More teasing tidbits from Echoes of Sherlock Holmes. Understudy in Scarlet by Hallie Ephron It’s not an open casting call, Angela Cassano realizes as she takes in the emptiness of director Glenn Lancaster’s outer office. The gloomy space, on the second floor over storefronts on Santa Monica in Beverly Hills, has rough stucco walls painted…

The last couple of samples from Echoes of Sherlock Holmes, and these are goodies. Raffa by Anne Perry It was one of the nicest hotels in London. The dining room was suitably lush, sombre and filled with the chink of china and the delicate odours of coffee and bacon, but Marcus St. Giles was unimpressed…

Two tasty morsels from Echoes of Sherlock Holmes for you today… Martin X by Gary Phillips The dean of black empowerment lay dead on the worn throw rug. A ragged bullet hole violated Professor Lincoln Barrow’s wrinkled forehead. He was dressed in slacks and slippers, a ratty robe splayed open over an athletic T-shirt covering his…

That’s right: more samples from Echoes of Sherlock Holmes… The First Mrs Coulter by Catriona McPherson Miss Cordelia Grant did not mourn the world of damp dressing rooms, damper lodgings and Sunday travel in a third-class railway carriage. True, her current role – lady’s maid to Mrs Gilver – was performed on a smaller stage…

Want some more samples of the new anthology? Well, okay then! The Case of the Speckled Trout by Deborah Crombie My name is Sherry Watson. It’s a crap name, Sherry, I know. But what can you do? It’s not like I had a say in the matter. My parents, to give them credit, were trying…

This third collection of “stories inspired by the Holmes canon” that Les Klinger and I have edited is out now, in hardback, e-, and next week, in audio.  In celebration, and to tempt you into the mix, I thought I’d post a few tidbits from the stories.  Here’s the first sampler… Where There is Honey by…