller establishments among the seasonal crowds, Holmes insists they leave early and go to only a single shop – Whitley’s, the capital’s first ‘department’ store, in which everything and anything can be found – ‘from a pin to an elephant’, in the words of its founder, William Whitley. 

    What they did not expect to find, however, is the body suspended in the branches of the large decorated Christmas tree just inside the entrance way. It looks as though the dead man has fallen from the high workman’s gantry standing to one side and broken his neck. Only Holmes hears a steady, slow drip and notices the pool of blood in the shadows beneath the tree, and recognises that a murder has taken place.

    They are still at the store watching an ambulance take the body away when a runner appears from Scotland Yard with the news that another body has been discovered, again left in public. This time it is a young man, throttled with a thin rope, dangling from a beam in the changing rooms at Regents Park Boating Lake. Holmes is able to identify the dead man as a postman, and a search of the area round the lake uncovers his post bag in reeds by the water.

    Led to Hampstead by an address on the now fashionable Christmas cards in the post bag, Watson peers through a window and sees someone with their back to him, sitting at a table, with a hand resting on a cup of tea. He knocks furiously, but the seated figure gives no sign of hearing him. They go round the back and find the back door unlocked. Cautiously they enter – to discover the sitter is an elderly woman, obviously dead, with her throat cut. On closer examination, they discover a bloody knife near her right hand, and that her mouth is stuffed to overflowing with Christmas cake. 

    Can Holmes and Watson find the pattern between these Christmas-themed murders, and bring an end to the killings before the festive season truly begins?

    Author

    Stuart Douglas is an author and editor based in Edinburgh. He runs Obverse Books, and has written four Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books. In 2016, he co-created the award winning Black Archive series of books, and has also written and edited novellas and short story anthologies for several publishers.
    Stuart Douglas View titles by Stuart Douglas

    Praise

    Praise for Stuart Douglas’ Sherlock Holmes novels


    “A masterfully constructed tale... a true love letter to Doyle and his creation.”
    George Mann, author of Sherlock Holmes: The Spirit Box


    “Douglas replicates Conan Doyle’s style down to a tee”
    Crime Fiction Lover


    “Stuart Douglas presents us with is that rarest of things: a completely original Holmes story, which remains true to the work of the original author.”
    We Are Cult


    “Sherlockians are in for another treat”
    Booklist

    “An original plot and prose that convincingly emulates Conan Doyle's”
    Publishers Weekly




    Praise for the Lowe & Breton series


    “Death at the Dress Rehearsal is certain to find a place in the hearts of cosy crime readers everywhere, with its breezy prose, its witty observations and the often hilarious interplay between its two thespian leads – not to mention the cracking mystery at its heart. Stuart Douglas has just delivered the best cosy crime novel since The Appeal.”
    George Mann, author of the Newbury & Hobbes series


    “It was a joy to be in the company of these Dad's Army Detectives. I read the whole book in one sitting. Hugely enjoyable and lots of fun.”
    Nev Fountain, author of The Fan Who Knew Too Much


    “Glorious and ingenious! What a lovely start to what I hope will be a long-running series!”
    Paul Magrs, author of Exchange


    “Death at the Dress Rehearsal is a real tootsy-pop of a mystery thriller, with an irresistible conceit and enough twists and turns to bamboozle the most conscientious of armchair sleuths. Think you won’t love it? Who do you think you are kidding…?”
    Steve Cole, author of the Young Bond series


    “Holmes and Watson by way of Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier; a wonderfully mismatched duo who you can't help falling in love with.”
    Amy Walker, Trans-Scribe


    “Not many authors can write a book where each character has a unique voice. In most cases the inner monologues are much the same, the authorial voice thinly veiled. But not many authors are Stuart Douglas. Edward Lowe and John Le Breton are two of the most unique and disparate crime solvers you could find. Actors as unalike in their dispositions as their methods.”
    Elizabeth Lefebvre, Strange & Random Happenstance

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