MORRISON, CO, November 11, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ — Foolscap & Quill has released The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street which is now available in both paperback and ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and other brick and mortar and online retailers.
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street concludes the four book series that explores the development of the young Sherlock Holmes into the man that Dr. John H. Watson meets in 1881.
The series began with The Crack in the Lens which was released in December of 2010. In The Crack in the Lens the seventeen year old Sherlock Holmes faces personal challenges with devastating consequences. The scenes are vivid and the characters complex. Set in 1871 among the dales and moors of North Yorkshire, this book shows a young Sherlock Holmes who is strikingly different that the man Watson will meet. He is intellectually sharp, friendly, and youthful, but unsure of his direction in life. As the Better Holmes and Garden’s blog wrote “Cypser’s teenage Sherlock is a man perched on the cusp of greatness and her vision of how the Great Detective was ultimately fashioned is both devastating and captivating.”
The following three books are The Consulting Detective Trilogy with Part I: University, Part II: On Stage and, the book just released, Part III: Montague Street. After the traumatic events told in The Crack in the Lens, Sherlock Holmes determines that he must leave the surroundings that remind him so much of his loss and the method to do that is to prove to his father and the college his fitness to attend university. However, once in attendance at Cambridge Sherlock learns that the past is not so easily left behind and he needs help to continue. In his second term the incident of a dog latching on to his ankle on the way to chapel introduces him to Victor Trevor and the mystery of the Gloria Scott which will change both their lives. Holmes resolves then to make himself into a detective such as the world has never seen. Part I: University follows his adventures as he trains himself despite opposition from his father, the college officials, and the local constabulary. Part I: University ends with the young Holmes sent down from the university, disowned by his father, penniless and deeply in debt. As the review in the Fictional100 blog states: “Through psychological insight, swift movement of the plot via effective dialogue, and consistent characterization, Cypser has fashioned a bildungsroman for young Sherlock with great skill.” The Mystery Tribune ranked The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part I: University number 7 in the “106 Best Sherlock Holmes Books For Avid Fans: 2022 Edition.”
Picking up mere hours from the end of the prior book, Part II: On Stage shows how Sherlock Holmes takes to the stage to resolve his financial problems while living with his brother Mycroft in London. Yet the detection of crime is never far away, and between performances he saves several young boys including his own nephews. Mysteries abound at the theater as well, which Fleet Street dubs the “Curse of the Corycian Theatre.” This sends the acting company on the road to America where Holmes helps investigates police corruption in New York City. The troupe heads west where he meets a wannabee gunfighter and is taught tracking techniques by a young Cheyenne. He rescues fellow members of the acting company in the infamous Barbary Coast of San Francisco. As the Fictional100 blog wrote: “The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part II: On Stage is thoroughly a novel of Sherlock Holmes…. But more than that, it works as a satisfying historical novel of theatre life and city life in the period 1875-1876 in England and the United States.” The Sherlock Holmes Journal wrote “Cypser produces a convincing and intriguing plot to explain how Holmes’s stage career might have come about, skilfully weaving in details from the Canon, whilst introducing new characters and inventively expanding on the background of others.”
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street completes the story as Sherlock Holmes returns to London to begin his detective practice. While Holmes is quickly pulled into an investigation of murder and arson which is followed by a summons to investigate Scotland Yard itself, the pace is not maintained and Holmes struggles to find clients. Gradually, through referrals from his fellow students at Cambridge, his earliest clients, and the somewhat reluctant Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade, more cases are brought to his door. Part III: Montague Street follows Holmes on adventures which take him throughout England and Scotland, across Europe, and into North Africa as he solves many of the “untold tales” before meeting Dr. Watson in the final chapter.
What are readers saying about Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street?
“I found that the book, as a whole, took me back to late-1800s London and the plots of the chapters were page-turners.” Steve Scott
Author Darlene Cypser has been a devotee of Sherlock Holmes since the mid-1970s. She was the “Chief Surgeon” of Dr. Watson’s Neglected Patients, a Denver scion of the Baker Street Irregulars from 2012 to 2024 and has had three articles published by The Baker Street Journal. She is also a member of Hudson Valley Sciontists and the Hounds of the Internet BSI scions. Darlene holds a Master of Arts degree in U.S. History from the University of Colorado Denver. She also holds Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Oklahoma. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she has family connections throughout Oklahoma. She practices law near Denver, Colorado.
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