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
Joubert speaks to Holmes:
Joubert spoke eagerly. “You have managed a disguise?”
“Yes. Simple, but effective. I am half naked and barefoot. I have torn away one leg of my trousers entirely and, otherwise, kept my vest. The cinders work well to dirty my hands, arms, legs, and feet. A rag, held in place by a piece of the fishing net, serves as a kind of veil. Do not doubt it! Nakedness is one of the finest of disguises. Men see through a change of dress long before they see through a lack of it.”
I couldn’t help a burst of laughter, but when Joubert glared at me, I nodded my acquiescence. His attention reverted to Holmes.
“I hunch forward,” my colleague explained, “and affect an exaggerated limp, dragging my right leg . . . Moving to the edge of the crowd . . . I follow a man who has lost both legs from the knee down. He pushes himself along in a flat, small-wheeled cart, jeering as heartily as the rest . . . He wears a military jacket—split up the sides and faded, held to his chest with what might be a gentleman’s stocking. Across his thighs is draped a flag of the republic, doubtless torn from its place outside one of the big city houses . . . but I pass easily in his wake, for I am bizarre, but not so remarkable as he. The mob grows, and yet we two seem to be able to move through it, into the center. Everyone fears our filth, our stench—and the disease they presume. . . A boy with a drum joins the crowd. . . Then the same chant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteThank you to both Goddess Fish and Jasmine for hosting "Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable." Susanne Dutton
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! :)
DeleteI appreciate your policy on comments. I have to say the ones you mention are not even the hardest to deal with an author. I hope to enjoy a blog tour if I'm part of it and I enjoy exchanges about reading and writing or Holmes, that "best and wisest man" Watson ever met. Susanne Dutton
DeleteI like that it is a mystery and is about getting treatment. Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteSet just after WWI, the story deals with Holmes' reaction to the Dangerous Drugs Act, created to address the addiction problems created by treatments given to soldiers for injuries. Of course, it's a mystery most of all and Holmes takes on the most intensely personal enemy he's ever faced. Thank you for participating, Lynn.
DeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteHi Rita! What about the blog post makes you think it's a good read? I always wonder what moves readers to react with that positive comment! Susanne Dutton
Deletedo you usualyl know the ending of a book before you start writing it?
ReplyDeleteI have done it that way, but I write better stories if they are more open to whatever is generated in the writing of the story. My stories are not poetry, not at all, but I have written and published lots of poetry. No poet ever knows the end, they find the end. I think there are many ways to write good stories. My characters are the prime movers. Thank you for your question. Do you like to write? Susanne Dutton
DeleteThis sounds like a really good book!
ReplyDeleteWhen you read a blog tour post, what kinds of things make you think you'd like to read the book? I'd be interested to know! Thank you for participating. Susanne
DeleteSounds like a very good book.
ReplyDeleteHi Sherry. What about the post makes you attracted to the book? I'm interested in whatever that is! Thank you for taking part in the tour. Susanne
DeleteIt's about time Holmes kicked that habit. Seven Percent Solution meets A Taste for Honey ad Mr. Holmes!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. Not many actually make me laugh! As the reader follows the irascible new patient through his stay at Le Dieppe Clinique et Sanatorium, the history of that addiction, probable and improbable, present themselves. He dismisses the notion of group therapy, of course, but he is open to a fierce game of singles tennis. Susanne Dutton
ReplyDeleteThis excerpt sounds very interesting! I love the description of your life, very creative, and fun!
ReplyDeleteThis excerpt sounds very interesting! I love the description of your life, very creative, and fun!
ReplyDeleteThis excerpt sounds very interesting! I love the description of your life, very creative, and fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Rose-Marie. Thank you for participating. As for my life, I left out the parts that weren't so creative and fun. The truth is, most of it seems more creative and fun--in retrospect. Susanne Dutton
DeleteI really like the cover of your book it looks very interesting and like something I would enjoy reading. I was wondering what has inspired the author in writing this story?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the amazing giveaway and good luck to everyone!!
Have a great day!
Hi Jessica. Thank you for your comment. Inspiration? As you might know, it is now legal to write a Sherlock Holmes story as the original work by Arthur Conan Doyle is now in the public domaine. A lot of writers who have long enjoyed the original work are giving it a try. This particular story blasted itself to me when I wandered into an exhibit of 18th C French art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art several years ago. The Vernet family of painters were featured and, according to the Holmes "canon," the Vernet family were Holmes' ancestors. In Conan Doyle's story, "The Greek Interpreter," the detective says, "My grandmother married a Vernet." So this would mean that Holmes is a grandchild of this French family--unless his grandmother married twice. (I suppose that's possible.) But Holmes goes on to tell Watson that "Art in the blood takes the strangest of forms." Obviously, he is related to these people by blood. His meaning is that he believes his detection is an art form. Anyway, putting that all together, this story evolved from that visit to the museum, three years later. Susanne M. Dutton, author
ReplyDelete