Kane - Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell

First published 2016 by Solaris

an imprint of Rebellion Publishing Ltd,

Riverside House, Osney Mead,

Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK

www.solarisbooks.com

ISBN: 978-1-78618-034-6

Introduction copyright 2016 Barbie Wilde.

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell copyright 2016 Paul Kane and Clive Barker.

Mythology and characters found in the novella The Hellbound Heart created by and copyright 1986 Clive Barker.

Sherlock Holmes, John Watson and associated characters and places created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Cover art by Chris Moore

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

SHERLOCK HOLMES

AND THE SERVANTS OF HELL

INTRODUCTION

by Barbie Wilde

WHEN PAUL KANE first approached me about writing an introduction to his new novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, my first thought was: Egads! What kind of infernal mashup is this? Of course, my second thought was: What a brilliant idea!

When I was a little kid growing up in North America, my reading material was unconventional to say the least. Rather than the usual girlie stories, I raided my fathers library of fantasy, science fiction, horror and last but certainly not least the entire canon of Sherlock Holmes. I read and reread all 56 stories and the four novels countless times, until my poor Dads collection literally fell apart.

Fast forward to London, 1988. Im introduced to the uniquely inventive world of Clive Barker when Im cast as the Female Cenobite in his cult British horror movie, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, directed by Tony Randel.

Fast forward again to 2006. Im contacted by award-winning author and (as coined by Clive himself) Hellraiser expert Paul Kane to be interviewed for his extensively researched and seminal book, The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy. During the interview process, Paul took a generous interest in my own writing, which tended towards the real life horror of serial killers and crime fiction.

After meeting Paul, I began to delve into his books and subsequently discovered the wickedly visceral delights of RED, The Gemini Factor, The Rainbow Man, Pain Cages, Lunar, Monsters, Blood RED and more.

In 2009, Paul and his wife Marie ORegan asked me to contribute a Female Cenobite story (Sister Cilice) to their Hellbound Hearts anthology, which kick-started my career in writing horror. All the stories in the antho were based on the mythology created by Clive in his novella, The Hellbound Heart, the basis for the Hellraiser films franchise.

Well, I think the above establishes my credentials as not only a Holmes fanatic, but as a Hellraiser cognoscenti as well. So what did I think of Pauls infernal mash-up of Holmes and Hellraiser? As I certainly dont want to dangle too many spoilers in front of those eager readers out there, all I will say is what you have before you is a deliciously dark tale set in a demimonde of nineteenth-century London that bestrides not only the familiar and foggy Holmesian metropolis, but also the shadowy and perverse conurbation simmering beneath a Victorian world of frock coats, bustles and hansom cabs.

Paul masterfully creates an intricate puzzle(box) of crime, mysterious disappearances and the supernatural that initially confounds the greatest fictional detective of all time. However, Holmes, who had previously touched the darkness of the abyss at the Reichenbach Falls and survived, bravely decides to confront the diabolical challenge head on.

On this perilous journey, Holmes accompanied by the ever-faithful Watson encounters a new and powerful legion of Cenobites for a nail-biting showdown that will have you hanging on for dear life.

If youre a Holmes and Watson fan, youll love this book. If youre an admirer of Clive Barkers Hellraiser mythology of labyrinths, Cenobites and the exploration of the ultimate in sensual suffering, youll also love this book. If you like vivid, imaginative and muscular writing, then, hell, youll adore this book.

So, no more teasing. The game is afoot! Please find following, for your reading delectation, Paul Kanes Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell.

Barbie Wilde

Actress (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Death Wish 3)

and Author (The Venus Complex, Voices of the Damned)

PROLOGUE

THE BOX WAS full of possibilities; full of answers to questions he didnt even know hed asked. It was a puzzle, yes, but so much more than that. The solving of this would bring forth not only solutions, but resolutions. It would provide him with the knowledge hed been seeking all this time. And he had to see, he had to know...

The room he dwelled in was sparse. The walls bare, the floorboards dirty and littered with splinters. Such things did not trouble him. It was private; what more could he ask of the place? It did not even possess one solitary window, so there was no view to distract him not that it would have done anyway. There was nothing outside to interest him that day; nothing else existed but the box. So there he sat cross-legged, stripped to the waist, body slick with sweat from his labours. The only light in the room emanated from the candles hed arranged around himself, which caught the intricate golden panelling on the six sides of the box broken up only by the obsidian blackness of the lacquered surface beneath as it was turned over and over in his hands.

He had lost track of time in his quest to open the box. Somewhere, at the back of his mind, he knew he had been working for hours; maybe even days. He felt neither hungry nor thirsty, however. His efforts, though they had yielded nought thus far, were sustenance enough.

Just when he thought he had it, the key to getting inside would quite literally slip through his fingers and he would have to start over again. It would all be worth it, he reminded himself. No more mystery, just enlightenment. Was that not worth however long it would take? Frustration nagged at him, though. On several occasions he had almost thrown the thing across the length of the room, hoping it would smash to pieces against the wall. Only the thought of what awaited him stayed his hand. But surely it should not be so difficult, if one were willing. If one had the... desire to open the box.

Was that it? Was that what he was lacking? The desire?

No he wanted, needed this, more than he had ever craved anything in his entire life. It was a strange feeling, but the solving of the box was now the most important thing in the world to him, replacing all other concerns. All other obsessions. If only he could