Victorian Villainy

Among the world’s great fictional villains Professor James Moriarty stands alone. Doctor Fu Manchu, Hannibal Lecter, Count Dracula, Iago, Voldemort, Darth Vader, Bill Sikes, Inspector Javert, and the Wicked Witch of the West all have their fans, all have their place in popular fiction. But for every one who can tell you whose life Iago made miserable, fifty honor that Professor James Moriarty was the particular nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. But just how evil was he? These stories by Michael Kurland explore an alternate possibility: that Moriarty wasn’t evil at all, that his villainy was less along the lines of Fu Manchu and more like Robin Hood or Simon Templar. And the reason for Sherlock Holmes’ characterization of him as “the Napoleon of crime” was that the professor was one of the few men he’d ever met who was smarter than he—and he couldn’t stand it!