Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is an adaptation of The Adventure of the Dancing Men by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story takes place in WWII England and features a cypher, Professor James Moriarty and the usual assortment of henchmen.

The Tombs of the Thoroughgood’s

The worlds captains of crime were summoned to secret meeting. They met in the private tombs of the Thoroughgood’s. It was a Who’s Who of organized crime. Professor Moriarty had summoned them to discuss the changing times. The new era was quickly approaching where the public and law enforcement would no longer put up with such shenanigans. The world was becoming more respectable. This new era called for a new strategy. Business is business! The list of the distinguished guests is as follows:

• "Lord of Strange Deaths
• Daughter of the Dragon
• Grand Vampire or Paris and Mademoiselle Irna Vep…
• Doctor Nikola of Australia and Madame Sara of the Strand
• Miss Margaret Frelwany and the Hovton Creeper
• Doctor Mabuse of Berlin and Fraulein Alraune ten Brincken
• Arthur Raffles of the Albony and his, ah friend, Mr. Manders
• Theophraste Lupin and Josephine
• Countess Cagliostro…
• Doctor Jack Quartz of New York and Princess Zanoni…
• Rupert, count of Hentzau and Miss Irene Adler"

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

The Bulstrode Archive

“The Bulstrode Archive of Smut perhaps rivals the legendary section of the Vatican library at the personal disposal of the college of cardinals." Some of the texts that can be found Bulstrode’s Archive of Smut are:

• My Nine Nights in a Harem, Sebastian Moran
• The Secret Life of Wackford Squeers
• The Intimate Encounter of Fanny Hill and Moll Flanders

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

A Host of Characters-Mad Carew

“There’s a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu,
There’s a little marble cross below the town;
There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the yellow god forever gazes down.”

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

A Host of Characters-Major Humphrey Carew

Major Humphrey Carew…There’s a bloody awful poem about him:

He is known as ‘Mad Carew by the subs at Kathmandu,
He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
And the Colonel’s daughter smiled on him as well.

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

Jasper Stoke-A Host of Characters

Jasper Stoke, Trantridge, Wessex

“In a long life at gaming tables, in brothels, up mountains, and in the bush, I’ve gained valuable insights into human nature. Any one called ‘Jasper’ is an arrogant, untrustworthy scoundrel. Anyone called ‘Cedric’ is liable to be worse. And anyone called “Piers’ should be shot on sight. Don’t say you’ve never learned anything from my memoirs for these are "True Facts”

From the Memoirs of Colonel Sebastian Moran

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

Professor Moriarty-A Host of Characters

“A touch! A distinct touch!” cried Holmes. “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humor, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law—and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that’s the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year’s pension as a solarium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor—such would be your respective roles! That’s genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”

The Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle

My Summer 2017 Reading List

I have started my reading with D.H. Lawrence’s The Prussian Officer, a set of disturbing short stories. I have two of Rohmer’s “Yellow Peril” novels; Bat Wing being left over from my Spring Reading List. I have one SCIFI story by Vonnegut, two by Arthur Conan Doyle that make mention of Professor James Moriarty, three from John Buchan-the Richard Hannay series dealing with pre-and post WWI espionage, and one by Philip Jose Farmer on one said character of Simon Wagstaff, the Space Wanderer.

• Bat Wing, Sax Rohmer
• Fire Tongue, Sax Rohmer
• 2BRO2B, Kurt Vonnegut
• The Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Last Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Prussian Officer, D.H. Lawrence
• The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
• The Greenmantle, John Buchan
• Mr Standfast, John Buchan
• Venus on the Half-Shell, Philip Jose Farmer