It’s publication day for my new Sherlock Holmes novel, Cry of the Innocents, out today from Titan Books.
The story sees Holmes and Watson rushing from London to Victorian Bristol after a Roman Catholic priest drops dead on their doorstep. I had a ball bringing the Great Detective to my home town, teaming up with local policeman Inspector Tovey, as introduced in The Patchwork Devil. Along the way, Holmes and Watson visit grand hotels, squalid slums, a suburban street, a stately home over looking the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the tomb of a very peculiar corpse.
Here’s the official blurb:
It is 1891, and a catholic priest arrives at 221b baker street, only to utter the words “il corpe” before suddenly dropping dead.
Though the man’s death is attributed to cholera, when news of another dead priest reaches Holmes, he becomes convinced that the men have been poisoned. He and Watson learn that the victims were on a mission from the Vatican to investigate a miracle; it is said that the body of eighteenth-century philanthropist and slave trader Edwyn Warwick has not decomposed. But should the Pope canonise a man who made his fortune through slavery? And when Warwick’s body is stolen, it becomes clear that the priests’ mission has attracted the attention of a deadly conspiracy…
As I blogged yesterday, I will be reading from Cry of the Innocents at the Bristol Festival of Literature’s incredible underground Crime in the Caves event on 26th October. (Seriously, how cool is that? I’ve always wanted to go down into Redcliffe Caves, and now I’ll be doing a reading there alongside some awesome writers! Can’t wait!)
Cry of the Innocents is available in all good bookshops, including:
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Waterstones | Forbidden Planet
Foyles | Books-A-Million | Powell’s | IndieBound
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