Sherlock Holmes plunges from Reichenbach Falls and wakes to find himself in the care of a mysterious inventor with a terrible secret in my new dark mystery story “The Executioner,” out now in Gaslight Arcanum, the third in a series of Holmes anthologies from Charles Prepolec, Jeff Campbell, and the good people at Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy.
The book features an amazing cover by Dave Elsey, who won the Academy Award ® for his make-up design on The Wolfman (2010), and a wonderfully surreal frontispiece by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.
In addition, six of the twelve stories (including “The Executioner”) feature scene-specific illustrations by Luke Eidenschink, winner of the International Illustrators of the Future Award.
The book’s list of contributors includes some of the top names in dark fiction, including my good friends Stephen Volk and Simon Kurt Unsworth — both of whom also accompanied me on the contents page of Edge’s previous Holmes collection, Gaslight Grotesque.
With additional stories by Christopher Fowler, Kim Newman, Paul Kane, Tom English, Tony Richards, William Meikle, Fred Saberhagan, Kevin Cockle, and Simon Clark, this is one book you won’t want to miss.
Two years ago, when Gaslight Grotesque debuted at World Fantasy – San Jose, I presented an excerpt from my story “The Death Lantern” at a reception hosted by Edge. Next month I hope to be reading a portion of “The Executioner” at World Fantasy – San Diego. If you’re attending, I’ll hope to see you in the gaslight.
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