Coolness: Holmes and His Holiness

I am in geek heaven at the prospect of this.  Sean Dailey reports:

Fans of the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle know that the great detective solved many more cases that were never recorded by Dr. Watson. Peppered throughout the canonical writings are scores of references to cases that never made it into print. Some of these include the giant rat of Sumatra and the Dundas separation case, where a marriage unraveled due to the husband’s unpleasant habit of tossing his dentures at his wife after meals. Over the years, many Sherlockians have taken a shot at writing these unrevealed cases, with varying results. Some of the best fans to follow in Conan Doyle’s footsteps are Nicholas Meyer, August Derleth, Denis Green, and Anthony Boucher. With the publication of Murder in the Vatican, Ann Margaret Lewis can join the ranks of authors who have provided worthy additions to the adventures of Holmes and Watson.

Out of over a hundred references to unrecorded Holmes mysteries, three are connected to the Catholic Church. These are “The Case of Cardinal Tosca” (originally mentioned in The Adventure of Black Peter), “The Vatican Cameos” (The Hound of the Baskervilles), and “The Second Coptic Patriarch” (The Retired Colourman). Lewis has taken these three references and expanded them into novelettes, drawing heavily on history and Catholic theology. In each of these stories, Pope Leo XIII is a major figure...