Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Victorian/Edwardian era…
The original Cthulhu Casebooks trilogy is complete in and of itself. The three volumes (Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities and Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-devils) together tell a single terrifying story.
I thought I was done with that particular world, but then a new idea emerged from the swirling murk of my subconscious, and lo and behold, Sherlock Holmes and the Highgate Horrors came slouching into life.
This one’s a standalone adventure whose action ranges across the length of Holmes’s professional career and beyond, right up until the aftermath of the First World War. The story dovetails around that of the trilogy, but the novel can be read independently.
It’s also a bit of a beast in terms of size, nearly twice as long as each of the other books in the series. I didn’t plan this, but as I was putting the plot together, I got more and more excited and just kept adding bits. There was too much good stuff to leave any of it out. The synopsis alone, in fact, weighed in at around 17,000 words, or 34 single-spaced A4 pages, pretty much the length of a novella.
There’s alien horror here. There are reanimated corpses. There’s a sinister shapeshifter. There’s a gruelling voyage aboard a whaler to the frozen north. There’s a journey to the edge of our solar system. There are appearances by a number of secondary characters from the canon, several of them in strange, unusual guises. There’s a secret society, a disturbing conspiracy, and a whole lot else besides. Not forgetting plenty of Holmesian deduction and derring-do.
I put a lot of work into this book and I’m very proud of it. And if, as is very possible, it’s my last ever Holmes story, then I’m happy to go out with a bang, having produced a sprawling, epic tale that spans three decades and encompasses everything that I love about Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft. Ending on a high(gate) note, you might say.
Firstly I must say thank you James. Thank you for taking me on a wonderful journey through this brilliantly written world that pairs up two of my favorite authors and their unique and extraordinarily fantastic and, complex worlds, and you’ve done this in a flawless manner that it just seems like both worlds were always meant to be one. Truly I would need to write volumes to express my enjoyment on how much I love this series. And if this is to be the final installment on this wonderful series then it’s on a high note that carries a world full of inspiration and as an artist I can say I need this as much as Sherlock needs a worthwhile case to solve. And thank you for your kind words, Im a cancer survivor, no cure, just keeping the devil at bay, but then again in life that’s what we all do right, keeping the devil at bay everyday to afford us a chance to enjoy life, challenge ourselves and inspire others through our art. This is what this final installment on this series has inspired in me. I’m forever grateful James, Thank you.
I’m sorry to hear about your cancer situation, Alan, but I’m glad it’s under control at least. You seem to have a very positive mindset about it, which is half the battle.
Thank you so much for the kind words about the book, and the series in general. As I said in the post, I’m afraid it’s likely to be my last Holmes, for the time being at least. He and I (and Mr Lovecraft) have had a good run but we’re both quite tired now. It turns out I’ve written more words of Holmes story than even Conan Doyle did!