Sherlock Holmes and the London Particular

by Daniel D. Victor

The light of an open doorway beckons through the mist of a London Particular, one of those smothering fogs for which turn-of-the-century London was famous. But in reality - as Sherlock Holmes soon discovers - though the doorway does indeed offer respite from the fog, it also leads to the gruesome remains of a double-murder.

Two corpses, a stolen diamond necklace, a Russian connection, and a dandified American writer who pals around with denizens of the theater - all add up to a murder investigation with international implications. Leave it to Sherlock Holmes who, in a classic assemblage of suspects in a high-tone British men’s club, employs his celebrated powers of deduction to reveal the guilty party.

Audible Audio

Published November 13, 2019

About the author

Daniel D. Victor is a retired high school teacher who lives with his wife and two sons in his native Los Angeles, California. A graduate of Fairfax High School, he earned his BA at UC Berkeley, his MA at California State University, Los Angeles, and his Ph.D. in American Literature at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, CA. His doctoral dissertation, THE MUCKRAKER AND THE DANDY: THE CONFLICTING PERSONAE OF DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS, led to the creation of the Sherlock Holmes pastiche THE SEVENTH BULLET. Originally published as a Thomas Dunne Book by St. Martin's Press in 1992, it was reprinted in paperback by Titan Books, UK, in 2010 as part of its series, "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and translated into Russian in 2012. The novel's first two chapters also appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Appalachian State University. In addition to his writing, Victor has won numerous teaching awards including an independent study grant offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as admission to two NEH summer seminars, one at UC Berkeley, the other at Oxford University in Oxford, England. Victor's second novel, A STUDY IN SYNCHRONICITY, is a murder mystery with a two-stranded plot, one of which features a Sherlock Holmes-like private detective. Victor's second Holmes novel, THE FINAL PAGE OF BAKER STREET, in which Holmes finds the young Raymond Chandler working for him as a pageboy, was published in 2014. It is the first volume of his series, "Sherlock Holmes and the American Literati," produced by MX Publishing. The second, THE BARON OF BREDE PLACE (2015), introduces Holmes to novelist Stephen Crane; the third, SEVENTEEN MINUTES TO BAKER STREET (2016), presents Mark Twain; and the fourth, THE OUTRAGE AT THE DIOGENES CLUB (2016), involves Jack London. Victor has also contributed short stories about Holme to the anthologies, THE MX BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES, BEYOND WATSON, and HOLMES AWAY FROM HOME.

Reviews

[Barry Smolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The curious byways and mysterious inhabitants of London have never failed to furnish me with inspiration," admits Dr. Watson in acknowledgement of the kindred fascination he shares with American journalist-author-fashionplate Richard Harding Davis, the latest literary Yank to pop up in Daniel D. Victor's "Sherlock Holmes and the American Literati" series, a compact and creepily hazy novel entitled "Sherlock Holmes and the London Particular," book five in the deservedly lauded collection. Yet what makes this new volume so deftly effective is not the usual vivid clarity that Victor brings to his depiction of Victorian London but rather, in this case, the murkiness, the pea-soup delusions, the "disguise and subterfuge" that fuel its inhabitants while groping their way through the density of the titular London Particular, the foggiest of fogs. To make things even more deeply enshadowed, Victor changes up the usual Watson narrative structure (exposition first, action after) by beginning the story "in medias res" (as Chapter One is aptly titled), throwing us first into the fog, then letting us see what we missed (mist?). A brilliant decision on the author's part. We have to find our way out of the fog along with the characters.

What isn't different in "London Particular" is the usual array of pitch-perfect voices (Watson, Holmes, Davis), wry humor, historical accuracy, synchronicities, clever misdirections, knotty postmodernism (footnotes that blur the factual and the fictional, etc), a bristly-prickly Sherlock Holmes, signature Victorisms we've come to love throughout the American Literati series.

Richard Harding Davis, brilliant and brash, sassy but classy, comes across as a man who is a good writer in spite of himself. Watson is clearly drawn to Davis' confidence and whimsy as well as his naive courage, attributes the good Doctor recognizes as quintessentially American and which he describes with admiration and amusement.

Though Victor has demonstrated his knack for Brit-noir before (c.f., Sherlock Holmes & The Last Page Of Baker Street), he's never quite shrouded the city and his characters so opaquely. Yes, eventually we find truth and resolution to the crime, but, even so, what gives this book its distinction is the way that things in general, and London, in particular, remain nebulous to the end.

[Thomas Turley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Previous editions of Daniel D. Victor’s “American Literati” series have presented such literary luminaries as Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane, and Raymond Chandler. Now Victor brings us a lesser-known, but equally fascinating Literati: Richard Harding Davis. Very much a figure of America’s Imperialist Age, Davis excelled as a (not quite Yellow) journalist, novelist (Soldiers of Fortune), and war correspondent. His coverage of the charge up San Juan Hill boosted Teddy Roosevelt’s ascension to the Presidency, and illustrator Charles Dana Gibson depicted the square-jawed, handsome Davis as the male equivalent of his Gibson Girl. In Dan Victor’s novel, Dr. Watson records the true events behind Davis’s 1901 short story “In the Fog.” Besides the “London Particular” itself, the two tales share an atmosphere of international intrigue: a beautiful but shady Russian princess, two aristocratic brothers vying for their father’s fortune, a mysterious M.P. with a black pearl tie pin, and a London club—the antithesis of the Diogenes—that requires its members to converse. However, only Victor’s story offers the additional benefits of “live” appearances by Holmes, Watson, Mycroft, and Lestrade. Davis himself makes an entertaining hero: relentlessly blowing his own horn, donning ill-conceived disguises, squiring beautiful young actresses on both arms. (For those who only recall Ethel Barrymore from Hollywood, she was something in the 1890s!) Yet, “the Gibson Man” is solid enough behind his flamboyance to win Watson’s admiration and the respect of Sherlock Holmes. I have equal admiration for Daniel Victor’s powers as an historical novelist. My only fear is that he will eventually run out of American Literati who are Holmes’ contemporaries. Fortunately, in Sherlock Holmes and the Shadows of St. Petersburg Victor seemed equally at home with Dostoevsky—and he still has the rest of the European continent to go!

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of Victor's 'American Literati' series which sees Holmes and Watson work with noted American writers of the period. The writer in this book is Richard Harding Davis, whom I freely admit I had not heard of.

Be that as it may, it is still an excellent book with the plot involving a stolen diamond necklace, two corpses and a Russian connection. A plot which made for an intriguing case and a ripping read.

The characters are interesting and the denouement of the case suitably exciting.

Well worth a read.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short story