All our favourite characters make an appearance, of sorts – Moriarty issues doom-laden prophecies from Holmes’ mouth when his concentration lapses, Lestrade is a fine enough detective when he’s not licking the blood evidence off the walls and wishing the world into non-existence, and Grogsson is a houseproud ogre with a great love of ballet. The first book in the hilarious saga of Warlock Holmes and Dr John Watson is made up of retellings of six of the original Holmes short stories, brilliantly woven together into the beginning of one grand narrative. This is his narration of the cases that he and Warlock investigate, and the story of how, exactly, the world ended. With the spirit of his nemesis living in his head, his best friends a vampire and an ogre (both police detectives), and his habit of ingesting poisons in order to silence the voice of Moriarty and then enlist the might of demons to aid his recovery… John soon adapts to his new life of covering for Warlock’s social indescretions with explanations relying on remarkably faked deductions. But he soon realises that Warlock Holmes is not your average Victorian gentleman. When Warlock Holmes agrees to take John in as a flatmate for the cost of a sovereign – one sovereign total for indefinite lodging, to be delivered at some point in the future – John is simply relieved to have a roof over his head.

John Watson is invalided home with a shot shoulder and recovering from typhoid, he doesn’t have high hopes for his future.

Warlock holmes a study in brimstone