SHERLOCK HOLMES:
In Search of the Source
by Jeff Falkingham
Synopsis
It's December 1896 in the booming capital city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Sherlock Holmes has returned to
America to attend the wedding of Peter Smith, whom he'd befriended ten years earlier in the case of the
County Courthouse Caper. Suddenly, there are complications. An overnight fire. A life's work destroyed.
And worse: A dead body. The only clues? A pair of boot prints. A mysterious fuel. A missing sword.
Eventually, a member of Peter's bridal party is implicated in arson -- and murder. Now, Sherlock Holmes
must race against time, and an overzealous police detective, to solve a mystery before the nuptials can proceed.
Read the entire first chapter at xlibris.com!
Review
Jeff Falkingham's Sherlock Holmes: In Search of the Source takes Holmes back to Minnesota, ten
years after the events of Sherlock Holmes and the County Courthouse Caper. Where Holmes goes there
will be crime, of course. Murder is universal, but this particular murder arises directly from the story
of the city of St. Paul -- a story conveyed with an easy and natural authority. The narrator Peter Smith,
as likable at twenty-two as he was at twelve, is an amiable, intelligent and enthusiastic narrator,
who shares Dr. Watson's talent for telling a story in English that's literate without being in the least precious.
-- The District Messenger (No. 290) 1st February 2009
Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London
Also by Jeff Falkingham:
Sherlock Holmes and the County Courthouse Caper
It's November 1886 in the tiny frontier town of Browns Valley, Minnesota. Twelve-year-old Petey Smith leads an idyllic life -- until the day a stranger steps off the train and takes him on the adventure of a lifetime. The history, geography and cultural diversity of the Minnesota River Valley play key roles in this intriguing blend of fact and fiction. Teens and near teens will love the tales of political corruption, deceit, vengeance, and murder. Their grandparents will, too -- and so will you! All proceeds from "Caper" go to the Long-Term Flood Recovery Fund in the author's hometown of Browns Valley, Minnesota. See www.cccaper.com for further details.Review
There are two good reasons for buying Sherlock Holmes and the County Courthouse Caper by Jeff
Falkingham. One, that all proceeds from this limited edition of 1,000 copies go to support the flood
relief programme in the town of Browns Valley, Minnesota. Two, that it's a cracking good read. In
1886 Sherlock Holmes comes to America, where his friend Dr. Watson is studying the latest surgical
techniques -- and getting married. All right, that's from Baring-Gould, not Conan Doyle, but it gets
Holmes to Browns Valley, to investigate the true source of the Mississippi. He refuses a commission
to help settle the town's dispute with neighbouring Wheaton as to which should be the capital of
Traverse County -- until his native guide is brutally murdered . . .
The quarrel over the County Courthouse really happened, and the people of Browns Valley did employ a
detective to investigate possible corruption. The larger background to the murders -- that of Red
Thunder is only one of six -- is the Sioux Uprising of 1862, and that too is history, as is the story
of Browns Valley itself. Many of the people we meet did exist, and the others, including the narrator,
twelve-year-old Petey Smith, are as real as Sherlock Holmes. Too many writers attempt to copy the
Doyle-Watson style, and fail, often because they have no real knowledge of late Victorian London.
The bold few, who know their Holmes well enough, put him in a historical setting that they are
thoroughly familiar with. And that's what Jeff Falkingham has done. He can bring old Browns Valley
to life for us, because he knows it so well. And, I should add, because he's a damned good storyteller.
Sherlock Holmes and the County Courthouse Caper is a real page-turner, made the more interesting
by the final chapter, which sorts out the fact from the fiction.
-- The District Messenger (No. 278) 17th December 2007
Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London
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