More Sherlock Holmes: “Cheapside Secret” & “Friendly Hand of Death”

My newest Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” is now available in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part LII – The True Sherlock Holmes: England’s Greatest Hero (1902-1923) from MX Publishing.

England, 1912.

A marvelous treasure.

A pair of mysterious Americans.

And Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

What role does this emerald pocket watch play in “The Adventures of the Cheapside Secret”?

In this new adventure the Great Detective must be coaxed out of retirement to prevent a most peculiar and clever pair of American adventurers from making off with a historically-priceless treasure hoard lost somewhere in London. A hoard that includes a large collection of rare Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry as well as an emerald pocket watch that may or may not somehow “let slip the dogs of war.”

Who will find it first? And are Watson’s fears that the Great Detective’s powers may have waned during his years of inaction justified?

If this sounds familiar, that is because “Cheapside Secret” debuted as a radio drama last year from Imagination Theater with John Patrick Lowrie (the voice of Sniper to you fans of Team Fortress 2) as Holmes, Lawrence Albert as Watson, Dennis Bateman as Chief Inspector Alec MacDonald, and Richard Ziman and Basil Harris. And while I’m happy to say that I shall have another Holmes pastiche coming soon from Imagination Theatre, I’m sad to say that “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” marks my sixth and final pastiche in MX Publishing’s New Sherlock Holmes Stories anthology series. Editor David Marcum has decided that after 10 years, 52 volumes, and over 1000 stories, now is the time to bring the series to a conclusion.

To celebrate this outstanding achievement, on May 17, 2025, Sherlockians from more than 20 countries attended an event online or in person held at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former home, Undershaw. The many festivities included messages from Sir Jeremy Hunt MP, actor Sir Stephen Fry, the podcast hosts of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Scott Monty and Burt Wolder, and broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth. Since 2016, Undershaw has been the home of the Stepping Stones School for students with special needs, and since the series’ inception all contributor royalties have gone to Undershaw. To date the series has raised over £100,000 for the school, and this event, which included a live auction of Sherlockian memorabilia, raised £25,000 for the school to implement a new sensory cube program. To see the event, “An Evening with Sherlock Holmes,” check out the video link below:

Cheapside in 1909. The church in the background is St Mary-le-Bow.

It has been an honor and a privilege to be a small part of this series, and I am proud to be a contributor to its final volume. “The Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” is one of 81 new traditional Canonical Holmes pastiches that you will find in Part LII and its companion volumes Part XLIX (1880-1888), Part L (1889-1896) and Part LI (1897-1901). Together this quartet presents the Great Detective and the Good Doctor in untold cases ranging from their early friendship at 221B Baker Street to Holmes’ retirement and the post-War years. And, in regards to my story, that marvelous treasure mentioned above is real. It was discovered along Goldsmith’s Row in the heart of 1912 London. The story goes that workmen were in the process of demolishing a row of three-hundred-year-old houses at the corner of Cheapside and Friday Streets when they excavated a wooden box containing the hoard. Along with nearly 100 jewels and jewelry from around the world, there were over 400 pieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewelry, very few examples of which had survived the centuries up to this time.

Pretty cool, huh? But how does Holmes get coerced out of retirement? And does he beat the Americans to the hoard?

Oh, I think we both know what you have to do to find out, don’t we?

Now let’s move on to another pastiche and something… well… not completely but definitely different.

This new pastiche, “The Friendly Hand of Death,” is neither a short story or a radio drama, but my first play-by-mail (PBM) mystery, and it’s brought to you by Dear Holmes.

Each month Dear Holmes mails its subscribers one post a week: the first three present clues to a Victorian-era mystery and the fourth presents the solution. The catch here is that the first three “clue letters” are genuine-looking Victorian letters, newspaper clippings, police reports, and so on that are sent by a client to Sherlock Holmes, while the fourth post is a letter from Holmes on his stationary explaining the solution to the client. The subscriber takes on the role of a detective that Holmes and Watson are requesting assistance from, either because they are away from London or preoccupied with another case.

And, let me tell you, Dear Holmes subscribers take their clue solving seriously!

Just check out the Dear Holmes website to see what I mean. Subscribers compete each month to be a Featured Detective, have access to a blog site and a podcast, gather together for mystery nights, create murder boards and more. There is even a YouTube channel hosted by Jesse Reichler, Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Illinois, where letters are painstakingly reviewed and viewers can post theories.

I’ve got to tell you, writing a Dear Holmes mystery is intimidating!

FYI – I will post here when “Friendly Hand of Death” is reviewed by Mr. Reichler, which, I’m afraid, will be the only way you can enjoy the pastiche for the present. Only subscribers can receive Dear Holmes letters and Dear Holmes does not offer old letters for purchase. (I’m not sure why they don’t. I think they’d make a killing… pardon the pun.) I plan on adapting “Friendly Hand of Death” into a short story, radio script or both, but I won’t be able to do that for awhile. In the meantime, I present this back-of-the-paperback blurb:

September 26, 1889.

The asphyxiated body of Phillip Hillcrest Nelson, a freelance chartered accountant and member of the notorious Skeleton Club, is discovered in the club’s strong room. Hillcrest Nelson’s clientele includes several questionable businessmen and investors, some of them Skeleton Club members. Later that morning, Phillip Herbert Nelson, a barrister’s clerk, calls at Baker Street after being accosted by a stranger accusing him of committing an unspecified wrong against the stranger’s anonymous employer. A few hours after that, Inspector Hobart Floyt of Scotland Yard solicits Holmes’s advice regarding Hillcrest Nelson’s death. Floyt has also interviewed a third Phillip H. Nelson (Henry), a yellow-back author and miscellaneous writer, who recently suffered his own curious confrontation when a belligerent panhandler insisted Henry Nelson was lying about his profession.

Are these incidents coincidence or somehow related? And what connection is there between any of them and the Skeleton Club, whose membership is restricted to men who have been rejected or blackballed by London’s more reputable clubs?

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If you enjoy “Adventure of the Cheapside Secret” you might want to check out my other Holmes pastiches in audio and print. All books are available in hardcover and paperback unless otherwise noted. And for a bigger view of any cover or illustration just click on the image.

The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative: Being the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson Against the Moriarties During the Great Hiatus