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THE DEVIL’S DUE
A SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURE
Bonnie MacBird
This book is a new and original work of fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson, and other fictional characters that were first introduced to the world in 1887 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all of which are now in the public domain. The characters are used by the author solely for the purpose of story-telling and not as trademarks. This book is independently authored and published, and is not sponsored or endorsed by, or associated in any way with, Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. or any other party claiming trademark rights in any of the characters in the Sherlock Holmes canon.
COLLINS CRIME CLUB
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Bonnie MacBird 2019
All rights reserved
Bonnie MacBird asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Cover images © Bonnie MacBird (figures); Shutterstock.com (all other images)
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008195076
Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008195090
Version: 2020-03-30
For my cousin, Chris Simpson
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
PART ONE – LONDON
1 Fog
2 221B
3 Attack!
4 Devil and Hyde
5 Brotherly Love
PART TWO – GATHERING THE TROOPS
6 The Greater Goodwins
7 The Spice of Life
8 The Lady
9 A Question of Taste
10 The Snake and Drum
PART THREE – ALLIES AND OTHERS
11 Heffie
12 The Dogged Detective
13 The Baguette Brigade
14 Death at the Opera
15 A Voice Stilled
16 Italian Air
PART FOUR – SETBACK
17 Snap
18 Helping Hands
19 Pack of Foxes
20 Might Is Right
PART FIVE – BACKWATER
21 Cat and Mouse
22 One Flask Closer
23 Zebras
24 Fabric of Doubt
25 Deep Waters
26 Into the Mud
PART SIX – OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
27 Aesthetes and Anarchists
28 Conflagration
29 Embers
30 The Baker Street Bazaar
31 The Bizarre
32 221B
Acknowledgements
Also by Bonnie MacBird
About the Publisher
On a recent late September afternoon in London, as torrential downpours skittered down the bow window of my flat on Chiltern Street, I stood looking at the grey wall of water battering the vista below. Off to the right, across Marylebone Road, umbrellas crowded the Baker Street Station tube entrance, collapsing like evening blossoms as their owners, clad in puffy jackets, windbreakers and trainers, dashed into the building.
Those doors first opened more than a hundred and fifty years ago.
I blinked and imagined it was 1890, that same station, but beneath the jumble of umbrellas was a sea of top hats, bowlers and a few flowered bonnets, well-cut suits and the occasional long dress trailing across the muddy pavement.
Deep below street level, noisy black engines belched steam and thundered through the darkness at terrifying speeds. Some superstitious Londoners would not venture into the depths. Who knew what devilish vapours might be swirling around down there?
In 1890, London was the reigning centre of culture and commerce. But even as we romanticize those late Victorian times, we must also acknowledge that this magnificent city had her woes. What astonished me about the tale I discovered that day – inscribed in neat penmanship on a faded schoolboy notebook – was how little things had actually changed. Crime, yellow journalism, mob thinking, homelessness, murder, police brutality, fear of immigrants, dark politics – all in full flower then – and now.
But who better to slice cleanly