It is becoming clear to Watson that unless Holmes is removed from Baker Street and the constant calls upon his time, which are inescapable as long as he he remains there, his health and strength are at the risk of failing. Watson takes Holmes to Kilbuie, Loch Echil, after reading Boswell's account of his journey there; he feels they should emulate the illustrious eighteenth- century man of letters. However, they arrive to find that all their Loch Echil acquaintances have experienced disaster or misfortune of late, and the owner of the castle atop Uffa Island just out to sea is missing his most precious family heirloom, the Macglevin buckle.

These are stories of the sort loved by true fans of the greatest of all detectives, in which a client tells Holmes a strange tale, drawing him into a baffling mystery. Whether in fogbound London or deep in the English countryside, these action-packed stories, set during the 1880s and early 1890s, before Holmes’s disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls, faithfully recreate the atmosphere of Conan Doyle’s early Holmes stories.

This wonderful anthology brings together the best work of Denis O. Smith, much admired for his new Sherlock Holmes stories, including ‘A Hair’s Breadth’, ‘The Adventure of the Smiling Face’ and ‘An Incident in Society’. Ten of these stories have never previously been published in book form.