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Happy publication day A Study In Starlets!

Hey you! You like Sherlock Holmes right? Of course you bloody well do!

Well, we’ve got good news for you: Gini Koch’s bloody (and we mean this really quite literally) marvellous A Study In Starlets is out in eBook format TODAY!

That’s right, for less that the price of your caffeinated beverage of choice, you can bag some of the finest Holmesian literature currently to be found anywhere in the known (or unknown) universe.

But what, we hear you cry, is A Study In Starlets about? Well, in a universe where Ms. Sherlock Holmes (that’s right, your eyes don’t deceive you, we said miss) and her trusty Watson have relocated to Hollywood and set up as private investigators, murder, mystery and all the seedy darkness of early Hollywood follow them around and, well, things get messy.

Irresistible isn’t it?

A Study In Starlets is out now, and you should buy it. Immediately. Go on, off you pop…

Buy:US|UK

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Solaris damns its soul with acquisition of Sherlock Holmes and the Servants Of Hell

The world’s greatest detective crashes into Clive Barker’s infamous realm of horror in the crossover event of 2016. And Solaris is going to hell in process…

We’re obviously pretty damned excited announce the acquisition of Sherlock Holmes and the Servants Of Hell, an horrific adventure from bestselling author Paul Kane that pits the Great Detective against the Cenobites of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser mythos.

About as far away from Benedict Cumberbatch as you can get, Kane’s story – which has remained shrouded in secrecy up to now – is undoubtedly Holmes’ most outlandish adventure to date, launching Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s finest creation headlong into Clive Barker’s famous Hellraising universe.

Solaris Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Oliver commented on the signing:

“The world’s greatest detective meets horror’s greatest icons, what more could you want? Paul has been a significant voice on the horror scene for a while now and he’s steeped in Clive Barker’s hell-bound mythos. That we now have the chance to pit Holmes against a world he could never have imagined is very exciting indeed. This promises to be a journey into hell, pitting two great masters against each other. Gruesome, yet compelling, Kane will undoubtedly deliver the horror crossover of 2016.”

Paul Kane said:

“I’m incredibly excited – if also more than a little daunted – by the prospect of this book. It’s only the third long form fiction featuring elements from Clive’s Hellraising universe, coming after The Hellbound Heart and this year’s massively successful The Scarlet Gospels, and the first time Holmes has ever encountered the mythology. Readers can expect a very different kind of Holmes book, and a very different kind of novel featuring Hell and its famous Servants.”

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants Of Hell by Paul Kane will be published by Solaris in July 2016.

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants Of Hell

Late 1895, and Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr John Watson are called upon to investigate a missing persons case. On the face of it, this seems like a mystery that Holmes might relish – as the person in question vanished from a locked room – and something to occupy him other than testing the limits of his mind and body.

But this is just the start of an investigation that will draw the pair into contact with a shadowy organisation talked about in whispers and known only as ‘The Order of the Gash’. As more and more people go missing in a similar fashion, the clues point to a sinister asylum in France and to the underworld of London. However, it is an altogether different underworld that Holmes will soon discover – as he finds himself face to face not only with those followers who do the Order’s bidding on Earth, but those who serve it in Hell: the Cenobites…

About the author

Paul Kane is the author and editor of over fifty books, including the bestselling Arrowhead trilogy for Abaddon Books. His genre journalism has appeared in the likes of SFX, Rue Morgue and DeathRay, and he is regarded as a leading authority on Clive Barker’s Hellraiser mythos, having written numerous articles on the series as well as The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, published by McFarland books. He lives in Derbyshire with his wife, the horror writer Marie O’Regan, their children and a black cat called Mina.

Don’t forget to follow Paul on Twitter, and keep checking back to Solaris for more news!

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Discover a new Sherlock in A Study In Starlets

Think you know Sherlock Holmes? Think again!

In A Study In Starlets, the latest Holmesian novella from Abaddon (which is available for preorder now), Gini Koch’s Holmes is quite unlike any you’ve ever seen before. She – aha! – is, among other things, based in LA, and solving crimes by trawling Hollywood’s dark underbelly…

‘It’s apt that Gini Koch’s chosen the world of television as the backdrop for her stories,’ says Abaddon chief David Thomas Moore. ‘Gini’s Sherlock is one of those characters you start mentally casting the moment you meet her (Anne Hathaway, if you’re wondering). She’s a true Holmes – insightful, sharp, impatient and unassailably self-righteous – but with a warmth, and a loving wit, that both perfectly complement the character and take you entirely by surprise. A Study in Starlets is a brutal takedown of Hollywood, and an utterly joyous romp.’

Along with her partner Dr. John Watson , she’s just settling in as a consulting detective in hernew home, when notorious reality starlet Irene Adler comes to call, asking for their help solving an extraordinary—and embarrassing—theft.

As a thoroughly smitten Watson closes the door on Adler’s back, TV producers Joey Jackson and Tony Antonelli call on the pair. Their partner, Cliff Camden, has disappeared without a trace on the eve of filming for the new show; rumour has it he’s taken off with their money. The LAPD aren’t interested and Watson has nothing but contempt for the three, but Holmes takes the case.

As they pick their way amongst the grumbling crew, the neurotic actors and the low-level sleaze that permeates the city, it starts to become clear the two cases are connected—when a murder turns everything on its head…

A Study in Starlets is the second of three new novellas following on from the stories in Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets, and includes the story “All the Single Ladies.”

A Study In Starlets is out on 11 September.

Preorder now: US|UK

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An alternate Sherlock takes on The Case Of The Tattooed Bride

 

Ever wondered how Sherlock Holmes would deal with violence, intrigue and circus folk, all at the same time?

No? Ok, it’s a pretty specific situation so we’ll let you off, but doesn’t it sound cool? The correct answer is, of course, yes it bloody well does. And pretty soon you’ll be able to read this amazing tale of other-Holmes in Jamie Wyman’s The Case Of The Tattooed Bride, a brand new novella from Abaddon out on eBook on 16 July.

We’re publishing more other-Sherlocks after the resounding success of our Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets, with The Case Of The Tattooed Bride the first eBook novella in a series that will eventually form a brand new print anthology. Exciting, eh?

But what’s it all about? Well, picture the scene: Winter, and the Soggiorno Brothers’ Traveling Wonder Show has pulled into its berth in Peru, Indiana; Sanford “Crash” Haus – this world’s Sherlock – and his friend, surgeon and retired soldier Jim “Dandy” Walker, are looking forward to a quiet few months. But then the Show’s old manager, Professor Sylvestri, comes into town, his ward in tow, and happily, too, because the Strong Man and the Tattooed Lady have just announced their betrothal, and the good Professor happens to be a minister. Preparations for the happy day begin, but it seems violence and misfortune attend on them…

“What I loved most about Jamie’s dirty-thirties era carnival-Holmes was the richness of the world the wonderful characters and the huge promise in the setup,” says editor David Moore. “It’s a joy and a privilege to be bringing out the next chapter in the irascible Sanford Haus’s – and the tragic Jim Walker’s – histories.”

After a misspent adulthood pursuing a Music Education degree, Jamie Wyman fostered several interests before discovering that being an author means never having to get out of pajamas. She has an unhealthy addiction to chai, a passion for circus history, and a questionable hobby that involves putting a flaming torch into her mouth. When she’s not traipsing about with her imaginary friends, she lives in Phoenix with two hobbits and two cats. Jamie is proud to say she has a deeply disturbed following at her blog.

The Case Of The Tattooed Bride is out on 16 July.