title: The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part IV: 2016 Annual
author:  David Marcum 
description: <span>David Marcum first discovered Sherlock Holmes in 1975, at the ageof ten, when he received an abridged version of The Adventures during atrade. He is the author of &quot;The Papers of Sherlock Holmes&quot; Vol.'s I andII (2011, 2013), &quot;Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt&quot; (2013) and&quot;Sherlock Holmes - Tangled Skeins&quot; (2015). Additionally, he is theeditor of the three-volume set &quot;Sherlock Holmes in Montague Street&quot;(2014, recasting Arthur Morrison's Martin Hewitt stories as early Holmes adventures,) and the massive three-volume &quot;The MX Book of New SherlockHolmes Stories&quot; (2015). He has contributed essays to the &quot;Baker StreetJournal&quot;, &quot;The Solar Pons Gazette&quot;, and &quot;The Gazette&quot;, the journal ofthe Nero Wolfe Wolfe Pack. He began his adult work life as a FederalInvestigator for an obscure U.S. Government agency, before theorganization was eliminated. He returned to school for a second degree,and is now a licensed Civil Engineer, living in Tennessee with his wifeand son. He is a member of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, TheJohn H. Watson Society (&quot;Marker&quot;), The Praed Street Irregulars (&quot;TheObrisset Snuff Box&quot;), The Solar Pons Society of London, and The Diogenes Club West (East Tennessee Annex), a curious and unofficial Scion ofone. Since the age of nineteen, he has worn a deerstalker as hisregular-and-only hat from autumn to spring. In 2013, he and hisdeerstalker were finally able make a trip-of-a-lifetime HolmesPilgrimage to England, where you may have spotted him. If you ever runinto him and his deerstalker out and about, feel free to say hello! </span>
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  THE SHERLOCK EFFECT
  
  RAYMOND KAY LYON
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All Rights Reserved
  
  Copyright © Raymond Kay Lyon 1997, 2017
  
  First published in 1997 by Alibi Books
  
  This edition published in 2017 by:
  
  Thistle Publishing
  
  36 Great Smith Street
  
  London
  
  SW1P 3BU
  
  [www.thistlepublishing.co.uk](http://www.thistlepublishing.co.uk)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To Marco and Shelly,  
  for their support and advice.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  CONTENTS
  
  [Origins](index_split_004.html#filepos2321)
  
  [Recent History](index_split_005.html#filepos7343)
  
  [The Fur Trade](index_split_006_split_000.html#filepos18269)
  
  [The Warminster Assignment](index_split_007_split_000.html#filepos111560)
  
  [The Persistent Admirer](index_split_008_split_000.html#filepos211880)
  
  [Gardener’s Questions](index_split_009_split_000.html#filepos319711)
  
  [The Balcony Scene](index_split_010_split_000.html#filepos417308)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## ORIGINS
  
  
  
  
  
  My father, the late Reverend Allen Webster, was a conscientious man who tended
  his flock with good-humoured devotion. But he h