Tim Symonds's Blog
September 16, 2015
Sherlock Holmes And The Sword of Osman
My fourth 'sherlock', this one titled Sherlock Holmes And The Sword of Osman, was published on September 16 2015 by the world's largest publisher of Holmes and Watson adventures, MX Publishing (London). I had often spent a few days in 'Stamboul' (Istanbul), walking around the Topkapi and other wonderful palaces from the old Sultan/Ottoman Empire days, wondering what life would have been like as the once-great Empire began to fall apart during Holmes' and Watson's life-times. Finally I did the research which led to 'The Sword of Osman'. It took a year and was like a year's study at my old university, UCLA, filled with astonishing characters like the hapless but malevolent Sultan and the powerful eunuchs.
Without knowing why, I have now begun to move the dynamic pair even further Eastward for my next Sherlock, set in Peking in 1907 when that great Empire, the Qing Dynasty, was also falling apart. The difference is this: the main protagonist is not a Sultan but the infamous Dowager-Empress Cixi. If you think women can't rule great empires with immense authority, go to your search engine and look 'the Old Buddha' Cixi up. More in 2016 when I should be well on my way into the novel.
Without knowing why, I have now begun to move the dynamic pair even further Eastward for my next Sherlock, set in Peking in 1907 when that great Empire, the Qing Dynasty, was also falling apart. The difference is this: the main protagonist is not a Sultan but the infamous Dowager-Empress Cixi. If you think women can't rule great empires with immense authority, go to your search engine and look 'the Old Buddha' Cixi up. More in 2016 when I should be well on my way into the novel.
August 15, 2015
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories. Published October 2015.
London-located MX Publishing is the world's largest publisher of new books on Sherlock Holmes. The Anthology is in three parts, containing short stories by known and new authors, all set between 1881 and 1929. Part 111 contains 'A Most Diabolical Plot' (opening paragraphs below) by Tim Symonds.
The 3-part Anthology may well become one of the best-sellers of this new 'Sherlockian' era and the profits will provide Conan Doyle's old home Undershaw with the funds it needs to remain a monument to the master story-teller who designed and built it over a Century ago.
http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/0...
'A Most Diabolical Plot' by Tim Symonds
takes place in the Spring of 1903 and opens as follows:
'Not til the day the bugle blows for me shall I forget the most diabolical attempt ever made on my friend Sherlock Holmes’s life. I was seated in the airy living-room of the lodgings we shared on the second floor of 221, Baker Street. Our landlady, Mrs Hudson, came in with my breakfast together with the morning edition of the Westminster Gazette. The newspaper contained a summary of the year’s significant events so far – on February 3rd a British expedition captured the mud-walled city of Kano, in Northern Nigeria. Under Pelham Warner’s captaincy the first cricket tour of Australia was in its final planning stages. I was about to turn my attention to the plate of kidneys, kedgeree and ham when my eye was caught by a short article on an inside page titled ‘Mystery Disappearance of Society Murderer’.
‘Nothing has been seen of Colonel Sebastian Moran, formerly 1st Bangalore Pioneers and well-known at London’s card-playing clubs, since his unpublicised release from Newgate last year when the gaol was closed for demolition. The Colonel served only half of a twenty-year sentence for the willful murder of his gambling partner, the Honourable Ronald Adair, second son of the Earl of Maynooth. Moran fell into a trap laid by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard a decade ago when the former attempted to assassinate the famous Consulting Detective Sherlock Holmes, employing an ingenious air-gun designed to shoot bullets instead of small lead pellets. To gain early release Colonel Moran vowed to turn his considerable talents to good causes.’
I lowered the newspaper and stared unseeing at the wall.'
Unknown to Watson, the fearsome Colonel Moran, still seething over the death at Holmes's hands of Moran's Criminal Master Moriarty, has come up with a deadly game involving the terrible Africanised bee.
Other detective novels by the author include
Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery of Einstein’s Daughter,
Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Bulgarian Codex, and
Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle (Second edition 2015).
London-located MX Publishing is the world's largest publisher of new books on Sherlock Holmes. The Anthology is in three parts, containing short stories by known and new authors, all set between 1881 and 1929. Part 111 contains 'A Most Diabolical Plot' (opening paragraphs below) by Tim Symonds.
The 3-part Anthology may well become one of the best-sellers of this new 'Sherlockian' era and the profits will provide Conan Doyle's old home Undershaw with the funds it needs to remain a monument to the master story-teller who designed and built it over a Century ago.
http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/0...
'A Most Diabolical Plot' by Tim Symonds
takes place in the Spring of 1903 and opens as follows:
'Not til the day the bugle blows for me shall I forget the most diabolical attempt ever made on my friend Sherlock Holmes’s life. I was seated in the airy living-room of the lodgings we shared on the second floor of 221, Baker Street. Our landlady, Mrs Hudson, came in with my breakfast together with the morning edition of the Westminster Gazette. The newspaper contained a summary of the year’s significant events so far – on February 3rd a British expedition captured the mud-walled city of Kano, in Northern Nigeria. Under Pelham Warner’s captaincy the first cricket tour of Australia was in its final planning stages. I was about to turn my attention to the plate of kidneys, kedgeree and ham when my eye was caught by a short article on an inside page titled ‘Mystery Disappearance of Society Murderer’.
‘Nothing has been seen of Colonel Sebastian Moran, formerly 1st Bangalore Pioneers and well-known at London’s card-playing clubs, since his unpublicised release from Newgate last year when the gaol was closed for demolition. The Colonel served only half of a twenty-year sentence for the willful murder of his gambling partner, the Honourable Ronald Adair, second son of the Earl of Maynooth. Moran fell into a trap laid by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard a decade ago when the former attempted to assassinate the famous Consulting Detective Sherlock Holmes, employing an ingenious air-gun designed to shoot bullets instead of small lead pellets. To gain early release Colonel Moran vowed to turn his considerable talents to good causes.’
I lowered the newspaper and stared unseeing at the wall.'
Unknown to Watson, the fearsome Colonel Moran, still seething over the death at Holmes's hands of Moran's Criminal Master Moriarty, has come up with a deadly game involving the terrible Africanised bee.
Other detective novels by the author include
Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery of Einstein’s Daughter,
Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Bulgarian Codex, and
Sherlock Holmes and The Dead Boer at Scotney Castle (Second edition 2015).
