Do you enjoy my stories? Please help me and future readers of my books by posting a review or a 5-Star Rating on Amazon. It would be incredibly helpful. Thanks in advance, Gretchen.

Doylean Fiction Honors

I am incredibly grateful to be awarded Doylean Fiction Honors by the ACD Society for my short story, “Sir Arthur & The Time Machine.” It can be found in Belanger Books superb anthology: Sherlock Holmes Further Adventures in the Realms of H. G. Wells, Volume 2.

During the inaugural Doylean Honors celebration of the ACD Society, I was honored for excellence in Fiction!. I am grateful beyond measure for this momentous Fiction Award. It is my first published SciFi story and one of many fine stories in these two volumes.

When one took on the writing of new Sherlock Holmes novels, one invariably got to know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Reading of the major life stresses he faced in a six month period. His story, “The Final Problem” also written during this time, began to make more sense to me. Why would he kill off his golden goose? Sherlock Holmes stories had bought his houses and given him the chance to travel, to take his wife to the clean air of Switzerland. I then realized time travel might offer him another solution.

Never ever be afraid to step out of the box!

5-Stars for FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY

My new Sherlock Holmes novel is released. Available everywhere — NOW!

Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Nobel, MX Publishing Author Page.

“The novel offers a fresh take on so many stock Holmes elements. A tightly researched plot. The author’s handling of the real history is impressive. This book steps away from male-dominated sagas where women tend to be rescued or rotten. Five Miles of Country’s mystery is solid, and its murder resolution is clever. Those who give it a try will want more.“ Reviewed by Vincent F. A. Golphin.

My inspiration for FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY comes from Doyle’s story, “The Adventure of The Copper Beeches”. I believe that through the musings of Sherlock Holmes, he may have been expressing his own childhood reality here:

“Do you know, Watson,’ said he, ‘that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. I look at these scattered houses, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation, and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses . . . Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger.”

Award-Winning author, Gretchen Altabef, publishes with MX Sherlock Holmes Books. These Scattered Houses, in Sherlock Holmes’s 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 No. 221B Baker Street and the solving of Mr Hudson’s murder.