The members of an old Oxford club are targeted, and Mycroft Holmes may be the next victim: “[Day]always captures the flavor of Conan Doyle” (The Sherlockian Times).
Six months after the bloody return of Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes is starved for entertainment. When a friend of Dr. Watson’s suggests a shooting trip in Scotland, Holmes leaps at the invitation. But after nearly a week of dreary Scottish weather, and hardly any shooting at all, Holmes is worse off than before. Watson fears the holiday has been an utter bust—until they are confronted with a murder baffling enough to be worthy of the great detective.
One of the local gentry has been found dead in his library, suffocated in the safe where he kept his most valuable documents. Holmes recognizes the dead man as a member of the same secret society as his brother Mycroft—the Oxford group known as the Seven Sinners. One sinner down, six to go . . . but if Mycroft falls, so does England, and Holmes must be quick in order to save both his brother and his country.
Barry Day is an author, scholar, and expert on legendary playwright Noël Coward. Born in England, Day was educated at Oxford and made his name writing impeccably researched books on legendary wits Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and P. G. Wodehouse. In addition to producing a series of mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes, Day wrote the book considered to be the definitive Holmes biography, Sherlock Holmes: In His Own Words and the Words of Those Who Knew Him. He is also the editor of the essential The Letters of Noël Coward.