Happy 170th Birthday Sherlock Holmes!

Posted on by Gretchen Altabef

For Holmes’ birthday, a taste of my new novel, FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY. Watson describes his friend:

Holmes was in truth not as impenetrable as he seemed. He was as malleable as any human man in this time and place could be. And for some reason, he regarded our friendship as a chance to explore those areas he hithertofore denied, disqualified, ignored, or buried in order to breathe into life the gentleman he was meant to be, the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes. When I met him, he had not completely donned the mantle of his persona. I had access to that young man filled with hope and excitement for his discoveries. At one time, I alone knew the real Sherlock Holmes. The man who ran towards me, a stranger, in Bart’s Chemical Lab with a test tube in his hand, laughing and shouting, his eureka:

“I’ve found it! I’ve found it! I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing else!”1

All over the world his birthday is celebrated. He’s the longest running literary character, and there’s no end in sight. Hundreds of actors have taken on the role, from 1893 to the present. And about a thousand Pastiche authors have been creating new mysteries for Holmes to solve. I am grateful to be one of them.

Award-Winning author, Gretchen Altabef, publishes with MX Sherlock Holmes Books in London, Belanger Books in the US, Mondadori in Italy, and Mystery Magazine. Find her novels on Amazon or MX Publishing. These Scattered Houses, in Sherlock Holmes’ own voice, chronicles a unique conclusion to his ‘Great Hiatus’. In Remarkable Power of Stimulus, Holmes finds London awash in murders, anarchists threatening Paris, and the return of Irene Adler. Under surveillance by Moriarty’s henchmen, Holmes steps into Baker Street knowing he will find Watson’s friendship and unerring aim are as dependable as the British Rail. FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY is Altabef’s third novel in the Rachel Holmes series. Holmes and Watson are called to Thomas Edison’s “Imagination Factory” to solve the murder of a Vaudeville danseuse in the world’s first motion picture studio. THE KEYS OF DEATH is a genesis story of the young occupants and the dangers they dispell in No. 221B Baker Street.

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Published by Gretchen Altabef

Gretchen Altabef is an award-winning author of sensational new Sherlock Holmes mysteries written from a woman's perspective. THESE SCATTERED HOUSES brings Holmes to New York during his ‘great hiatus’. REMARKABLE POWER OF STIMULUS follows in London. During the investigation of a gruesome murder, Sherlock seizes a second chance with THE woman, and they marry in anarchist-ridden Paris. The series continues with FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY. Holmes is called in by Thomas Edison to solve a murder in his unique film studio. While Mrs Irene Adler-Holmes triumphs on Broadway despite the antics of a theater ghost. THE KEYS OF DEATH is a genesis story of 221B Baker Street and its inhabitants, as told by Mrs Hudson. Sherlock Holmes FAR & WIDE mystifies with nine stories and one play, including the award-winning “Sir Arthur And The Time Machine”.

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