Darlene A. Cypser's Blog
February 20, 2025
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street
This book is the conclusion of the Sherlock Holmes saga that takes him from a 17 year old boy through his education & self training, his brief career on in the theater to his early cases and his meeting with Dr. Watson.
It is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo. It is also available via Ingram in local bookstores and their websites. You can also read it in some public libraries.
It is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo. It is also available via Ingram in local bookstores and their websites. You can also read it in some public libraries.
October 23, 2024
TCD3: Montague Street for sale on Amazon
You can buy The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street in paperback or ebook on Amazon.
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part II: Montague Street
Don't miss this conclusion of the 10 year story of the life of Sherlock Holmes!
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part II: Montague Street
Don't miss this conclusion of the 10 year story of the life of Sherlock Holmes!
October 16, 2024
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street
The paper proof has been ordered. The ebook is being coded. The final chapter of the series is coming now!
August 26, 2024
1871 to 1881
The Crack in the Lens followed Sherlock Holmes for 9 months in 1871. The Consulting Detective Trilogy extends from 1872 through 1881 -- covering the years he spent at University, On Stage, and finally his early detective practice at Montague Street before he meets Dr. Watson and they move into 221b Baker Street. Through these four books we see Holmes develop from a 17 year-old young man who has not real vision of his future to the Great Detective we know and love.
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street will be released in October 2024. It includes many of the famous "untold tales" as well as a more in-depth telling of the Musgrave Ritual.
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part III: Montague Street will be released in October 2024. It includes many of the famous "untold tales" as well as a more in-depth telling of the Musgrave Ritual.
October 2, 2019
The Crack in the Lens
In 2008 The Crack in the Lens was accepted by an editor at St. Martin's Press. However, when it came to writing up the contract the publisher noted that they had a commitment to publish another book of the same title. The publisher mused about changing the title of mine but after reading it realized that the title was too embedded in the story to do so. So they turned it down for that reason.
Two years later, tired of fighting through the submission process with the big publishers, and seeing the dawning of the publishing revolution, I put it out there myself.
Yesterday, nearly 9 years after it was first published, it was released as an audio book which I am quite pleased with.
Darlene
Two years later, tired of fighting through the submission process with the big publishers, and seeing the dawning of the publishing revolution, I put it out there myself.
Yesterday, nearly 9 years after it was first published, it was released as an audio book which I am quite pleased with.
Darlene
June 30, 2017
Victorian English
Writing in the language of another time and place is challenging. There are several issues. One is accuracy and another is readability.
I taught myself to write broad Yorkshire for The Crack in the Lens and then found that more than half of my pre-readers could not read it. So I modified it before publication to something that retained the flavor but which more people could read.
In Part I of The Consulting Detective Trilogy the university undergraduates talk in a lot of slang. Some people have claimed that it is "too modern." That is not true. The slang was lifted from books written in the 1870s-1880s by recent graduates about their days at university, including one book by Arthur Conan Doyle. I checked anything I had doubts about with OED.
The problem is that people get an idea in their head about how people spoke at certain times. They are often wrong. For example, the British use the exclamation "Brilliant!" in a different way that Americans do but that usage only dates to the 1930s. So it has not place in a Victorian novel. On the other hand "Fits you to a T" sounds modern but dates back hundreds of years. It is so old that OED can't figure out what the T stands for.
I taught myself to write broad Yorkshire for The Crack in the Lens and then found that more than half of my pre-readers could not read it. So I modified it before publication to something that retained the flavor but which more people could read.
In Part I of The Consulting Detective Trilogy the university undergraduates talk in a lot of slang. Some people have claimed that it is "too modern." That is not true. The slang was lifted from books written in the 1870s-1880s by recent graduates about their days at university, including one book by Arthur Conan Doyle. I checked anything I had doubts about with OED.
The problem is that people get an idea in their head about how people spoke at certain times. They are often wrong. For example, the British use the exclamation "Brilliant!" in a different way that Americans do but that usage only dates to the 1930s. So it has not place in a Victorian novel. On the other hand "Fits you to a T" sounds modern but dates back hundreds of years. It is so old that OED can't figure out what the T stands for.
May 27, 2017
The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part II: On Stage
Yes, after a delay of five years, Part II is being released in June 2017.
Part II of the biography called The Consulting Detective Trilogy follows Holmes through his brief acting career and we continue to see him develop into the man he will become.
Disowned by his father and sent down by his college, a
pennyless Sherlock Holmes seeks refuge with his brother Mycroft in London. A fellow student from Sydney Sussex introduces him to a mysterious world of magic and deception which will teach him skills he will use throughout his detective career -- the world of the theatre. Follow Holmes as he learns the acting and make up skills that will make him a master of disguise.
In London, Holmes faces kidnappers and a murderous attack at the stage door but when his acting company tours the United States he will investigate police corruption in New York, and deal with train robbers in Nebraska, and hoodlums and shanghaiers in San Francisco. Even the journey home is not free from danger.
Part II of the biography called The Consulting Detective Trilogy follows Holmes through his brief acting career and we continue to see him develop into the man he will become.
Disowned by his father and sent down by his college, a
pennyless Sherlock Holmes seeks refuge with his brother Mycroft in London. A fellow student from Sydney Sussex introduces him to a mysterious world of magic and deception which will teach him skills he will use throughout his detective career -- the world of the theatre. Follow Holmes as he learns the acting and make up skills that will make him a master of disguise.
In London, Holmes faces kidnappers and a murderous attack at the stage door but when his acting company tours the United States he will investigate police corruption in New York, and deal with train robbers in Nebraska, and hoodlums and shanghaiers in San Francisco. Even the journey home is not free from danger.
August 30, 2012
The Adventures of Jonathan Beckwith
If you have read The Crack in the Lens or The Consulting Detective Trilogy Part I: University then you have met Jonathan Beckwith, the Yorkshire lad who becomes young Sherlock's servant in the first book and goes with him to Cambridge in the 2nd. Some readers have wondered what became of Jonathan after University.
Jonathan has always been one of the characters who has spoken to me the most and I could not expect him to be silent while he and Sherlock were apart.
It has long been my intent to release The Adventures of Jonathan Beckwith as a Young Adult book. It runs parallel with TCD Trilogy Pts 2 & 3. BUT it also overlaps with those books twice in Pt 2 and once in Pt 3. So I cannot release the entire AJB without releasing spoilers of the other two books.
The solution? I am going to divide AJB into 3 parts which will be released as e-books only initially. The paperback version will be released after all 3 e-book parts.
AJB Part 1 follows Jonathan's adventures on the train northward and his first few months back in Yorkshire. More villainy than you would expect! But no spoilers. It will be released in late September or early October.
AJB Part 2 will overlap with several chapters of TCD Trilogy Pt II and will be released at the same time -- sometime next year. Jonathan & Sherlock Holmes will be reunited in London for 2 more adventures. Lives are at stake, including theirs!
AJB Part 3 will cover Jonathan's own trials and tribulations of growing into adulthood including an unforgettable trip to the City of York. Then he will be reunited with Sherlock in Sheffield for one last (well maybe not) adventure which also overlaps with TCD Pt III.
Jonathan has always been one of the characters who has spoken to me the most and I could not expect him to be silent while he and Sherlock were apart.
It has long been my intent to release The Adventures of Jonathan Beckwith as a Young Adult book. It runs parallel with TCD Trilogy Pts 2 & 3. BUT it also overlaps with those books twice in Pt 2 and once in Pt 3. So I cannot release the entire AJB without releasing spoilers of the other two books.
The solution? I am going to divide AJB into 3 parts which will be released as e-books only initially. The paperback version will be released after all 3 e-book parts.
AJB Part 1 follows Jonathan's adventures on the train northward and his first few months back in Yorkshire. More villainy than you would expect! But no spoilers. It will be released in late September or early October.
AJB Part 2 will overlap with several chapters of TCD Trilogy Pt II and will be released at the same time -- sometime next year. Jonathan & Sherlock Holmes will be reunited in London for 2 more adventures. Lives are at stake, including theirs!
AJB Part 3 will cover Jonathan's own trials and tribulations of growing into adulthood including an unforgettable trip to the City of York. Then he will be reunited with Sherlock in Sheffield for one last (well maybe not) adventure which also overlaps with TCD Pt III.
November 30, 2011
Thanks to all!
Thanks to all those who entered the contest for a free copy of The Crack in the Lens. If you did not win, I hope you will consider purchasing a copy. While many Sherlock Holmes fans love the book, readers of historical fiction who have never read Sherlock Holmes also enjoy it.
