In January 1904, three men were elected to a small and secretive London-based criminological society referred to by its members as Our Society.
Members of this society would meet at each other’s homes to discuss real-life crimes and ideas for stories. The three men were close friends and each, in his own way, became a successful crime writer. The first was Max Pemberton, a popular late Victorian and Edwardian novelist, who had several bestsellers, such as ‘The Iron Pirate’ to his name; the second was Bertram Fletcher Robinson, a man of many talents, who sadly died young, and before the full extent of these talents could be realised; and the third, Arthur Conan Doyle. These three friends formed a creative partnership that remains practically unique within the annals of popular fiction. Robinson’s collaboration with Doyle over ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, belongs to literary folk lore, but Robinson’s dealings with Pemberton were likewise fruitful. During January 1907, Robinson contracted typhoid and became terminally ill. Shortly before he died, Robinson drafted some notes for an adventure story and asked Pemberton to write it for him. The result was ‘Wheels of Anarchy’. It appears that Robinson and Pemberton had discussed this tale with Doyle, but in any event, the final narrative technique and literary devices, strongly resemble those used by Dr. John H. Watson to chronicle the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Robinson, however, the Cambridge ‘Varsity sportsman, and Edwardian gentleman, lives on through both Bruce Driscoll, the narrator and hero of 'Wheels of Anarchy’, and Edward E. Malone, the narrator and hero of Doyle’s novel, ‘The Lost World’. ‘Wheels of Anarchy’ is not only a rip-roaring adventure story, that makes James Bond look like a stay at home, but also a testament to the friendship between Pemberton, Robinson and Doyle. It should engage Sherlock Holmes fans and aficionados of the adventure and mystery genres alike.