The Norwegian Missionary (Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Saints Book 1)

It is May 4, 1891, and Sherlock Holmes is dead—or so all the world believes.

His struggle with his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, on the precarious footpath overlooking the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland and their fatal plunge into the abyss have been reported in all of the newspapers of Europe. In London, the death of Sherlock Holmes is mourned by Scotland Yard and especially by his friend, Dr. John Watson.

But Holmes is not dead.

He has escaped and is very much alive.

Among his friends, only his brother, the enigmatic but lethargic genius Mycroft Holmes, knows of his survival and escape. Among his enemies, Colonel Sebastian Moran, Professor Moriarty's chief henchman, is also well aware that Holmes has escaped from the Reichenbach Falls and is making his way to Hamburg, Germany. Moran has gathered his agents to pick up Holmes's trail and to find and destroy him.

The new mystery series Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Saints, by Daniel Bay Gibbons and published by Sixteen Stones Press, will chronicle Holmes's adventures during the "Lost Years" of 1891 to 1894. During that time Holmes is in hiding, armed only with his physical strength, his phenomenal memory, his cold logic, and his certainty that he will ultimately escape from and prevail over his enemies. In Hamburg, Holmes eludes the notice of his enemies by assuming the Norwegian name of "Sigerson" and the disguise of an itinerant Mormon missionary. He is able to depart Germany unnoticed by falling in with a group of Mormons who are emigrating from Germany to America aboard the German passenger ship Hansa. From thence he travels across the United States by railway, stopping for some weeks in the Territory of Utah, the scene of the second part of the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. While in Utah, Holmes meets the Mormon Prophet, explores the vast "Country of the Saints," solves a series of baffling crimes, and then travels to San Francisco, where he books passage across the Pacific.

A second series of Holmes tales, Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Tsars, will pick up the story with Holmes visiting the Kingdom of Hawaii, exploring the exotic island of Japan, and then traveling across the vast expanse of Asiatic Russia to Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

The twelve adventures recounted in Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Saints range from Hamburg to New York, and from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City and "The Great Alkali Plain" of the Western United States.

For Holmes fans, the stories in Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Saints fill a great gap in the knowledge of Holmes's whereabouts and activities during "the Lost Years" of 1891 to 1894.

Daniel Bay Gibbons is a former practicing attorney and trial judge. He interrupted his legal career to serve a three-year mission to Russia and Central Asia with his wife, Julie. They are the parents of five children and grandparents of four. He is now a full-time writer living in Holladay, Utah. He has been an avid reader of the Sherlock Holmes canon for nearly fifty years.

The complete series Sherlock Holmes in the Country of the Saints: Twelve Tales from the Lost Years will be published serially in e-book format, followed by an omnibus print and e-book edition including all twelve parts. The twelve tales are, in order:

"The Norwegian Missionary"

"The Voyage of The Hansa"

"The Problem of the Temple Door Keys"

"The Singular Affair of the Gentile's Portmanteau"

"The Case of the Prophet's Scribe"

"The Problem of the Tabernacle Dome"

"The Chamber of Timpanogas"

"The Adventure on the Tar Sands"

"The Ca