The deadly May 31, 2010 Gaza flotilla incident has been misunderstood. This book explores the incident in more detail than mainstream media coverage has allowed-explaining the background, key players, and the incident itself-enriched by the authors having had unique access to senior Israeli officials in the immediate aftermath of the event. The incident is a microcosm of the struggle between terrorism and democratic societies, and raises a number of legal, ethical, and strategic political ...

A thrilling and suspenseful short story featuring the renowned Sherlock Holmes and his remarkable companion, Doctor Watson, as they investigate the curious happenings at Three Gables.When an elderly woman, Mary Maberley, approaches Sherlock Holmes to ask for help, her case doesn’t seem interesting enough to appeal to him. Shortly after receiving her request, the masterful detective is threatened by a hired thug to stay away from the case, and he realises that there might be more to...

In 1907, some time after his retirement to the Sussex Downs, Holmes goes for a walk and meets his friend Harold Stackhurst, headmaster of a local preparatory school called "The Gables". Shortly thereafter, Stackhurst's science teacher, Fitzroy McPherson, staggers up from the nearby beach, dressed in only his overcoat and trousers. He collapses at their feet, and dies shortly thereafter, having managed to scream the words "The Lion's Mane". He has long, narrow welts curving around his body;...

Sir James Damery comes to see Holmes and Watson about his illustrious client's problem (the client's identity is never revealed to the reader, although Watson finds out at the end of the story; it is heavily implied to be King Edward VII). General de Merville's young daughter Violet has fallen in love with the roguish and sadistic Austrian Baron Adelbert Gruner, who Damery and Holmes are convinced is a shameless philanderer and a murderer. The victim was his last wife, of whose murder he w...

In January 1903, at Baker Street, James M. Dodd comes to Holmes with a strange story regarding his friend, Godfrey Emsworth. Dodd and Emsworth served in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Second Boer War. Emsworth was sent home after being treated for a bullet wound; hearing nothing from his friend for quite some time afterwards, Dodd began to suspect something was amiss.Dodd wrote to Colonel Emsworth, Godfrey's father, and was told Godfrey had gone on a voyage round ...

A man named Trevor Bennett, the personal secretary of one Professor Presbury, comes to Holmes with a most unusual problem. He is engaged to the professor's daughter, Edith, and the Professor is himself engaged to a young lady, Alice Morphy, although he himself is already 61 years of age. Their impending marriage has caused no scandal, but the trouble seems to have begun at about the time of the engagement. First, the professor suddenly left home for a fortnight without telling anyone of hi...

Sherlock Holmes has disappeared into the Highlands, while Mycroft investigates the theft of the Mazarin diamond and Watson suspects a trap in an offer of $5 million to a former professor if he can find a third man surnamed Garrideb.

Holmes is visited by Mrs Merrilow, a landlady from South Brixton who has an unusual lodger who never shows her face. She saw it once accidentally and it was hideously mutilated. This woman, formerly very quiet, has recently taken to cursing in the night, shouting "Murder, murder!" and "You cruel beast! You monster!" Also, her health has taken a turn for the worse, and she is wasting away. Mrs Merrilow has brought this case to Holmes's attention as her tenant, Mrs Ronder, will not involve t...

Holmes receives an odd letter that makes reference to vampires. Mr. Robert Ferguson, who comes to 221B Baker Street the next morning, has become convinced that his Peruvian second wife has been sucking their baby son's blood. By his first wife, he has a 15-year-old son named Jack, who suffered an unfortunate accident as a child and now, although he can still walk, does not have full use of his legs. Since the start of the bloodsucking, Jack has unaccountably been struck twice by his stepmo...

Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his young wife's disappearance. She has left with a neighbour, Dr Ray Ernest, taking a sizeable quantity of cash and securities. Amberley wants the two tracked down.Holmes is too busy with another case at the moment, so he sends Dr Watson to Lewisham to observe what he can, although Watson is keenly aware that this is more Holmes's province. He does his best, observing that Amberley...

Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former senator from "some Western state", approaches Sherlock Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr Gibson's marriage had been unhappy and he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realised they had nothing in common. He became attracted to Miss Dunbar; since he could not marry her, he had attemp...

Holmes receives a letter from a man named Nathan Garrideb of 136 Little Ryder Street,[2] in which the writer asks for help in finding someone else who shares his unusual surname. He has been informed by an American, John Garrideb of Kansas, that if he can find another Garrideb he stands to inherit a large fortune.The American visits Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street, and is not pleased that Nathan has involved a private detective. John Garrideb, who claims to be a lawyer, spin...