Description

Holmes and Watson were not the only ones foiling the plans of villainous masterminds in Victorian and Edwardian England. The years 1890-1914 were a golden age for English magazines, and the success of the Holmes stories spawned countless imitators. The 15 tales in this anthology introduce readers to such sleuths as Jacques Futrelle s dazzlingly intellectual genius Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, aka the Thinking Machine; Carnacki the Ghost Finder, detective of the occult created by legendary horror writer William Hope Hodgson; Eugene Valmont, a sophisticated and urbane French detective who lives in exile in London and uses his Gallic wit and wisdom to solve mysteries; November Joe, Hesketh Prichard s Canadian woodsman who uses his powers of observation to bring villains to justice; Craig Kennedy, a scientific detective created by the American writer Arthur B. Reeve, who uses new technological advancements like X-rays and microphones to solve crime; and Hagar of the Pawn Shop, Fergus Hume s feisty gypsy woman who investigates strange stories associated with the objects that customers bring to her London shop.