How
should one write a Sherlock Holmes story?
The
answers to that are as varied as the hundreds of writers who have taken up the task
over the past century and a quarter. My own approach in my new novel was to write
a story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might have written.
For
me, that meant no shocking departures from what we know about Holmes and Watson,
no revisionist history of earlier adventures. It also meant imitating the
original stories in small ways and big ways. For example:
The
title House of the Doomed follows the
title pattern of the four Canonical Holmes novels in that it is four words long
(The Sign of the Four is five, but
the book is also known as The Sign of
Four). Short nouns appear at the beginning and the end of the title.
Its
length is 41,000 words, very close to the word-count of A Study in Scarlet and The Sign
of Four. It is divided into 15 chapters, the same as The Hound and just one more than Study and The Valley of Fear.
Some
of Holmes’s dialogue echoes familiar passages of the Canon without directly
quoting, except in instances where the original text repeated the quote. (“How
many times must I tell you, Watson . . .”)
A
number of plot tropes that Conan Doyle used repeatedly show up this adventure
as well. Without saying too much, the story features Holmes in disguise, Watson
dispatched to gather information in Holmes’s place, secret writing, Gothic atmospherics
(including a woman in peril), an American, a secret past, and burglary in a
good cause.
I'm happy to say that my publisher also strove for authenticity in the design of the book. The fonts are wonderfully evocative of the late Victorian era!
I'm happy to say that my publisher also strove for authenticity in the design of the book. The fonts are wonderfully evocative of the late Victorian era!
Did
it all work? As Dr. Watson once said (GAR), “Well, you shall judge for
yourself.”
This is exactly the kind of Holmes adventure that I support - It's what I buy, write, edit, and promote.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to getting this book. I try to buy or acquire all traditional pastiches, and I place an Amazon order about once a week, but this isn't on Amazon (yet), and ordering from Wessex is something I only do every once in a while. Hopefully I'll get this one in the next few months.