Davies, David Stuart 1946–

PERSONAL:

Born 1946; married; wife's name Kathryn.

CAREER:

Writer. English teacher for twenty years.

WRITINGS:

Holmes of the Movies: The Screen Career of Sherlock Holmes, New English Library (London, England), 1976, C.N. Potter (New York, NY), 1977.

Bending the Willow, Ash Tree Press (Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada), 1996.

Fixed Point—The Life and Death of Sherlock Holmes: An Audio Dramatization, adapted for audio by Meredith Granger, Classic Specialties Audio (Cincinnati, OH), 1996.

Sherlock Holmes—The Last Act (play; produced at Salisbury Playhouse, 1999), Calabash Press (Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada), 1996.

(Editor) Selected Short Stories from the 19th Century, Wordsworth Classics (Ware, England), 2000.

Starring Sherlock Holmes, Titan Books (London, England), 2001.

Clued Up on Sherlock, Atlas Publishing Limited (New Milton, Hampshire, England), 2004.

Forests of the Night (novel), Robert Hale (London, England), 2005, published as Forests of the Night: A Johnny Hawke Novel, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor) Return from the Dead: Classic Mummy Stories, Wordsworth Classics (Ware, England), 2006.

(Editor and author of introduction) Vintage Mystery and Detective Stories, Wordsworth Editions (Ware, England), 2006.

Comes the Dark, Hale Crime (London, England), 2006.

SHERLOCK HOLMES NOVELS

Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair, Ian Henry Publications (London, England), 1991.

The Tangled Skein, foreword by Peter Cushing, Calabash Press (Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada), 1998.

The Scroll of the Dead, Calabash Press (Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada), 1998.

The Shadow of a Rat, Calabash Press (Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada), 1999.

The Veiled Detective, Robert Hale (London, England), 2004.

Also author of comic book series featuring "Skelington Bones," Sherlock Holmes's comic-book alter-ego; editor of anthologies, including Tales of Unease. Edi- tor of the crime fiction magazine, Sherlock, and Red Herrings, the monthly publication for members of the Crime Writers Association.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Stuart Davies is a former high school English teacher turned writer who has written Sherlock Holmes novels, books about films featuring Sherlock Holmes, and a novel featuring his own fictional detective. As for his interest in Sherlock Holmes, Davies noted in an interview on the Sherlock Holmes Shoppe Web site: "I first encountered Sherlock Holmes in the school library. As fate would have it, the Basil Rathbone series of films was being televised at the same time. The potent combination of Conan Doyle's prose and Rathbone's performance as The Great Detective ensured my life-long love of Mr. Holmes and his world." Among the books by Davies about films featuring Sherlock Holmes is Starring Sherlock Holmes, which includes numerous photographs, plot summaries, and interviews. "Lavish pictures, knowledgeable writing, what more could you want?" wrote Eve Sanders on Sherlockiana.net.

Although the author of several novels featuring Sherlock Holmes, Davies turns to an original character for his novel Forests of the Night: A Johnny Hawke Novel. Readers are introduced to Hawke, a policeman in 1939 London who loses his eye in an shooting accident and then leaves the force to become a private detective. His first case is to find the spinsterish Pamela Palfrey, a young woman who has been missing for months. However, when Hawke investigates, he finds that Palfrey, contrary to her family's belief, was no wallflower but rather a beautiful woman who had escapades with many men. Eventually, Hawke discovers Pamela's body, leading to an encounter with a fading film star. "This book is compelling," wrote Andrea Sisco on the Armchair Interviews Web site. "His dialogue is filled with dry humor and just sparse enough to evoke strong emotions from the reader." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the author "effectively captures the London of a later era in this taut page-turner."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2006, Bill Ott, review of Forests of the Night: A Johnny Hawke Novel, p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2006, review of Forests of the Night, p. 1154.

Publishers Weekly, November 13, 2006, review of Forests of the Night, p. 37.

ONLINE

Armchair Interviews,http://armchairinterviews.com/ (October 8, 2007), Andrea Sisco, review of Forests of the Night.

David Stuart Davies Home Page,http://www.davidstuartdavies.com (October 7, 2007).

Nashville Scholars,http://www.nashvillescholars.net/ (October 7, 2007), Jim Hawkins, "David Stuart Davies: Sherlockian Editor," interview with author.

Scifipedia,http://scifipedia.scifi.com/ (October 7, 2007), brief profile of author.

Sherlock Holmes Shoppe,http://www.sherlock-holmes.com/ (October 7, 2007), "Meet David Stuart Davies."

Sherlockiana.net,http://www.sherlockiana.net/ (October 7, 2007), Eve Sanders, review of Starring Sherlock Holmes; Charles Prepolec, review of Starring Sherlock Holmes.