Leslie S. Klinger

Much has been made over the years about the John Bennett Shaw list of the Basic 100 Sherlockian Books. There are other lists of collectibles for Sherlockians as well, including my own. THE list, in my estimation–the one that served as the roadmap for my own collection–was created in 1977 by Otto Penzler, the esteemed…

I’ve been slow to write about the death of my dear friend Michael F. Whelan last week. He was known to many as “Wiggins,” the head of the Baker Street Irregulars, and in that capacity, he was a giant. Ernie Banks, perhaps the greatest of the Chicago Cubs ballplayers, said, “The measure of a man…

John LeCarré has died, at the age of 89. I read his work voraciously, beginning in my early years of discovery of mysteries and thrillers, and continuing until now. It is beyond me to write a proper appreciation of his contributions to the genre, but for me, what set his writing apart from the dozens,…

A few weeks ago, I was delighted to speak with a class of high school students “Introducing Mr. Sherlock Holmes” to them. Here’s the talk: “>Introducing Mr. Sherlock Holmes

While the pandemic has kept me from seeing friends in person, I’ve done a series of recorded conversations on a variety of topics. I thought I’d post them all here: For the Pasadena-based Literary Alliance and Altadena Public Library, I created a series of conversations for their “Open Book on Location” venue with an assortment…

On the ninetieth anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as the Black Lives Matter movement sweeps across America like an East wind, it seems like a good time to address the question: Was Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Watson racist? Should Holmes’s statue be taken down from public places? It is undeniable that…

I’m very pleased to share my conversation with Neil Gaiman about “Annotated American Gods,” writing, and the Coronavirus: Neil Gaiman and Leslie Klinger in Conversation You can read all about the new book here: Annotated American Gods The gods will be with us, I’m certain!

Having seen a friend do this, I thought that I’d take a look back at my writing activities in 2019. Despite family health issues and California wildfires, I got a few things done. Ghost Stories, an anthology I edited with my pal Lisa Morton, came out from Pegasus Books in January, as well as the…

For more than a year, I’ve only been able to hint at a very exciting project: the Library of Congress Crime Classics series! You may know that my dear friends Rob Rosenwald and Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Press have been publishing the British Library Crime Classics series here in the U.S. They conceived the…