Barry Grant Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Barry Grant is the author of a bizarre line of Sherlock Holmes novels that take the famous fictional detective out of his historical setting and deposit him in the 21st Century where he must contend with an entirely new assortment of mysteries. ‘Barry Grant’ is a pen name for Barry Grant Brissman.

+Biography
Barry Grant had an interesting childhood primarily because he spent so much time with his extended family. The author has vivid memories of undertaking frequent journeys to North Dakota.

Grant was only eleven when he started. He went to North Dakota to live with his uncle on a farm for the summer. What should have been a onetime occurrence became a routine, with the author proceeding to spend every summer in North Dakota.

Some of his friends might speak highly of the journeys Barry Grant took up the Amazon on a boat. They are also more than likely to express awe at the trip the author took over the Atlas Mountains to Zagora in his Volkswagen Beetle.

But for Barry Grant, no other journey moved him quite like the regular trips to his uncle’s farm. The sojourns gave the author a memorable appreciation for prairies and agriculture. He was allowed to witness the lonely lives that some of the people on his route lived and that drove him to desire an existence lived under big skies.

When the author wasn’t too busy nurturing his appreciation for nature in North Dakota, he could be found frolicking about at his grandmother’s house. Moline, Illinois was home to Grant’s grandfather’s library.

The old man had his collection stored in barrister bookcases that lined the walls. His enthusiasm for reading was such that the shelves touched the ceiling both in the living room and the bedrooms.

It was from within the depths of his grandfather’s library that Grant discovered his love for higher culture. He realized that, with the right books, he could traverse the world, leap back and forth through time without ever taking a step outside his house.

Grant was pretty young when he encountered and fell in love with the likes of Victor Hugo, Conan Doyle, and Mark Twain. The author admits that his upbringing made him quite the peculiar creature.

On the one hand, Grant found that as an adult, he couldn’t get enough of the great outdoors and that he was ready to leap at any opportunity that allowed him to travel. On the other hand, Grant was never happier than when he had his nose buried in a book.

Considering the avid reading habit he spent so many years nurturing, and the numerous journeys he undertook as a young man, not to mention all the unique personalities he met, it came as little surprise when stories began to bubble forth in his mind, stories that he finally saw fit to commit to paper.

While the author contributed to the translation of ‘The Autobiography of Xie Bingying’ from Chinese, Barry Grant is most commonly known for his Sherlock Holmes novels.

The books follow Sherlock Holmes as he awakens in the 21st Century and attempts to master advancements in art, science, and philosophy even as he encounters new mysteries and villains.

Barry’s novels have been criticized for crafting Sherlock Holmes in a mold similar to that of James Bond.

+The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes
Mr. Cedric Coombes and James Wilson meet when James decides to abandon his career as a journalist in favor of settling down in Herefordshire. Coombes is initially just another roommate with whom James must contend.

But then Coombes begins to exhibit a lot of eccentric behavior; behavior that gets James thinking that he might have met Coombes before. It isn’t just the depth of knowledge that Coombes displays but also his amazing deductive abilities.

It isn’t until the pair becomes embroiled in a murder investigation that the truth of the matter comes to light and James unearths his roommate’s true identity.

The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes is a very divisive book. Readers that approach it as just another homage to fiction’s greatest detective tend to enjoy it. Avid Sherlock fans who think that the novel is a modern entry into the Sherlock Holmes mythos hate it with a passion.

The novel takes readers to a world where Sherlock Holmes never died. Rather, he was frozen for nearly a century, only to be revived in the 21st Century to find that his former life is no more and that he must acclimate to a new wholly alien society.

James Wilson is a retired journalist who moves to Herefordshire to live the rest of his days out in peace and quiet. James decides to bring a roommate onboard because it would make the rent that much easier to handle.

James suspects that Coombes isn’t who he claims to be from the moment they meet. In fact, the retired journalist is pretty sure he’s met his roommate before. When a murder rocks their community and Coombes is asked to assist in the investigation, James tags along.

As he watches Coombes work, James begins to form an idea as to what the true identity of his roommate might be.

The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes has been praised for giving Sherlock Holmes, its primary protagonist, an authentic voice and mannerisms that make him feel like he was lifted right out of the original novels.

+Sherlock and the Shakespeare Letter
Sherlock Holmes is alive and breathing in the 21st Century. His new life began when he emerged from a Swiss Glacier that had preserved him for the last ninety or so years.

He took a moment to catch his breath and find his footing in the new world. Then he set his sights on solving his first murder in almost a century, a feat he successfully completed.

Now Sherlock has taken on a new case. He has begun prowling London’s streets in search of a Letter that everyone says Shakespeare wrote. He is joined in his efforts by James Wilson, his roommate, and a retired journalist. Together they will run headlong into a conspiracy that involves international terrorists.