Art in the Blood (A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 1)

by Bonnie MacBird

Overview

London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris.

Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre.

Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man.

Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft.

This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson's friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes' own artistic nature to the limits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008154486
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Series:	A Sherlock Holmes Adventure , #1
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	339,457
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Bonnie MacBird is passionate about Victorian London and Sherlock Holmes. She lives in an 1890 building right off Baker Street, and fell in love with Holmes as a schoolgirl in her native California. After many years in the entertainment industry as a film executive, Emmy winning producer and screenwriter, she now writes the critically acclaimed Sherlock Holmes Adventure Series for HarperCollins, bringing the much loved detective back, traditional style, in full-length adventures. Meticulous research, a flair for deductions and a decided sense of humour have turned these into fan favourites. ART IN THE BLOOD was translated into seventeen languages and was followed by UNQUIET SPIRITS, THE DEVIL’S DUE and the upcoming THE THREE LOCKS.

Bonnie MacBird is a produced screenwriter and playwright as well as an accomplished stage actor and writing teacher. She holds degrees from Stanford in music and film, and when she’s not writing Sherlock Holmes, moonlights as a theatre director and audiobook reader. She divides her time between Los Angeles and London. Visit her at www.macbird.com.

Editorial Reviews

A Publishers Weekly Staff Pick

“A pacy and twisting story – made me forget I wasn’t reading a Sir Arthur original.”—The Sun

"In a world with more than its share of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, it is rare for one to soar above the rest, but Bonnie MacBird's Art in the Blood achieves this singular feat and deserves a tip of the deerstalker." –-Otto Penzler, editor, “The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories"

“Dark, stylish, ingeniously plotted. Gripping, enthralling read. Holmes & Watson live!” –-Hugh Fraser

“A thoroughly entertaining Sherlock Holmes adventure worthy of Doyle himself. … vivid period detail, a superb, labyrinthine plot, snappy pacing and, most importantly, a deep respect for the classic characters.” –-Bryan Cogman, Producer/Writer, HBO's Game of Thrones

"Bonnie MacBird's ART IN THE BLOOD has the three key ingredients for a delicious pastiche: Meticulous research, plausibility, and grand fun!" –-Leslie S. Klinger, editor, “The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes”

From the Publisher

2015-07-22
In this debut mystery, famed detective Sherlock Holmes and partner Dr. Watson face a villain obsessed with procuring the recently discovered Marseille Nike.Sherlock Holmes receives a perfumed letter, written with disappearing ink, that piques his curiosity. It's from Mlle. Emmeline La Victoire, alias Cherie Cerise, the "chanteuse extraordinaire" performing at the Chat Noir in Paris. Her young son, Emil, is missing. The Earl of Pellingham is Emil's father, which coincides with Mycroft Holmes' investigation into the earl's affairs, including the deaths of four orphans. Accompanied by Dr. Watson, Sherlock travels to Paris, where they meet not only Mlle. La Victoire but her lover, the unscrupulous French detective Jean Vidocq. He is after information concerning the missing Nike statue. Later that evening, during Emmeline's performance, a violent attack backstage forces the small group to find safety in the home of artist Henri Toulouse-Latrec, where Sherlock convinces Emmeline that Emil is hidden safely in England and to return with him to Baker Street. Mycroft will give Emmeline the address where Emil is hidden, provided Sherlock returns to Lancashire, impersonating art expert Fritz Prendergast, whom the earl has never seen, with Watson posing as Prendergast's attending physician, Dr. Laurel. On the train to Lancashire, Sherlock sees a photograph of the dead children in a folder, and his resolve hardens. As the mystery deepens, MacBird skillfully interweaves fact with fiction while remaining faithful to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original imagining of Sherlock Holmes, especially regarding his idiosyncrasies with both drug addiction and the recklessness he exhibits toward his own life, which could also be viewed as an addiction. She reinterprets his detective skills as being hereditary from the French side of his family, famous for its artists: "Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms," Sherlock once said. "And so it was for him," Watson says—"but his artistry went much deeper than that. In my view it was at the very root of his remarkable success as the world's first consulting detective."A worthy addition to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Kirkus Reviews