Foreword
Sometime during 2021, during an exchange of emails with David Marcum, he suggested that I consider putting together an anthology of my stories. At the time I put it off as I was busy working on my fourth novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of Neb-Heka-Ra.
As the year progressed it became horribly clear that, due to the sheer volume of research, the book would not be ready for publication in 2022. I tentatively reached out to Steve Emecz at MX Publishing and asked if an anthology would be acceptable for this year. He agreed and I turned my attention to the short stories I had written.
It also became clear that I did not have enough previously published work to make a reasonable anthology, so I set about writing two new stories for the book. In this anthology you will find four previously published stories, two new ones written expressly for this book. There is also a short essay at the end that I wrote to explain why Sherlock Holmes had such a grip on me.
Each story has an introduction explaining where each story was originally published, who the editor was, and any small snippets of information that you may find interesting. Feel free to flick over those if such things do not interest you.
Enjoy!
Margaret Walsh
Melbourne, Australia, January 2022.