My Quarantine Project

My Quarantine Project

 

I think a vast majority of the population can agree that 2020 is hands down the craziest year in recent memory, and it’s not even two-thirds of the way through yet.  We’ve all found different ways to keep ourselves occupied during our increased time at home, though some of us have been more productive than others.  Not that I am bragging.  

 

Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” has been my quarantine project, or at least, my first major quarantine project.  I have worked on others since then.  I had been mulling over this project for a few years, but it wasn’t until mid-March that I, having plenty of time to dedicate myself to this literary analysis, decided to devote my attention to the unanswered questions of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and to prove that Sherlock Holmes was more competent than we all thought in his attempt to retrieve incriminating information from Irene Adler. 

 

I started by drawing up a list of unanswered questions I had about the story.  Why would the King trust burglars?  Why didn’t Holmes take the picture and run?  Why was Irene Adler’s drawing-room ransacked?  After pondering these and several other questions, I started writing short essays to answer them one by one.  Along the way, I came up with more questions to address.  When I had finally resolved all of my concerns to my own satisfaction, and I had written everything I had to say about the subject, I now I had the challenge of figuring out what order the chapters should go in the book.  Once I arranged them into a reasonably well-flowing narrative, having polished and edited the chapters along the way, I sent my manuscript to MX Publishing in mid-May.  

 

It was quickly accepted, and given a release date of August 27^th.  That’s today.  Hopefully, fans of Sherlock Holmes will gain a new appreciation of his skills by reading my book.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and 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.

Sherlock & Irene is Almost Here!

 Sherlock & Irene is Almost Here!

 

Hello!  My first book Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is coming out in less than a week!  The release date is August 27^th, and it 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.

 

Do you have any questions about my theories, ideas, or other comments on the book or the theme?  Please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Thanks!

 

–Chris Chan

My Work for Strand Magazine

 My Work for Strand Magazine

 

The Strand is famous for being the original home of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, and the periodical still exists todayas a quarterly magazine publishing new crime fiction, long-lost stories by legendary authors, interviews with prominent figures in the mystery writing field, and reviews of new releases.

 

Since 2015, I’ve written reviews of books for The Strand, ranging from fiction to true crime to literary criticism, and even a cookbook based on the television series Hannibal.  I also cover reviews of crime TV shows and movies– the one prerequisite is that they must be released on DVD.

 

For the most part, I try to review works I enjoyed, though if I see a way that the work can be improved, I explain how.  I prefer to recommend works that I think will delight other readers and viewers rather than tear into stuff I despise, though you’ll find a takedown of a clunker here and there.

 

If you’re interested in finding something good to read or watch, take a look at my collected reviews here!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).

 

 

Story Profile: “The Adventure of the Villainous Victim”

Story Profile: “The Adventure of the Villainous Victim”

 

Many casual readers have misconceptions about Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson.  In large swaths of the public imagination, they’re seen as stolid, middle-aged figures.  Yet at the time of their first meeting, in A Study in Scarlet, they’re both in their mid-twenties.  Interestingly, the Canon tells us very little about the first years of their partnership, as there’s a gap of almost three years between the events of A Study in Scarlet and the first chronologically-dated story, “The Speckled Band.” 

 

What happened during that time?  Nobody knows for sure, but writers of pastiches can explore their pet theories.  When Belanger Books announced calls for submissions for their anthology series “Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Early Adventures” (which would turn out to be a three-volume set), I decided to contribute.  

 

I did some digging, having an idea about basing a case on a real-life crime from the past.  I soon discovered the case of the murder of Issac Gold, from 1881, a particularly shocking death that took place on a railway.  When I learned that a detective named Holmes played a pivotal role in the case, I knew that I had the makings of a historical mystery.  I kept the basic details of the facts of the story, and added Holmes and Watson.  The result was “The Adventure of the Villainous Victim.”

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).

 

“The Chapel of the Holy Blood” can be found in Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Early Adventures Volume I, and is available from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions.

Story Profile: “The Chapel of the Holy Blood”

Story Profile: “The Chapel of the Holy Blood”

 

I love Sherlock Holmes stories.  And I also love G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories.  So when Belanger Books announced their anthology Sherlock Holmes and the Great Detectives, featuring original mysteries where Sherlock Holmes joined forces with other famous (public domain) detectives from that era, I decided to write a story where the two of them solve a crime together.

 

I was inspired by a reference to Father Brown’s niece in “The Worst Crime in the World.”  Father Brown’s sister is trying to get her daughter to make a “prudent” marriage to a wealthy man.  The first attempt to pair the poor girl off to an heir fails miserably, so I wondered what would happen if Father Brown’s sister set her sights on making another rich fellow her son-in-law.  

 

Many of the Father Brown stories feature the priest investigating seemingly paranormal events that turn out to have purely natural– though often sinister– explanations.  In “The Chapel of the Holy Blood,” the paramour of Father Brown’s niece lives in a country estate that used to be a monastery.  When the monks who lived them were killed by the forces of Henry VIII, and the property seized, a legend spread that blood would drip from the walls of the chapel during times of trouble.  When Father Brown discovers a gory sight on his visit, he doesn’t believe this is a magical occurrence, but he requests Sherlock Holmes’s help in using his famous test from A Study in Scarlet to prove that the reddish substance is indeed blood.  The two detectives soon start working together to find out what caused it.

 

I didn’t want to spend time having the two sleuths introducing themselves to each other, so I suggested that the two met while looking into the cases of the Vatican cameos and the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca, both stories briefly referenced in the original Holmes Canon but never fully told.

 

It was great fun for me to write this story, and I hope that mystery fans have equally as much fun reading it.

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).

 

“The Chapel of the Holy Blood” can be found in Sherlock Holmes and the Great Detectives, and is available from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions.

Story Profile: “The Man in the Maroon Suit”

Story Profile: “The Man in the Maroon Suit”

 

For my second entry in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part XIX, in this collection of general stories with no linking theme save for traditional Holmes stories, I wrote “The Man in the Maroon Suit.”

 

I have always been interested in art, and I have long believed that there aren’t enough mysteries focused on art, whether it’s art theft, art forgery, or mysteries where a piece of art is connected to the central crime, such as in Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs.  I wanted to set this crime in an art gallery, but I didn’t want to focus on a traditional painting theft, or have the initial investigation center around a dead body found surrounded by artwork… though there could be a murder occurring or discovered later in the story.

 

I decided to switch my focus to vandalism.  After mulling over some possibilities, I decided to tell a tale about an art gallery where many of the paintings had been defaced by the addition of a little man in a maroon suit.  The man in the maroon suit would be doing different things in different paintings, and his presence was sometimes too subtle to notice at once.  Who painted him?  Why would all of these paintings be altered?  I developed the vandal’s motives as I wrote the story, but I knew from the beginning I wanted the defacement to be more than a mere practical joke…

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).

 

“The Man in the Maroon Suit” can be found in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories– Part XIX, and is available from MX Publishing in hardcover and paperback, and from Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions.

 

Story Profile: “Of Course He Pushed Him”

Story Profile: “Of Course He Pushed Him”

 

During my senior year of college, a friend of mine was slandered by a malicious gossip campaign.  Luckily, my friend’s innocence was easily established, but when mud gets slung about, it’s very difficult to clean it all up, and the truth is often a step behind false rumors.  Not long afterwards, I reread the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and the germ of an idea developed in my head.  

 

What if someone spread a false rumor about Doctor Watson?  What if a malicious person started telling all of London that that Watson’s account in “The Final Problem” was a lie?  What if that venomous individual started hinting that Watson had actually pushed Sherlock Holmes off of the cliff overlooking Reichenbach Falls?

 

I started to mull over this idea a lot.  What would the motive for the falsehood be?  Could Holmes and Watson have sent someone close to the rumor-monger to prison?  Might the lies be the ravings of a crazy person?  Or could it all have some connection to the remnants of Professor Moriarty’s gang?

 

I started writing the story, and after a few hours of typing, realized it was terrible.  So I tried again the next day, reviewed my work, and judged the result was even worse.  Further attempts proved similarly fruitless, so I abandoned the project.

 

But I never stopped thinking that the basic plot was a good one, and after several years had passed, I came back to the tale with a lot more experience in writing fiction.  In a few days, I’d produced a short story I rather liked.  I sent it around, received a rejection from one magazine, and then sent it on to Mystery Weekly, where it was accepted.

 

And so, the story which I titled “Of Course He Pushed Him” found a home.  It’s a tale of an innocent man whose reputation is targeted by a well-organized cadre of bad guys, who are assisted by people who love spreading juicy gossip without regard for veracity or thoughts of the consequences.  I enjoyed writing it, and I hope that others have an equally fun time reading it.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website. 

 

“Of Course He Pushed Him” can be found in the October 2019 edition of Mystery Weekly, available in paperback and Kindle editions.