Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes

by Jeff Campbell

  “Meticulously reasoned.” High praise indeed from the detective. “Then our duty to the Inspector and his wife is complete. As for the Other matter—”

  “Yes?” I asked, curious to see.

  “It requires vigilance — on both our parts,” Holmes admitted. “Naturally I will collect the crystals from the police; they warrant further study. You will need to be alert to any medical reports concerning cases such as the unfortunate Sarah’s. I will watch for any criminal matters which may cast light on this Mr. Other. At this point I must confess I know of nothing which seems related however I shall make inquiries.”

  “Inquiries?” I asked.

  “Sewer workers and such,” Holmes explained. “I must confess that in many ways this Mr. Other may prove easier to deal with than the villains we’ve encountered in the past. Although he has attempted to disguise his true nature his motivation seems straight-forward enough.”

  “Children,” I completed the thought.

  “Exactly,” Holmes said. “Men commit crimes for greed or revenge, motives which they will go to great lengths to disguise even from themselves. Mr. Other, whatever else he might be, practices a simple, honest villainy. Though I will confess to a degree of shock regarding his nature, in many ways such a creature is easier to confront than the many human villains we have battled in the past.” In Holmes’ words I found an odd comfort. If Mr. Other ventured again into the world of men we would be ready. Looking out the cab’s window into the swirl of fog and shadow I felt — surprisingly — better than I had just the evening before. Sitting in Holmes’ Baker Street lodgings I had felt my grief keenly and — I must confess — a degree of uncertainty regarding my place in the new and lonely world into which I found myself unexpectedly thrust. Now, with the Bradstreet case closed, I was reminded of where I belonged. No longer would I wait for the leprous fog to enfold me in its oily embrace, such was not my place. Rather I was content to search the foul murk by Holmes’ side. In defense of those like Inspector Bradstreet or the forlorn Sarah whose body even now was being transported to a cold table where scalpels waited to search her flesh for answers. Should my courage weaken again I need only recall the upraised fists of the nefarious Mr. Other and my role is recalled to me.

  About the Contributors

  Editors

  J. R. Campbell’s fiction has appeared in a wide variety of publications including Spinetingler Magazine, Wax Romantic and Challenging Destiny. From time to time his writing can also be heard on radio’s Imagination Theater and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to writing, he has co-edited the Sherlock Holmes anthologies Curious Incidents 1 & 2 and Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes with his good friend Charles Prepolec.

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  Charles V. Prepolec is co-editor of the previous Sherlock Holmes anthologies Curious Incidents Vols. 1 & 2 and Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes. He has contributed articles and reviews to All Hallows, Sherlock Magazine, Scarlet Street, Canadian Holmes, and his website www.bakerstreetdozen.com. An active Sherlockian for more than 20 years with Calgary’s The Singular Society of the Baker Street Dozen, he was designated a Master Bootmaker in 2006 by the Bootmaker’s of Toronto — Canada’s national Sherlock Holmes Society. He lives in Calgary, AB, Canada with his wife Kristen and their cat Karma.

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  Visual Artists

  Cover Artist — Timothy Lantz is a full-time illustrator and graphic artist with degrees in art education and communications. During his career, Lantz’s work has included such far-flung projects as weather maps, television commercials, book covers and tarot cards. He is the author and artist of The Archeon Tarot, available from U.S. Games Systems Inc. You can find more of his work on his website, www.stygiandarkness.com

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  Frontispeice Artist — Neil Vokes has been telling stories in comic books professionally now for over 25 years. He started at Comico Comics in 1984 on the Japanese cartoon based Robotech Masters. This eventually led to co-creating Eagle, which his partner Rich Rankin and he self-published for several years through Crystal Comics, their own label. Among the many comics Neil has drawn since then: Superman Advetnures; Tarzan the Warrior; Douglas Adams’ Life, the Universe and Everything ; Untold Tales of Spider-Man; Jonny Demon; Congorilla; Ninjak; Jurassic Park: Raptor Attack; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet Flaming Carrot; Parliament of Justice; The Black Forest 1& 2 and The Wicked West 1 & 2.

  Neil has also drawn chapter illos for two film books: In All Sincerity, Peter Cushing by Chris Gullo and Vincent Price: The Art of Fear by Denis Meikle.

  He is currently drawing a new horror comic series called Flesh & Blood with his long time partner, Robert Tinnell (filmmaker and writer of The Black Forest & Wicked West books.)

  You can contact Neil for commissions or questions by writing to: ndv45@comcast.net

  Come visit Neil’s

  http://vokesfolks.blogspot.com/

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thats_All_Vokes

  http://gobsmakt-studios.blogspot.com/

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  Authors

  Foreword: Tales of Terror & Mystery — Leslie S. Klinger is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. He is the editor of the three-volume set The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, published by W.W. Norton in 2004 and 2005. The first two volumes, The Complete Short Stories, won the Edgar™, the highest award of the Mystery Writers of America, for “Best Critical/Biographical” work in 2005 and were short-listed for every other major mystery award. The third volume, The Novels was nominated for an Edgar™ and a Quill™ award as well as every other major mystery award. In 2008, The New Annotated Dracula was published by W. W. Norton to critical acclaim.

  Klinger is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, and served as the Series Editor for the Manuscript Series of The Baker Street Irregulars; he is currently the Series Editor for the BSI’s History Series and isserving his third term as Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He lectures and writes frequently on Holmes, Dracula, and their worlds. Les and his wife Sharon have five adult children and live in Malibu with their dog, and three cats. Klinger’s day job is a practice in Westwood specializing in tax, estate planning, and business law.

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  Hounded — Stephen Volk (who wrote to Peter Cushing as an avid fan of his TV Sherlock, and received a signed photograph in return!) is the creator and lead writer of the award-winning British paranormal drama series Afterlife and the notorious (almost legendary, he’s told!) BBC television “Halloween hoax” Ghostwatch which spooked the nation, caused questions to be raised in Parliament, and was quoted in the British Journal of Medicine as causing post traumatic stress disorder in children. His credits as a screenwriter include a trippy take on the creation of “Frankenstein” in the shape of Ken Russell’s Gothic; Superstition; Channel 4’s Shockers; and Octane starring Madeleine Stowe. He won a BAFTA for The Deadness of Dad starring Rhys Ifans and his first short story collection, Dark Corners, included ‘31/10’ (a putative “sequel” to Ghostwatch) which was nominated for both a British Fantasy and a Bram Stoker Award. His latest novella, Vardøger, is to be published, also by Gray Friar Press, in 2009. Amongst his several feature films and TV ideas in development are Proof, Telepathy and Burn, and he also (unbelievably) finds time to write a regular ‘think piece’ for the horror magazine “Black Static”.

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  The Death Lantern — Lawrence C. Connolly’s novel Veins was a Black Quill and Hoffer Award finalist for 2008. He follows it this year with Veins: The Soundtrack (an audio CD featuring music inspired by the novel) and Visions, a collection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from Amazing Stories, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, and others.

  Over the years his stories have been reprinted in a variety of best-of and retrospective anthologies, such as Karl Edward Wagner’s Year’s Best Horror, Thomas and Eliz
abeth Monteleone’s Best of Borderlands, and Audible.com’s Best of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Other stories have frequently been included in recommended-reading lists, including those in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin’s Press) and Best American Mystery Stories (Houghton Mifflin). Translations of his work have appeared in over a dozen languages.

  His latest stories are currently available in Cemetery Dance 59, F&SF Aug/Sept 09, Darkness on the Edge: Tales Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen (from PS Publishing), Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry (from Dark Hart Press), and The Stories in Between (from Fantasist Enterprises). A collection of his horror stories is forthcoming from Ash-Tree Press. His forthcoming novel Vipers will be released in 2010.

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  The Quality of Mercy — Willie Meikle is a Scottish writer with nine novels published in the genre press and short story credits in thirteen countries and eight languages. His “Midnight Eye” series detailing the supernatural adventures of Scottish detective Derek Adams owes more to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe than Holmes, but Sherlock would immediately recognize the Victorian streets of Glasgow that Derek inhabits.

  Willie’s next novel, The Valley (Ghostwriter Publications 2010), also has a Conan Doyle influence, being a Lost World tale of cowboys in 1863 Montana.

  Emily’s Kiss — James A. Moore is the author of 18 novels, including the Serenity Falls trilogy. When asked why his first love is horror, his answer is matter-of-fact. “You write what you like, and I guess I’ve always had a fondness for the darker things in life.” He’s been both the Secretary and the Vice-President of the Horror Writers Association, and worked in the comics field and on numerous role playing games. He’s been twice nominated for the Bram Stoker award. Vendetta, his most recent novel, is now available as is his latest short story colelction Slices.

  For more information about Jim’s work visit his website at www.jimshorror.com.

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  The Tragic Case of the Child Prodigy — William Patrick Maynard was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His passion for writing began in childhood and was fueled by an early love of detective and thriller fiction. His longtime hobby finally paid off when The Literary Estate of Sax Rohmer selected him as the second writer in forty years to pen an authorized Fu Manchu thriller. Pulp-specialty publisher, Black Coat Press published Maynard’s first book, The Terror of Fu Manchu in April 2009 to widespread praise. “The Tragic Case of the Child Prodigy” is his second foray in the mystery genre.

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  The Last Windigo — Hayden Trenholm’s short fiction has appeared in On Spec, TransVersions, Tesseracts6, Neo-Opsis, Challenging Destiny, Talebones and on CBC radio. His plays have been produced Alberta and Saskatchewan and on CBC radio. In 1993, his play, Man of No Name, was a finalist in the Theatre BC play competition and in 1994, he won the 28th Alberta Playwrting Competion with The Book of Rose. His short stories, ‘The Luck of Willie Lumen’, ‘Like Monsters of the Deep’ and ‘Lumen Essence’ were nominated for an Aurora Award (Canada’s SF Awards) in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. In 2008, after a record fourth consecutive short fiction nomination, he won the Aurora for his novella, ‘Like Water in the Desert’. His first novel, A Circle of Birds, was published by Anvil Press. His novel, Defining Diana, was released by Bundoron Press in 2008 and was nominated for an Aurora Award in the long fiction category. A sequel, Steel Whispers, was published in August 2009. He lives with his wife and fellow writer, Elizabeth, in Ottawa where he does research for the Senator for the Northwest Territories.

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  Celeste — Neil Jackson runs the small press publisher ‘Ghostwriter Publications’ on the Jurassic Coast in Southern England, with his partner, Sarah. A self confessed addict of creature features and crytozoology, as well as an obsession with the folklore surrounding the yeti and sasquatch, he has recently edited his first anthology, with the the apt title, Creature Feature.

  When the workaholic is not at his desk or working at various book fairs, he can be found in any number of local bookstores searching for tomes on his heroes, Robert Falcon Scott or Lord Horatio Nelson.

  Celeste combines his love of sea mysteries and creature features. His first novel, Boar, was released in November 2009.

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  The Best Laid Plans — Robert Lauderdale is pleased to be providing a story for one of his favorite detectives: Inspector Lestrade. While genius always has a place, there is something to be said for those who plod along ‘tenacious as a bulldog once he understands what he has to do’. A former treasurer of the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association, Rob lives with a cat, two turtles, his keyboard and various books which have washed up on his shelves over the years.

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  Exalted are the Forces of Darkness — Leigh Blackmore writer, editor, manuscript assessor, & occultist, lives in Wollongong, Australia with his two partners, three cats, and a 5000+ volume library. Leigh is completing his Honours year for the B.A. Creative Arts (Creative Writing) at the University of Wollongong.

  His most recent book is the weird verse collection, Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses (P’rea Press, 2008) which US journal Dead Reckonings declared “places Blackmore amongst the leading weird poets of our era.”

  He published & edited (with B.J. Stevens & Chris G.C. Sequeira) Terror Australis: The Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine (1987-92) and edited Terror Australis: The Best of Australian Horror. (Coronet, 1993). Leigh’s weird fiction has appeared in the Agog! anthologies (“Uncharted” was a Ditmar nominee, Best Novella, 2003), Daikaiju 3, Eldritch Tales: Dark Horrors, and online at www.ligotti.net and www.writingshow.com.

  Leigh co-edits (with chief editor Phillip A. Ellis) the bi-annual journal Studies in Australian Weird Fiction. He is Official Editor of SWWFT, the Sword & Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus amateur press association. He has contributed to many scholarly works on weird fiction including Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia (ed. S.T. Joshi & Stefan J. Dziemianowicz, Greenwood Press, 2006). Critical work has appeared in Studies in the Fantastic and Lovecraft Annual.

  Leigh regularly lectures on magick & occultism in the Illawarra, and co-facilitates MoonsKin ritual working group with his partner Margi Curtis. Their regular columns on occultism have appeared in Spellcraft and Black: Australia’s Dark Culture magazine. For further information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Blackmore.

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  The Affair of the Heart — Mark Morris became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further sixteen novels, among which are Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Fiddleback, The Deluge and four books in the popular Doctor Who range. His short stories, novellas, articles and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly-acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror movie essays by genre luminaries, for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award. His most recently published or forthcoming work includes a novella entitled It Sustains for Earthling Publications, a Torchwood novel entitled Bay of the Dead, several Doctor Who audios for Big Finish Productions, a follow-up volume to Cinema Macabre entitled Cinema Futura and a new short story collection, Long Shadows, Nightmare Light.

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  The Hand-Delivered Letter — Simon Kurt Unsworth is nearer to 40 than 35 and lives in Lancaster in the UK with his wife and child, which is a good place to live if you like that sort of thing (it’s just below the Lake District, if you’re interested, and has a nice river, several bridges and a large number of roads of varying quality). He writes when he’s not working, spending time with his family, cooking, walking the dogs, watching suspect movies or lazing about. His stories have previously appeared in the Ash Tree Press anthologies At Ease with the Dead and Shades of Darkness and he has stories due in the anthologies Exotic Gothic 3 and Lovecraft Unbound. His story Church on the Island was selected for
inclusion in the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #19 and has also been chosen for the Very Best of Best New Horror. It was nominated for a 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, and although it didn’t win it was fun being selected. His first collection, Black Dogs and Lost Places, is out from Ghostwriter Publications in 2009.

  The Hand Delivered Letter came about because I didn’t want to write a Sherlock Holmes in the ‘traditional’ voice, mostly because I wasn’t sure I could do it properly and didn’t want to get criticised too much. Instead, I remembered something Charles had said about this anthology (“I want a story about zombies on the streets of Victorian London!”), and thought, Moriarty! I didn’t quite manage the zombie hordes on the streets, but I like the result anyway, and I like the voice that I found for Moriarty.

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  Of the Origin of the Hound of the Baskervilles — Barbara Roden is one-half of the World Fantasy Award-winning Ash-Tree Press, and is a World Fantasy Award-nominated writer, whose collection Northwest Passages was published by Prime Books in 2009. She is a long-standing member of Canada’s largest Sherlock Holmes society, the Bootmakers of Toronto, and in 2005 was investitured in the Baker Street Irregulars (fittingly, in light of her contribution to Gaslight Grotesque) as “Beryl Stapleton”.

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  Mr. Other’s Children — J. R. Campbell’s fiction has appeared in a wide variety of anthologies including Best of Spinetingler Magazine, Challenging Destiny, Fantastical Visions IV and the forthcoming A Study in Lavender From time to time his writing can also be heard on radio’s Imagination Theater and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In addition to writing, he has co-edited the Sherlock Holmes anthologies Curious Incidents and Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes with his good friend Charles Prepolec.