Rennison, Nick (Ed) -- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (2008)

THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (2008)

Edited and introduced by Nick Rennison

No Exit Press

Cover price: $16.95

Note: The cover is all red, with black type (a poor contrast), white type, with a little yellow thrown in.

The cover blurb reads this way:

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Sherlock Holmes was not the only detective solving mysteries and foiling the plans of criminal masterminds in Victorian and Edwardian England. The years from 1890 to 1914 were a golden age for English magazines and most of them published crime and detective fiction. The success of the Holmes stories spawned countless imitators. This volume highlights some of those rivals of Sherlock Holmes. They include:

THE THINKING MACHINE -- Jacques Futrelle's intellectual genius Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, aka the Thinking Machine, capable of solving the most baffling of mysteries through brainpower alone.

CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER -- detective of the occult created by the legendary horror writer William Hope Hodgson.

NOVEMBER JOE -- Hesketh Prichard's Canadian woodsman who uses his extraordinary powers of observation to track down villains and bring them to justice.

CRAIG KENNEDY -- Arthur B. Reeve's scientific detective from the early 1900s who uses startling new technological advancements like X-rays and microphones.

It may well be true that there has never been a detective quite like Sherlock Holmes but he did not stand alone. He had his rivals and, as this collection of short stories shows, many of their adventures were as exciting and entertaining as those of the master.