Marriage of Mary Russell
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,…
Read MoreRussell’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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read More“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…
Read MoreSherlock 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreWriting 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…
Read MoreMarriage 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…
Read MoreA 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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