NPR’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge†on September 17th will include as the second hour:
HOUR TWO – “Elementary Holmesâ€
“Forget the deerstalker cap and the calabash pipe. The real Sherlock Holmes is much hipper than that. One scholar suggests that with his violin, creative spirit, cocaine and costumes, Holmes was the rock star of his day. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll investigate the elementary Sherlock Holmes, from the new annotated edition – to his wife!”
The books being talked about are Mitch Cullin’s, A Slight Trick of the Mind, Laurie R. King’s Locked Rooms, and Leslie S. Klinger’s three volume The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
As I mentioned earlier, Les Klinger and I will be doing two events together later this month, one at Centuries & Sleuths in Chicago the evening of Sept 27, the other at Booked for Murder in Madison during the day on Sept 30. Too bad Mitch Cullin won’t be joining us…
Dear Laurie,
I just want to thank you personally for the many, many hours of pleasure I’ve derived from reading your intriguing books–particularly the Mary Russell/Holmes series. I’ve reread the whole canon now, prior to reading Locked Rooms, and they get better each time I make their acquaintance. As a lifelong Doyle aficionado, I simply adore the idea of a retired Holmes finding love and renewed challenge in his later years in his partnership/duals with Russell. I feel I have come to know Holmes so well that a couple of times, he has made his way into my dreams.
I am in awe of your command of theology, linguistics, other lands and times, and clever intellectual puzzles. You draw me in with those, then make me care deeply about the characters. I want MORE every time I close another book. I’d have to say I’m a prolific reader, particularly of mysteries, and you are my favorite author, bar none (although I think my top 10 are impressive competition.)
I’ve just reluctantly and literally closed the book on Brother Erasmus and felt I had, finally, to seek you out. Your understanding of human nature, desires, motivations, and deepest hidden secrets, is on a level with a professional psychologist (and broader than most.) I wish I had the words to express my admiration more profoundly, but I will leave it at a simple thank you, for want of a better choice. My name is Ross Laird, but I am a woman for all that.
Ms. Laird:
What a lovely “comment.” All I can write is “ditto.” I, too, just recently finished reading To Play a Fool. I was overwhelmed with wonder and new information and thirst and and questions, questions, questions. I wanted to fire a query-filled letter off to Ms. King immediately, but judged the timing neither appropriate nor convenient. Thank you, Ms. Laird, for voicing my feelings and thoughts more eloquently than I think I ever could. And–once again–thank you, Ms. King, for the theology, linguistics, puzzles and cultures, etc., with which you have gifted us all.
For those of you interested in listening to this broadcast, here is the URL for the “To the Best of Our Knowledge†Search for a Station web page: WPR.
Alas, this program is not available in Pennsylvania, where I live. For those of you in a similar situation, cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 05-09-25-A.
Ms. King: you have many fans on the SeniorNet Bookies Mystery discussion. We have recently been mentioning Folly and it has been nominated for a month-long discussion. Several of us have been reading your blog and we are in AWE. Looking forward to many more lovely hours reading your writings. Thank you. BTW my SeniorNet name is Mrs Sherlock.
Yay! You’re coming to Madison! Booked for Murder is such a great store. I’m very excited to get to meet you there!!
You can download and listen to the show from http://wpr.org/book/nextweek.html; you can also get the podcast for free from iTunes. Joy!
I can only utter a hearty “I concur” to the comments on To Play the Fool & thanks for the audio info. Here are some helpful facts for those of us in the MidWest or heading there: the event at Booked for Murder is 11:30 to 12:30, 30 Sept,2701 Univ Ave. (near the VA Hospital) Ending promptly so LRK can get back to B’Con for her 1pm panel. Parking in lot or in old closed Goodwill across the st! Cabs from downtown $9 and charged by cab, not by person. cheers!–Meredith T.