Morning Hymn now available

Morning Hymn is Chris's eighteenth album, his second featuring lyrical songs influenced by a number of musical styles and genres, from bluegrass and rock to jazz and indigenous flute music. Unlike his instrumental albums, Morning Hymn is based in the rock and singer-songwriter genres. Morning Hymn and all of his albums are available via most streaming and sales platforms, including Pandora, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon.com, Apple Music, and more, The album can be previewed in its entirety and purchased at http://csfuqua.bandcamp.com.

 

Review of Edward Gillow’s The Clockmaker’s Bequest

 

As Holmes and Watson languish in boredom, a telegram arrives from solicitor Phineas Larcombe, requesting Holmes’s immediate assistance. Renowned clockmaker Ezekiel Brand has died suspiciously after leaving his estate to whichever of his three apprentices can solve a riddle hidden in his final masterpiece clock.

Holmes examines the clock, which is housed in a secure vault. Since it’s light-sensitive and chimes a unique sequence of notes in darkness, Holmes deduces it’s designed to reveal a message under specific conditions rather than through physical tampering.

When one apprentice dies and another expresses fear for his own life, suspicion falls on Larcombe who may have reason to keep the clock’s secret undiscovered. In the event all apprentices die, Larcombe would become the clockmaker’s beneficiary, but Holmes suspects deeper motives driving events.

As Holmes and Watson continue to investigate, a letter arrives, warning them to abandon the investigation altogether. Instead, the duo attempt to prevent yet another murder by setting a trap for the murderer, spreading the rumor that Holmes has solved the clock’s secret, setting up the climax that unveils the murderer as well as the mastermind who set events in motion.

Author Edward Gillow perfectly captures the voice, mood, and pace of the original Holmes tales with this satisfying mystery worthy of the Baker Street detective’s expertise. The Clockmaker’s Bequest is available in hardback, paperback, digital, and audio formats from Amazon.com, other retailers, and directly from MX Publishing.

The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III, by Caiden Cooper Myles

The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III, by Caiden Cooper Myles, features six new adventures and is a welcomed addition to the Holmes canon. Precisely capturing the original Holmes stories’ narrative voice and style, Myles delivers tales that not only further explore Holmes’s deductive prowess, but also celebrate his cherished relationship with John Watson.

Having finagled Holmes’s blessings to publish accounts previously forbidden, Watson recounts a half-dozen clever mysteries that include the disappearance of an Aztec statue, a mystical circle, the murder of a form
er criminal, a murdered politician, a gambler found garroted and naked in his study, and a nemesis worthy of Moriarty comparison, providing the intrigue and deductive challenges readers have come to expect Holmes and Watson to face.

Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, not all in this collection end neatly with the perpetrator suffering consequences for crimes committed. Holmes and Watson, to their frustration, must wait for future opportunities to serve justice even as an innocent in the meantime pays the price.

Myles has compiled a satisfying collection of tales, generously augmented with Victorian style illustrations by Marie-Charlotte Feret, that celebrate and honor Conan Doyle’s enduring legacy of “the world’s greatest detective.” The Further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Volume III is available in hardback, paperback, digital, and audio formats from Amazon.com, other retailers, and directly from MX Publishing.