A sharp young Detective Inspector mentored and cherished like a daughter by the Ghost of Sherlock Holmes races to unmask a shadowy crypto-crime syndicate, only to discover the deadliest conspirator has been hiding in plain sight all along.

SYNOPSIS:

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR MARIA MARTIN (25) is a brilliant, instinct-driven investigator who hears voices, specifically, the GHOST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (61) and her long-dead MUM (50s). When three unidentified assassins turn up dead in her small town, Maria and her lover, CONSTABLE HENRY GRUBER (23), are handed the "simple task" of identifying the bodies by their glory-hungry superior, CHIEF ART SIMMONS (35). The victims include a Romanian male, a German female, and an American Nurse's Aid, all in their early 20s, who carry no ID, have filed-down fingerprints, and aren't in any database. All were sent by OBSIDIAN HEX, a secretive blockchain-based cybercrime syndicate skimming cryptocurrency from the world's most dangerous organized crime families: the Italian 'Ndrangheta and Camorra, the Russian Mafia, the Yakuza, the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels, and the Chinese Triads.

Forensic DNA leads Maria to ANDREEA SCHMIDT (32), a jailed first cousin of one victim who knows far more than she admits. Meanwhile, Sherlock's ghost begins splitting himself between Maria and Henry, losing his legendary powers of deduction in the process, confusing Moriarty for a florist and Obsidian Hex for a symphony composer. As Maria is dispatched to Bucharest and Art is humiliated off the case, the investigation unravels into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game involving Italian mobsters shooting up a tavern, Asian gangsters robbing the morgue of GPS chips implanted in the assassins' ankles, and Mexican cartel members arriving armed with stolen automatic rifles.

The true villain emerges as CAT DUNLOP (25), the charming Irish barmaid who inherited the local tavern and who is secretly an underboss of Obsidian Hex. Cat engineers Andreea's death using Henry's own taser, jams the team's body cameras, and coordinates the cremation of all four bodies through a corrupt Mayor. However, a prison bible left behind by Andreea is filled with margin notes and reveals her real name: Gertrude Gutenberg, Obsidian Hex's first recruit. Promoted to Acting Chief, Maria vows to bring down Cat's Society of Secrets. As she pins Cat's photo at the top of her murder board, three anonymous hackers in a dark basement somewhere in the world pull up photos of Maria, Henry, and Les. Another game is afoot.

THE GHOST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE SOCIETY OF SECRETS (CASE #5)