A Wicked Welcome to Vicki Delany!
By Julie, moving through February
I’m delighted to welcome the prolific Vicki Delany back to the blog today!
Sherlock Holmes and Me
There is, as we are always being told in creative writing classes, no such thing as a new idea.
It’s all been done before. Take the story of an orphaned boy: a lowly (and lonely) childhood; a hidden, ever-watchful guardian; dangerous times; an eternal enemy; the big reveal of the boy’s true identity; then, armed with knowledge of his destiny, boy saves world.
It’s been written a hundred times, from the tales of King Arthur to Star Wars to Harry Potter. (Why it’s always a boy, is a post for another day.)
The trick is not to come up with an original idea, because you probably can’t, but to make it your own.
Enter Sherlock Holmes. I don’t have to tell you how popular Sherlock is right now, from movies to TV to more books than you can count. Colouring books, puzzles, mugs. Old books reissued and re-illustrated, new ones being written.
Favourite characters reimagined.
Make it your own, they say.
And so I created Gemma Doyle and the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium.
I’m a cozy writer and I’m also a keen mystery reader. When I was looking for inspiration for a new series, I thought a bookstore would be fun. The idea popped into my head: A bookstore dedicated to all things Sherlock Holmes.
When I started to do some research on that, I quickly discovered it’s not such an unfeasible idea. You could easily stock a store with nothing but Sherlock. Not only things I mentioned above but all the stuff that goes with it: playing card sets, tea towels, games, puzzles, action figures, cardboard cut-out figures. The list is just about endless. Throw in all the modern pastiche novels, nonfiction works on Sir Arthur and his contemporaries, maybe a few books set in the “gaslight” era. And, presto, a fully operational bookstore. What would a bookstore be without a cat? In this case, one Moriarty, who has a strange antipathy to Gemma.
I’ve enjoyed stocking my bookstore, and as befits a book about a bookshop, I drop a lot of names of real books. Many I have read, some I haven’t, but I enjoy fitting the book to the imaginary character buying it.
Because cozy lovers (and me) love food to go with their reading, I put Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room next door, run by Gemma’s best friend Jayne Wilson.
My original intent was that the main character would be a normal cozy character. A nice young woman who owns an interesting bookshop, lives in a pleasant community (in this case, on Cape Cod), and has a circle of friends.
But, by the time I got to page two, Gemma Doyle had become “Sherlock”.
And that’s been enormous fun to write. Gemma has an amazing memory (for things she wants to remember), incredible observational skills, and a lightning fast mind. She is also, shall we say, somewhat lacking on occasion in the finer points of social skills. Jayne is ever-confused, but always loyal.
Like any modern Sherlock, such as Benedict Cumberbatch’s interpretation, Gemma deciphers cell phone signals and finds clues on the Internet. Like any Sherlock, her relationship with the local police is complicated, but in her case it’s because she’s in love with Ryan Ashburton, the town’s lead detective, and he with her, but the relationship is difficult because it’s hard to be with a woman who seems to be able to read your mind. Detective Louise Estrada (Estrada/Lestrade. Get it?) doesn’t trust her one bit.
But Gemma Doyle investigates nonetheless, because:
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
But Gemma Doyle, in the manner of Sherlock Holmes, observes.
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, reimagined as modern young women just trying to get on with life. And solve mysteries.
The newest Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery is now available. In THE GAME IS A FOOTNOTE Gemma and Jayne are invited to spend the night in a historical re-enactment museum, which some say is haunted. The skeptical Gemma agrees, if only to prove that “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Instead, nothing is eliminated and Gemma is forced to consider that perhaps something beyond her powers of deduction is at work.
Wicked readers: Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan? If so, who’s your favourite on-screen adaption? I’ll go first: No one beats the incredible Jeremy Brett. Not a fan? Tell us that too.
Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. Author of more than fifty books, she is currently writing the Tea by the Sea mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates). Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Follow Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor. You can sign up to receive Vicki’s quarterly newsletter at Vicki Delany – Canadian Author of Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels » Contact
