Mysterious Music

A luxury seaside hotel, a famous composer and a haunted piano are at the heart of my final mystery for The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories in The Sound of the Grand’s Piano.

The story is set in 1905, not long after Holmes’s retirement to the South Downs. A short distance away lies the seaside town of Eastbourne, with its Grand Hotel. It was a popular holiday destination for the rich and famous, among them composer Claude Debussy who spent a few months there working on his latest composition, La Mer. During his stay, he calls upon Holmes and Watson to investigate a musical mystery.

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories started in 2015 when editor, David Marcum, asked leading Sherlockian authors from around the world to contribute traditional stories about Holmes and Watson, written in the style of Conan Doyle’s stories and set within the continuity of the original canon. Now, after ten years, 52 massive volumes, and over 1,000 stories from over 200 contributors, the collection is coming to an end.

All the author royalties from these books have been donated to the Undershaw school for special needs children, located at one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes, over $135,000 (so far). A special celebration to mark the conclusion of this massive project will take place at the school on 17 May 2025, which will be Livestreamed to fans around the world.

The Sound of the Grand’s Piano appears in Part LII of The MX Collection of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, the final volume of this massive collection of traditional Sherlock Holmes pastiches. The last four books, containing 81 new stories between them, are available to pre-order now through Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mxpublishing/the-mx-book-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-xlix-to-lii.