The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is dead?or so most of the world thinks. His fatal plunge over the Reichenbach Falls as he struggled with his archenemy, Moriarty, has been widely reported. But Holmes has escaped and is alive. From 1891 to 1894, Holmes wanders through Asia. He is alone, without Watson, without Scotland Yard, armed only with his physical strength and endurance and his revered cold logic and rationality. The adventures recounted in The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes range from Lhasa to Katmandu, from the East Indies to the deserts of Rajasthan. In Tibet and throughout the Orient, Holmes is caught up in the diplomatic machinations of British imperialism that Rudyard Kipling dubbed "the Great Game." He confronts the tsarist agent Dorjiloff, the great art thief Anton Furer, and the mysterious Captain Fantome. And here, written in Holmes's own words, is the account of "The Giant Rat of Sumatra," for which until now he so famously thought the world unprepared. For Holmes’s fans throughout the world, these stories fill in an enigmatic gap, the cause of so much speculation in the great detective’s career.

Ted Riccardi is professor emeritus in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, New York. Among his special interests are the history and cultures of India and Nepal, where he has lived and traveled widely and about which he has written extensively. Riccardi lives in New York City with his wife, Ellen Coon, and their family.