A Most Diabolical Plot: Six Compelling Sherlock Holmes Cases

by Tim Symonds

In the year 1903 - the exact moment is now lost to history - Sherlock Holmes proclaimed to the world he was quitting England's Capital to go into retirement on a small, wind-swept farm in the Sussex South Downs. His shocked comrade-in-arms Dr. John H. Watson was later to write, 'The decision took me utterly by surprise. I thought I had become an institution around Holmes, like his Stradivarius, or the old, oily black clay pipe and his index books.' Reluctantly Watson wrote up three recent cases yet unpublished and returned to his medical practice. Holmes retirement didn't last long. Once more his faithful Amanuensis Watson took up his pen - and his Army Service revolver. The result was three more of the most intriguing cases ever undertaken by the famous pair. All six adventures have now been brought together in this special edition.

A Most Diabolical Plot. 'Not 'til the day the bugle blows for me shall I forget the most diabolical attempt ever made on my friend Sherlock Holmes's life.'

The Ghost of Dorset House. 'At eight o'clock on an April evening in 1894 a ghost came upon an intruder in a great London mansion and chased him through pitch-black staterooms and corridors.'

The Captain in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. 'A ceremonial half-guard composed of six or seven men in the uniform of the Duke's Regiment was forming on the mansion's terrace, each soldier glancing through the barrel of his rifle to check for cleanliness. I turned the opera glasses on them.'

Die Weisse Frau. 'McCoy was waiting with an impatient air. On catching sight of me, he trotted up with the second horse. With a glance around but hardly a word of greeting, he cantered off, remaining silent until the horses had broken a little sweat.'

The Pegasus Affair. 'An envelope arrived at the surgery containing a newspaper cutting from The Eastbourne Chronicle, headed Grand National Horse Race To Be Run For The First Time Away From Aintree.'

The Mystery of the Missing Artefacts. 'The heavy door of my cell swung open. Rather than the surly Turkish warder bringing a once-daily bowl of watery grey soup, a visitor from the outside world stood there.'

Genres: Mystery

164 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2018

About the author

Tim Symonds was born in London, England, and grew up in Somerset, Dorset and the Channel Island of Guernsey, off the coast of Normandy. After spending his late teens farming in the Kenya Highlands and driving bulldozers along the Zambezi River, he moved to California and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with an honours degree in Politics. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association of Victorian Studies, and formerly the Chartered Institute of Journalists.

He and his partner live in the High Weald of Sussex, where the events recounted in Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle took place. His second novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Bulgarian Codex (MX Publishing 2012), takes Holmes and Watson into the very depths of the Balkans in 1900. Holmes and Watson were back in the region – Serbia - in Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery of Einstein’s Daughter (MX Publishing 2014), and not long afterwards in ‘Stamboul’ investigating a plot against the despotic Sultan, in Sherlock Holmes And The Sword of Osman (MX Publishing 2015).
The pair will again take their lives in their hands in Tim Symonds’ fifth novel, to be published in 2016, set in Peking as the Qing Dynasty crumbles into warring factions and murderous plots.

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Six Not-So-Compelling Sherlock Holmes Stories

Thanks to both MX Books and the author for copies of this book.

First, let me tell you a little about the stories. What I say here will in nowise spoil any mysteries.

In A Most Diabolical Plot, Colonel Moran returns with a most unusual weapon…

Die Weiss Frau concerns a woman accused of spying for Germany…

The Ghost of Dorset House deals with the corpse of a suspected burglar. It takes place during the Great Hiatus…

The Mystery of the Missing Artifacts is about a dead man in a field with an arrow in his eye…

The Pegasus Affair has another returning person, John Mason of Shoscomb Old Place…

The Captain in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment concerns a man in uniform…

I have delayed reviewing this book because Tim Simons asked me himself. I always try to give an honest review, and I don’t like most of the stories. They just don’t resonate with me like Tim Simons’ novels always do. I would say that The Ghost of Dorset House is my favorite, and indeed, the only story I really liked.

I am so sorry, Tim, but I can only give the book two stars…

Quoth the Raven…

[fred jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are entertaining Holmes and Watson stories set in various times between the 1890's and 1916, the writing is excellent capturing the characters well, I particularly liked the ones set during WW1 but they are all of a high standard. Time Winters does an excellent job of the narration although pronouncing the "E" on the the end of Boche got a bit annoying and I have never heard Glasgow pronounced like that. Still the voices are good and the style worked with the stories, I received a complimentary copy of the Audio book and am leaving a honest voluntary review.

[David Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Tim Symonds perfectly captures the world and essence of Sherlock Holmes in these new stories that will satisfy any fan. Much like today, Sherlock Holmes lived in an age of new scientific discoveries and technology. But the greatest "machine" in the world remains the human brain and Sherlock's brain has always been a wonder to behold!

goodreads winner

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, but what a treat this was! I loved the stories, I loved that we even have one mystery solved by Watson during the Great Hiatus, and I loved that this are, mostly, later stories when Holmes is already retired.

A must-read for all Sherlockians :D