After taking a month off to complete my forthcoming story "A Scandal in Serbia," I'm back to blogging with a couple of book reviews and news about a past publication of my own. Let's start there:

"Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Tainted Canister" joins MX audiobooks

MX Publishing has recently launched a new line of audiobooks; and I am happy to say that my story, "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Tainted Canister," has been included. Steve White narrates the tale, which recounts Dr. Watson's loss of his beloved Mary Morstan (and its chilling aftermath) with a wonderfully impressive Scots accent. Recent titles added to MX's growing list of audiobooks include works by Dan Andriacco, Kim Krisco, David Ruffle, and Dean Turnbloom. The complete list is available from Amazon and Pinterest.

Belated Book Reviews

Here is my review (written last month) of the third installment in MX's ongoing anthology of new, traditional Sherlock Holmes short stories, edited by David Marcum. Considering that Part IV has already appeared, I am woefully behind the times. I can confirm, however, that the third entry maintained the high standards established by its predecessors.

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part III: 1896 to 1929 by David Marcum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The third volume of MX Publishing’s anthology of traditional pastiches covers a long span, from just beyond “The Great Hiatus” until the year apocryphally assigned to Watson’s death. Nonetheless, the great majority of these pastiches (like the original Canon) are set before autumn, 1903, the date of Sherlock Holmes’ supposed retirement. If this early focus comes as a minor disappointment, it is the only one. Under David Marcum’s careful editing, the stories continue to follow the classic style, characterizations, and format employed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Their quality remains as high as ever. Two stories reference unpublished cases in the Canon, one involving sinking parsley and the other a “peculiar persecution.” An especially fine instance of deductive brilliance includes a stolen forgery and two Coptic Christian patriarchs. As befits the period, technology plays a crucial role in cases about a diabolical diorama and the real-life disappearance of two Charles Lindbergh rivals. Elsewhere, black cats, ghostly maidens, and reanimated corpses challenge our Great Detective’s skepticism of the supernatural. In deference to Holmes’ late-life hobby, two cases feature bees. Another provides a touching motive for his decision to retire. The final story is even more affecting, for it involves our two old friends in what appears to be the final case that they will ever solve together. On a happier note, readers who have finished the original trilogy have only days to wait before Part IV appears. Two more annual volumes are already in production. As always, profits from the anthology support the restoration of Undershaw, the house where Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles and many other stories.

The MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories are available from all good bookstores including
The Strand Magazine, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository. In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

Following up on "Sherlock Holmes in Love" (the theme of my last blog), my new story "A Scandal in Serbia" will--among other things--record the last meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. It is based on the account in Baring-Gould's "biography," which places Ms. Adler in Montenegro, a location geographically convenient to my story. In her first book on Irene Adler, Amy Thomas also followed B-G in having Holmes and Irene meet again during The Great Hiatus. For her setting, however, she chose not Montenegro but her home town of Fort Myers, Florida. Here is my review of The Detective and the Woman.

The Detective and The Woman: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes by Amy Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This well-written pastiche, the first in a successful trilogy, reunites Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, The Woman who defeated him in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” during The Great Hiatus. Like W.S. Baring-Gould in his “biography” of Holmes, Ms. Thomas clears the way by disposing of the husband Miss Adler acquired in the original story. However, the similarities end there. Instead of encountering his beautiful nemesis at an opera house in Montenegro, Holmes tracks her down—at the behest of Brother Mycroft—in Fort Myers, Florida (Ms. Thomas’s home town). They join forces to protect Holmes’ life, and Irene’s fortune, from a plot engineered by her devious attorney and the vengeful Colonel Moran. While the mystery itself is rather thinly plotted, there is much to like about this novel. The Fort Myers setting is enlivened by the presence of Thomas Edison and other real-life residents. Ms. Thomas’s depiction of Ms. Adler builds convincingly upon the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She also does well by Sherlock Holmes, although the situation in which he finds himself is far outside his usual milieu. It is also nice that Ms. Thomas resists the temptation to rush the pair into an immediate romance. Rather, she allows their relationship to evolve from initial mistrust to grudging cooperation to mutual regard. An epilogue, which runs through 1903, may be harder to reconcile with the traditional picture of the Great Detective’s later life. It will be interesting to see how Ms. Thomas proceeds to tell that story in her sequels.

The Detective and the Woman is available from all good bookstores worldwide including in the USA Amazon and Barnes and Noble. In the UK, Amazon, and Waterstones. Elsewhere, Book Depository offers free delivery worldwide. In ebook format, it is in Amazon Kindle, iTunes(iPad/iPhone) , and Kobo, and it is available in Audible Audio Edition.