The Pope Benedict XVI Award for Leadership in Scholarship & Academia

The Pope Benedict XVI Award for Leadership in Scholarship & Academia

 

Some amazing news– The Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese announced its annual winners of the 2026 Vatican II Awards, and I've been named the co-winner of this year's Pope Benedict XVI Award for Leadership in Scholarship & Academia! Congratulations to my co-winner Dr. Richard Fehring, and all of the other winners in the other categories! I was very surprised to get the news and I'm very grateful! 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

 

The Kickstarter for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal Starts September 1st!

The Kickstarter for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal Starts September 1st!

 

The Kickstarter campaign for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal begins on September 1^st!  If you have any questions about this project or the George Edalji case, please post them in the comments.  Thanks!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

The Kickstarter for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal is Starting Soon!

The Kickstarter for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal is Starting Soon!

 

The Kickstarter campaign for The Last and Highest Court of Appeal will be starting in about one week!  Please stay tuned for more details!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

Discovering the George Edalji Case Radio Plays

Discovering the George Edalji Case Radio Plays

 

In The Last and Highest Court of Appeal, I discuss three radio plays based on the George Edalji Case.  If three different plays cover the same mystery, would they be the same?  As it turns out, definitely not!  One was a straightforward retelling of the case, depicting it as a miscarriage of justice.  One portrayed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a cranky man and absolutely flipped the message of story in the last minute!  And the third… the third added a fictional main character, and presented George Edalji completely differently from all other depictions, and once again flipped the message of the production from earlier versions!  Which works best as drama?  Which is truest to life?  I discuss those questions in my book…

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

 

How I Learned About the George Edalji Case

How I Learned About the George Edalji Case

 

When I first learned about the George Edalji case over thirty years ago, I never thought that I’d be writing about adaptations of it.  I was in middle school, and I found Peter Costello’s The Real World of Sherlock Holmes in a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin.  I read it that summer and enjoyed learning about actual crimes that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really investigated.  I thought a novelization of it might make for a great book, but I was much too young to write such a book, and several years passed, and one day I learned that Julian Barnes had written a novel about the case.  Over the next twenty years, I discovered other television and radio adaptations of the case, but I realized that all of them played fast and loose with the facts.  So I decided to write a book about how the story of the George Edalji case has been told time and time again, but never completely, and rarely accurately.  That book is The Last and Highest Court of Appeal.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

 

 

The Last and Highest Court of Appeal is Out on Kindle!

 The Last and Highest Court of Appeal is Out on Kindle!

 

The Last and Highest Court of Appeal: The Dramatizations of the George Edalji Case and the Detective Work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been released on Kindle!  Please take a look!

 

The Kickstarter for the book will open in September, and the paperback edition will be out in November!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

 

Announcing The Last and Highest Court of Appeal!

Announcing The Last and Highest Court of Appeal!

 

MX Publishing is publishing my latest book on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Last and Highest Court of Appeal: The Dramatizations of the George Edalji Case and the Detective Work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  It’s a mixture of true crime and entertainment criticism: a case where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fought to clear the name of a man convicted of unsettling crimes, and challenged the nation’s government and criminal justice system; and the multiple adaptations of the story.  It’ll be released in November!

 

Here’s the book’s description!

 

It's a true crime story for the ages. 

George Edalji, a half-Parsee solicitor was convicted of shocking acts of brutality.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the acclaimed writer, decided to act like Sherlock Holmes and clear Edalji's name. 

For decades, this compelling case has intrigued authors, who have fictionalized the story for entertainment, but every adaptation has obscured some of the facts. 

The dramatizations and novelization of the Edalji case are studied here, revealing long-overlooked truths.

 

The Kickstarter for the book will open in September.  Keep alert for updates, please!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.