A rollicking look at popular culture’s most beloved sleuth: “For even the casual fan, the history of this deathless character is fascinating” (The Boston Globe). Today he is the inspiration for fiction adaptations, blockbuster movies, hit television shows, raucous Twitter banter, and thriving subcultures. More than a century after Sherlock Holmes first capered into our world, what is it about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s peculiar creation that continues to fascinate us? Journalist and lifelong Sherlock fan Zach Dundas set out to find the answer. The result is The Great Detective: a history of an idea, a biography of someone who never lived, a tour of the borderland between reality and fiction, and a joyful romp through the world Conan Doyle bequeathed us. In this “wonderful book” (Booklist, starred review), Dundas unearths the inspirations behind Holmes and his indispensable companion, Dr. John Watson; explores how they have been kept alive over the decades by writers, actors, and readers; and visits locales—from the boozy annual New York City gathering of one of the world’s oldest and most exclusive Sherlock Holmes fan societies; to a freezing Devon heath out of The Hound of the Baskervilles; to sunny Pasadena, where Dundas chats with the creators of the smash BBC series Sherlock. Along the way, he discovers the ingredients that have made Holmes go viral—then, now, and as long as the game’s afoot.

A 2017 Agatha Award Nominee! * A Best Children’s Book of the Year Pick for Kids 9 to 12 from Bank Street College! Caroline Carlson, author of the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series, returns with The World’s Greatest Detective, a story of crime, tricks, and hilarity for those who know that sometimes it takes a pair of junior sleuths to solve a slippery case. Detectives’ Row is full of talented investigators, but Toby Montrose isn’t one of them. He’s only an assistant at his uncle’s detective agency, and he’s not sure he’s even very good at that. Toby’s friend Ivy is the best sleuth around—or at least she thinks so. They both see their chance to prove themselves when the famed Hugh Abernathy announces a contest to choose the World’s Greatest Detective. But when what was supposed to be a game turns into a real-life murder mystery, can Toby and Ivy crack the case?

The story of the legendary Pinkerton detective who took down the Molly Maguires and the Wild Bunch The operatives of the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency were renowned for their skills of subterfuge, infiltration, and investigation, none more so than James McParland. So thrilling were McParland’s cases that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle included the cunning detective in a story along with Sherlock Holmes. Riffenburgh digs deep into the recently released Pinkerton archives to present the first biography of McParland and the agency’s cloak-and-dagger methods. Both action packed and meticulously researched, Pinkerton’s Great Detective brings readers along on McParland’s most challenging cases: from young McParland’s infiltration of the murderous Molly Maguires gang in the case that launched his career to his hunt for the notorious Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch to his controversial investigation of the Western Federation of Mines in the assassination of Idaho’s former governor. Filled with outlaws and criminals, detectives and lawmen, Pinkerton’s Great Detective shines a light upon the celebrated secretive agency and its premier sleuth.

Gathers mysteries by Bentley, Charteris, Sayers, Christie, Keating, Collins, Crispin, Chesterton, Innes, Chandler, Simenon, Fraser, James, Queen, and others.

One hundred essays celebrate fiction's greatest detectives.

What if Sherlock Holmes Wasn't Alone?Sherlock Holmes -the name immediately brings to mind an image of the great detective sitting in his rooms in 221B Baker street, his fingers steepled before his hawkish nose, his sharp grey eyes focused on the client who has brought a little puzzle for him to solve. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said when one reads the names of the other literary detectives of the time period, sometimes referred to as the rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, names like Lois Cayley, Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, The Old Man in the Corner, or Dr. Thorndyke are meaningless to all but the most ardent admirers of Victorian and Edwardian mysteries. The Great Detective Universe series hopes to rectify this problem and expand the world of Sherlock Holmes by bringing the consulting detective and his purported rivals into a shared universe, in other words, a universe where not just Holmes and Watson lived but also Carnacki, Father Brown, The Grey Seal, and many other great detectives.Sherlock Holmes and the Great Detectives has Holmes partnering with these other noted sleuths to fight crime and stop master criminals. See Sherlock Holmes partner with: -Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen a.k.a The Thinking Machine-Carnacki, the Ghost Finder-The Grey Seal-Doctor Thorndyke-"The Old Man in the Corner"-Lois Cayley-Father BrownAnd many, many more

The story of the legendary detective credited with the defeat of the Molly Maguires gang and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch offers insight into his innovative "cloak-and-dagger" methods and his investigation into the Western Federation of Mines for the assassination of Idaho's former governor. 25,000 first printing.