A new year and a new title, and a slightly different look. I hope you like both. having now become SHERLOCK does not mean that the content or the editorial policy will be different. We will still strive, as alawts to bring you the best and the latest from that wonderful world of Sherlock Holmes and crime fiction. 

Our two lead features this issue look at the world of noir fiction: Paul M Chapman considers the cinematic realisation of Dashiel Hammett’s Sam Spade, while Bob Byrne travles the same means streets, suggesting that Sherlock Holmes was not only familiar with such dark and dangerous places, but he was the first to venture down them...

Contents

1. BOGART INVESTIGATES 
   Paul M Chapman on Sam Spade and The Maltese Falcon
2. HARD-BOILED HOLMES 
   Bob Byrne goes down Sherlock’s mean streets of Victorian London
3. GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER 
   Mike Ripley announces the Sherlock Wards 2001 short list
4. SHERLOCK ON SCREEN 
   Gavin Collinson cooments on the release of the BBC’s Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring Peter Cushing’s Holmes
5. BODY OF EVIDENCE 
   Calum McLeod champions Priscilla Masters in his regular review at contemporary crime writers
6. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 
   Bert Coules sends the following jottings on the recording sessions for the new BBC Radio 4 pastiche series
7. A SOUND VENTURE 
   Chris Senior reviews the above Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on cassette
8. THE LION OF DRAKSVILLE 
   Part one of a Baz Holmes story by Julian Rathbone
9. SHERLOCK STATESIDE 
   Pat Ward with the latest from America
10. TELLY ’TECS 
    Mary Andrea Clarke has the prescription for Dick Van Dyke’s Diagnosis Murder
11. UNDER THE GASLIGHT 
    Roger Forsdyke analyses fingerprints in his regular look at Victorian crime and criminals
12. SLEUTHING THE SHELVES 
    The review section edited by Kathryn White
13. CANONICAL INTRODUCTIONS 
    First published in the Strand magazine in December 1904, this is the story of The Second Stain
14. A VERY BRITISH DETECTIVE? 
    Cristian Matthews observes The World and Sherlock Holmes
15. NEWS DESK
16. MYSTERY: CAUGHT IN THE WEB 
    Bob Byrne’s choice of detective and crime fiction sites
17. SOCIETIES FORUM 
    Conducted by Roger Johnson, with Trish and Jay Pearlman on The Mini-Tonga Society
18. MORIARTY’S MUTTERINGS