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Did you ever wonder where Sherlock Holmes found the Persian slipper he keeps his shag tobacco in? Had Holmes and Watson ever met before that day at St. Barts? Did Holmes really believe in curses when he said he did? Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Persian Slipper and Other Stories, along with cases involving the putative Naval Man, a night spent at a gentlemen’s club, Holmes’ second marriage proposal, a movable tree, and a surprising wedding ending.

There is a persistent and incorrect idea, reinforced by countless film misrepresentations, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were always staid and dull British chaps of middle years (or older), with Holmes a spry, cranky, and impatient eccentric, and Watson a white-haired and portly Boobus Brittanicus, a la Nigel Bruce. Students of the true and Canonical Sherlock Holmes know this to be a falsehood. When we first meet them on January 1, 1881, Holmes is still 26 years old (although he will turn 27 in just a few days), and Watson, already a wounded war veteran, is only 28.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are no strangers to peculiar cases. Be it the dilemma of an Indian princess on the run, perfectly healthy people dropping dead as divine punishment, being challenged to a duel, a heartbroken and suicidal young man, a beautiful woman claiming to be Mrs. Holmes, a little boy who loves his dog, an old Scottish ghost that traditionally haunts husbands of pregnant women - there is very little they haven't seen (and solved). But, besides regular adventures, there are quite a few questions - Where was Holmes during the Great Hiatus?

In The Adventure of the Jeweled Falcon, Holmes tracks down an ancient priceless statue, but others are looking for it too. In The Case of the Violin Savant, using clues found in the sophisticated musical compositions of a celebrated but mute nine-year-old violin savant, Holmes and Watson attempt to discover where and why the boy and his parents vanished. In The Adventure of Stonehenge in London, Holmes and Watson stumble upon a strange structure on the roof of a mansion in London, and somehow it relates to the missing eighth Earl of Rendlesham.

Sherlock Holmes' adventures continue in seven surprising cases. Holmes and Watson investigate an alleged haunting at the Diogenes Club, vandalism at a prominent art gallery, the case of a frightened amnesiac, the takeover of 221B by vicious criminals, the sequel to "The Engineer's Thumb," the defiling of Holmes' Stradivarius violin, and a Christmas story featuring a graveyard with angry insults carved into the headstones. The game is afoot!

Cinema has had a hugely influential role on global culture in the twentieth century at multiple levels: social, political, and educational. The part of British cinema in this has been controversial—often derided as a whole, but also vigorously celebrated, especially in terms of specific films and film-makers. In this Very Short Introduction, Charles Barr considers films and filmmakers, and studios and sponsorship, against the wider view of changing artistic, socio-political, and industrial climates over the decades of the twentieth century.

When Mrs. Hudson asks Holmes and Watson to find a missing girl, neither men expected what they would find. Along with Lestrade, they are plunged into a case of abduction and murder. As they race from Marylebone, to Finchley, to Wapping, and back again, time is running out for them to solve the case without further casualties. With two of their own under threat, the pressure is mounting to catch and stop the group known as "Hellfire Heirs".

In Ring of Dragons (Age of the Sorcerers, Book Four), Ravin has the capital surrounded. With the cowardly Vars at the helm and with only tides and walls left to protect it, the city lies in chaos and near ruin. Just one battle remains between survival and destruction. The boy, meanwhile, holds the secret of the king’s assassination. Will he reveal it in time and change the fate of the capital?

Spring 1937. While German Chancellor Adolf Hitler ceaselessly talks of peace, his actions seem deliberately calculated to make the Western allies lose patience. The schizophrenic geopolitical atmosphere even can be felt as far away as Fulworth, England, the home of the retired Sherlock Holmes, where the Steiners, a German migrant couple, have recently found a refuge and have assumed care of the detective's household after the passing of Mrs Hudson.

The world today is drowning in data. There is a treasure trove of valuable and underutilized insights that can be gleaned from information companies and people leave behind on the internet - our "digital breadcrumbs" - from job postings, to online news, social media, online ad spends, and more.

Shadowseer: Paris (Book Two) continues the story of Kaia, 17, an orphan coming of age in the Victorian Europe of the 1850s. Kaia yearns to escape her horrific orphanage, to discover who her parents were, and to understand why she can sense shadows when others cannot. When the brilliant Detective Pinsley, 45, takes Kaia under his wing and enlists her help in solving a series of mysterious and bizarre murders sweeping over Europe, the two of them become unlikely partners.

On holiday to escape the nightmares of his last case, disgraced soldier turned private detective John “Slim” Hardy comes upon something buried in the peat on Bodmin Moor. Unfinished, water-damaged, but still ticking, the old clock provides a vital clue to an unsolved missing-persons case. As Slim begins to ask questions of the tiny Cornish village of Penleven, he is drawn into a world of lies, rumors, and secrets - some of which the residents would prefer to stay buried. Slim is determined to find out why.

In Dream of Dragons (the series finale), the great war between dragons and humans finally unfolds. The entirety of the kingdom is threatened, with the dragons' aim set for Royalsport. A prophecy will come to fruition, while a new menace in the south threatens to tip the balance of power, and Queen Lenore must defend her capital as best she can under dire circumstances.

Having fallen on hard times, disgraced soldier turned private investigator John "Slim" Hardy is hired by a rich and enigmatic land owner, Oliver Ozgood, to uncover the identity of a mysterious blackmailer. The blackmailer, demanding a fortune in exchange for his silence, claims to be Dennis Sharp, a former employee of Ozgood, and threatens to reveal secrets that will soil Ozgood’s family name and send the patriarch to prison. There’s only one problem: Dennis Sharp is dead, killed by Ozgood himself. Listen to Slim's quest for answers in his most challenging case yet!

Shadowseer: Rome continues the story of Kaia, 17, an orphan coming of age in Victorian Europe of the 1850s. Kaia yearns to escape her horrific orphanage, to discover who her parents were, and to understand why she can sense shadows when others cannot. When the brilliant Detective Pinsley, 45, takes Kaia under his wing and enlists her help in solving the mysterious and bizarre murders sweeping over Europe, the two of them become unlikely partners. Are they part of a greater war of light versus dark? And is Kaia the only one who can stop it?

When an American is found murdered in Italy - the victim of a potential serial killer obsessed with ancient church relics - the FBI’s Antiquities unit is summoned to help. Special Agent Walker knows he needs Remi’s scholarship to decode the undecipherable puzzle, which leads them in a wild race across Italy - from the secrets of the Vatican, to forgotten churches in Tuscany. Together, they must follow the clues, peel back the layers of history, and solve the riddle before the killer strikes again.

Shadowseer: London (book one) tells the story of Kaia, 17, an orphan coming of age in the Victorian London of the 1850s. Kaia yearns to escape her horrific orphanage, to discover who her parents were, and to understand why she can sense shadows when others cannot. Yet the streets of London are as brutal as the orphanage, and for Kaia, there is no easy way out.

In Only the Bold, the epic finale to The Way of Steel series, Royce finds him transformed after looking into the magic mirror. Has he gained the ultimate wisdom? Or has he gone mad? The mirror reveals many secrets, and Royce finds himself heading towards his father’s hiding place. Will he meet his father for the first time? Genevieve and Royce’s tragic romance finally comes to a head, culminating in a surprise twist that will change both of their lives forever.

In Throne of Dragons, the second book in the Age of the Sorcerers series, King Godwin mobilizes his army to cross the great bridge and invade the South to rescue his 17-year-old daughter Lenore. Lenore is imprisoned deep in the South, under the watchful and hateful eye of King Ravin, and she may have to learn to escape herself first if she has any chance of escape.

Into this landscape comes Sherlock Holmes, casting the light of reason and modern logic wherever he goes. Can the Great Detective prevail against centuries of ingrained superstition and ritual? Can the modern science of deduction overcome belief in the oldest of evils? Can Sherlock Holmes, in 12 new tales by modern masters of horror, triumph over superstitions, new and old, and the ghoulish monsters and madmen who exploit them?