The Murders at Hobson's Coal Hole and The Prospect of Whitby (Further Cases of Sherlock Holmes) (Volume 3)

This is the first paperback edition of another of several manuscripts in the library of Oliver St Gaudy, in which Dr Watson, freed by the death of Holmes, presents adventures from his own ‘casebook,’ which the great consulting detective would not let him publish in his lifetime. He believed that they would bring unwanted notoriety to his clients and himself, partly because Watson would emphasize sensational aspects of the cases, rather than the cold science Holmes wished to stress in fighting crime. These manuscripts, like all revealed since the last Sherlock Holmes tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, have nothing to do with the published opus of that fine Scots author of adventures whose psyche allowed him to believe there were fairies in his garden. Indeed, none of them has any serious provenance at all. That has not stopped enthusiastic readers from enjoying them for their fresh portrayals of beloved characters who have continued to be institutions of detective novelry, even when the yarns have been ridiculous.