  |  |  |
 |  | 
|
||
                  Caveat Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, as are the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Alexander Dumas. However, freshly-created, original fiction is the copyright of the author. Note that my work adresses adult themes, and is therefore not recommended for YA or children. Copyright All textual material on this website is copyright by Mike Adamson. All artwork with the exception of the book and magazine covers is copyright by Jen Downes. |
Mike moved into mystery writing with The Inspector Trevelyan Mysteries, co-created with his sister, Jen Downes, a series of late Victorian-era adventures for a retired Scotland Yard man who specialises in the occult and supernatural. Trevelyan is a direct contemporary of Sherlock Holmes and they cross paths more than once: through this channel, Mike began in 2019 to write Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and found them very popular. Since then, his stories have appeared in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Strand Magazine, and some dozen anthologies from Belanger Books. His stories are often of novelette length, quite substantial in their own right, and span to date the period from 1881 to 1916, complimenting Conan Doyle's original canon both thematically and in terms of chronology. After several short story placements with Belanger Books, early in 2022 Mike proposed a full length narrative and the project received the green light. He began work at the end of May and a few months later had a working draft in hand. The story features an epic case, facing the younger Holmes with a challenge that will make his name as a detective, silencing his many critics and detractors in official circles. When faced with corruption on a grand scale, perhaps only one outside the system of law enforcement can tackle it with a free hand, and Holmes is undaunted to find crime festering not merely among corruptible juniors but, it seems, among the very high as well.  In the October and November of 1885, as London's unforgiving streets take on winter's first chill, and the pea-soup fogs roll in from the Thames, terror stalks the city by night, and Holmes and Watson must lay their very lives on the line to bring down a shadowy empire that wears the face of virtue! Sherlock Holmes: A Tradition of Evil was released by Belanger Books in August 2023! by Mike Adamson Since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the last Holmesian piece ("His Last Bow," set in 1914 and written in 1917), countless writers have penned new adventures for the great detective and his loyal chronicler. One might never count all the Sherlock Holmes pastiches that have ever been written, though some have tried. As Timothy Miller points out in his delightful 2022 essay What Is Pastiche in Literature and Why Is Sherlock Holmes Perfect for It? ( https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/what-is-pastiche-in-literature-and-why-is-sherlock-holmes-perfect-for-it ), "the number of pastiches far outstrips the 56 stories in the original canon. Goodreads lists 423 books in its "best Sherlock Holmes pastiches"; it's anybody's guess how many didn't make that arbitrary cut." Sociologists might argue indefinitely the motivations for Holmes's undying popularity, but the bottom line is that the Victorian detective's adventures are more popular now than they have ever been, and a voracious reading public enjoys new texts at a pace which would likely have astounded Holmes's creator. The original stories were so popular on their first release that they quite literally powered the success of The Strand in its early years. Conan Doyle was less interested in expanding upon his detective than in concentrating upon his many other creations, especially his historical novels which he considered his most important and legitimate work. But Sherlock Holmes fired the public's delight and they wanted more, so The Strand offered ever more lucrative contracts for fresh batches of material, sums so high the writer simply could not turn them down. Thus the canon as we know it grew from humble beginnings in a novel which initially received little attention to four novels and 56 short stories which form the core of a fandom which has now lasted over 130 years. Stage adaptations were an obvious development in the early days, beginning with William Gillette's portrayal at the beginning of the 20th century. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Gillette introduced the trademark Meerschaum pipe as it was easier on his jaw during performances, while artist Sidney Paget added the deerstalker to the mythos in his illustrations for The Strand. Perhaps whole new stories found their way into being not long after Conan Doyle's departure, but new writing was certainly coming along in the 1930s for Edith Meiser's radio show, and in the 1940s for the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with the detective voiced by none other than Basil Rathbone. New novels have appeared over the years, for instance Nicholas Meyers' best selling The Seven Percent Solution of 1974, and mystery magazines have given a home to rafts of new composition. While mystery as a genre has a long and dignified history, Sherlock Holmes occupies a position within it as an entire subgenre, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, itself in continuous production since 1941, has an annual Sherlock Holmes tribute issue. Today there are specialist Holmesian publishers, such as MX and Belanger Books, and doubtless others around the world. There are dedicated, active Holmesian societies in many countries both within and without the English language; Holmes is very popular in India and Japan, and throughout Europe. Miller (above) asserts that Sherlock Holmes is the second most-often depicted literary character in film and TV, behind Dracula and ahead of Hamlet. One might reasonably conclude that Sherlock Holmes is a genre all by himself, and most certainly a franchise — and has of course been in the public domain for many years. This latter is probably the key to vigorous modern activity — publishers and writers are free to explore his world now, and are certainly doing so. My own introduction to Holmesian writing came when I crossed Inspector Trevelyan with Holmes for a case which Holmes was unable to resolve due to his inability to acknowledge a supernatural element. Though accepted for Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, this piece has not yet appeared in print, due to the unfortunate passing of editor Marvin Nathan Kaye. Marvin also edited Weird Tales, part of the same publishing house, and switched the story to that venue to accommodate the supernatural content. Sadly, after Marvin's passing, that placement has been in limbo. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful it will see the light of day when the time is right. From that point, I continued to write new Holmesian outings, and found berths with three of the main mystery markets (including Strand Magazine, the revitalised Strand now published in the US) My most fortunate connection, however, was with Belanger Books, in whose anthologies my material has appeared eight times to date. I have three more acceptances for further volumes at time of writing, and of course have my first novel approaching release. In early 2022 I expressed an enthusiasm for writing a new Sherlock Holmes novel and the editors at Belanger Books welcomed a submission. I had a fairly developed idea for a strong storyline, and set fingers to keyboard on May 31st, 2022. I wrote the novel in around three months, then took three more over editing/beta reading, and finally got the book away around the end of the year. As I write this essay, A Tradition of Evil is set for release in paperback, hardback and ebook during July, 2023, following a successful Kickstarter campaign which more than double-funded the project. Confidence must be high, as a second novel was green-lighted shortly after the Kickstarter concluded, which places me as a writer in the position of producing long- and short-form compositions for different markets more or less back to back, and continuing to organise the material within and among the "official" canon. I am delighted and honoured to be contributing to the world of Sherlock Holmes, and to have the opportunity to do so in such a substantial way. At time of writing, I have produced some 300, 000 words of Holmesian fiction, counting stories and novels together, and this figure will continue to grow. I have many new stories in note form and regularly get the itch to write the next. I am one among many Holmesian writers, of course, but my own chronology is developing nicely in concert with the originals, and I simply could not be happier. Chronology of Mike Adamson's Sherlock Holmes stories Following is a listing of all adventures completed to date in their chronological order, plus their venue of publication or current status. Scroll down for purchase links. 1881 (March) — The Mystery of the Extraneous Cadaver 1881 (March) — King of the Rats (due in Strand Magazine) 1881 (April) — His Wonders to Perform 1881 (October) — The Fraudulent Benefactor 1882 (December) — The Price of a Life 1883 (July) — A Fortunate Assumption 1883 (September) — The Predilections of a Pious Poisoner 1884 (January) — The Dark Streets 1884 (January) — The Hanging Lightkeeper (on submission) 1885 (March) — An Appointment with the Hangman 1885 (October to November) — A Tradition of Evil 1885 (December) — Sign of the Skull 1886 (June) — The Babbington Inheritance 1886 (July to September) — A Very Lethal Mercy 1886 (July) — A Temptation Irresistible 1887 (April) — Lord Beresford's Indiscretion 1888 (November) — The Shadow of the New 1889 (April) — A Damnation in Negative 1889 (August) — The Unguarded Word 1890 (May) — The Brotherhood of Seven 1891 (March) — The Misadventure of the Perspicacious Waif 1894 (September) — The Adventure of the Nine Barrows 1895 (May) — The Cult of the Orchid 1902 (July) — What Price Honour 1910 (May) — The Inside Man 1916 (September) — The Karpathy Disappearance The Mystery of the Extraneous Cadaver (MX Anthologies; forthcoming) His Wonders to Perform A Year of Mystery, 1881 The Fraudulent Benefactor The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XL: Further Untold Cases - 1879-1886 The Price of a Life A Year of Mystery, 1882 A Fortunate Assumption (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine; due) An Appointment with the Hangman (A Year of Mystery, 1885; due) A Tradition of Evil (novel; Belanger Books, 2023) The Sign of the Skull Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol. 2 The Babbington Inheritance (A Year of Mystery, 1886; forthcoming) A Very Lethal Mercy Medical Mysteries, Vol. 2 A Temptation Irresistible Strand Magazine #69 as 'The Affair of the Russian Violinist' The Shadow of the New Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Jan-Feb 2021 A Damnation in Negative Strand Magazine The Unguarded Word (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine; due) The Misadventure of the Perspicacious Waif (Weird Tales, pending) The Adventure of the Nine Barrows Occult Detectives, Vol. 3 The Cult of the Orchid Adventures in the Realms of H G Wells Vol. 1 What Price Honour Stranger Than Truth The Inside Man The Detective and the Clergyman The Karpathy Disappearance Stranger Than Fiction |
                |
| ||