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Philip K Jones reviews Murder In The Library a Sherlock Holmes mystery

“The characters are interesting and the story is written to be continued.  Another book is planned and if it is good as the first, I’m sure it will lead to a popular series.”

Philip K Jones (aka The Ill Dressed Vagabond) reviews the debut novel from Felicia Carparelli – Murder In The Library. The book has recently been picked up for translation and will come out in Italian in early 2012. Here is Phil’s review:

“This book is a Sherlockian mystery only by courtesy.  The characters are knowledgeable about the Canon and there are Sherlockian echoes in the clues and events.  Otherwise, this is an interesting mystery with well-drawn and fascinating characters set in contemporary Chicago.  I was a bit disappointed as it started, due to the book cover, which indicated a ‘period’ mystery.  However, I soon became involved in the story and characters, which are rich and imaginative.  The mystery is complex and baffling with lots of distractions and false leads.

This story is set in an un-named University Library, near Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago.  The heroine is a widowed daughter of a Greek restaurant owner and a retired Italian Opera singer who gives singing lessons.  Both parents cook, a lot!  Our Librarian manages the Reference Department with a staff of five junior Librarians and a number of Student pages.  The other Library staff are varied, interesting and quirky.  Murder definitely upsets the smooth routine of the Library and sets the Gossip Machine into high gear.

The disputes, jealousies, grudges and other interrelations are more than enough to provide motives for several murders.  It seems that College Libraries harbor as many ill feelings as most business enterprises.  Mix in a divorced, green-eyed Police detective who pushes all of the Librarian’s buttons and the situation becomes explosive.  As the body count rises, the toll on nerves and relations mounts and stirs the pot.  Meanwhile, the Greek Chef and the Italian Opera Singer feed friends, acquaintances and suspects and provide a safe harbor in the storm.

The editing is quite good.  I only saw two or three errors in language and no errors at all in matters Sherlockian.  The characters are interesting and the story is written to be continued.  Another book is planned and if it is good as the first, I’m sure it will lead to a popular series.”

Murder In The Library is available from all good bookstores (including Amazon), and in all electronic formats including Kindle, Kobo, iBooks and others.

 

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Philip K Jones Reviews The Case of The Russian Chessboard a Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Philip K Jones (aka The Ill Dressed Vagabond) is one of the USA’s most respected Holmes reviewers and maintains a huge database of Holmes pastiches and fiction.

Here is his review of The Case of The Russian Chessboard;

“This is a short novel set in the late 19th Century in London.  Holmes and Watson are drawn into an investigation of Russian revolutionaries plotting and recruiting among London’s Liberals.  It brings them into the world of plot and counterplot, agent and counteragent that set the standards for 20th Century Social Commentary.  The Emigrés and the Okhrana define the moves and relations followed by all the various Patriots vs. Secret Police From the October Revolution through the careers of Pol Pot and Idi Amin.  This dance began during the Reign of Peter the Great and, in 200 years, the participants learned their roles well.  Their examples through the Russian Revolution trained another hundred years of artists of abominations.

This is Sherlock Holmes working on a World stage, with despair and misery playing the tune and ambition calling the moves.  It is a dark and unpleasant tale, with few triumphs and little to cheer about.  Holmes makes no brilliant deductions and no knighthood is awaiting him in The Service of the Crown.   The lessons are all bloody and terrible and the victims are pitiful and miserable.  How sadly and typically Russian!  The truly sad thing about this story is that could well have been true.

Holmes accepts a plea from a gentlewoman to help her sister who has become enmeshed in a nihilist organization’s plot.  As part of the investigation, Holmes visits an old acquaintance living on a pacifist commune in rural Essex.  He and Watson are also offered work in St. Petersburg by the London head of the Okhrana and witness the murder of a revolutionary hero in Regent’s Park. Untangling the ins and outs of the matter is a commentary on the methods used by both sides and the struggles to be faced in the dawning Century.

The editing is quite good with only one or two errors apparent.  The writing is dark and the mystery is, unfortunately, fairly easy to penetrate.  The most depressing thing about the book is how true it is to life and the times”.

The Case of the Russian Chessboard is now out in paperback on Amazon USA, Amazon UK, and through all good bookstores. The book is also available on Amazon Kindle and all other ebook formats.

 

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Hollywood Film Director Joins Guy Ritchie team in the Great Sherlock Holmes Debate

After several Holmes heavyweights joined the side of the BBC’s Sherlock, the Guy Ritchie side was looking a little light – but no more. Gerry O’Hara has worked with some of the most famous actors of all time from Laurence Olivier (Richard III) to Joan Collins (The Bitch) and has directed many Hollywood movies – including working on the Academy Award winning Tom Jones.

He’s no stranger to television either having worked on The Avengers, The Professionals, Hammer House of Horror, Cats Eyes and a host of other programmes. He’s a record breaker too. He wrote the adaptation of the book Operation Julie which was the first adaptation to play across three consecutive nights on British TV and drew a record 13 million viewers.

Talking with his agent, Tom Evans, we tried to find out why he’s joined the side of Guy Ritchie. Tom is careful to not to reveal too much, but lets just say that there are some similarities between Guy and (a younger) Gerry that clinched it.

We’re working hard at getting an interview with Gerry but he’s hard to track down and for now we’ll settle for him committing to being on the team. Gerry’s own Holmes adaptation comes out in book form soon-  ‘Sherlock Holmes and The Affair In Transylvania’ – with a film adaptation in the offing.

So the teams are lining up nicely. We’ve had several more approaches today which we are working through and will have more news over the weekend.

Please remember the debate is supporting two important causes – Save Undershaw and BAFTA for Jeremy Brett – please check out their sites and join their pages on Facebook (Undershaw Trust on Facebook).

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – Two Huge Participant Announcements

It’s day 4 since The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate was announced (10th November – BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Ritchie’s movies) and we are attracting some extremely exciting participants. We are in talks with a Hollywood film director’s agent who wants to join the movies team – as soon as we have that finalised we’ll be able to reveal who it is – with dozens of films under his belt he’s a legend, but as you can imagine his diary is a nightmare to schedule. Hope to have news this evening on that.

We can however announce today a real coup. The BBC team will be joined by The Baker Street Babes. With a huge female following, the Babes have thousands of fans of their blog and a large subscriber list to their Holmes podcast (search for Baker Street Babes on iTunes). Don’t be fooled by the provocative name, this is a group of extreme Holmes fans that know the canon inside out. They’ll be interviewing several of the participants for their blog ahead of the debate so its a good time to subscribe to their podcast.

The Facebook Great Debate page continues to grow – you’ve a couple of weeks to ‘like’ the page before we release the audience tickets on Facebook – there will be around 80 free tickets that will come with some Sherlock Holmes goodies for all participants.

Please remember the debate is supporting two important causes – Save Undershaw and BAFTA for Jeremy Brett – please check out their sites and join their pages on Facebook (Undershaw Trust on Facebook).

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – initial team members announced

There are a few weeks to go before the teams in The Great Sherlock Holmes debate are finalised, but here are the initial people that have been confirmed onto the teams in the first 24-48 hours.

BBC – Roger Johnson (BSI) (UK), Kate Workman (USA), Dan Andriacco (USA),

Guy Richie Movies – Kieran McMullen (USA), Joe Revill (UK), Larry Feldman (USA),

We’re working through lots of other approaches as well and looking forward to many more. We’ve confirmed that there will be at least 80 audience members drawn from fans of the Facebook page for The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate and numbers are growing nicely on there.

We’re particularly excited to have Roger Johnson (editor of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London journal) involved and several of the other societies around the world will have people on the teams too. It will be interesting to see who joins the side of the movies – initial voting on Facebook is strongly on the side of the BBC, but then most votes have come in from the UK so far.

Twitter joins in the fun with the hastag – #thegreatsherlockholmesdebate

The debate is supporting two current important Holmes fans issues – www.saveundershaw.com and www.bafta4jb.com – please do visit their sites and give your support.

 

 

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate – BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Richie’s Movies – November 10th 2011

We talk to thousands of Sherlock Holmes fans and everyone has an opinion on the BBC’s Sherlock series and the two films from Guy Richie. We are also fortunate to hear the views of some of the world’s leading Holmes experts and of course about twenty of our own authors.

When Charlotte Walters decided to mark the launch of her debut novel, Barefoot on Baker Street, this Tuesday 20th September, with a stunning challenge to write about each of the 56 Holmes stories, one a day until 11th November, we wondered how we could mark the occasion.

The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate was born. The night before Charlotte completes her mammoth feat, we will be hosting a worldwide online debate:

“BBC’s Sherlock vs Guy Richie’s Movies – which is more beneficial to Holmes in the 21st Century?”

Thursday 10th November – 8pm (GMT), 3pm (EST)

Two teams of Holmes experts, one arguing for each side, will present their case in front of an online audience of 100 lucky Holmes fans. The debate will run for an hour from 8pm UK time. After a brief introduction each team captain will have 5 minutes to present – they will be able to uses slides, video and audio to argue their case with input from their team members. Then the floor will open up for the main debate.

Audience members will be able to submit questions and comments online. The presentation and debate will be recorded for release in several formats.

The teams are lining up nicely. Roger Johnson (BSI), the editor of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s journal was one of the first ones to add his support to the debate – we’ll reveal which side he is on later on. The first of the MX authors to line up is Kieran McMullen (author of Watson’s Afghan Adventure), who is supporting the Guy Richie movies. We already have participants from the UK, France, USA and Australia so the debate will truly be global.

The main place for updates about the debate will be the Great Debate Facebook page and that is where the free audience places will be handed out some time in October.

As it’s an online debate, fans from all around the world will be able to register for this unique event. Keep an eye on the page for the latest team information – you can also place your own vote on that page.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London reviews A Case of Witchcraft

“well written and thoroughly researched”

Set in the Northern Isles A Case of Witchcraft has already caused some controversy written as it is by an expert on the occult. Here the Sherlock Holmes Society of London review this debut novel from Joe Revill.

“A Case of Witchcraft by Joe Revill (£12.99/$19.95/€14.99) teams Holmes rather improbably with Aleister Crowley to investigate the disappearance of an eminent folklorist in what’s described as a ‘remote and rather backward northern isle’. The situation is strongly reminiscent of The Wicker Man, but, of course, Holmes is not Sergeant Howie.

His attitude towards the so-called Old Religion, not to mention the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, is remarkably liberal, but perhaps that’s the influence of his companion. A Case of Witchcraft is a decided oddity,but well written (in the third person) and thoroughly researched.”

Joe launches the book at his local Waterstones bookstore in Chesterfield, UK on the 24th September. If you are in the area we advise getting a signed copy – the book is already flying off the shelves in the USA and getting great reviews so signed 1st editions are likely to become nicely collectable. Available from Amazon, and also in all good formats including Amazon Kindle and iBooks for the iPad.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London reviews Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania

” idiosyncratic and entertaining”

It’s not every day that you sign a major film director as a new author and to be brutally honest I found the experience exciting, humbling and a little intimidating all rolled into one. Gerry O’Hara is best described as a legend of the big screen having several dozen films under his belt but no stranger to TV either with episodes of iconic series like The Avengers under his belt too. A prolific screenwriter Gerry also wrote several books during his career, but never had the time to do anything with them – now that he is semi-retired (many would kill for the guy’s energy) he has unearthed several to be published this year and we as you may know grabbed his Holmes novel – Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania. You don’t need detection skills on a par with the great detective to work out that this is Holmes and Dracula territory.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of London were among the first to get a review copy:

“Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania by Gerry O’Hara (due 2 November; £9.99/$16.95/€12.99) is similarly idiosyncratic and entertaining. As you might guess, Mr O’Hara pits Holmes and Watson against Count Dracula, but in a different way from his predecessors, Loren D Estleman and David Stuart Davies. Although great chunks of Bram Stoker’s text remain, his story has been rewritten to exclude Professor Van Helsing, and various other characters are reimagined.

Mina is now Watson’s niece, married to a Romanian named Janos. Lucy is the daughter of Dr Westenra, who supervises an asylum in Transylvania, where all the events occur. Surprisingly, this is Gerry O’Hara’s first book, after a long career as writer and director in film and television (he wrote the story for Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls, so he’s not new to Holmes).”

What the review doesn’t mention is the rather stunning illustrations which were created as paintings and then scaled down for use in the book. The originals are all in colour and one is used for the cover. In the paperback they appear in greyscale, but in the ebooks they are in glorious colour, so if you have the Kindle version make sure you take a peek at them on a colour device like your computer as they are pretty special.

Gerry’s memoirs are out in a few months which, if the contract signing lunch stories he told are anything to go by are going to be funny and pretty revealing.

Sherlock Holmes and The Affair in Transylvania is due out on 2nd November though there are some limited pre-publication copies appearing on bookstores like Amazon.

 

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Sherlock Holmes Society of London Review of No Police Like Holmes Dan Andriacco

“An exciting and witty romp”

Dan Andriacco’s first book in June this year has been a big hit with Holmes fans around the world and the blog of the same name Baker Street Beat has thousands of visitors. His debut novel, No Police Like Holmes is a mystery featuring Holmes fans rather than the great detective himself. The first main review of the book comes from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in the current edition of The District Messenger.

“An exciting and witty romp – not about Holmes but about his fans. The world’s third-largest private collection of Sherlockiana has been donated to St Benignus, a small college in a small town in Ohio, and to celebrate, the college is hosting the Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Colloquium.

Jeff Cody, the college’s PR director (and part-time crime writer), is an amused observer until the event is blighted by a real theft and a real murder, and he realises that there’s rather a lot of suspects in deerstalkers. As if things weren’t bad enough, Cody and his ex-girlfriend also become suspects… I like it!”

The book comes out on November 9th and but some bookstores have limited advance copies, Amazon UK, Sherlock-Holmes.com , Amazon USA, and others.

Dan will be appearing in person alongside many Holmes legends at Gillette to Brett III Nov. 11-13 in Indiana and will have some copies there to sign. Holmes fans that manage to get one of those signed first editions make sure you keep them safe, we have a feeling this one is going to be a bestseller.

 

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A light at the end of the tunnel for 13 year old bedwetting sufferer and her family

Stop Bedwetting in 7 DaysThere are times as a publisher when you feel particularly proud, especially with books that can be described as ‘life changing’. Our No.1 bestselling book worldwide is giving us such moments on a regular basis. Coming up to it’s 2nd birthday, ‘Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days’ goes from strength to strength. Now being recommended by healthcare professionals due to its more than 80% success rate the book is currently the #5 ranked NLP book in the UK [and popular too in the USA]. Bedwetting is best caught as young as possible, but Alicia Eaton’s method (a unique combination of NLP and hypnotherapy) works all the way up to teenage sufferers. We wanted to share a recent review in full as it will give hope to a lot of families:

“My daughter is 13 and has been suffering from eneurisis (bedwetting) all her life which has been a considerable trial for her, but also the rest of the family. It has been difficult to cope with the smelly laundry and keeping the house fresh (although we never mentioned anything to her her friends have!) but for my daughter herself the emotional burden has been huge. She has been frightened to have sleepovers in case anyone sees or smells anything. She has had to shower thoroughly every morning and has felt the need to use lots of body spray as back-up. She has lacked in confidence to the extent that I got in touch with Kidscape which helped a lot but later also consulted with a GP who identified an excellent MIND course for teenagers because, whilst she was frequently aggressive and even violent at home – probably as a side-effect, she was being bullied at school (or took it that way due to her lack of confidence). 

She has always been a deep sleeper such that you could basically explode a bomb and she would sleep right through. 

We have tried lifting at night and had several concerted stints with a bed alarm where she would wake for the first night a couple of times and maybe once the second night and then start to unplug the alarm whilst remaining in a deep sleep as she became more and more tired. Our GP, and later an eneurisis specialist, recommended that we use desmopressin but I considered this to be an extreme solution which in any case had no effect – indeed I believe it may have increased the production of urine. A second medication was also offered to be used in conjunction. I do not want my child full of medication but we gave them both a try from time to time in desperation. 

When ordering a new sensor for the alarm I chanced upon this book and reading the write up I thought that whilst it sounded too good to be true it was worth a try as I could see hints that it might be suitable for the way my daughter thinks. 

I got the book and what a revelation. Very short and to the point I could see that it had HUGE potential. I read it from cover to cover so that I could fully understand the principles behind the programme and decided that for my daughter, provided I could stay 100% positive and certain it would work, she would soon start to reap the benefits. I could however see that the title was perhaps a bit misleading. The 7 days referred to is the length of the preparation before the programme actually starts. How long it takes to achieve dryness is not certain but the programme definitely starts to create the right brain training for a child to help them get themselves dry. 

My daughter seemed to think it would take 7 days from a standing start so she kept putting off starting the programme because she expected a magic bullet. I was not happy about this so I downloaded the sound file and got her to put it on her phone and MP3 (with a different name of course!) so she could start listening to it. After 4 days she was determined to start the programme and on day 5 of the preparation she had her first ever completely dry night even with a full 11 hours asleep. This alone was enough to take her by surprise and motivate her – she had been sure it would not work! 

At the time of writing we are almost two weeks in since starting the programme, and two and a half weeks since she began listening to the download. She has had several completely dry nights where she has managed to wake up and get herself to the toilet in time (sometimes 3 times in one night) without any problem – her brain has done the right thing. She has had a few nights where she has woken just as she was beginning to wet and has managed to recover the situation and get to the toilet before any sheets are wet. She has even had two completely sleep all the way through dry nights. For my daughter with her prolonged history of being wet and her bad experiences with being lifted and/or using an alarm this is a major breakthrough. She is already much happier, the washing machine is seeing much less laundry and she was confident enough after only ten days to spend four nights sleeping with two of her friends on a camp. 

We bought several identical new sheets, three pairs of identical pyjama sets in the sale and some disposable mats which we put under the sheets (which I stacked mat, sheet, mat, sheet). She managed two nights completely dry, one with a wet sheet and one where her shorts were slightly damp. 

I have to say this is HUGE for both her and me. If you have a determined child I suggest using this programme before they get to 13 and have loads of failures behind them. This programme puts them in charge and helps them programme their own brain in a positive way. The potential for how this programme works goes way beyond dealing with bedwetting. 

For the price of a pack of pull-ups and a laundry load this book is worth every penny. If it does not work on its own it may be necessary to unpick wider emotional issues – we did this the other way round, finding this fantastic book late in the day, but as they say ‘better late than never’.”

The book is available from all good book stores, Amazon USA, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and increasingly popular on iTunes (6 countries) for the iPad and iPhone. An ideal book for parents but also for NLP practitioners as close to one in 5 children suffers with bedwetting at some point.

 

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