`”Is it really possible, do you suppose,” said Sherlock Holmes to me one morning, as we took breakfast together, ”that a healthy and robust man may be so stricken with terror that he drops down dead?”` So begins `The Adventure of the Brown Box`. Even better than his first collection, twelve new stories from the much praised Denis O. Smith, including `The Adventure of the Velvet Mask`, `The Adventure of the Tomb on the Hill`, and `The Secret of Shoreswood Hall`. Smith`s stories are of the sort most eagerly devoured by avid fans of Holmes and Dr Watson. A would-be client tells Holmes a strange tale, and he is drawn in to a seemingly impenetrable mystery. Whether in the shrouding fog of London, or far from the city, deep in the countryside, these fast-paced stories, set in the late nineteenth century, before Holmes`s disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls, recreate with wonderful fidelity the world of Conan Doyle`s best Holmes stories. This captivating anthology brings to a new audience the very best of Denis O. Smith`s work in a satisfyingly hefty compendium.