Mystery Makers
Meet some of the writers and game designers behind our mysteries.
Janina Woods
Janina Woods is a game designer turned author, developing Virtual Reality experiences during the day and writing the night away. She adores tricky mysteries and unlikely detectives, as well as horror and science fiction. While she writes classic Holmes mysteries for ‘Dear Holmes’, she is a big fan of reimagined Holmes characters in new worlds and with new challenges. When she isn’t writing (which is a rare thing indeed), she is an avid gamer and reader. Janina lives in Switzerland (about 1.5h from the Reichenbachfall) with her partner and two cats, who don’t understand the meaning of personal space.
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David Marcum
David is a staunch supporter and defender of traditional and Canonical Sherlock Holmes adventures. He has written over 70 pastiches (so far), and has edited over 50 Holmes anthologies and related volumes. By day he’s a licensed civil engineer who lives in Tennessee with his wife and son. Since 1975, he’s collected, read, and chronologicized several thousand Holmes adventures, and he’s trying to get them all.
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Mark Mower
A long-standing member of the Crime Writers’ Association Mark is also a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the Solar Pons Society of London. To date, he has written 30 Sherlock Holmes pastiches and his stories have appeared in over 20 anthologies. His own books include A Farewell to Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Case-Files and Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Legacy (all with MX Publishing). He is currently working on a fourth book, which will be published in May 2021.
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Richard Ryan
A lifelong Sherlockian, Richard Ryan is the author of “The Vatican Cameos: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure” and “The Stone of Destiny: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure,” “The Druid of Death,” “The Merchant of Menace” and “Through a Glass Starkly.” He is currently at work on his sixth Holmes novel, “Three May keep a secret.” Among his other credits are “The Official Sherlock Holmes Trivia Book," a book on Agatha Christie trivia and the well-received murder mystery “Deadly Relations,” which has been produced twice off-Broadway. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in medieval literature. To this day, he remains a die-hard fan of the Fighting Irish.
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Joseph Svec III
Poet and author, Joseph W. Svec III is retired from Oceanography, Satellite Test Engineering and teaching. He has written four new Sherlock Holmes adventures, including the Missing Authors trilogy, which sends Holmes and Watson in search of authors, Lewis Carroll, Jules Verne, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and it is their literary characters, come to life, that are seeking Holmes’s help in locating their author. In addition, he has co-authored Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the First Unicorn, as well as contributed two poems to the MX Collection. Beyond the world of Sherlock Holmes, Joseph has published a book of rhymed and metered story poems, a reference book on toy castles from around the world, and numerous technical papers, and magazine articles. He also enjoys writing, gardening, and sharing afternoon tea with his wife.
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Orlando Pearson
Born a few hundred yards from Baker Street, Orlando Pearson is the creator of The Redacted Sherlock Holmes series which has already appeared in print, ebook, and audio. Want to see Sherlock Holmes rescue Queen Victoria, interrogate Heinrich Himmler, clear Macbeth of murder, or give the Almighty advice? Then Orlando’s works are for you. He is also the host of Evenings with Sherlock Holmes which have been broadcast to fourteen countries – an example of which can be found under the link below–. Orlando is a certified public accountant who enjoys sport, Classical music, and browsing price- comparison websites. He has written Sherlock Holmes stories on all these topics.
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Derrick Belanger
Derrick Belanger, PSI is an author and educator most noted for his books and lectures on Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as his writing for the blogs I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere and Belanger Books Sherlock Holmes and Other Readings Blog. Both volumes of his two-volume anthology, A Study in Terror: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Revolutionary Stories of Fear and the Supernatural were #1 best sellers on the Amazon.com U.K. Sherlock Holmes book list, and his MacDougall Twins with Sherlock Holmes chapter book, Attack of the Violet Vampire! was also a #1 bestselling new release in the U.K.
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Matthew Simmonds
Hailing from the historic market town of Bedford in the South East of England, Matthew Simmonds has written numerous short stories and his first novel, "Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of The Pigtail Twist" was published in 2018.
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Chris Chan
Chris Chan is a writer, educator and historian. He works as a researcher and “International Goodwill Ambassador” for Agatha Christie Ltd. His true crime articles, reviews, and short fiction have appeared in The Strand, The Baker Street Journal, and numerous other publications. His first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia,” was published in 2020. His next book, Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was nominated for the 2022 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction. He is also the author of the comedic novel Sherlock’s Secretary.
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*Please note that these are just a select few of our mystery makers. True to their nature, some of our mysterious mystery writers have opted to keep their identity a secret.