Mycroft Holmes and Murder at the Diogenes Club

'The stories are atmospheric, fast-moving, ingenious and very enjoyable.' - Roger Johnson, The District Messenger

Lazy, corpulent and clever, Mycroft, elder brother of Sherlock Holmes, is back with a new adventure by David Dickinson in the series widely praised for its fidelity to the Conan Doyle originals.

Silence is golden at the Diogenes, Mycroft's Pall Mall club. You are only allowed to speak in the Stranger’s Room. But for William St John Plunkett neither silence nor speech is an option any more. He is found dead at the bottom of the great staircase, blood and brains spattered all over the marble floor.

Mycroft, although in the club at the time, leaves the details of the investigation to Inspector Lestrade, including the baffling geography of the Diogenes with its library called Plato's Cave and a dining room called Secundus the Silent. Eccentrics roam the building, Cholmondeley Warner with his matchstick cathedrals, Fitzpaine Somerset, bankrupted by grandfather clocks, the corpse himself, obsessed with attending funerals.

Inspector Lestrade is lost in the silent world of club land. Mycroft's health is failing, but he summons all his powers to resolve the murder mystery on his own doorstep. As the police close in on the killer Mycroft seems to be at death's door. ‘You must live for your country,’ his young assistant Tobias tells him, ‘you must live for England. England needs you.’

Mycroft Holmes and Murder at the Diogenes Club is the fifth book in David Dickinson’s brilliant series of novellas that started with Mycroft Holmes and the Adventure of the Silver Birches.

Praise for David Dickinson

'A cracking yarn, beguilingly real from start to finish... you have to pinch yourself to remind you that it is fiction - or is it?' - Peter Snow

'This is detective fiction in the grand style; the characters and the plot soar upwards and carry us in their wake. Powerscourt's debut in this intoxicating book is the start of a gilded life in the archives of crime.' - James Naughtie

'In this excellent novel, Dickinson weaves a tale of blackmail and murder among the royals late in Victoria's reign... One hopes to see more of Lord Powerscourt and his friends in the near future.' - Publishers Weekly

David Dickinson is the best-selling author of the Lord Powerscourt series of historical mysteries, including 'Death of a Pilgrim' and 'Death of an Old Master'.