Mycroft Holmes and the Adventure of the Silver Birches

Inspector Lestrade was a worried man. He was facing the biggest case of his career. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the Governor of the Bank of England had learnt through a variety of sources - a private bank in Vienna, an Anglophile moneylender in Munich, a reliable tip off from the Casino in Monte Carlo - that Britain's enemies were trying to debase the currency. Sherlock Holmes has retired to keep his bees in Sussex, Dr Watson is curing the sick. So Lestrade turns to Holmes's elder brother Mycroft, still keeping to his unchanging routine between his rooms in Pall Mall, the Government Offices where he audits all Government Departments, and the silent quarters of the Diogenes Club. Mycroft tracks the gang through the banks and Treasuries of Europe, his brain travelling faster than the swiftest express train.

Will Mycroft and Lestrade solve the mystery? And who is the mysterious stranger who led them to the gang's hiding place and then vanished, last seen striding rapidly into the fog?

David Dickinson's brilliant new short novel will appeal to fans of Sherlock Holmes, of detective fiction, and of historical mysteries. It recreates the style and atmosphere of the original stories, but with a compelling new character. The first in a news series, it will establish Mycroft as a worthy successor to his more famous brother.


Genre: Historical Mystery