Justice Hall

Hey, our old friend Justice Hall is on special e-book offer now, $2.99 from my friendly neighborhood Bookshop or Nook or Kindle. The sun did not shine on Justice Hall so much as Justice Hall called forth the sun’s rays to fall at such and such an angle. We did not look upon it; rather, it invited…

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Billie & the Art of Detection

“The Marriage of Billie Birdsong” is still up for free download, and will be until March 11.  However, the sweepstakes giveway of a hardback The Art of Detection– is only running until Thursday night! All you US residents can enter that here. Enjoy, and good luck!

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Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle, and Same-Sex Marriage

This month, I’m celebrating the equality of marriage.  The Art of Detection is a Kate Martinelli novel with two timelines, one of which is in the spring of 1924, when (according to the Mary Russell memoirs) Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell spent some time in San Francisco. But maybe they didn’t.  Maybe the story of Sherlock…

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RIP, Sherlock Russell

I received a photo today from Our Lady in the Bahamas, Marcia Talley, that gives a tantalizing glimpse of some hitherto unsuspected case… Let’s see, January, 1926. Shortly after the matters of “Stately Holmes”. Hmm…

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For the Sake of the Game!

Happy Publication Day! For the Sake of the Game Another collection of stories “inspired by the Sherlock Holmes canon”—this time by Peter S. Beagle (his is a song!), Rhys Bowen, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jamie Freveletti, Alan Gordon, Gregg Hurwitz, Toni L. P. Kelner, William Kotzwinkle & Joe Servello, Harley Jane Kozak, D. P. Lyle, Weston…

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The Serbian Beekeeper (‘s Apprentice?)

The other day I went on a wine- and honey-tasting expedition outside of Belgrade, at a place called…well, here: It had examples of old-style bee skeps: It had an illustration of the development of bee-keeping technology: It had a very decorative (if not entirely practical) beehive, since even Apis Mellifera might wish to worship in…

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Cole Porter & Sherlock Holmes, Misbehaving

Whenever I set out to write one of my 1920s novels, I first choose the location, then rummage around to see who was there at the time. I’ve come across some fascinating characters that way–characters in both senses of the word: Sabine Baring-Gould in Dartmoor; Dashiell Hammett in San Francisco; Marshal Lyautey in Morocco—real life,…

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Cover(s) reveal

[Cue the bump-and-grind strip-tease music…] So, what should arrive but a nice lumpy packet from my publishers… And what do I see inside? Ooh, could it be…  The spines are purple! Aahhh, such pretty things! **** Where do I get my copy of Island of the Mad? US edition—signed, from Poisoned Pen Books; signed, from…

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Islands, of the mad

[four weeks from today…] Not to give any spoilers here, but…parts of Island of the Mad take place on, you know, islands. And a rather surprising number of those islands are inhabited by the certified insane. Yes, lunatic asylums, in the Venice lagoon. Who knew? Well, I did, for one, before I went last year.…

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103 years ago today…

…two people met on a patch of countryside: I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across…

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