THE FULHAM STRANGLER

The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Professor Moriarty is published today, October 15. It is another splendid anthology of short stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

There are 37 stories about Sherlock Holmes's arch enemy, Professor James Moriarty. The Fulham Strangler by my alter ego Keith Moray is a tale featuring both the professor and the detective.

Fulham is, of course, an area of London. It was renowned in days gone by for dice tricksters, who manufactured various types of crooked dice. Some were known as Fulhams. And that is the lead into the story.

As for who is The Fulham Strangler, well, you might like to read and find out.

It is available today in paperback, ebook or audiobook.

A bit about crooked dice

The Museum of London has in its possession a most curious little item that shows that dice-tricksters were thriving and presumably plying a lively trade in the sixteenth century. It consists of a small pewter pot that was found buried in centuries old silt on the north bank of the River Thames, near to London Bridge. When cleaned up they found an engraved double-headed eagle within a shield. Inside it were twenty-four small dice, and not one of them was an honest one.

            Eighteen of the dice were loaded. X-rays revealed small bored holes containing mercury which made them fall a certain way. These would have been known as ‘Fulhams,’ since the Thames side village of that name was notorious for dice-tricksters. Eleven of these eighteen would land as a five or a six, while seven would land as a one or two.

            Three others were ‘high men’ which means that they only had the numbers six, five and four on them. And the remaining three were ‘low men’ with only one two and threes. These work on the principle that only three faces will show at a time. A practiced dice-trickster could easily palm and replace honest dice for his chosen crooked ones.

            Yet it was a risky business, for flogging in the public pillory with the crooked dice strung round one’s neck was one of the penalties for being caught with such dice. Habitual offenders could expect a one-way trip to the gallows.

WESTERN BUNDLES

I am pleased to say that there are a couple of Western bundles with  Clay More stories in them. Clay More is the western pen-name of Keith Souter, who is also sometimes known as Keith Moray.

The first is WESTERN ROUNDUP, a bundle from High Noon Press, which includes the short story DEAD IN THE SADDLE, the first Doc Marcus Quigley story. 

Doctor Marcus Quigley, qualified dental surgeon, gambler and sometime bounty hunter has gradually been working his way west. His reasons for choosing such a lifestyle are personal and pressing, as well as expedient, for there is someone he means to track down and hold to account for a murder committed some years previously.


In DEAD IN THE SADDLE Doc Marcus Quigley has set up a temporary consulting room in Hagsville. He has just pulled the tooth of one of the town’s loafers when Jordan Parker, the town banker falls dead from his horse in the middle of the main street. When Sheriff Dan Morgan asks him to examine the body Marcus discovers some strange things that to a trail of death and duplicity and which put him right into the jaws of danger.

And just look at the other writers!

Available from Helping Hands Bookshop

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The second ebook collection is published by Western Fictioneers Library. It is called SIX GUNS: SIX CLASSIC WESTERN NOVELS. My novel is STAMPEDE AT RATTLESNAKE PASS.

Available from Amazon.com or Amazon.uk

Six classic Western novels. The good old shoot-'em-up westerns are still around, and this collection has six by the masters of the genre. 

William M. "Bill" Tilghman had one of the most illustrious careers of any Old West lawman, but he faced perhaps his greatest and most dangerous challenge when he rode alone into the wild Oklahoma Territory settlement of Burnt Creek on the trail of a gang of rustlers and outlaws with some unexpected allies . . . THE LAWMAN, by New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner, is the first novel in the West of the Big River series. 

In Frank Roderus’ HOME TO TEXAS, Charlie McMurty brought a herd north, got a great price, and had enough left over once he repaid his neighbors to buy a ranch so he could ask for the hand of his sweetheart. Unfortunately, on the way back to Texas he was robbed and left for dead. To make matters worse one of his attackers was his friend he'd hired to help him with the herd. All he had left was a big debt back home and a big hole in his chest. His new quest became the need to be able to return his neighbor's money. First he had to heal and learn some fancy shooting. 

Violence stole young Ben Brand's family from him, but blessed with uncanny speed and skill with a gun and befriended by an old mountain man, Ben sets out on a bloody quest for vengeance. As he tracks his enemies over the years and the miles, Ben battles men and the elements—and risks his own soul—to become the avenging nemesis known as Iron Heart! Long out of print and originally published under the pseudonym Walt Denver, IRON HEART is a classic Western from Jory Sherman. 

Veteran author Clay More spins a fast-paced Western adventure in STAMPEDE AT RATTLESNAKE PASS. With her father murdered and her brother crippled by bushwhackers, half her herd stolen and her crew massacred by vicious rustlers, beautiful blond Elly Horrocks is going to have her hands full keeping the family ranch going. Luckily for Elly, drifting cowpoke Jake Scudder has a nose for trouble. It'll take all of Scudder's skill with guns and fists to save himself and keep Elly from being wiped out. Diamondbacks aren't the deadliest varmints in Rattlesnake Pass anymore! 

Some men deserved to die like rabid animals. In FAST HAND the Thornberrys and their worthless cousin counted among those the world would be better off without. Judge Sebastian Hand sentences the Thornberry gang to the gallows for rape and murder. But when they escape, the judge trades in his gavel for a gun, and suddenly he's judge, jury, and executioner all in one. Karl Lassiter is the pen name of a prolific author who also writes under the pen name Jackson Lowry. 

James J. Griffin's famous character Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk isn’t really working for the Rangers this time. In fact, he winds up on the wrong side of the law with the Rangers after him, because he takes off his badge and goes after the gang that attacked and possibly murdered his wife and son. As a result, RANGER’S REVENGE is a little grittier than Griffin’s earlier books, but it has the same fine action scenes, interesting settings, and welcome touches of humor.