The Isle of Devils

The Dr. Watson Trilogy #1

by Craig Janacek

Before Fame
and the Friendship of a Lifetime,
there was...

A FIRST ADVENTURE

November, 1880. An aimless, freshly-wounded twenty-eight year-old discharged British Army surgeon finds himself washed ashore on the lush Atlantic island of Bermuda. He has few prospects, and seems content roaming the back streets of the ancient town of St. George’s, reading mystery novels, and wagering on games of chance. Slowly, it begins to dawn on him that his residence, the Globe Hotel, is filled to the brim with a series of enigmatic globetrotters. Why have the hurried English naturalist, the suave Portuguese traveler-in-wines, the gigantic Australian rugby-player, the languid Italian painter, the rough Greek pugilist, the fastidious Turkish engineer, the ireful Bohemian physician, the frail Spanish Marquesa, and the acerbic French solicitor with his stunning new American bride all gathered in this sleepy town in the farthest reaches of the British Empire? All of these idle ponderings are dashed from his brain when a terrible hurricane descends upon the isle and threatens to destroy the town. But when he awakens to find a dead man in the room next door, shot seven times and his corpse defaced with lurid symbols, everything and everyone begin to take on a sinister light. Asked to assist the outclassed local constable in his efforts to unravel the plethora of suspects and clues, he magnificently rises to the task. But what he discovers upon the Isle of Devils will change his life forevermore and set him upon the path to his destiny.

Told with a deep affection for the land and customs of Bermuda, The Isle of Devils seems at once fresh and yet wistfully familiar. Herein lies the long-lost earliest adventure – before he became the loyal friend and companion to the world’s first consulting detective – of one of the greatest writers to ever set ink upon a page.

Genres: Mystery

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2014

About the author

In the year 1998 CRAIG JANACEK took his degree of Doctor of Medicine of Vanderbilt University, and proceeded to Stanford to go through the training prescribed for pediatricians in practice. Having completed his studies there, he was duly attached to the University of California, San Francisco as Associate Professor. The author of over seventy medical monographs upon a variety of obscure lesions, his travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of his fictional works. To date, these have been published primarily in electronic format, including two non-Holmes novels (The Oxford Deception & The Anger of Achilles Peterson), the trio of holiday adventures collected as The Midwinter Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, the short trilogy The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes, a trio of adventures collected as The First of Criminals, and a Watsonian novel entitled The Isle of Devils. His current project is a trio of works entitled A Holmesian Treasure Trove. His first in-press work (The Adventure of the Fateful Malady) was published in the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part One (October 2015), and a second (The Adventure of the Double-Edged Hoard) was included in the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, 2016 Annual (May 2016). Craig Janacek is a nom-de-plume.
For augmented content, connect with him online at: http://craigjanacek.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[Steven Nagel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more of Mr. Janacek's Sherlock Holmes pastiches I read, the my appreciation grows for his effort. He captures the atmosphere of the time, the style of language as originally employed by ACD, and creates good, new avenues for Holmes and Watson to be a part of. This is the first of what is to be a Trilogy (tho I have seen nothing on the Internet regarding the third book as yet) which stars John H. Watson before he became associated with Sherlock Holmes. I admit that about half way through this "locked door murder" mystery novel, I had established in my own mind what the solution was to be, but Mr. Janacek handled the presentation of the clues and background story parts so well that I still enjoyed the ending. He also introduces hints and clues of persons and items in this story which will later appear in the Canon as a pleasant addition to the narration. He has joined Val Andrews, Denis O. Smith, John Hall, Lindsey Faye and David Stuart Davies as a favorite Holmes storyteller. I am now reading the second book in Dr. Watson's trilogy, and can only hope that the third book becomes available soon.

[Maryellen Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put it down.

This book was so engrossing! I admit I am a great fan of Dr. Watson, and I was captivated by the expanded reveal of his character and depth of feeling. Very exciting and unpredictable!

[Jacqueline Dugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

an old, boring manuscript, supposedly written by Arthur Conan Doyle.