The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter Sherlock Holmes, far from being a one-off in terms of his powers of observation and deductive reasoning, in fact has an elder brother whose skills, or so Holmes claims, outstrip even his own. As a consequence of this, Watson becomes acquainted with the Diogenes Club and his friend's brother, Mycroft. Mycroft, as Watson learns, does not have the energy of his younger brother and as a consequence is incapable of using his great skills for detective work: In spite of his inertia, the elder Holmes has often delivered the correct answer to a problem that Sherlock has brought to him.
Sherlock Holmes pastiches short stories that were published under the title "The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes" in 1954. Using his alternate name of H.F. Heard, Gerald Heard wrote three novels about a reclusive beekeeper in the English countryside who goes by the name of Mycroft; he's clearly intended to be Sherlock Holmes, but the books were written before the Doyle estate gave permission for other writers to use the name. The three stories are "A Taste for Honey", "Reply Paid" and "The Notched Hairpin". "A Taste for Honey" was adapted for American TV in 1955 as "Sting of Death," with Boris Karloff as