Our thanks to Don Maass for his astute advice regarding the contract for this book. Special thanks to Claiborne Hancock, Iris Blasi, Maria Fernandez, and Christine Van Bree of Pegasus Books for all their hard work to make this happen and for their belief in an audience for short stories.
We were fortunate to win both the Anthony and the Silver Falchion awards for “Best Anthology” for the previous book in this series, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Tales Inspired by the Holmes Canon, and we’re very grateful to the readers who voted for those awards. However, we both know very well that the real credit for those awards goes to our amazing friends and contributors, Laura Caldwell, Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Dirda, Harlan Ellison, Cornelia Funke, Andrew Grant, Denise Hamilton, Nancy Holder, John Lescroart, Sara Paretsky, John Reppion & Leah Moore, Michael Sims, and Gahan Wilson, whose stories shone. The friends who contributed to our first volume, A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon (Random House), Alan Bradley, Tony Broadbent, Jan Burke, Lionel Chetwynd, Lee Child, Colin Cotterill, Neil Gaiman, Laura Lippman, Gayle Lynds & John Sheldon, Philip & Jerry Margolin, Margaret Maron, Thomas Perry, S. J. Rozan, Dana Stabenow, Charles Todd, and Jacqueline Winspear, got the idea started and were enthusiastic cheerleaders for succeeding volumes. Thanks also to Kate Miciak of Random House for her early support, as well as Barbara Peters and Rob Rosenwald of Poisoned Pen Press and Otto Penzler of Mysterious Books.
Finally, endless gratitude to those who work hard behind the scenes on all of our books and on whose constant support we depend: Zo? Elkaim and Sharon Klinger.