It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr. John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan, badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity.
Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London. Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before. Moreover, there are disturbing reports of creeping shadows that inspire dread in any who stray too close.
Holmes deduces a connection between the deaths and a sinister drug lord who is seeking to expand his criminal empire. Yet both he and Watson are soon forced to accept that there are forces at work far more powerful than they could ever have imagined, forces that can be summoned, if one is brave – or mad – enough to dare.
James Lovegrove is the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Odin. He won the Seiun Award for Best Foreign Language Short Story in 2011, and the Dragon Award in 2020 for Firefly: The Ghost Machine. He has written many acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, including Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon. As well as writing books, he also reviews fiction for the Financial Times. He lives in Eastbourne in the UK.
Dennis Kleinman has been narrating audiobooks since 2013 and has at least forty titles to his credit. His career began with a biography of a British general, Sir David Fraser, and then transitioned into a series of period romance audiobooks, which opened up his creative approaches and choices to the characters that he brought to life. His body of work includes drama and mysteries, coupled with fan fiction and adventure. Adding to his resume is a three-part audiobook series covering espionage across Eastern Europe, in the Birth of an Assassin series, as well as the in-depth exploration of a family's heritage in Out of The Shoebox. Dennis worked with Douglass Davies on his novel Steinburg-a work about international political intrigue, which allowed Dennis the artistic freedom to explore his own European origins and early family history. Working with Ed Renehan of New Street Nautical Audio, Dennis has narrated half a dozen nautical themed audiobooks, including Desperate Voyage, the account of Donald Crowhurst's attempt to sail in a round the world yacht race in 1968. Dennis has worked on South African themed works that include The Lion Seeker, about early Jewish settlement and emigration to South Africa. He narrated and brought many characters to life in The Zebra Affaire, set in 1976 apartheid South Africa. Dennis adopts the various South African accents in an authentic, meaningful, and sensitive way, allowing his own South African roots to flow through the narration. Dennis was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and emigrated to the United States in 1980 after completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cape Town. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.