Dr. Watson I presume

Let us now offer up a communal prayer for the sanity of Duane Swierczynski. And for our own sanity. Even though he pretends to be a contemporary dude who writes wryly hardboiled novels of the first-order, Duane S. is really a time bum pausing in our era to mess with our minds.

You may buy into the fiction that he's Duane S. But there is now proof positive that he's actually the true Dr. Watson of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Crimes of Dr. Watson is a clever, rich interactive game filled with enough fair clues to give Golden Age Detectives the vapors. I'm not much for games--I'm too stupid--but this one is involving and fun.

But be hip to the fact that of what the two names (in addition to Holmes himself) portend. Supposedly the entire book is a letter from Dr. Watson. But read down further and you'll see that it is "edited and with an introduction by" Duane S.

See the mind game here? One really devious dude. And one excellent, slickly packaged game.

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Under his Duane S. name, Dr. Watson has also penned a very cool comic book, Moon Knight Annual. This is a creepy, noirish story about a man who preys on women wearing a variety of disguises. The dialogue is adult, the storyline twists and then twists again, and the art is as good as the concept and the writing. Another winner for Dr. Watson.