Sherlock Holmes and The Sword of Osman
It's 1906. Far from England, the Ottoman Empire ruled by the despotic Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid 11 is on the verge of imploding. Rival Great Powers, especially Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, sit watching like crows on a fence, ready to rush in to carve up the vast territories, menacing England's vital overland routes to her Indian possessions. At his medical practice in London's Marylebone Watson receives a mystifying telegram. It's from Holmes. 'Dear Watson, if you can throw physic to the dogs for an hour or two I would appreciate meeting at the stone cross at Charing Cross railway station tomorrow noon. I have an assignation with a birdlover at the Stork & Ostrich House in the Regents Park which has excited my curiosity. Yrs. S.H.' Watson finds the invitation puzzling. Why should such a mundane meeting at a Bird House excite the curiosity of Europe's most famous investigating detective or anyone else? For old times' sake Watson joins his old comrade-in-arms. Within days Holmes and Watson find themselves aboard HMS Dreadnought en route to Stamboul, a city of fabled opulence, high espionage and low intrigue. Their mission: at all costs stop a plot which could bring about the immediate collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
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Tim Symonds
Tim Symonds was born in London. He grew up in Somerset, Dorset and the Channel Island of Guernsey. After several years travelling widely, including farming in the Highlands of Kenya and living along the Zambezi River in Central Africa, he emigrated to the United States. He studied at Göttingen, in Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in Political Science.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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