This much we know for certain:  Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard was found bludgeoned to death in her bed on July 4, 1954.  Her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, a young osteopathic neurosurgeon, told a wild tale of a bushy-haired intruder.  He never wavered from his story of events and always maintained his innocence, but he was accused, tried and convicted.  A second trial 10 years later set him free, but the truth of this unsolved murder has never been proven.

In An Omission of Epic Proportions, a time warp enables Dr. Watson to bring Sherlock Holmes together with Paul Leland Kirk, the expert criminalist who first conducted an unbiased investigation of the Sheppard murder in 1955.  Holmes is skeptical — after all, Dr. Sheppard’s story of a bushy-haired intruder seems preposterous — until Holmes is presented with physical evidence that was repressed or considered insignificant during the 1954 trial. The evidence points to three other suspects, a window washer, an Air Force major, and an outraged neighbor, all of whom had opportunity and motivation for a sexual assault upon the victim.

The author of this novel, niece of Marilyn and Sam Sheppard, wrote this true crime story by documenting authentic scientific research and expert analysis included in the investigative report and manuscript authored by Dr. Paul Leland Kirk. This story, therefore, highlights true facts of the case — the only fiction is the participation of Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Readers can follow Sherlock Holmes’ deductive reasoning and use their own logic to review the unvarnished facts to decide for themselves who murdered Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard.