Happy Anniversary, Russell & Holmes

On this day 99 years ago, two friends of ours were wed. February 17, 1921 Marriage, to Sherlock Holmes?  He was the least marriageable man I knew.  On the other hand, we were already partners.  And having that piece of paper—that otherwise meaningless piece of paper—would undoubtedly ease such matters as border crossings, hotel rooms,…

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Russell’s War!

RUSSELL’S WAR IS NOW AVAILABLE! The complete collection of Russell short pieces—yes, ALL of them—is available in a gorgeous shiny new paperback from my good friends at Poisoned Pen Press. I signed for the Poisoned Pen bookshop on Saturday—and, since Les Klinger was there too, if you snatch at one soon, you’ll get a copy…

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The XX-rated Russell?

So a funny thing happened on the way to a Russellscape… Since changing over the web site a few months ago (if you haven’t seen it, take a look!) we’re been working on ways to bring over the impressive amount of fan art that’s accumulated in the old site. We’re also working on a renovation…

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“Marriage” and–which “artist Vernet”?

“The Marriage of Mary Russell” publishes today–yay! In “The Greek Interpreter,” Watson is startled when his flat-mate Sherlock Holmes pulls an unsuspected brother out of his conversational pocket: It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from golf clubs to the causes of the…

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Sherlock Holmes: his people

In “The Marriage of Mary Russell,” as the cover copy tells us: Mary Russell is delighted by Sherlock Holmes’ proposal of marriage.  After all, they have become partners-in-crime, and she has recently come into her inheritance: what remains but to confirm the union with her mentor-turned-partner with the piece of paper? Russell’s pragmatic side tells…

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The Tiger of Beachy Head

Quite a bit of “The Marriage of Mary Russell”— —takes place on the South Downs, particularly that portion of it to which Sherlock Holmes retired after the death of Queen Victoria, a few miles from where Mary Russell stumbles across him in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Holmes’ earlier biographer, Arthur Conan Doyle, had little interest in…

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Writing S*X without the S*X

“Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark upon the riskiest adventure of their partnership: their wedding night.” When the cover blurb for this new short story first emerged from Random House, the copy writer had given the description a rather… different flavor from what its author had intended: creatively (perhaps wistfully?) the writer of the cover copy…

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Marriage before Murder

“The Marriage of Mary Russell” started, as many of my more interesting projects seem to, with a conversation with my editor. Was there by any chance, she asked, a short story I’d like to write? One that Random House could use as an e-short, during the build-up to The Murder of Mary Russell, to tease new…

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A Marriage for Mary

A new short story is born! Yes, yes, a short story isn’t a novel, but it’s a bright and amusing bit of new life that wasn’t here last month, and now is, so: yay, me!  (Although “here” is a relative term. It’s here for me. You’ll have to wait until March. Sorry.) Here’s how Random…

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