Did you ever wonder where Sherlock Holmes found the Persian slipper he keeps his shag tobacco in? Had Holmes and Watson ever met before that day at St. Barts? Did Holmes really believe in curses when he said he did?
Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Persian Slipper and Other Stories along with cases involving the putative Naval Man, a night spent at a gentlemenâs club, Holmesâ second marriage proposal, a movable tree, and a surprising wedding ending.
Eight traditional pastiches with a touch of fantasy here and there were published in Holmes anthologies at Belanger Books in the US and MX Publishing in the UK. Brenda Seabrooke is the author of 22 books - mostly mysteries - for young readers and many stories in anthologies and literary journals. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robie Macauley Award from Emerson College and was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award at Mystery Writers of America.
Did you ever wonder where Sherlock Holmes found the Persian slipper he keeps his shag tobacco in? Had Holmes and Watson ever met before that day at St. Barts? Did Holmes really believe in curses when he said he did?
Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Persian Slipper and Other Stories along with cases involving the putative Naval Man, a night spent at a gentlemenâs club, Holmesâ second marriage proposal, a movable tree, and a surprising wedding ending.
Eight traditional pastiches with a touch of fantasy here and there were published in Holmes anthologies at Belanger Books in the US and MX Publishing in the UK. Brenda Seabrooke is the author of 22 books - mostly mysteries - for young readers and many stories in anthologies and literary journals. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robie Macauley Award from Emerson College and was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award at Mystery Writers of America.
   I was nine, at my grandparentsâ house in Doerun, Georgia. The two girls next door were visiting their grandparents. Iâd read the books Iâd brought. I had nothing to do. Help. My mother told me to look in the bookcase in the hall, a room as big as some houses today. Against the wall stood a bookcase with, I discovered, the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I started reading them, took some home and read more on subsequent visits until I was steeped in the stories of the dread, the ratiocinators, the worldâs first detectives, Chevalier Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes.            Â
    Years passed. One day I picked up a used copy of Barring Gouldâs annotated Sherlock Holmes stories. I plunked down $5 and took it home. As I reread the familiar stories, a character showed up, a London street dog who insisted his name was Digby. I wrote his story and Claudia Mills, a fellow childrenâs book author told me about Derrick and Brian Belanger who were starting up an American publisher. (Derrickâs wife had been her student and she had just stayed with them to do school talks.) She gave me Derrickâs address and the saga began when he published Scones and Bones on Baker Street: Sherlockâs (maybe!) Dog and the Dirt DilemmaÂ
    A year later The Rascal in the Castle: Sherlockâs (possible) Dog and the Queenâs Revenge followed.
    One day Derrick asked me if I would like to contribute to an anthology of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Me write as Dr. Watson a story about the worldâs first consulting detective, a character who had become so real people have been writing to him at 221B Baker Street for more than a hundred years? Iâd had twenty-two childrenâs books published and a number of literary stories. Could I do this? I decided to try and to date I have written fifteen stories as Dr. Watson and I plan to write many more. I love dipping into that atmospheric historical world as Dr. Watson and concocting other adventures of ratiocination and derring-do!Â
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Brenda Seabrooke, March 2022
In Sherlock Holmes: The Persian Slipper and Other Stories, Brenda Seabrooke does an excellent job of recreating Arthur Conan Doyle's brisk, steady pacing. Seabrooke shows all sides of the famous duo. From Sherwin Soames, a tall lad interested in chemistry interacting with a Scottish lad, Ian Dotson, to John Watson helping solve one of the first cases he encounters early in his friendship with Holmes. Although uneven, these stories entertain.
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Even as a young lad, Sherwin Soames, Seabrookâs protagonist in âThe Marzando Matter,â has the markings of the adult we know from Conan Doyle. In this story, Soames admits he has already studied thieves, pickpockets, cut-purses and the like. Soames concludes: âThe human mind is capable of almost anything and once set on a path is unlikely to change it unless or until it is expedient to do so.â âThe Persian Slipperâ lacks strength. Why would Holmes just insert himself into a case without being asked? The client had sought out Dr. Watson. Why would Holmes suggest that he and Watson use aliases while they were at the home of the fiancĂ© of the clientâs sister? And before he knew much of the facts in the case. Why would George Spencer-Hytton (the fiancĂ©) suddenly show marked improvement when Dr. Watson had barely begun treatment?
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Somewhat better is âThe Curse of Barcombe Keep.â Sherlock Holmes lets on that he believes in curses to route out the murderer. Â Although why the staff were so shaken by an apparent curse that affected only the members of the Northington family, owners of the house, one can only guess.
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Seabrooke creates a believable pair in her rendition of Holmes and Watson. As usual, Holmes is a step or two ahead of Watson in interpreting clues and witnesses. Seabrooke's Watson demonstrates a sense of humor. At the beginning of âThe Persian Slipper,â Watson grumbles about the heat while observing Holmes watching ice slivers in separate teacups. Smoke is rising from one of the cups. After a moment, Watson says, âI say â your ice is afire. Itâs so hot even the ice is burning up.â Turns out, the cup contains a sliver of dry ice. Holmes is comparing the melting of that versus real ice.
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I received a free copy of Sherlock Holmes: The Persian Slipper and Other Stories by Brenda Seabrooke from reedsy.com/discovery in exchange for an honest review.