Kelvin Jones

In this third collection of essays and investigations into 'The Criminal World of Sherlock Holmes, ' Kelvin I. Jones shows just why the Holmes stories were so convincingly original. He reveals not only that Conan Doyle was an expert in the subject of criminalistics, but that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper. The book provides a wide survey of the criminals of the period, including accounts of its vicious garrotters, cunning coiners and safe breakers, and contains a biography of the king of burglars, Charles Peace. Jones considers the literary antecedents of the crime story which Doyle perfected with his character, the forensic consulting detective. This last volume is unique in its depth of research, providing the reader with a fascinating insight into the dark shadow world of Victorian society, and featuring long forgotten accounts of its methods, murders and bloody mayhem.

The Sherlockian, the magazine that the indefatigable Holmesian, Kelvin I. Jones, edited in the mid-1980s for publication by Magico Magazine, is re-published in one volume. New material includes essays and stories by leading Sherlockians in the UK, USA and Canada. Contributors included in the original, and now much sought after, editions included the renowned radio writer, Michael Hardwick, Godfrey Hunt, Michael Kean, Catherine Cooke, crime writer David Stuart Davies, and that doyen of pastiche writers, Denis O Smith, George Cleve Haynes, Kelvin I Jones and the present editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, Roger Johnson. This new enlarged version features additional material by such luminaries as Glen Miranka (the world's biggest Doyle/Holmes collector), Wendy Heyman Warsaw (Canada), Glen Harris et al. This bumper edition is a great delight for the followers of Mr Sherlock Holmes.

A shocking account of the savage world in which Sherlock Holmes operated. The crimes of The Ripper; Conan Doyle's knowledge of the killer's identity; the methods employed by criminals, and of their pursuers; the harrowing truth about Holmes' drug abuse, and of his gang of 'street arabs', the long-lost crime monographs by the Baker Street sleuth; and much more, this book tells the true story of Holmes' gas-lit and sinister criminal world."Victorian society was violent & exploitive..., footpads and garrotters stalked the streets of the City...beggars were rife.".Kelvin is the author of many books about Holmes, the definitive biography of Doyle as a spiritualist & the 3 volume edition of the author's spiritualist writings. A distinguished life member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, he has published contemporary crime novels and poetry, and is a member of the Crime Writers' Association. "The almost legendary Mr Jones..."- Roger Johnson, commissioning ed. of The Sherlock Holmes Journal."Kelvin Jones takes the reader into Victorian England, walking side by side with the Great Detective..., an all-round, relentless researcher..." - Mark Alberstaat, ed. of Canadian Holmes.

Kelvin I. Jones has been writing about Sherlock Holmes for over 50 years, and studied the real-life crime, criminals and criminalistics of the late Victorians. Kelvin's forensic approach has already made a significant impact on the Holmes aficionado, previous titles including 'The Sherlock Holmes Murder Files, ' etc. However, the first of this three volume magnum opus on Holmes and crime covers absolutely everything that the reader fresh to, or even more familiar with Holmes wants to know about the murder and mayhem of his age.And there is much more. We learn about the poisoners, the prostitutes, the garrotters, the psychopaths and the abductors; in fact the whole panoply of the dangerous criminal underworld once lorded over by Moriarty.This exhaustive study, with its grim descriptions of the savage criminals of that age, is portrayed in graphic, uncompromising detail. What also emerges is a profile of the real Conan Doyle. Here is a profile of an author who knew more than is assumed about crime; and the book includes an examination of the Ripper, plus Conan Doyle's theories on the murderer's identity. Profusely illustrated, with many rare illustrations from 19th Century documents. Overall, a stunning contribution to the literature about Holmes, by someone who David Marcum, the editor and author of Holmes pastiches, once described as 'a Master Sherlockian.'

Norfolk based detective John Bottrell and his partner had been looking forward to a relaxing holiday with old friends in the quiet Cornish village of Saint Maddern. But when the vicar of Saint Maddern is found murdered in the church, there are few clues as to the identity of her assailant, much to the frustration of Bottrell and his ex colleague DCI Ray Sexton. As midsummer day approaches and the local pagans prepare for their 'Day of Harmonic Convergence, ' more murders follow, and Bottrell is convinced that there are dark forces abroad in the community. A Cornish murder mystery with an occult twist from the author of Stone Dead and Witch Jar.