The Game is not afoot and the Better-Ever-Day World of 1895 is gone, even hard to recall as WWI ends. From his rural cottage, Holmes no longer provokes Scotland Yard’s envy or his landlady’s impatience, but neither is he content with the study of bees.
Welcome to one of the August 24th stops on the review tour for Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable by Susanne M. Dutton with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for six more reviews and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post, and read an alternate excerpt in my spotlight from last week.
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About the Book
Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable
by Susanne M. Dutton
Published 1 June 2021
Propertius Press
Genre: Mystery
Page Count: 140
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
The game is not afoot. The Better-Every-Day world of 1895 is gone, even hard to recall as WWI ends. From his rural cottage, Holmes no longer provokes Scotland Yard’s envy or his landlady’s impatience, but neither is he content with the study of bees. August 1920 finds him filling out entry papers at a nearly defunct psychiatric clinic on the Normandy coast. England’s new Dangerous Drugs Act declares his cocaine use illegal and he aims to quit entirely. Confronted by a question as to his “treatment goal,” Holmes hesitates, aware that his real goal far exceeds the capacity of any clinic. His scribbled response, “no more solutions, but one true resolution,” seems more a vow than a goal to his psychiatrist, Pierre Joubert. The doctor is right. Like a tiny explosion unaccountably shifting a far-reaching landscape, the simple words churn desperate action and interlocking mystery into the lives of Holmes’ friends and enemies both.
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Excerpt
Watson writes:
Not for the first time, I felt a surge of gratitude for Holmes’ unspoken understanding that his digs at Bolt Cottage couldn’t suit me. No doubt his cottage fit his needs precisely, but it was no place for a visitor, perhaps purposely so. Some might say it was no place for any inhabitant at all, full as it was with apparatus meant for Holmes’ scientific inquiries, not to mention the maps and almanacs, the world’s newspapers, and of course, his library. Books lined shelves and the stairway to the sleeping loft. Books invaded the corner of the ground floor room usually devoted to meal preparation, too. They filled the unused icebox, the pots that never knew soup, and lined most of the cupboards. Books climbed the walls, stacked and somehow tracked in their positions with ribbons that hung from the center pages in a festive display—red, black, gold, green, purple, blue, white. Holmes claimed his color-coded system was modern and flawless. I never grasped it.
My Review
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
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I was granted complimentary access to Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
This book is an interesting, unique look at Holmes after the adventures Doyle recorded, as an old man losing to his drug addiction who (at least thinks he) has one last mystery to solve. It’s a fascinating premise to write on, and Dutton’s love of the subject matter comes through very clearly.
Remaining Improbably is very character-driven, there isn’t a lot of gripping action to force you through, so readers who need a breakneck plot will find this book long despite the brief page count. If you do love spending time with characters, though, this book is full of complex characters with a lot of inner dialogue to explore.
Sherlock fans looking for a unique story about their beloved hero should check this out!
About the Author
Susanne Dutton is the one who hid during high school gym, produced an alternative newspaper and exchanged notes in Tolkien’s Elfish language with her few friends. While earning her B.A. in English, she drove a shabby Ford Falcon with a changing array of homemade bumper strips: Art for Art’s Sake, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Free Bosie from the Scorn of History. Later, her interests in myth and depth psychology led to graduate and postgraduate degrees in counseling.
Nowadays, having outlived her mortgage and her professional counseling life, she aims herself at her desk most days; where she tangles with whatever story she can’t get out of her head. Those stories tend to seat readers within pinching distance of her characters, who, like most of us, slide at times from real life to fantasy and back. A man with Alzheimer’s sets out alone for his childhood home. A girl realizes she’s happier throwing away her meals than eating them. A woman burgles her neighbors in order to stay in the neighborhood.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Susanne grew up in the SF Bay Area, has two grown children, and lives with her husband in an old Philadelphia house, built of the stones dug from the ground where it sits.
Giveaway Alert!
Susanne M. Dutton will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway| August 17 | Our Town Book Reviews | |
| August 24 | Westveil Publishing | The Avid Reader |
| August 31 | The Book Connection | Beyond Romance |
| September 7 | Iron Canuck Reviews & More | Notes From a Romantic’s Heart |
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Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for reading and reviewing. Yes! I find that much of what is most exciting, joyful, and also fearful, in our lives is not what happens on the outside, but inside, and that those times
of “high drama” can be portrayed in fiction as well as anything else. I am interested in what makes Holmes “tick” and how he solves the mystery inside the challenge he faces when he realizes, as we all do, that life doesn’t go on forever. Susanne Dutton, author
Susanne M. Dutton is new to me, but I love meeting new authors. Thanks to this blog for the introduction.
Susanne M. Dutton is new to me, but I love meeting new authors. Thanks to this blog for the introduction. I look forward to reading this. I saw her other books on Goodreads, and they look good.
Thank you for reading and reviewing. Yes! I find that much of what is most exciting, joyful, and also fearful, in our lives is not what happens on the outside, but inside, and that those times
of “high drama” can be portrayed in fiction as well as anything else. I am interested in what makes Holmes “tick” and how he solves the mystery inside the challenge he faces when he realizes, as we all do, that life doesn’t go on forever. Susanne Dutton, author
Thank you for commenting, Audrey, and for looking at my other work on Goodreads. I have been writing since I was about nine years old, though it took many years before I didn’t just stash the notebook between the mattress and boxspring! Susanne Dutton, author
I really enjoyed the excerpt.
Thanks for reading, Sherry. I did my best to choose excerpts from crucial points in the story–and there are a number of crucial points in this story when the outlook for Sherlock and Watson shift so much they can barely remaining standing. Susanne Dutton, author