Craig Stephen Copland Books in Order
Browse Craig Stephen Copland books in order, with short summaries, series guides, and where to start with his Sherlock Holmes and historical mysteries.
Last updated: June 29, 2026
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Publication Order
89 books
A Case of Identity Theft
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
A missing husband, then a missing wife, pull Holmes into a maze of deception, murder, and stolen securities. The case grows from domestic worry into a wide, dangerous conspiracy.
A Scandal in Fordlandia
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
This Holmes adventure stretches beyond Baker Street to Ford's strange Brazilian dream project, where scandal and ambition go hand in hand. The setting gives the mystery a distinctive historical twist.
Doubting Thomas
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
A short conservative critique of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Copland challenges the book's arguments about inequality and takes a firmly political stance.
How To Elect Conservatives in Canada
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
This guidebook lays out campaign basics for conservative candidates and organizers in Canada. Fundraising, planning, messaging, and voter turnout are all part of the practical toolkit.
How to Elect Republicans in 2016
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
Another practical campaign manual, this time written for Republican candidates and supporters in the United States. It centers on strategy, fundraising, organization, and turnout.
Sherlock and Barack
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
This parody brings Holmes into contact with modern politics for a satirical romp. The fun comes from watching a Victorian detective measure himself against a very contemporary world.
Studying Scarlet
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
Copland launches his Holmes series with a fresh case for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It is a clear tribute to Conan Doyle, but it also establishes Copland's own taste for brisk plotting and historical atmosphere.
The Bald-Headed Trust
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
A powerful trust and the interests behind it give Holmes a case shaped by money and influence. The book blends boardroom maneuvering with classic deduction.
The Hudson Valley Mystery
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
Holmes and Watson leave London for a case set against the Hudson Valley, giving this early pastiche a wider horizon. Travel, suspicion, and a stubborn mystery keep it moving.
The Mystery of the Five Oranges
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
A familiar warning turns deadly again as Holmes faces a case of ominous messages and looming violence. It is one of Copland's clearest nods to Conan Doyle.
The Sign of the Third
by Craig Stephen Copland
2014
When a daughter fears that several deaths in her circle may be linked, Holmes takes on a case of family tension and layered suspicion. The story builds its mystery around competing interpretations.
A Sandal from East Anglia
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A single odd clue sends Holmes into a case with rural roots and a stubbornly hidden truth. It is one of Copland's earlier, more straightforward Baker Street mysteries.
How to Elect Conservatives in 2016
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A practical campaign handbook aimed at conservative candidates and volunteers. Copland focuses on planning, fundraising, organization, and the hard work of getting supporters to the polls.
The Adventure of the Beryl Anarchists
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
Jewels and radical politics collide in a case that lets Holmes test slogans against facts. The mystery has both a public dimension and a strong personal stake.
The Adventure of the Blue Belt Buckle
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A seemingly minor object becomes the key to a larger puzzle of motive and concealment. Holmes turns a stray clue into a full map of the crime.
The Adventure of the Coiffured Bitches
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A deliberately sharp title introduces a social mystery about fashionable surfaces and vicious undercurrents. Holmes has to cut through cruelty, vanity, and rumor to see what really happened.
The Adventure of the Engineer's Mom
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
Copland gives a familiar Holmes setup a comic nudge, then lets it grow into a real mystery. Family ties and unexpected danger sit beneath the playful title.
The Adventure of the Notable Bachelorette
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A society woman and a public scandal lead Holmes into questions of reputation, courtship, and hidden motives. It's brisk, witty, and grounded in Victorian social pressure.
The Adventure of the Spectred Bat
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
A bat that seems almost supernatural sets the mood for a case built on fear and misdirection. Holmes, of course, treats the uncanny as something waiting to be explained.
The Man Who Was Twisted But Hip
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
An unusual client and an offbeat title signal a mystery with both wit and danger. Holmes must look past surface oddity to find the real injury at the heart of the case.
The Silver Horse Braised
by Craig Stephen Copland
2015
This playful twist on a canonical title becomes a racing-world puzzle with a comic edge. Holmes follows the money, the gossip, and the mishandled evidence.
A Most Grave Ritual
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
Ritual, secrecy, and death give this Holmes mystery a darker, almost occult mood. Holmes keeps his footing by treating every dramatic flourish as a clue instead of a curse.
A Scarlet Trail of Murder
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
In 1882 Kansas City, the Reverend Mister Ezekiel Black and his doctor companion investigate a throat-slashing that opens onto older crimes. It is a western take on Holmesian deduction, with frontier grit and a memorable sleuth.
The Box of Cards
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
A small object sparks a surprisingly large mystery as Holmes works out what the cards mean and who wants them hidden. The case has the compact feel of a classic short pastiche.
The Brand of the Flying Four
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
Reverend Ezekiel Black returns for a western mystery involving gold, family questions, and trouble that reaches across the frontier. The book mixes preacherly calm, sharp reasoning, and Old West danger.
The Glorious Yacht
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
Luxury and leisure hide danger when Holmes is drawn into a case centered on an elegant vessel and the people aboard it. Closed quarters make every suspect matter.
The Most Grave Ritual
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
This edition tells the same grimly atmospheric Holmes case of ritualized fear and very human violence. It pairs eerie setup with a rational solution.
The Stock Market Murders
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
A missing young man leads Holmes to Birmingham, then to a wider pattern of killings tied to money and ambition. The financial angle gives the case a hard, modern feel.
The Three Rhodes Not Taken
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
An apparently clever title becomes a case about choices, missed chances, and conflicting paths through the evidence. Holmes has to decide which version of events can be trusted.
The Yellow Farce
by Craig Stephen Copland
2016
Holmes faces a case that looks comic on the surface but carries real risk underneath. Copland plays with parody, performance, and the gap between appearances and truth.
A Scandal in Trumplandia
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
This political parody borrows Holmesian form to poke at Trump-era spectacle and scandal. It is lighter, sharper, and more openly satirical than Copland's straight pastiches.
From the Beryl Coronet to Vimy Ridge
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
This shorter work follows a line from one famous Holmes case into the larger history around it. It reads like a reflective Sherlockian piece with a strong sense of continuity.
The Binomial Asteroid Problem
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
Science and mathematics shape this more cerebral Holmes case, where an apparently abstract problem has deadly real-world consequences. It is one of Copland's more overtly intellectual puzzles.
The Cuckold Man
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
A case of betrayal and wounded pride turns dangerous in this Holmes pastiche. Domestic humiliation becomes something darker once Holmes starts pulling at the threads.
The Grecian, Earned
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
A clue with Greek associations draws Holmes into a case of translation, identity, and hidden agendas. The title is playful, but the mystery underneath is serious.
The Impatient Dissidents
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
Restless political actors and rising pressure give this mystery a tense public backdrop. Holmes has to decide which threats are ideological, which are personal, and which are simply cover for murder.
The Mystery of 222 Baker Street
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
The day after Queen Victoria dies, a Scotland Yard inspector is found murdered in a locked room across from Holmes's home. Holmes must solve a crime that feels uncomfortably close.
The Naval Knaves
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
Naval respectability hides scheming and dishonor in this brisk Victorian puzzle. Holmes and Watson navigate official secrets, bluff, and opportunism to uncover the truth.
The Sign of the Tooth
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
A sacred relic, several unexplained deaths, and a frightened visitor to Baker Street pull Holmes into an international mystery. The book gives the classic duo a strong mix of history, religion, and danger.
The Spy Gate Liars
by Craig Stephen Copland
2017
Holmes steps into a case touched by spying, false stories, and people who lie as a matter of habit. The book leans into political scandal while keeping the deduction front and center.
Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Beyond the Canon, Vol. 1
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
The first volume in a shared Holmes anthology, bringing together modern writers to imagine cases and consequences outside the familiar canon. Copland appears among the contributors.
Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Beyond the Canon, Vol. 2
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
This second anthology volume continues the shared-project approach, offering more Holmes stories by a range of contemporary pastiche writers. Readers get variety, callbacks, and fresh angles on Baker Street.
Sherlock Holmes: Adventures Beyond the Canon, Vol. 3
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
The third volume extends the anthology's idea of exploring the spaces around the Canon. Multiple contributors, including Sherlockian regulars, take Holmes and Watson into new but familiar territory.
Sherlockian Limericks
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
This slim side project trades murder for wordplay, offering Holmes-inspired limericks and literary jokes. It's a playful break from Copland's longer mysteries.
The Adventure of Charlotte Europa Golderton
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
Three women bring Holmes a case of telegraph blackmail, a vanished archaeologist, and treasure worth killing for. It's a busy, energetic mystery with several threads meeting at once.
The Adventure of Mrs. J. L. Heber
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
A woman begins killing bachelors with shocking violence, and Holmes is asked to stop her. The case has a lurid headline feel, but the motive proves more complicated than madness.
The Adventure of the Norwood Rembrandt
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
A condemned man claims he was framed for a huge art theft and a murder, and Holmes is his last hope. The race against the gallows gives this pastiche real urgency.
The Adventure of the Prioress's Tale
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
When an elite girls' hockey team vanishes near Dover, Holmes and Watson face a race against time. Missing children, conflicting theories, and growing urgency drive the story forward.
The Dancer from the Dance
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
Set against the world of early twentieth-century ballet, this case brings Holmes into a scene of ambition, art, and jealousy. The backstage setting gives the mystery a stylish, uneasy energy.
The Horror of the Bastard's Villa
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
A clergyman's tale of a banshee on the Isle of Skye draws Holmes far from Baker Street. Gothic atmosphere meets rational detection in this eerie northern mystery.
The Solitary Bicycle Thief
by Craig Stephen Copland
2018
Copland returns to characters linked to an earlier Holmes adventure and imagines trouble after the wedding bells. A seemingly small theft opens into a larger and more personal case.
The Adventure of the Missing Better Half
by Craig Stephen Copland
2019
A missing spouse case sends Holmes into the uneasy ground between marriage, secrecy, and suspicion. The mystery turns on what husbands and wives hide from each other, and why.
The Adventure of the Pinched Palimpsest
by Craig Stephen Copland
2019
After three Oxford students are accused of murder during a museum break-in, Holmes uncovers a case involving radical ideas and a priceless manuscript. Scholarship and danger make an unusual mix here.
The Inequality of Mercy
by Craig Stephen Copland
2019
This novel revisits the aftermath of a famous Conan Doyle case and asks what justice really looks like afterward. Holmes faces consequences that the original adventure left unsettled.
The Return of Napoleon
by Craig Stephen Copland
2019
A centenary scare and the ghostly shadow of Napoleon give this book a playful, theatrical setup. Holmes must separate legend from conspiracy before old hatreds turn deadly.
The Adventure of the Devilish Footnote
by Craig Stephen Copland
2020
A publisher is poisoned at a high-minded literary gathering, leaving Holmes to sort through vanity, intellect, and grudges. It's a clever closed-circle mystery with a bookish edge.
The Adventure of the Morning Glory Murders
by Craig Stephen Copland
2020
A cluster of killings gives Holmes a case that looks simple only from a distance. As the clues open up, he finds a darker pattern behind the cheerful surface.
The Adventure of the Second Entente
by Craig Stephen Copland
2020
After a young nobleman is found dead in London, Holmes is drawn into a case with family tensions and diplomatic overtones. Personal motives and larger political questions keep crossing paths.
The Adventure of the Treacherous Trust
by Craig Stephen Copland
2020
Money, confidence, and betrayal drive this tightly wound Holmes mystery. Holmes has to work out who broke faith first, and who is willing to kill to keep the scheme intact.
The Adventure of Hope Abandoned
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
A bleak title suits a case that turns on lost chances, moral compromise, and a dangerous search for answers. Holmes and Watson press on through a mystery shadowed by despair.
The Adventure of Mata Hari's Harem
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
Espionage, seduction, and international maneuvering push Holmes into one of Copland's more openly political adventures. The case plays with wartime intrigue and the uses of charm as a weapon.
The Adventure of the Assassino Pazzo
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
A case with an Italian flavor pulls Holmes toward violence that seems wild at first glance and deliberate on second look. Watson helps trace the line between madness, performance, and murder.
The Adventure of the Dying Debutante
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
A young society woman's collapse opens the door to a case full of status, gossip, and danger. Holmes must decide whether he is chasing illness, poison, or a carefully staged crime.
The Adventure of the Philandering Philanthropists
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
Holmes investigates wealthy do-gooders whose private lives look much less virtuous than their public image. It's a social mystery about money, desire, and the damage hidden behind respectability.
The Kidnapping of Baby Carfax
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
What begins as an abduction case soon grows stranger and darker as Holmes follows the trail. The stakes are personal, urgent, and very much in the classic Baker Street tradition.
The Village of Revenge
by Craig Stephen Copland
2021
Holmes travels into a community shaped by old grudges and simmering hatred. The small setting gives this mystery a tight, claustrophobic feel as revenge begins to claim new victims.
The Adventure of Homo Creepius Maximus
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
When trouble breaks out at an elite girls' school in Oxford, Holmes must sort real danger from gossip and panic. The case mixes school politics, predatory behavior, and a steadily darkening mystery.
The Adventure of the Four Caryatids
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
Holmes and Watson tackle a case built around art, symbolism, and a clue that points to four carved women. The result is a brisk Victorian puzzle with cultural intrigue in the background.
The Adventure of the Industrious Intransigent
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
A stubborn adversary, clashing wills, and a case that refuses to behave make this another sharp Holmes pastiche. Holmes has to cut through pride, persistence, and deception to reach the truth.
The Adventure of the Sanguisurge of Surrey
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
A grieving father wants justice after his daughter is killed and the authorities dismiss the case too lightly. Holmes digs beneath the official story and finds revenge, grief, and murder tangled together.
The Adventure of the Six Gullibles
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
Holmes investigates a case of manipulation and misplaced trust, where several people have been made fools of at a cost. The title hints at comedy, but the stakes are real.
The Problem of Whispered Death
by Craig Stephen Copland
2022
A whispered clue leads Holmes and Watson into a murder case built on rumor, fear, and carefully buried secrets. It's a late-series pastiche with a strong sense of menace and a puzzle at its core.
The Adventure of the Bewildered Student
by Craig Stephen Copland
2023
A university student is found dead with his head smashed by a cricket bat, and the obvious suspect may be the wrong one. Holmes looks past jealousy and appearances to find the truth.
The Adventure of the Lying Man
by Craig Stephen Copland
2023
This case turns on false testimony, shifting stories, and the difficulty of knowing who is lying first. Holmes has to build certainty out of contradiction.
The Adventure of the Pain in the Artiste
by Craig Stephen Copland
2023
Art and irritation meet in a mystery where performance, vanity, and injury all matter. Holmes must decide whether the trouble is merely theatrical or genuinely deadly.
The Adventure of the Veil of Vengeance
by Craig Stephen Copland
2023
Holmes follows a revenge plot concealed behind costume, secrecy, and carefully timed appearances. The book leans into melodrama, then grounds it with solid deduction.
And the Books Were Opened
by Craig Stephen Copland
2024
Two murdered women at the newly public Morgan Library pull Dr. Tabitha into a case of doctors, manuscripts, and old resentments. It's a bookish Manhattan mystery with a sharp historical setting.
As Straw Before the Wind
by Craig Stephen Copland
2024
The bizarre straw-hat riots of 1922 give this historical mystery its hook. When two supposed riot deaths do not look accidental, Dr. Tabitha starts asking dangerous questions.
Created He Them
by Craig Stephen Copland
2024
The Scopes-era fight over evolution and religion becomes deadly when partisans on both sides begin to die. As a scientist and a believer, Dr. Tabitha is pulled into the argument from both directions.
In the Big Inning
by Craig Stephen Copland
2024
The 1921 World Series becomes the backdrop for murder when victims linked to the Yankees and Giants turn up dead. Dr. Tabitha and Klassen have to move fast before the killer strikes again.
Them That Trust in Riches
by Craig Stephen Copland
2024
Set around the 1920 Wall Street bombing, this launches the Dr. Tabitha series with a bang. Dr. Tabitha Stancović and Sergeant Johan Klassen face terror, class tension, and murder in roaring New York.
The Bishop and the Barmaid
by Craig Stephen Copland
2025
An untold Holmes case begins with the Bishopgate Jewel affair and traces its roots back to the Sepoy rebellion. Revenge, lost jewels, and a barmaid with a past give it a sweeping feel.
The Dundas Dental Debacle
by Craig Stephen Copland
2025
A comic-sounding marital scene, complete with flying false teeth, leads Holmes into a lawyer's murder and a web of greed, infidelity, and deceit. The case turns darker the longer he studies it.
Upon the Wings of the Wind
by Craig Stephen Copland
2025
Early aviation, air mail money, and the era around Charles Lindbergh's flight drive this Jazz Age mystery. Several bodies tied to the airplane business bring Doc and Sarge into dangerous new territory.
Sherlock Holmes and the Bogus Laundry Maid's Affair
by Craig Stephen Copland
2026
The title signals misdirection from the start, and Holmes has to work out who is fake, who is frightened, and who is profiting. It is an untold-case style mystery with a sly wink.
Sherlock Holmes and the Imitation of Catalepsy
by Craig Stephen Copland
2026
A case built around apparent death, deception, and performance gives Holmes plenty to untangle. The title suggests one of Copland's more overtly medical and theatrical puzzles.
Sherlock Holmes and the Rascal Lascar
by Craig Stephen Copland
2026
Holmes takes on a case with maritime and imperial overtones, following a slippery figure through London's shadows. It promises classic adventure with a seafaring edge.
The Return of the Giant Rat of Sumatra
by Craig Stephen Copland
2026
Copland tackles one of the great Sherlockian teasers by imagining the famous untold case. Expect an exotic menace, foggy rumor, and Holmes at work where the Canon left a blank space.
Three Untold Cases of Sherlock Holmes
by Craig Stephen Copland
2026
This collection gathers three Holmes adventures built around cases the Canon only hints at or leaves unresolved. It is a good sampler of Copland's taste for filling in Baker Street blanks.
Where should I start?
If you want classic Holmes pastiches: Studying Scarlet → The Sign of the Tooth → The Hudson Valley Mystery
If you want later standalone Holmes cases: The Adventure of the Norwood Rembrandt → The Mystery of 222 Baker Street → The Adventure of the Four Caryatids
If you want a western mystery: A Scarlet Trail of Murder → The Brand of the Flying Four
If you want 1920s New York mysteries: Them That Trust in Riches → As Straw Before the Wind → In the Big Inning
Author bio
Craig Stephen Copland is a Toronto native who fell for Sherlock Holmes early. By his own account, he borrowed his older brother's Holmes books sometime in the early 1960s and never really got over it.
That start matters.
In high school in Toronto, teachers encouraged his interest in literature and writing. He went on to study English at the University of Toronto, where he learned under Northrup Frye and Marshall McLuhan. For a while, teaching looked like the obvious next step.
It didn't stay that way. Instead of settling into a classroom career, Copland moved into a much wider professional life. Biographical notes attached to his books say he worked as a humanitarian aid executive and political consultant, and that the work took him to well over a hundred countries. That range shows up in the fiction. Even when the stories stay close to Baker Street, they often feel alert to politics, travel, class, empire, and the odd ways private lives get tangled up with public events.
He came to fiction later than many writers do. In 2014, the Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada, the Toronto Bootmakers, announced a contest for a new Holmes story. Copland entered despite having no previous fiction career, and his story A Scandal in Fordlandia placed among the winners. That seems to have opened the door. After that, he kept writing, and he kept returning to Holmes.
The result was Studying Scarlet and the long run of books that followed in the New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. These are not simple retellings of Conan Doyle. Copland likes echoes, wordplay, and sideways nods to the Canon, but he also likes giving Holmes and Watson fresh problems to solve. Readers who enjoy the series tend to come for the familiar Victorian atmosphere and stay for the new puzzles, the historical detail, and the steady rhythm of one baffling case after another.
He didn't stop with Baker Street.
Copland also pushed Holmes-style deduction into other settings. A Scarlet Trail of Murder introduces Reverend Ezekiel Black, a frontier preacher and part-time lawman in the American West. Them That Trust in Riches begins the Dr. Tabitha books, which move the action to New York City in the 1920s and put a pathologist at the center of the investigation. Different streets, different pressures, same pleasure in watching a sharp mind notice what everyone else misses.
Across the bibliography, a few things keep showing up. He likes historical settings. He likes strong, clean story engines. He likes cases built around missing pieces, aftershocks, and overlooked motives. He also seems drawn to the edges of famous stories, to what happened before, after, or just outside the official record. That makes him a natural Sherlockian, but it also gives his work a slightly restless feel, as if every solved case points to another one waiting nearby.
He is also part of the wider Holmes community, not just a lone pastiche writer. His connection to the Bootmakers, along with his appearances in Holmes anthologies and related projects, helps explain why the books often feel written by a fan who knows the old stories from the inside.
Recent author notes place him writing from a mix of cities and regions that has included Toronto, New York, Buenos Aires, and the Okanagan Valley. That feels about right. His books have the energy of someone who has seen a lot of the world and still enjoys going looking for one more mystery.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.






































































































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