REVIEW – Remarkable Power of Stimulus by The Sherlock Holmes Journal

. . . a boldly portrayed Holmes . . . This book is exciting, ingenious, and a delight to read. I hope it will attract the modern generation to our Holmes and Watson.”

“The first President of this Society, S.C. Roberts, once observed “Certain imaginative playwrights, with a greater regard for popular sentiment than for documentary evidence, have boldly portrayed Sherlock Holmes not only as a lover, but as husband and father”.

This book is a Sherlock Holmes adventure with heart, states the author. This is a boldly portrayed Holmes who wears his heart on his sleeve, and who not only acquires an adopted daughter, but a wife, namely the by-then-widowed Mrs Irene Norton! The plot weaves together a number of themes; an attempted re-launch of Moriarty’s organisation, repeated attacks on Holmes by Moriarty’s daughter, and, the key element, a series of murders of women connected with the suffragist movement.

Canonical references and characters abound, and the knowledgeable Holmesian will chuckle over many of them. Some novel elements have been introduced, Inspector Chandra Das, for example, and one chapter features the “Russian Influenza” which menaced Britain and most of Western Europe in the late nineteenth century. How topical is that!

All in all, this book is exciting, ingenious, and a delight to read. I hope it will attract the modern generation to our Holmes and Watson.” 

The Sherlock Holmes Journal, Summer Issue 2021. Review by John Sheppard.

Remarkable Power of Stimulus is available directly from MX Publishing London, & Amazon.

Gretchen Altabef is an MX author of Sherlock Holmes novels. Her writing springs from the same sense of justice as Dr. Watson’s, and Dr. Doyle’s. Ms. Altabef’s novels brim with imagination and a news reporter’s excitement for the true history of the day. The first, These Scattered Houses, is in Holmes’ own voice and resourcefully chronicles the last two months of his ‘great hiatus’. From a review by Harry DeMaio: “Let us establish one fact immediately. Gretchen Altabef is a remarkably talented author. In These Scattered Houses, she eschews the formulas that so often appear in Holmes pastiches and sets about creating a new format; a new locale; new characters; a new storyline and most important, a new Holmes.” The sequel is Remarkable Power of Stimulus. After 3 years away, Sherlock Holmes finds London awash in murders, No. 221B besieged, anarchists threatening Paris, and most arresting of all, the return of Irene Adler. Fully aware he is under surveillance by Moriarty’s men, Holmes arrives in Baker Street knowing he will find Watson’s friendship and unerring aim are as dependable as the British Rail. The Sherlock Holmes Journal 2021 review: “Exciting, ingenious, and a delight to read. I hope it will attract the modern generation to our Holmes and Watson.”