copyright Stephanie Osborn 2015
I’ve got this series. It’s called the Displaced Detective series, published by Twilight Times Books. It’s
been described as, “Sherlock Holmes meets the X-Files.” In it, I yank Sherlock
Holmes from an alternate reality’s Victorian era into the modern day, and he
can’t go home again. He takes some time to get his footing, and then...the
game’s afoot. The series has been called “literary crack,” and even Jerry
Pournelle said this “is the real Homes, at the height of his powers, in 21st
Century America, much as I would imagine he would be...”
Enter this dude named Tommy Hancock. Tommy happens to be the
co-publisher and editor in chief of Pro Se Press, one of the movers and shakers
in the New Pulp movement. Turns out he’s a fan of the Displaced Detective. So
he approached me at a science fiction convention, and asked me to write Holmes
for him – only he wanted a more traditional, Holmes and Watson in Victorian
Britain, kind of story. So we sat down and talked. We decided what we’d do
would be to create a prequel series to the Displaced
Detective, so that alternate-reality version of Holmes would have
chronicles of his past, with “his” Watson in his original continuum. And the Gentleman Aegis series was born.
Book 1 of that series was just released: Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse.
So what is it about?
Holmes and Watson. Two names forever linked by mystery and
danger from the beginning.
Within the first year of their friendship and while both are
young men, Holmes and Watson are still finding their way in the world, with all
the troubles that such young men usually have: Financial straits, troubles of
the female persuasion, hazings, misunderstandings between friends, and more.
Watson’s Afghan wounds are still tender, his health not yet fully recovered,
and there can be no consideration of his beginning a new practice as yet.
Holmes, in his turn, is still struggling to found the new profession of
consulting detective. Not yet truly established in London, let alone with the
reputations they will one day possess, they are between cases and at loose ends
when Holmes' old professor of archaeology contacts him.
Professor Willingham Whitesell makes an appeal to Holmes’
unusual skill set and a request. Holmes is to bring Watson to serve as the dig
team’s physician and come to Egypt at once to translate hieroglyphics for his
prestigious archaeological dig. There in the wilds of the Egyptian desert,
plagued by heat, dust, drought and cobras, the team hopes to find the very
first Pharaoh. Instead, they find something very different...
~~~
Stephanie Osborn, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery, is a
20+-year space program veteran, with degrees in astronomy, physics, chemistry
and mathematics, "fluent" in others, including geology and anatomy.
She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to some two dozen books,
including celebrated Burnout and the Displaced Detective and Gentleman Aegis
series.
~~~
Purchase links for Mummy’s
Curse:
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