Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable
by Susanne M. Dutton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Mystery
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The
game is not afoot. The Better-Every-Day world of 1895 is gone, even hard to
recall as WWI ends. From his rural cottage, Holmes no longer provokes Scotland
Yard’s envy or his landlady’s impatience, but neither is he content with the
study of bees. August 1920 finds him filling out entry papers at a nearly
defunct psychiatric clinic on the Normandy coast. England’s new Dangerous Drugs
Act declares his cocaine use illegal and he aims to quit entirely. Confronted
by a question as to his “treatment goal,” Holmes hesitates, aware that his real
goal far exceeds the capacity of any clinic. His scribbled response, “no more
solutions, but one true resolution,” seems more a vow than a goal to his
psychiatrist, Pierre Joubert. The doctor is right. Like a tiny explosion
unaccountably shifting a far-reaching landscape, the simple words churn
desperate action and interlocking mystery into the lives of Holmes’ friends and
enemies both.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Watson writes:
Not for the first time, I felt a surge of gratitude for
Holmes’ unspoken understanding that his digs at Bolt Cottage couldn’t suit me.
No doubt his cottage fit his needs precisely, but it was no place for a
visitor, perhaps purposely so. Some might say it was no place for any
inhabitant at all, full as it was with apparatus meant for Holmes’ scientific
inquiries, not to mention the maps and almanacs, the world’s newspapers, and of
course, his library. Books lined shelves and the stairway to the sleeping loft.
Books invaded the corner of the ground floor room usually devoted to meal
preparation, too. They filled the unused icebox, the pots that never knew soup,
and lined most of the cupboards. Books climbed the walls, stacked and somehow
tracked in their positions with ribbons that hung from the center pages in a
festive display—red, black, gold, green, purple, blue, white. Holmes claimed
his color-coded system was modern and flawless. I never grasped it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Susanne Dutton
is the one who hid during high school gym, produced an alternative newspaper
and exchanged notes in Tolkien’s Elfish language with her few friends. While
earning her B.A. in English, she drove a shabby Ford Falcon with a changing
array of homemade bumper strips: Art for
Art’s Sake, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Free Bosie from the Scorn of History.
Later, her interests in myth and depth psychology led to graduate and
postgraduate degrees in counseling.
Nowadays,
having outlived her mortgage and her professional counseling life, she aims
herself at her desk most days; where she tangles with whatever story she can’t
get out of her head. Those stories tend to seat readers within pinching
distance of her characters, who, like most of us, slide at times from real life
to fantasy and back. A man with Alzheimer’s sets out alone for his childhood
home. A girl realizes she’s happier throwing away her meals than eating
them. A woman burgles her neighbors in
order to stay in the neighborhood.
Born in Des
Moines, Iowa, Susanne grew up in the SF Bay Area, has two grown children, and
lives with her husband in an old Philadelphia house, built of the stones dug
from the ground where it sits.
Blog https://www.inside221b.com
Facebook https://www.facebook/noguessing (Improbable Holmes)
Publisher
bookstore link to book:
https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/Sherlock-Holmes-and-the-Remaining-Improbable-by-Susanne-Dutton-p310417036
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteHello Rita. I never thought I'd write anything like a Sherlock Holmes story. I'd written about a burglar, a girl with anorexia, a man with Alzheimer's who decides to visit his childhood home in another state and many more kinds of story. All the while I was hooked on Holmes, however and then those little ideas began to coalesce in my head and a story found it's way into a few paragraphs. After three years and lots of research, "Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable." Thanks for commenting. Susanne Dutton, author
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteIt's an intense read, but not a long one, just 143 pages. The story goes deep, but covers less than three days in "real time." Time itself is a big theme, but also sacrifice. Still, there's humor, too! Susanne Dutton, author
DeleteThank you, Sherry, and thank you for participating. Reading is individual as writing, but I do think it's good to get outside your comfort zone when you read. I am finally approaching "the Russians," as in "The Brothers Karamozov." Even the spell check can't take in that name and underlines it in red. Too bad. It's amazing! I've heard you need to READ, as in page after page, though, no slipping by with an audio. My book is easy peasy in comparison, though I realize it's more deep reading than some Holmes. Susanne Dutton, author
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really interesting book!
ReplyDeleteHello Glenda. "Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable," is a wild, deep story. What does Holmes mean when he says he's dedicating himself, not so much to solutions, but a true resolution? Hmmm.
DeleteThe cover is intriguing. Any book that book includes Sherlock Holmes, has to be exciting.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanna. I think you're right about Holmes. I don't know why, but Holmes is someone who demands attention. I did a blog post once about the idea that it really takes both Holmes and Watson to make work. One head and one heart? Thank you for your comment. Susanne Dutton, author
ReplyDelete