Showing results by author "Susan Knight" in All Categories

What's behind a series of mysterious deaths among the favourite concubines of Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II? Suspecting a plot against himself, the Sultan has called on Sherlock Holmes to investigate. However, as a man, the detective is clearly unable to penetrate the exotic enclosed world of the harem, so he reluctantly enlists the help of his landlady, Mrs Hudson. Together with Dr Watson, they travel across Europe by Orient Express to Constantinople, on the way encountering Holmes's old enemy, Baron Mauterpuis.

From a country estate in Sussex to the docklands of Limehouse, from the Royal Albert Hall to a music hall in Shoreditch, from the net-curtained suburbs of Beckenham and Hampstead to a brothel in Bow, Holmes and Watson go plumbing the depths of human depravity to unmask likely and unlikely villains. The cast of colourful characters include a world famous Russian violinist, an intrepid female detective, Miss Dimples and her performing poodles, a diminutive maid named Fancy, a dead policeman on a platform at St Pancras station, as well as Wiggins, Jimsy and Bobs of the Baker Street Irregulars.

A dazzling collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories, which sees the detective solving fiendish crimes, many involving methods beloved of Victorian murderers, poison by arsenic or cyanide, or even by venomous arachnids and reptiles. The colourful cast of characters includes villains bent on vengeance, traitorous revolutionaries, unfaithful and greedy wives wishing to rid themselves of their husbands, unfaithful and greedy husbands ditto, gullible widows, charming seducers, and captivating con artists out to fleece the innocent.

An aristocrat has been brutally murdered and the only suspect is a young footman who happens to be brother to Clara, a maid employed at 221B Baker Street. Clara begs Sherlock Holmes to prove her brother innocent. Holmes agrees, and, in unmasking the real culprit, he and Watson uncover a murky and depraved world lurking behind the bland and elegant façade of a London mansion.

A distraught young woman arrives at Baker Street urgently requesting the assistance of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. But the great man and his assistant Dr. Watson are away. What to do? She confides in Holmes’ landlady, Mrs. Hudson, who over the years has developed certain powers of deduction from observing her tenant at work.

Sherlock Holmes has been missing and is presumed dead for some time, and his grief-stricken landlady, Mrs. Hudson, is anxious for a distraction. However, she is in for a culture shock when she travels to Ireland with her friend, Kitty Melrose, to try and stop a forced marriage. What she finds is a countryside steeped in superstition and beliefs in the old ways, a place of fairy forts and holy wells, and of changelings and banshees. A place, moreover, where an impoverished peasantry remains under the heel of oppressive English landlords, but not for much longer.

After the excitement of her recent adventures in Paris, Mrs Hudson goes to stay with her married daughter Eleanor in Bilbourne, a little village in Kent, the Garden of England. It is September, and the hop-harvest is in full swing at the nearby plantation belonging to Thomas Brakefield. But if Mrs Hudson was hoping for some peace and quiet away from the city, she is to be disappointed, soon caught up in dark passions that culminate in a brutal murder. At great risk to herself, Mrs Hudson goes in pursuit of the perpetrator.

When Mrs. Hudson's young nephew, Ralph, decides to go to Paris and become an artist, his mother is distraught. She enlists Mrs. Hudson's assistance to try and persuade him to quit and return home. In Paris, the sisters soon find themselves caught up in the whirling fin-de-siècle world of bohemians and anarchists. But then the discovery of the mutilated body of a beautiful young artists’ model in the sinister catacombs of the city puts Ralph under suspicion of her murder…

The Torn Podcast explores what it means to feel internally conflicted, at odds with yourself, pulled in different directions, torn. Through moving personal stories and specialist insights from psychology, philosophy, literature and more, the podcast dives into how inner conflict shows up in our lives and, crucially, how we can resolve it. From questions of love and loyalty to issues of work, morality, life and death, each episode offers perspectives to help listeners find clarity, harmony and balance within themselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.