Story Profile: “The Diogenes Club Poltergeist”
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories is a series of collections of original tales by contemporary mystery writers. Starting in 2015, volumes in the series have been generally published in the spring and fall of each year, and the royalties go to support the Stepping Stones School at Undershaw, an educational facility for students with special needs. Undershaw is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former home.
These are all traditional Holmes stories, written in the style of the Canon, with a few simple rules. Comic parodying or burlesquing are verboten. One can’t add major changes to the characters’ backstories or futures. And supernatural elements are strictly forbidden.
Some of the volumes are themed, and Part XVII: Whatever Remains… Must Be the Truth (1891-1898) focuses on cases involving supposedly supernatural cases that have more mundane solutions. Part XVIII contains stories on the same theme, but which are set from 1899 to 1925.
My first contribution to the series, “The Diogenes Club Poltergeist,” appeared in Part XVII. I’ve always been fascinated by the character of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older brother. A brilliant man who lives by a strict routine, Mycroft plays a pivotal role in the workings of the British government, and on occasion, he is the British government. When he not working or at home, he spends his hours at The Diogenes Club, an organization for the antisocial, where men can relax in total silence, with no one talking to anybody else, or even acknowledging each other’s existence.
What would happen, I wondered, if something were to happen that would make it impossible for members of the Diogenes Club to keep ignoring each other? That was the genesis of “The Diogenes Club Poltergeist,” a tale where the once-staid club is suddenly haunted by a supposedly supernatural creature. Of course, according to the rules of the series, there’s absolutely nothing magical about what’s going on, but the disruption is causing freaked-out members to do the unthinkable and actually converse with each other. Mycroft isn’t pleased with that…
–Chris Chan
Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website.
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XVII is available from MX Publishing in hardcover and paperback, and from Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions.
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