American Sherlocks

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous of all fictional detectives but, across the Atlantic, he had plenty of rivals.

Between 1890 and 1920, American writers created dozens and dozens of crime-solvers. In this thrilling, unusual anthology, editor Nick Rennison gathers together 15 often neglected tales to highlight American crime fiction’s early years.

The detectives that feature include Professor Augustus SFX Van Dusen, ‘The Thinking Machine’, even more cerebral than Holmes; Craig Kennedy, the so-called ‘scientific detective’; Uncle Abner, a shrewd backwoodsman in pre-Civil War Virginia; Violet Strange, New York debutante turned criminologist; and Nick Carter, the original pulp private eye.

• The use of the name ‘Sherlock’ in the title will attract the attention of devotees of the great detective, of whom there are so many
• The anthology will include work by both famous and not-so-famous authors and by both male and female writers
• It will include a wide variety of stories taken from both the prestigious upmarket magazines of the time and the ‘dime detective’ pulp magazines
• The book will appeal to fans of crime fiction, as well as to those interested in early 20th century American literature
• The subject matter and the title mean, of course, it will have the potential for sales in the USA as well as the UK