McCabe and Cody

The Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Colloquium and donation of the third-largest private collection of Sherlockiana in the world were supposed to produce a weekend of great publicity for tiny St. Benignus College in Erin, Ohio. But when theft and murder come to campus, college Public Relations Director Jeff Cody finds himself knee-deep in Sherlockian suspects, besieged by an aggressive reporter he loves but no longer dates, and competing with his eccentric brother-in-law, Sebastian McCabe, to solve the crimes first.

Writer-actor-director Peter Gerard's latest film was a smash hit, but some fans of Sherlock Holmes were outraged. Why? Because 221 B Bourbon Street portrayed the beloved detective as a goateed, saxophone-playing Southern American working in 1920s New Orleans!

Popular mystery writer Sebastian McCabe is about to conquer a new world with his Sherlock Holmes play 1895. On opening night, however, his Erin, Ohio, theatrical debut as both playwright and actor is upstaged by a murder in the back of the newly renovated theater.

When popular mystery writer Sebastian McCabe agreed to take part in a literary debate in London, he had no clue that he would wind up as both investigator and suspect in the strangest case of his amateur sleuthing career. Arthur James Phillimore, investment guru to the stars and member of an elite Sherlock Holmes society, steps back into his home to fetch an umbrella one rainy day and is never seen alive again. The mystery is eerily evocative of one of Dr. Watson’s most famous untold tales, the disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore. But this Phillimore soon reappears - dead.

Pages Gone By is more than just the only used book store in Erin, Ohio. It’s also a favorite meeting place for writers and readers. And early one morning, it becomes the scene of a murder, when a body is found in the romance section. As polymath mystery writer Sebastian McCabe and sardonic sidekick Jeff Cody try to unmask the murderer of a friend, they get more help than they need from a talk-show psychologist and a group of would-be mystery writers with more imagination than deductive skills.

When Erin, Ohio native Jamie Ellicott returns home as best-selling author James Ivanhoe after a 13-year absence, it’s like the return of the Prodigal Son. His ill and aging father welcomes him with open arms. Ivanhoe’s two brothers, however, are less forgiving. The whole town gets drawn into the family drama when Ivanhoe seeks to march in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade under the banner of an anti-technology group called the Ned Ludd Society. That’s a thumb in the collective eye of his siblings, who own a company that makes microcircuits.

Small town controversies can be murder. When a newcomer to Erin, Ohio, proposes to tear down the historic Bijou Theater and erect in its place a boutique hotel, Sebastian McCabe adds “civic activist” to a long resume that already includes magician, mystery writer, professor, and amateur sleuth. With the strategic help of brother-in-law Jeff Cody, Mac launches a far-reaching campaign to “Save the Bijou.”

As chief spokesperson for St. Benignus University in small-town Erin, Ohio, Jeff Cody's job responsibilities include handling “crisis communications.” And a crisis it is when veteran journalist Maggie Barton calls Jeff on the day after Thanksgiving. She wants the whole story about a dean forced to step down because of complaints of inappropriate behavior from three women who worked for him. But that's just the overture to double murder at SBU, taxing the abilities of larger-than-life amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe and the police agencies of both town and gown.