Inspiring Sherlock’s Secretary
When I started writing Sherlock’s Secretary, I had a basic idea for a plot. It would be inspired by the fact that in real life, there used to be a bank on Baker Street that hired someone to reply to all of the people who wrote to Sherlock Holmes.
This was the initial premise. But what next? What sort of mystery would be involved? What made the central character move from a desk job to solving a case himself? I realized early on that as this was set at a bank, there ought to be a robbery, but it took a lot of plotting and brainstorming to come up with a workable idea for the central mystery.
I also realized early on that I wanted this to have a lighter tone– a comedic tone, if possible. I’ve read a lot of very dark, intense crime novels lately, and I realized that I wanted something different. Inspired by my study of Joyce Porter’s comedic novels, I decided to craft the story on a kind of investigative road trip, with a bunch of weird and colorful characters entering the tale along the way. My main point was that the story was supposed to be fun, and hopefully leave the reader laughing as well as trying to fit together the puzzle pieces.
–Chris Chan
Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5th. His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th. His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there). It is also available in a Kindle edition.
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