Seize Your Copy Sherlock Holmes And The Affair Of The Contentious Contralto Developed By Fiona-Jane Brown Released As EText

Holmes and the Affair of the Contentious Contralto by FionaJane Brown

The year is, Doctor Watson has moved back toB Baker Street where Holmes is still in residence, There they receive an invitation to a performance at the Opera from The Woman, Irene Adler Norton herself!

Irene and her husband Godfrey, now the SolicitorGeneral, have a daughter, Sophie Estrella Norton.
Sophie is a concert pianist, and despite being only nineteen, is fairly well known,

Irene is engaged to a James Doyle, son of mountaineer and author Seumas Doyle, But Irene has seen James, in a drunken state, raise his hand as if to strike Sophie, This leads to the two ladies arguing until Sophie has to take her digitalis tincture for her weakened and fluttering heart,

The story certainly keeps the readers interest from start to finish, I wont spoil anything by going further into a summary, But the novella the book is onlypages long goes into the relationship of Holmes and Irene Adlerfor he will not call her Norton, Also there is the relationship between Irene and Sophie between Sophie and James Doyle and between James and Seumas Doyle,

This is a rather neat little mystery, which I will give four, I feel it is too short to actually merit a book, and I wish the author well in writing more stories and publishing an anthology of her work!

Quoth the Raven
A sweet and simple play in the Basil Rathbone style of Holmes.

Nice to have a new story about Holmes, works well as a play, This is a nice and short story that managed to entertain me even when I saw the twist coming from the beginning,

Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable read, with a great narration by Steve Wright and a neat and welldone mystery, London. Not long after has Watson returned into Baker Street due to the loss of his wife Mary he and Sherlock Holmes are summoned to the final concert of Irene Adler Norton.
Irene is still married to Godfrey Norton from Scandal in Bohemia and is the mother of asomething daughter, Sophie, who is to marry a young James Doyle.
Irene isnt convinced of young James and feels Sophie should reconsider, Tension rise between mother and daughter but this will not delay the concert, As Irene Adler takes to the stage one final time she is suddenly stricken dead and Sherlock Holmes suspect murder, but by who and why!

I found this story to be an enjoyable read.
Writing a Sherlock Holmes story can be very hit and miss and I think FionaJane Brown did a nice job, Canonically is fits in well with Doyles original stories with some twists, The setting and pacing of the story is not what you would find in a Canon Doyle story, but that is not a fault, The story has a unique tone and pace, Early on in the

story we get a sense that everyone is a little older, The Victorian era is over and Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are not the young men they once were, While old habits remain the same they have aged, Still there are plenty of deductions and bafflements, nods and easter eggs, and familiar faces,

Long time Holmes fans will find familiar territory being tread within the story as you dive into the Sherlock Holmes/Irene Adler mystery, There is always intrigue when it comes to the relationship between Holmes and Adler and what, if any, further encounters might have been after their original meeting, For anyone unfamiliar with Doyles original stories or the plethora of pastiches this story would be a nudge to venture in to those works,

Further Thoughts And Spoilers:
Professor Moriarty has survived the great fall from Reichenbach and as the fates twist his son, James, is preparing to wed young Sophie Norton.
The story revolves around the return of Moriarty who wishes to kill Irene Nortons daughter believing her to be the illegitimate daughter of Sherlock Holmes and Irene, Moriarty will not have his son marry the possible daughter of Sherlock Holmes he fails in his attempt to kill Sophie and Irene takes the hit, I am ever on the fence about the return of Moriarty, Ive seen it done many times and often I am not a fan, but that is simply down the the readers preference and in no way reflects the quality of the story.
Personally I might not have chosen to bring Moriarty back, That said it does add to the many ways in which he returns bent on revenge against Sherlock Holmes and this is certainly one of the more interesting ways I have read.
There are some hints that Sophie might be the daughter of Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes, but this is neither confirmed nor denied, There is always speculation that this has happened and even the great Detective Nero Wolfe is sometimes said to be the child of these two, I enjoy ambiguity when it comes to Holmes and Irene and I am glad FionaJane left it as such,
It is, a widowed Dr Watson moves back to Baker Street to discover that age has done nothing to dim his old friend's thirst for mystery and deduction.
One morning after Watson returns from a client to find Holmes in a bright mood the reason Holmes and Watson have been invited to the farewell concert of celebrated former Prima Donna of the Warsaw Opera Irene Adler.
The Woman requests their presence! What happens when Holmes meets his one female equal twenty years after their first, curious meeting which Watson described in "A Scandal in Bohemia.
" Dr Fiona Jane Brown is a folklorist and writer hailing from Peterhead in North East Scotland, She runs a walking tour company in Aberdeen, She writes local history books, Sherlock Holmes pastiches and academic work under her own name, but also writes fiction under the names Janet Swan and Cosmo Innes, .