Monthly Archives: March 2018
The Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries Series So Far – Book Review
Yesterday was my stop on the Blog Tour celebrating the release of the second book in the Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries series. Check out the guest post by author Robert J Harris here.
Arthur Conan Doyle is the author of Sherlock and in this middle grade series he is imagined as a young boy having a series of adventures that will later lead him to write his infamous detective series. There are two books in the series so far with more to come.
Book 1 – The Gravediggers’ Club
A ghostly lady in grey.
The paw prints of a gigantic hound.
This case can only be solved by the world’s greatest detective.
No, not Sherlock!
Meet boy-detective Artie Conan Doyle, the real brains behind Sherlock Holmes.
With the help of best friend Ham, Artie discovers the secrets of the Spooky Gravediggers’ Club.
Can Artie solve the mystery – or will his first case be his last?
Book 2 – The Vanishing Dragon
A world-famous magician.
A sabotaged illusion.
This case can only be solved
by the world’s greatest detective.
No, not Sherlock!
Boy-detective Artie Conan Doyle, the real brains behind Sherlock Holmes, is once again investigating the impossible.
With the help of best friend Ham, Artie must reveal the secret of the Vanishing Dragon and unmask the villain.
Can Artie solve the mystery – before it’s his turn to disappear?
What I thought
These were a lot of fun and very much in the vein of a couple of other series I have read recently – Robin Steven’s Murder Most Unladylike and Chris Priestly’s Maudlin Towers. It also reminds me of series such as Nancy Drew, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven that I read when much younger.
In the guest post yesterday author Robert said he didn’t want Artie to simply be a young Sherlock and Artie is definitely learning to develop skills of logic and deduction but relying a lot on guesswork and jumping to conclusions.
Despite some wrong turns he perseveres and is determined to solve the mysteries which he does, in the first book mostly with his friend Ham, but in the second with some help from other people too.
Both stories are set in Edinburgh and Robert makes excellent use of the setting – from Greyfriars Cemetery to underground streets. There are also more than a few nods to Sherlock to keep older fans amused. I really should read them but I got enough references from the many tv adaptations I’ve seen.
I slightly preferred the second book because of the magic tricks and theatrics and the introduction of Rowena who is although a little annoying to the boys, is a welcome female addition, and more than proves her worth.
I felt for poor Ham whose love of cake is often ridiculed but loved how that also became a useful plot device in the first book.
As someone who is an advocate for representation of mental health issues I was impressed by the focus on Artie’s father’s depression and the impact this has on both him and his family. I look forward to the continued exploration of that.
As for future developments I’d love to see more of Rowena, and also Artie and Ham’s boarding school would be a welcome setting for one of their adventures.
I would highly recommend this to the target age group and if you are a fan of Sherlock see if they’ll let you keep them for bedtime stories as you will be sure to enjoy the nods to stories such as Hound of the Baskervilles.
Thanks to Floris books/Discover Kelpies for The copies of the books I received for the purpose of this honest review.
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BEYOND THE FINAL PROBLEM – CONTINUING THE TRADITION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #ArtieOnTour – guest post by author Robert J Harris
The most famous crime in all of the Sherlock Holmes stories takes place in The Final Problem when Arthur Conan Doyle attempts to kill off his fictional detective, sending him over the Reichenbach Falls in the clutches of his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty. Doyle felt that Holmes had become a distraction from his more serious works. However, it only turned out to be a case of attempted murder. Such was Holmes’ popularity that Doyle was finally forced to resurrect him and bring him back to Baker Street for yet more adventures.
Such is the irresistible appeal of those gas lit tales, many other people have taken up the task of telling Holmes’ further adventures in books, films, radio and television. Some have been worthwhile, others not so much.
My own tribute to the Great Detective has not been to place him in a story of my invention but to find another way to recreate the atmosphere and excitement of Doyle’s masterpieces. I imagined that while he was still a schoolboy in Edinburgh, the young Conan Doyle (‘Artie’) had a series of adventures which would provide him with the inspiration for the stories he would write some years later. This would also give the reader some insight into the man behind the detective.
From letters he wrote in his boyhood we gain a picture of young Artie as an active, sporty young boy, who occasionally gets into fights and scrapes and loves reading adventure stories. Adding to this the details of his family life and the world of Victorian Edinburgh created the background for these new adventures.
And then came the first story itself: The Gravediggers’ Club.
The most notorious criminals in the history of Edinburgh are surely Burke and Hare, the body-stealers. This suggested the central mystery of the novel: why is someone digging up dead bodies from graveyards all over Edinburgh? By adding plenty of fog and borrowing a gigantic hound from The Hound of the Baskervilles (by far the most famous Holmes novel) I had all the elements of a classic thriller.
It was important to me, however, that my Artie should be true to life and not simply a miniature version of Sherlock Holmes, spotting clues the police are too dim to notice and making brilliant deductions at every turn. What he does have is courage and determination and a powerful sense of what is right.
Detective stories as such were not a recognised genre at this time – it was Conan Doyle who really established them as such. So Artie couldn’t possibly be attempting to imitate some fictional detective he’d read about. Only gradually does he develop those skills, a process that will continue throughout the series.
In The Gravediggers’ Club Artie has his own reason for pursuing the mystery. In The Vanishing Dragon he is actually hired to investigate a series of suspicious accidents that have befallen a magic show. These are his first steps on the road to becoming the man who will create Sherlock Holmes. I hope everyone enjoys joining him on that journey.
Do come back tomorrow to see what I thought of the first two adventures in the series and make sure to check out the other stops on the tour.
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The Witch’s Blood by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr – Blog Tour Author Interview
I’m so pleased to be welcoming sisters Katharine and Elizabeth Corr to Books, Occupation… Magic! today to help them celebrate the publication of the final book in The Witch’s Kiss trilogy. The Witch’s Blood.
As one door closes… Thoughts on finishing a series
We started writing the book that became The Witch’s Kiss back in the early summer of 2014. It wasn’t our first book, but it turned out to be the one that changed our lives: it got us an agent and then a publishing deal with HarperCollins during the course of 2015. Since then, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. In the two and a half years since we started working with HarperCollins we’ve written and/or edited three books and seen them published. We’ve collaborated with three different editors and have seen our characters grow and survive (mostly!) everything that we’ve thrown at them. And now…
And now that particular bit of our writing journey is over. We dotted the last ‘i’ and crossed the last ‘t’ of The Witch’s Blood, the final book in our trilogy, back in November. Now the finished product, in all it’s beautiful, blood-and-holly glory, is in the shops. We don’t have to think about Merry and Leo, about witches and curses, anymore. And that makes us feel…
Weird, to be honest.
On the one hand, it’s nice to be able to take our feet off the accelerator a little (yes, you have to imagine us both trying to drive a car at the same time – it’s kind of how we write our books). Finishing three books in two and a half years has kept us pretty busy. But now, we’ve got time to think about what we’d like to write next. Time to start working on our new projects (four, at the last count). Time to invent new places, make friends with new characters, and decide what horrible things we’re going to inflict on them. And yet…
And yet, we’re a little bit sad. The more we’ve explored the world of The Witch’s Kiss, the more that world has revealed itself to us; there’s always just the hint of something over the horizon, of another room glimpsed through a half-open doorway. Both of us would like to spend more time with Leo and Cormac, for example. Or maybe find out what it was like for Gran to grow up in a magical family in wartime England. Lots of possibilities. But still only twenty-four hours in a day.
So, for the time being, at least, we’re shutting the door on The Witch’s Kiss and moving on to new endeavours. But we’re not throwing away the key: just tucking it under the doormat so it’s easily accessible. Because you never know.
Thanks to Kirsty for being part of our blog tour!
I’ve recently re-read the first two books and loved them even more. I always find I spot new things on a re-read.
Flashback to my interview with the sisters and their characters on the release of The Witch’s Kiss – https://kirstyes.co.uk/2016/07/04/the-witchs-kiss-blog-tour-author-and-character-interview/
And I was so happy to be invited to the launch of The Witch’s Tears that I made a little present for them both. Looking forward to seeing what’s gone in the last frame. Some Black Holly perhaps?
Finally a nod has to go to Lisa Brewster of Blacksheep Design for the stunning covers.
And I did shed a little, happy, tear when I read the acknowledgments in The Witch’s Blood. Thanks guys. Now I have a day off work so I’m going to tuck up in bed and read the whole of The Witch’s Blood. Will share my review shortly. I’m not sure I’m ready to say goodbye to Merry, Leo and the gang either. 😢
kirstyes 