Kruger also plays a major role in two books in Gardner’s “Secret” trilogy, the saga of one family’s involvement in British Intelligence from its founding in 1910 to the present time, as well as in the mammoth 1993 novel, Maestro, which chronicles the espionage history of the titular figure from the time of the Nazis through the Cold War.

Mainly famous as a writer of espionage fiction, the Moriarty character held a special place in Gardner’s heart. It was conceived as a trilogy, but only The Return of Moriarty in 1974 and The Revenge of Moriarty in 1975 were published when a dispute with his publisher led him to drop the idea of writing the third book.

Related: Jeremy Brett: The Real Sherlock Holmes

As both a publisher and a friend of the author, I tried for many years to convince him that the third volume would be welcome, both by me and by Sherlock Holmes aficionados around the world, as the first two books were generally lauded as the best pastiches of their kind in the long history of Sherlockian literature. It was not to be until, finally, in 2006, after three decades of my cajoling, arguing, and attempted bribery, he agreed to write the third book. This adventure, titled simply Moriarty, was not, however, the planned finale to the trilogy. That book was to have been titled The Revolt of Moriarty, with Moriarty joining forces with Trotsky as they fomented revolution in Russia. It was the book he planned to write next when he died of a sudden heart attack in 2007. He did not live to see Moriarty published a few months later.

It seems that Moriarty cannot be killed, any more than Holmes could. New works by Anthony Horowitz, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and others continue the nefarious saga.

Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Press (1975), a distinguished publisher of literary crime fiction whose imprint is now associated with Grove/Atlantic, Mysterious Press.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company associated with Open Road Integrated Media, and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won two Edgars, for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection (1977) and The Lineup (2010). He has edited more than 50 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.

The Return of Moriarty

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