The CWA has lost one of its most loyal members in David Stuart Davies, a novelist, editor, and playwright who achieved an international reputation as an expert on Sherlock Holmes.

David was born in Huddersfield, the town where he lived for much of his life. He spent twenty years as an English teacher before his growing international reputation as a Sherlockian led him to concentrate on crime writing full-time. For twenty years he was editor of the CWA members’ newsletter Red Herrings and during his tenure he oversaw the transformation of the magazine into a high-quality publication, available both in print and online. As a long-term ex officio member of the CWA board, he provided invaluable knowledge and support to a succession of CWA chairs, including myself. He and his devoted wife Kathryn were regular attenders of CWA annual conferences and other events.

DSD, as he was generally known, also had a long spell as editor of the magazine Sherlock, and acted as general editor of Wordsworth’s mystery and supernatural series, for which he edited several anthologies. He published nineteen novels, ten of which featured Sherlock Holmes, while his one-man play Sherlock Holmes – The Last Act achieved considerable success. His non-fiction included a book about screen versions of the Holmes stories and a biography of Jeremy Brett.

David’s sunny disposition earned him many friends from around the world, people like me who enjoyed his company and good humour. He never took himself too seriously, but he did take his work seriously and made sure it was of high quality. He contributed to several books that I edited, including the CWA anthologies Crime in the City and Music of the Night, and two Detection Club books, Motives for Murder and Howdunit. He also contributed a very generous introduction to my own book of Sherlockian pastiches, The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. 

The two of us had many enjoyable times together. When I hosted the first Alibis in the Archive weekend at Gladstone’s Library (home of the CWA archives), David got proceedings off to a rousing start with a wonderful Sherlockian performance that demonstrated his thespian talents, as did the part he played that weekend in an interactive murder mystery written by our mutual friend Ann Cleeves. And fifteen years ago, David and I, along with Simon Brett and America’s Meg Gardiner, did battle in the CrimeFest Criminal Mastermind quiz – great fun!

When I invited contributions for yet another short story collection intended to raise funds for the Detection Club, Playing Dead (to be published in 2025), David was – with characteristic generosity – the very first person to send me a story. I’m sad that he didn’t live to see the book appear in print, but at least it is a consolation that its publication will provide yet another reason to celebrate the memory of a thoroughly likeable man who also happened to be a talented writer.

— Martin Edwards