A real-life murder mystery in turn-of-the-century London, and Scotland Yard’s “greatest detective of all time” who was determined to discover whodunit. By 1919, Det. Chief Inspector Fred Wensley was already a legend, having investigated the Jack the Ripper slayings, busted crime syndicates, and risked his life at the notorious Siege of Sidney Street. But the brutal murder of kindly fifty-four-year-old widow and shopkeeper Elizabeth Ridgley was an unexpected challenge in a storied career. Elizabeth and her dog were both found dead in her blood-spattered shop in Hitchin. But even in the early days of forensics, Wensley was stunned by the inept conclusion of local Hertfordshire police: it was a freak, tragic accident that had somehow felled Elizabeth and her Irish terrier. At Wensley’s urging, Scotland Yard proceeded with a second investigation. It led to the arrest of an Irish war veteran. The only real evidence: a blood-stained shirt. But the Ridgley case was far from over. Drawing on primary sources and newly-discovered material, Paul Stickler exposes the frailties of county policing in the years after WWI, reveals how Ridgley’s murder led to fundamental changes in methods of investigation, and attempts to solve a seemingly unsolvable crime.

It is the year 1888. A madman stalks the East End of London and only Sherlock Holmes and his trusted colleague and scribe Dr. John Watson stand between him and the women he preys upon. However, the World's first Consulting Detective is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit. Is Jack the Ripper acting alone? Is there a conspiracy to murder fallen women in Whitechapel? How far must Holmes go to stop it? Add a plot to steal the most famous jewels in existence and a sinister figure known only as 'The Professor' and you have more than one mystery to be solved...

I am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren's call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson's assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases. Thus, when detective inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard required a lead-any lead-I found myself forced to pursue Jack the Ripper alone and without the aid of my faithful friend. And all for the most damnedable of reasons: Early on in my investigations, Dr. John H. Watson, formerly of 221b Baker Street, emerged as my prime suspect.

A ritualistic serial killer is slaughtering women in London's infamous East End. The police are baffled, the media is in a frenzy, and people the world over are captivated by the fiend known as Jack the Ripper. Only a short distance away, the Great Detective has succumbed to an addiction to morphine and cocaine. His faithful friend, Dr. John Watson, and Irene Adler will venture into Whitechapel alone to try and lure the Ripper out of hiding using themselves as bait. As darkness threatens to consume all of London, her greatest champion, the immortal Sherlock Holmes, will rise one final time to defend her. Combines the actual events of the investigation into Jack the Ripper's crimes with the canon of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The story of Fred Wensley, a Somerset gardener who joined the Metropolitan Police in 1888 and retired, forty-one years later as Chief Constable of the CID, is an extraordinary one.??After an abortive attempt to catch 'Jack the Ripper' by nailing strips of bicycle tyres to the soles of his boots, Wensley got stuck into arresting the ne'er-do-wells of Whitechapel, where he would spend twenty-five years of his service.??Within months of joining the CID, Wensley, while off duty, arrested a double murderer. He smashed the murderous Bessarabian and Odessa gangs, brought the Vendetta gang to book when, brandishing revolvers they tried to storm a police court, played a decisive part in the Siege of Sidney Street and created the Flying Squad.??Wensley's career was dogged with controversy; when Stinie Morrison was convicted of murder, was he, as he claimed, framed by Wensley? And was Edith Thompson, hanged for the murder of her husband, as Wensley stated, 'a cold-blooded murderess' or, as her defence counsel claimed, 'a fanciful dreamer'? ??The first King's Police Medal was awarded to Wensley; he was appointed OBE and commended on many of occasions.??Retired Flying Squad officer, turned author, Dick Kirby has dug deep to paint a fascinating portrait of the man dubbed, 'The Greatest Detective of all Time'.

Victorian Englands most famous consulting detective is hot on the trail of London's most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper. But in Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Vampire, Jack is a vampire and Holmes refusal to believe it could be his undoing as the two match wits in this delightfully original first novel.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson feature in three brand new and exciting adventures that you won't want to miss. The Scarlet Thread of Murder: Three seemingly separate crimes, three detectives. A mysterious stalker is on the loose in London known only as the Goblin Man and his sights are set on a wealthy businessman, David Daniels. A horrific explosion rips through Whitechapel Underground Station and the prime suspect is a Jewish anarchist. And a Mrs Clara Edwards is searching for her missing lover, Philias Jackson. What connects these three? It’s a dangerous and complex game that links Sherlock Holmes, Investigator Martin Hewitt, and former Ripper investigator and head of H Division Edmund Reid. A Scandal in America: In 1888 Mr Sherlock Holmes was beat by Irene Adler aka the Woman. After her marriage to Godfrey Norton she left London. Two years later her husband is found dead in his New York office, apparently having committed suicide. Irene Adler believes it to be staged, unable to accept Norton capable of such an end. There is one person, if any, who she can turned to: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson are headed to America where they must dive into the mysterious life of Godfrey Norton to learn how and why he died. No one is ready for what they learn. The Allegro Mystery: Someone lurks in the shadows and is sending mysterious and haunting letters to the beautiful ballerina, Mademoiselle Dipin. Believing her life to be endangered by a ghost from her past, she bursts into the study of 221b to plead with Sherlock Holmes for aid. Can Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson find and expose her ghost before something terrible happens to their client? The game is afoot.