Happy 2025! Let’s kick butt for another year. Or at least, limp to the finish 52 weeks. from now. I take what I can get. I started a Best of Bob feature last year. And while it may seem I’m constantly finding folks to write my column for me (hey – it’s a gift!), some of you Black Gaters may be surprised that I occasionally actually write my own essays for the Monday morning slot. John O’Neill is too savvy an editor for me to completely fool him for over decade.

So here are what I thought were ten of my better efforts in 2024. Hopefully you saw them back when I first posted them. But if not, maybe you’ll check out a few now. Ranking them seemed a bit egotistical, so they’re in chronological order. Let’s go!

1) Roaming the Old West, with Holmes on the Range (February 5, 2024)

It might look like I just throw something together every week (and looks aren’t always deceptive). But when I can find the time, I love putting together something special. And after reading/re-reading the entire series, I really nailed a three-part series on Steve Hockensmith’s Sherlock Holmes influenced, Old West mysteries about cowboy brothers Old Red and Big Red.

I followed up a pretty solid series overview, with the first-ever comprehensive chronology! And then, we rounded it out with a great Q&A from Steve himself. This is a terrific series: a great read, and solid on audiobook. Late in the year, the first two novels in a spin-off series that’s more Old West adventure than Holmes-flavored, came out. I’m looking forward to more of all aspects of the Double-A Western Detective Agency.

2) Terry Pratchett: A Modern-Day Fantasy Voltaire (March 25, 2024)

For my birthday, I dug into the satirical aspect of the late, great, Terry Pratchett. I’ve written about Pratchett several times here. I treated myself to one of my periodic re-reads, and wanted to do a post. And I was rather pleased with this effort. Includes links to all the Pratchett essays at Black Gate, written by myself and others.

In May, I did another Pratchett post, as I had read/listened to almost two dozen novels. I do love me some Pratchett.

3) Doyle on Holmes (April 1 through May 13, 2024)

My second series of the year dropped on April 1. My first three years at Black Gate featured me writing The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes column. I’m ostensibly the in-house mystery guy, but I blog like a squirrel with ADD. I dug into my extensive Holmes library and found five essays which Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, related to his famous sleuth. I talked about each, mixing in extensive quotes from ACD, with my own thoughts. Plus a wrap-up on a key book I used.

This was a pretty darn neat Doyle-centric look at Sherlock Holmes. Any Holmes fan should check this out.

4) Glen Cook: The Garrett, PI Q&A (April 8, 2024)

I scored an interview with the social media reclusive fantasy icon. Cook’s The Black Company is a foundational series in whatever you call Dark Fantasy/Grimdark. And while I love that one, I’m a HUGE fan of his fantasy private eye, Garrett.

Glen graciously replied to a plethora of questions on the Garrett series. And we dipped into The Black Company, and I had a scoop!! It was known he was working on more Black Company, under the title A Pitiless Rain. From what I could find out, it was to be one or two novels. But Glen revealed in a follow-up email, he had three completed novels, and a fourth was half-finished! There’s also a completed Garrett novel as well.

Tor just revealed last month that Lies Weeping will be out in November of 2025. In December, I had a post which broke that They Cry will follow in November of 2026 (I had the wrong month, though). It was a big year for Glen Cook news, and I broke it. Not bad for a mystery guy.

5) Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: Welcome to Kanawha Spa – The 2024 Wolfe Pack Greenbrier Weekend (May 27, 2024)

More than Solar Pons and Sherlock Holmes and Leaphorn and Chee and The Continental Op, and….I’m into Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I constantly re-read the Corpus, and I’ve written uncounted words of fiction and non-fiction about them. I went to the gathering of Wolfe fans at West Virginia’s Greenbrier resort. The Greenbrier was the basis for Kanawha Spa in Too Many Cooks. It was a really fun weekend, and I wrote it up, with a TON of pics. The following week’s post was the Toast to Nero Wolfe, which I gave at the first dinner.

6) A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Harboiled Manila – Jo Gar (July 8, 2024)

2024 saw the seventh year of my Pulp series, A (Black) Gat in the Hand. With some help from some talented friends, it’s now over 125 posts of Pulpy goodness. I’m really proud of this series.

I have long wanted to do an essay on Raoul Whitfield’s, Manila detective, Jo Gar. The little Filipino is a hardboiled Hercule Poirot, and it’s one of my all-time favorite hardboiled PI series’. I finally managed to finish one this year. You should absolutely check out Gar.

7) A (Black) Gat in the Hand: REH’s Swords of Shahrazar (September 2, 2024)

I remain a huge Robert E. Howard fan. I even won my third Robert E. Howard Foundation award this year (a group project, with me one of four editors). El Borak rivals Conan as my favorite REH character. But Dave Hardy has written two elite essays on ‘The Swift.’

So, I did my second essay on another of his cowboys in the East, Kirby O’Donnell. I like him, and plan on covering the one remaining story. REH’s Oriental Adventures (the term does not mean Chinese or Japanese, as we think of it now) are really fun yarns. Click on over.

8) Ten Things I Think I Think: Marvel Edition (September 9, 2024)

This remains my favorite recurring column. I mean, I give my opinions and thoughts on ten random things. What could be more fun for me? Over the Labor Day holiday, I watched almost two dozen Marvel movies. It was a lot of fun. I continued on and followed up the next week with a Five More Things I Think I Think.

If you’re a fan of the Marvel movie-verse, I think you’ll find at least a couple of things of interest. Check it out.

9) Gary Gygax’ 17 Steps to Role Playing Mastery (November 25^th to December 9^th, 2024)

I don’t brag about my writing much, but I did a heck of a job with some strong multi-post series’ in 2024. I took Gygax’ Role Playing Mastery book and wrote a series on his 17 Steps to become a master Role Player. I included extensive quotes from him, along with my thoughts. This was based on a thread I ran on the Paizo boards, which ran to over 750 comments.

If you are at all into old school RPGing, I guarantee you will be interested in this one. It did not generate the comment volume I expected. But I have a couple more posts lined up

10) A Holmes Christmas Carol (December 23, 2024)

I have a half-dozen published Sherlock Holmes stories; and I’ve extensively written about him (see #3 above). I rewrote Charles Dickens’ classic novel (it’s not based on the movies, but the actual book) as a Holmes tale. I think I revealed some untold depth to Holmes, but I also stayed true to Doyle’s creation. Give it a holiday read.

AND…..

I have some irregular columns which I write. Here are the most recent iterations, with links to the prior posts over the years:

What I’ve Been Watching:October 2024 (October 28, 2024)

What I’ve Been Reading: November 2024 (November 11, 2024)

What I’ve Been Listening (audiobooks) To: November 2024 (November 18, 2024)

Ten Things I Think I Think: December 2024 (December 16, 2024)

I try to write positive stuff, and I inject as much humor (often self-deprecating) as I can. Since they haven’t gotten rid of me yet (actually, I just keep figuring out how to get around the firewall), I must be doing something right.

If you’ve been reading my stuff, you know I reply to almost every comment. I love discussing the stuff I write about. It’s a big reason I pick the topics I do. And even if we disagree, we can have a cool discussion. So please, leave a comment on my posts, if you’re so inclined. Both of us might even learn something new!

Hopefully you’ll find more interesting stuff to read on Monday mornings in 2025. I’ll do my best to keep beating the security and post weekly.

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.