Where did you get the idea?

[Mike]

You are perhaps the most successful Sherlock Holmes 'clone' author out there. I'm a big fan of Doyle and have started working through your Mary Russell series, so far through #6. What gave you the idea to incorporate Holmes into your period mystery series, and did you initially intend to create a series or did it evolve from your success?

[RuthG]

Why did you decide to use Holmes instead of entirely new character with a history you could create instead of a known character with a history that many have read about?

[C.P.]

If you had not had to work within the Holmes canon, would you have made him so much older than Russell? It is the only part of their romance that bothers me—that he is 40 years older than she.

And as an author, do you find that limits you? Obviously, Holmes at 65 can't plausibly do things that he did at 25....

[Kaye]

Your Sherlock is a man who through Mary's narrative i love very much. I wonder how you created such an endearing and fascinating character as Holmes. He reminds me a great deal of my grandfather who you can imagine was very wonderful to know. Did you know someone like your Holmes?

[Raissa]

I've always adored Sherlock Holmes so I can see why you would write a character who ended up married to him. I remember you wrote in your intro to the collected Holmes stories that Watson was necessary as a sidekick for readers to feel at ease because Holmes' superiority was off-putting. Of course, Mary becomes Holmes' intellectual equal. Am I correct in assuming you gave her more of a common touch, able to relate to the youth of her generation and caring about being fashion so that she can take Watson's place in this role?

[Laurie]

If I'd been free to choose an age for Holmes, not just the year Conan Doyle was finished with him, I'd probably have made him a few years younger, maybe in his early fifties rather than (I think?) 57.

Too, my husband was 30 years older than I, and although the character of Holmes was not patterned on him in any way other than age, it did give me a different perspective of how a relationship with such disparity is affected by that gap. But in fact, the limitations are few.

[Laurie]

Raissa wrote: "I've always adored Sherlock Holmes so I can see why you would write a character who ended up married to him. I remember you wrote in your intro to the collected Holmes stories that Watson was neces..."

I'm not sure that Russell is much of a common touch, although because you follow her inner thoughts, she may be more appealing than the somewhat fact-oriented Watson.

[Wright]

Laurie wrote: "If I'd been free to choose an age for Holmes, not just the year Conan Doyle was finished with him, I'd probably have made him a few years younger, maybe in his early fifties rather than (I think?) 57."

Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Holmes was 54 when he met Russell, so in 1924 he is 63, and will turn 64 just after the end of Garment of Shadows. You always get that wrong for some reason, Laurie. **walking away shaking her head**

Alice (here known as Wright)

[Laurie]

Oh yes, thank you Alice, as you say, I always get that wrong. He's so much younger than I remember...