Sherlock Holmes is dead. But his nemesis is not.

James Moriarty is severely wounded, his organisation has been dismantled and Sherlock Holmes is dead. Fleeing to recover, desperate to rebuild his empire, Moriarty must assume a new identity.

Months after Sherlock’s death, aspiring doctor Clara Mendel returns to Schloss Alber after a six-year absence. The vast estate, which hangs high upon the cliffs of Bavaria, is home to the noble Alber family. A priceless sword, on which the family’s wealth and reputation depends, has been stolen from the grave of the intended heir, Clara’s step-father.

Lord Alber has placed his trust firmly in his esteemed new friend, a Mr Hugo Strahm, to find the sword and prevent the noble family’s ruin. Once they have spent more time together, Clara becomes intrigued by Strahm’s formidable intellect: finally she has an equal at Schloss Alber.

But Clara isn’t naïve. She knows the secrets a great house like Schloss Alber can hide. And as she spends more time in Mr Strahm’s company. she begins to suspect him of hiding his true identity. Can she really trust him to find the missing sword?

The start of a fiendishly inventive and enjoyable new historical mystery series. Jack Anderson’s Moriarty Mystery books see Sherlock Holmes’ iconic villain re-invented for a whole new generation of readers.

‘The Hotel du Lac was a dignified building, a house of repute, a traditional establishment, used to welcoming the prudent, the well-to-do, the retired, the self-effacing, the respected patrons of an earlier era’

Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating loneliness is renewed . . .

‘A classic . . . a book which will be read with pleasure a hundred years from now’ Spectator

‘A smashing love story. It is very romantic. It is also humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever’ The Times

‘Hotel du Lac is written with a beautiful grave formality, and it catches at the heart’ Observer

‘Her technique as a novelist is so sure and so quietly commanding’ Hilary Mantel, Guardian

‘She is one of the great writers of contemporary fiction’ Literary Review