In the 1920's, college student August Derleth wrote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, asking if any more Sherlock Holmes adventures were going to be published. Upon receiving a negative reply, Derleth decided to provide some of his own. However, rather than relating more tales of Holmes and Dr. Watson, he ended up introducing the world to Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker, living in London during the 1920's and 1930's. Pons solved crimes using deduction and ratiocination, often referring to Holmes as "The Master" or "My illustrious predecessor." Since his first appearance, Pons has been a favorite with Sherlockians. Now, for the first time ever, the estate of August Derleth has authorized the first ever anthology of Solar Pons stories! These twenty new adventures range from soon after Pons and Parker met in 1919 to a story that occurs after Germany has been defeated in World War II. Each of them fully and traditionally falls within the Pontine Canon.The authors of these stories have contributed their royalties to the Jan Stauber Grant Fund for the Beacon Society, which provides scholarships to educators, schools, and Sherlockian Scion societies, allowing them to purchase Sherlock Holmes books and materials in order to introduce young people to The Canon.Join us again at 7B Praed Street where The Game is Afoot!

The premise is that Solar Pons is the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes.

This long-awaited second collection of pastiches of the immortal Sherlock Holmes offers eleven new adventures of Solar Pons, who has been called by Vincent Starrett "a clever impersonator, with a twinkle in his eye, which tells us that he knows he is not Sherlock Holmes, and knows that we know it, but that he hopes we will like him anyway for what he symbolizes." Here are such fascinating stories as "The Adventure of the Paralytic Mendicant", an account of as unique a vengeance as was ever perpetrated between boards; "The Adventure of the Circular Room", a tale of a diabolic plot which will rouse many a memory of the old Master; the complex puzzle which will be of particular interest to bibliophiles told in the Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Contest prizewinning "The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders"; the curious affair which is "The Adventure of the Tottenham Werewolf'; and others which will bring back old, long-vanished Baker Street days. Once again in the London of years ago "the game is afoot." Certainly no living writer has brought the Holmesian pastiche to a higher development than this. There is very little difference, indeed, in the atmosphere of the stories, once they have begun to unfold; No. 7B Praed Street readily becomes 221B Baker Street; and Solar Pons, attended by his Dr. Lyndon Parker, often becomes curiously interchangeable with the Master of Baker Street and his Watson. "There is no intention to deceive," as Vincent Starrett wrote in his introduction to the first collection. "These nostalgic reminders of vanished days and nights in Baker Street are intended only to please."

In 1928, at the age of nineteen, college student August Derleth wrote to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, asking him whether he planned to produce more Sherlock Holmes stories, and announcing that, if Sir Arthur did not, he, Derleth, would begin a series of pastiches of his own. Sir Arthur promised nothing, and Derleth went ahead, creating Solar Pons. Between Pons' first published appearance in 1929 until Derleth's death in 1971, the bite of the Sherlockian bug prompted him to write more than seventy Solar Pons adventures in the best Holmes tradition. Throughout, he devoted endless hours to research and authentication of details into recreating the London milieu of Pons.Now, restored from the original 1973 Mycroft and Moran edition, Solar Pons is back! Join Pons and Dr. Parker in The Chronicles of Solar Pons as they investigate the terrifying events of "The Missing Tenants", the suspenseful matter of "The Orient Express", and the nearly perfect adventure of "The Unique Dickensians".For many years, it was believed the Pontine Canon would end with the publication of The Chronicles of Solar Pons in 1973. But over the years, additional material was discovered in various places, including obscure publications and Derleth's own files. Now, thanks to Derleth's heirs and the August Derleth Estate, which still retains full ownership of Solar Pons and these apocryphal adventures, this new easily available and affordable collection has been made possible.Once again, the game is afoot!

Thirteen short stories depicting the further adventures of Solar Pons, whose prototype is Sherlock Holmes. Includes three stories published in a limited edition in 1952 as "Three problems for Solar Pons".