It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. Really.

I would like to take credit for the above line, but it comes from a charming book for early readers by Heather Edwards, the author of Sherlock Cat and the Missing Mousie, illustrated by Amanda Downs. One look at the cover tells you you are in for a good ride.

            Spot, a Siamese cat named by his owner, Mary, when she was only three, and Fluffy, the family’s orange cat, lead normal cat lives until one night the electricity goes out. When the father decides to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes aloud to his family by candle light, it only takes one or two adventures to inspire Spot to plan a new life: He will become Sherlock Holmes. Fluffy will be the new Dr. Watson and record their adventures. 
            So begins this thoroughly delightful tale. 

            When you’re a detective, everything looks suspicious. Soon Spot, uh, Sherlock, is at the window, pondering happenings next door: Why haven’t the Petersons been seen for days? Why is their dog, Toby, digging holes in the yard at night? What did he drop in the hole? Who is the unknown stranger fiercely commanding him to get indoors? Enigmas multiply until, worst of all, Sherlock’s favorite mousie goes missing. 

            Eventually these mysteries and others are solved, but not before the two sleuths get into a series of adventures that had me laughing even the third time I read this charming book.

            Heather Edward has managed to weave together familiar Holmes and Watson traits with thoroughly believable cat behavior. The plot twists are clever. The humor is both subtle one moment, zany the next. And Amanda Downs’ adorable illustrations come to life all through the story. 

Kid will love this book. And, as an added bonus, it’s an excellent introduction for young people to learn a little bit about Sherlock Holmes.  

It's for sale at Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback, and you can buy it HERE. I am hoping to get an interview with the author and illustrator in the future. 

How about you? Have you read any books lately that had you laughing? Have you read any that you just had to read again? Please share. 

And Then More Happened - Oops!

Last Thursday night, close to midnight, I was waiting to take my last set of eyedrops for my glaucoma, and I fell asleep. It was unusually late for the drops and I was soooo sleepy. Next thing I knew I had fallen on the floor, hitting my head and banging my shoulder really hard. I took the drops with Rajan's help, then went to sleep (in bed); but Friday morning my shoulder and arm were so painful, we went to emergency.

Long story short, we were wonderfully taken care of. We have insurance through the hospital, which reduced the expense incredibly: They took X-rays of my shoulder and did a Cat Scan, given that I had a goose-egg on my head. Good news: no broken bones and Cat Scan was fine. They did give me a pain-killer shot and a prescription for pain pills, and I was told not to go on one of my 3-4-mile walks for a few days and to keep my arm in a sling.

I am so grateful no damage was done! Just momentary discomfort, so I used the following days reading and studying Portuguese. Luckily, the doctor and nurse who attended me spoke English.

Already my shoulder feels better, but it's not quite back to normal yet. Still, I'm back to walking (have walked 2-3 miles for the last three days).

Meanwhile, My very kind friend, Carla Pereira came by Monday morning with a delicious dessert treat to make me feel better. Also, knowing how I like Pessoa, the Portuguese poet, she brought a deck of Pessoa playing cards. The backs all have a picture of him looking mournful in a trenchcoat and his tell-tale hat. But on the playing side, each card has a different short quote from one of his writings. The usual sets are there (hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs, and Ace through King in each set), but individually each has a different (and short) quote — ideal for learning my Portuguese.

Also, at the Amazon site for Imogene and the Case of the Missing Pearls, there is a little snippet teaser you can listen to on Audible HERE .

I hope this finds those of you stopping by enjoying your lives and busy with good things (and not falling off chairs.) Take care and stay well.

I T'S FRIDAY AGAIN, AND SHERLOCK LOVERS KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS . . ..

 It's Friday again, and you know what that means: Thank Holmes It's Friday, the opportunity for Sherlock Holmes Lovers to get free audio books, discount books, and more — just one click away for one day only: Click  HERE

The Detective, the Woman, and the Silent Hive

      

This is the third book in Amy Thomas's brilliant series. I first came across Book One (The Detective and the Woman)in 2015, and was charmed by it. I’ve always been intrigued by Irene Adler, the woman who outwitted Sherlock Holmes in Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia, and whom (according to Dr. Watson) Holmes refers to ever after as “the woman”. Thomas has turned them into a dynamic duo of sleuths following Book One, when Holmes was given the assignment by Mycroft to prevent what looked like an assassination plot against Adler. Having worked as a team, these former enemies developed a friendship, and in the next three books have been solving mysteries together. 

By Book Three, Irene is living in a peaceful village in Sussex, pursuing singing engagements, but finding peace and relaxation in cultivating beehives. Her peace is shattered when, unaccountably, hive by hive, the bees contract the bacterial disease, “foulbrood”. Since there are no other cases around, it seems to have been purposely introduced by infected bees. Irene goes to London to seek the advice of her friend and sleuth-mate, Sherlock Holmes. 

As it turns out, a nefarious plot is actually aimed at Sherlock Holmes and can be traced back to an earlier case he thought was solved. More than that, I won’t say, because the pleasure is in finding out the who, what, when, where and why. But the author tells the story with a deft hand.

Like the earlier books, the story unfolds through alternating viewpoints -- the clinical Holmes' in third person distant, and the expressive singer's in first person close. It’s a device that works very well, allowing, among other things, the two main characters to reflect and comment on each other and to develop them believably. Other characters are also nicely developed, from Billy, the porter, Wiggins, the leader of the “irregulars”, loyal Mrs. Hudson, grumpy Lestrade, and the ever-gallant Dr. Watson (who also has eyes for Irene’s housekeeper in Sussex).

The author captures beautifully details of Victorian London, from elegant homes to shabby neighborhoods, the wealthy and the poor. Scenes and interiors (including a night in jail) were vivid.

This is a well-paced novel with satisfying twists and turns that kept me engrossed to the end. There is also a Book Four, out: The Detective, the Woman, and the Pirate's Bounty. Can't wait! 

                                     You can learn more about Amy Thomas by 

                                      clicking on these links:

                 Her blog: 

                 Girl Meets Sherlock

                 Facebook

                                      She also podcasts with 

The Baker Street Babes           

A New Way to Enjoy Sherlock Holmes

            

It isn’t mandatory for a book about Sherlock to be a new mystery starring Sherlock. In this clever new series, Gemma Doyle, manager of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, uses Sherlockian logic to figure out a crime scene she reluctantly stumbles into.

In Elementary, She read, by Vicki Delany, Gemma has come to West London in Cape Cod for a fresh start after her divorce. She manages the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium for her great uncle, Arthur Doyle, a Sherlock Holmes aficionado (and maybe even a distant, distant relative of the famous author). Uncle Arthur bought the building for its address: 222 Baker Street. Next door (220 Baker Street) Jayne Wilson, who co-owns Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room, has become Gemma’s best friend and confidant. The two shops are connected, benefiting both businesses. 

The story kick-off: While tidying up after twenty-four women on a bridge group holiday swept in, shopped, and left, Gemma comes across a bag wedged between some books. Inside the bag is what appears to be an original edition of a magazine containing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first story. If not fake, it could be worth a fortune. Gemma finds a postcard in the bag with the name of the hotel where the magazine’s owner must be staying. After stashing the magazine in her great uncle’s safe at home, she and Jayne set out for the hotel to ask a few questions before returning the magazine. They find a dead body, and the game is afoot.

The characters are deftly drawn: Gemma isn’t the Sherlock Holmes fan both her great uncle and Jayne are, but her mind works, ironically, like the Great Detective’s. She can take every little detail and arrive at accurate conclusions in a way that disconcerts local police and even wrecked a fine romance. Jayne is her Doctor Watson, sensible, anchored, and yet secretly thrilling to the adventure Gemma drags her into. Other quirky characters move the plot along: great uncle Arthur who, despite being in his 90s, has wanderlust and is on a trip in this story. The author’s brushstrokes are just enough to make him vivid by his absence. (This reader hopes he pops up again in a future book.) Then there is Ruby, the grumpy clerk at the shop cash register; Irene Talbot, the journalist hungry for a story; two book collectors (one hunky, one boring), who take an interest in the magazine; Detective Louise Estrada, out to pin a murder rap on Gemma; a dysfunctional family of would-be heirs . . . and many minor characters breeze through the pages with life and humor. Gemma, as a matter of fact, has some very funny lines throughout. 

This is a mystery that is both satisfying in the puzzle sense and disarming to a reader who likes cozy mysteries with endearing sleuths.

Vicki Delany obviously loves writing mysteries and has several series out, as well as stand-alones. You can learn more about her at her website HERE











How about you? Are you excited to find a new series? If so, is it the location or the characters that grab you and make you want to read more?   Do you prefer stand alone novels  or series?

Sherlock Holmes and a Quantity of Debt — Book Review

                               
     

I have been "missing in action" for almost a month since we came back from Spain and Portugal. (No this picture is not me; it's the cover of a good book I read and am reviewing below.) On return from our trip, we immediately needed to go vote in the California primary. Then Rajan had cataract surgery (which went well). And ever since then I've been catching up on gardening, cleaning, and politics. (Marching this Saturday on behalf of asylum seekers on the border.)

I also wrote a new post about the Braga Romana festival in Portugal on my Fourth Wish blog HERE, if you want to check it out.

But I've also found time to read.  I am a Sherlock Holmes fan, and although the discovery of pastiches came late to me, now I'm hooked. When they are well done, they are as satisfying as the original stories. I just finished a most satisfying mystery by David Marcum: Sherlock Holmes and a Quantity of Debt. 

Here is my review below:

David Marcum’s new mystery once again presents Sherlock Holmes and John Watson with just the right “voice” to make this novel seem as if it is part of “the Canon”. The title pays homage to a line from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations,and its layers of meaning unfold with the story.

The story opens with Dr. Watson in the doldrums over the death of his beloved first wife, Constance. He has moved back in with Holmes for company and for some direction to his now purposeless life. It is a cold, stormy day in April. Enter Inspector Alec McDonald with a troubling case in Bedfordshire: Workmen who were replacing an antiquated pipe drainage system on an estate uncovered a body hidden under the pipe fifty years earlier. The corpse has been well-preserved with physical details that play a large part in the story. McDonald asks for help from Sherlock, and off the three go to Bedfordshire to investigate further.

The cast of characters are wonderfully “Victorian Gothic”: Martin Briley, the estate owner, is an old man in his sixties. He’s highly thought of by all the villagers for his many good works throughout his life, but now he’s chair-bound and on the brink of death. His housekeeper, Mrs. Lynch, is as freezing as the inclement weather outside. On the other hand, his estate agent, George Burton, is a popular villager who has worked his way up to his current position. Burton, soon to inherit the estate, enjoys only antipathy from the forbidding Mrs. Lynch. Minor characters are quirky enough to be memorable without detracting from the main cast. Interiors, landscapes, and weather are so well described it’s easy for a reader to visualize and navigate all sites in the story and feel immersed in Victorian England. The clues scattered along the twists and turns of this puzzle mystery lead to a satisfying conclusion. 

All in all, a pleasurable read, and I certainly hope more from this author are in the works. 

Author, David Marcum

                                                                                                                              


David Marcum is also the author of several Sherlock Holmes adventures as well as the editor of several Sherlock Holmes story collections. You can read more about him and all of his writing ventures on his Author Page HERE.


How about you? Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan? Are you a mystery fan? Do you prefer novels or stories? Have you ever written a pastiche?





You can contact David Marcum at 

Memoirs from Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen — A Rare Find

What am I celebrating this week? A rare literary treat for Sherlock Holmes lovers— Memoirs from Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen, written by Canadian author Wendy Heyman-Marsaw and edited by  JoAnn and Mark Alberstat.

Wendy Heyman-Marsaw

Mark Alberstat

Memoirs from Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen, is a treasure trove  for writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and fan fiction.  It's also sheer pleasure reading for those who simply like wondering about the fictitious people who lived at 221b Baker Street. Settling into these pages, it's easy to believe they actually existed.

Mrs. Hudson, readers will recall, was the patient landlady who rented rooms to Holmes and Watson. What's fun about this book is Mrs. Hudson's many observations on the habits of these gentlemen, what they preferred for breakfast, whether they took tea or coffee (coffee with breakfast, tea for special occasions), little gossipy tidbits like that. Obviously the landlady was an avid reader of Watson's stories, for she refers to various cases in little trips of her own down memory lane. Not surprisingly, her memories involve meals served, advances in kitchen gadgetry, recipes with instructions for preparing several recipes, and cleaning tips she and her maid, Molly used to keep 221b clean and sparkling.

Mrs. Hudson was well-read in general, and these memoirs provide her own slant on Victorian society, train travel, fashion, the history of certain buildings, and on Queen Victoria herself. We also get a glimpse into Mrs. Hudson's personal background — how she met her husband; how he died; why she never remarried. (Heyman-Marsaw provides a lovely portrait supposedly of Mrs. Hudson as a young woman.)

This delightful book both an enjoyable read and a truly useful handbook for anyone writing about the Victorian Era in general or Sherlock Holmes adventures in particular — all enhanced by newspaper photographs and advertisements of the time. Five stars to this fine book.

You can order Memoirs of Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen HERE
You can follow her on Facebook HERE or follow her on Twitter HERE


What are you celebrating today? Did you watch Victoria last night after the Super Bowl? Do you have a favorite book that provides examples of memorabilia and realia of a historical time?

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate.)

Celebrating Being Home

I seem to have fallen by the wayside when it comes to blogging in recent months. Preparing for travels, our trip to Spain and Portugal, and trying to put finishing touches on notes for recent books, all distracted me from both blogs. We got home Monday evening, and I've been busy ever since then, catching up. But I do have things to celebrate:

First, Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop co-hosted by Lexa Cain at: Lexa Cain,  L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge , and Tonja Drecker @ Tidbits Blog. (You can go to any of these sites to add your name to the links, if you want to participate. )

Now to the celebrations:

1. As some of you know, I discovered last year that I have glaucoma. It was really severe, too, when the opthamologist discovered it. I've had surgery in the eye most severely affected, and I've been taking drops in both eyes to bring the pressure down. I am diligent in taking my drops. Still, one can't help but be nervous. So in my last exam -- GOOD NEWS: The pressure came down some more in both eyes. I am so happy about that.

   

2. As mentioned earlier, my picture book, Dragonella, was released October 20th (in time for Christmas.) Here is the LINK if you want to order a copy for a little one: 

3. But I also have a contract for my story collection for children, The Carnival of the Animals, which will  come out next year. As you can imagine, I feel like turning somersaults of joy.

4. A book I ordered came in my absence: Memoirs from Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen, by Wendy Herman-Marsaw. As many of you know, I am a great Sherlock Holmes fan. (My book, Imogene and the Case of the Missing Pearls, includes him among the characters.) This book includes many details of Victorian society during the time of the Sherlock Holmes canon, as well as recipes for meals served in various classes — all through the eyes of the Great Detective's landlady.   And here is a LINK for it.

5. I'm submitting my cosy mystery novel now, and waiting with bated breath for the sound of the pebble landing somewhere. 

I'm also caught up on a lot of things, now, so I expect to be blogging more faithfully, both here and on my Fourth Wish blog next door. 


How about you? Have things distracted you from blogging? Have you had good health news lately? Are you submitting your writing projects? Do you have any good summer 

The "New Read" Is Read, Now — And More Than Once.

It was that good! I read it twice, despite house cleaning and yard work in preparation for our coming trip to Spain. Sherlock Holmes: Before Baker Street

Sherlock Holmes: Before Baker Street

The book is edited by David Marcum and published by Belanger Books. Both Marcum and Derrick Belanger also have stories in this collection.

I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, but anyone who loves mysteries would like this book, so I'll give you a link RIGHT HERE now, while I think of it.

Meanwhile, here is my review that I posted at Amazon. Hopefully it will whet your appetite.

It’s always a pleasure to encounter a Sherlock Holmes story. Sherlock Holmes: Before Baker Street, offers eleven cases by contemporary authors along with two of Sir Arthur Conon Doyle’s originals. Doyle’s stories are included for two reasons: Both took place before Holmes’s Baker Street days, and they provide reference points for some of the other stories. I can only offer teasers, but this is a must-read collection. The stories, of course, take place before Holmes moved to 221b Baker Street.

In Jayantika Ganguly’s “The Adventure of the Bloody Roses” eight-year-old Sherlock and his older brother Mycroft discover their tutor dead on a bed of cut roses in his quarters. Their parents are away on a trip, so it’s up to them to call the police, etc. What have dead roses and a murdered tutor have to do with each other? Young Sherlock’s observational skills soon lead to the answer.

Derrick Belanger offers two gems: 1. In “The Vingt-un Confession” a young man crippled from an accident at the docks, is reduced to begging and gambling. He’s not good at either. Young Holmes, not yet in college, teaches him to play Twenty-one, with surprising results. 2. In “Mr. Chen’s Lesson” Holmes shares with Watson the aftermath of a case that taught him humility after he solved a kidnapping but alienated Scotland Yard.

S. Subramanian’s “The Affair of the Aluminium Crutch” takes place during Holmes’s university days. A rich bully holds a special tea with students in his hall (including Holmes) to show off diamond studded cufflinks he’s safeguarding for his father. Another student promises a feat of magic and – poof! – the cufflinks disappear. Where? How? Sherlock Holmes figures it out.

In Robert Perret’s “The Adventure of the Dead Ringer” Holmes is new to Montague Street. He soon learns a tobacconist is being extorted by a criminal gang led by a woman whose husband is on the run. Holmes spies on her when she comes to collect, follows her to her hotel, then leaves an ad The London Times. The next day she visits Holmes and hires him—with unusual results.

In S. F. Bennett’s “The Devil of the Deverills” a post-Montague-Street Holmes is evicted once again due to an experiment gone wrong. He encounters an old classmate, Marcus Zeal. Zeal invites him to his estate in Norton Deverill, to help him with a problem: The mother of a girl Zeal fancies is accused by the vicar of witchcraft. Is she behind the strange things happening?

In David Marcum’s “The Painting in the Parlor” said parlor is at Montague Street. A landscape is painted onto the plaster above the mantelpiece. Holmes looks back an event, when a young man showed him a canvas copy of almost the same landscape given to his great-grandfather. A dagger—a missing family heirloom—shown in the canvas painting is not shown in the parlor painting. Secret codes, and missed encounters are involved—all solved by young Holmes.

Arthur Hall gives the reader a wonderful locked-room puzzle in “The Incident of the Absent Thieves”. Two art thieves, father and son, have been missing for two months. The wife, a usual accomplice, and the son’s fiancée, equally complicit in their capers, are worried, and Scotland Yard isn’t much concerned. The solution to this puzzle is brilliant, if sad.

Daniel D. Victor has Robert Louis Stevenson tell “The Adventure of the Amateur Emigrant” in a supposedly excised section from his memoir, The Amateur Emigrant. During his brief stay in New York, Stevenson attends a British pantomime of Robinson Crusoe. One of the actors is Sherlock Holmes, using a pseudonym. Soon Holmes’s detective skills are put to work when Stevenson’s wallet goes missing.

Mark Mower’s “A Day at the Races” takes a reader to Epsom Downs. Holmes joins friends of Cedric Stone, whose father Holmes helped recover a stolen ring. The group disperses except for Stone and Hughes, a schoolmaster of a boys’ school. Hughes hires Holmes to discover why the woman he hoped to marry—the sister of one of his students--suddenly forbids communication. Another good puzzle mystery with clues that keep you guessing.

Geri Schear’s “The Strange Case of the Necropolis Railway” opens under a railway bridge at 3:00 a.m. A policeman finds a bloody corpse and calls Dr. Stamford, who wants a second opinion before taking it to the mortuary. He sends for Holmes, who says the blood is not the corpse’s and that he died elsewhere. Thus begins an intriguing case only Holmes can unravel.

All the authors show mastery of storytelling and excellent research. This is a book Sherlock Holmes lovers will want to read more than once.

How about you? Are you a Sherlock fan? A mystery fan? A short story fan? Do you like anthologies and collections? As always, I'd be interested in your recommendations. 

Irregular Lives: The Untold Story of Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars

Once again, I'm hooked on a new Sherlock Holmes novel, this one by Kim Krisco. I always enjoy it when the “Baker Street Irregulars” show up in a Sherlock Holmes story, and this tale is a particularly touching one. For readers not familiar with the canon, the Irregulars were a group of street urchins in three of the original adventures written by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, and “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” one of the stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.) Basically a street gang, they are led by a boy named Wiggins, and Sherlock employs them as street spies.

Irregular Lives jumps forward to the year 1919. WWI is over, but future threats to world peace loom. In Ireland, the Irish Republican Army is fighting British forces. Against this backdrop, Holmes, who has retired to his farm in Sussex Downs, receives an invitation by a mysterious S. P. Fields to a photography exhibit on Russell Square in London. Naturally, he attends, and finds the photographs are pictures of the “Irregulars” when they were children. Each photograph brings a memory of a particular case, and each case stirs emotions in Holmes, a man famous for keeping his life cerebral.

Then a second invitation to a special dinner at a posh home in Belgravia comes for both Holmes and Watson. They arrive and find all of the adult Irregulars in the photographs are there to honor the impact Holmes had on their lives. All but two, that is—Wiggins and Ruck. Those present have struggled up from their former Spitalfields lives, though, to Holmes’s dismay, the host works for an armament company. Then Wiggins shows up in a dreadful state and Ruck enters, packing a gun. What began as an inspiring evening evolves into a case that involves blackmail, murder, kidnapping, armaments dealing, a secret new weapon, the IRA, and Holmes’s personal enemy, the daughter of Moriarty.

The story is told in multiple points of view, and the author gives us a more rounded out Sherlock without changing his basic nature. The first part of the book sets the reader up nicely for the personalities of the adult Irregulars and Holmes’s reluctant awakening to an almost “parental” concern for them. The author has also made the London of George V palpable. The reader can walk the streets of that era in all the neighborhoods mentioned and almost see them and feel them firsthand. This is historical fiction at its best, as well as a deeply engrossing adventure that draws the reader in until the last page.

                 

Kim Krisco writes both fiction and nonfiction. You can learn more about him on his Amazon author page HERE (and pre-order his book as well. It will be released November 16, 2016.)

You can connect with him on Facebook HERE