Author Post - Jeri Westerson

Los Angeles native JERI WESTERSON writes a Tudor series the King’s Fool Mysteries, and a Sherlockian pastiche called An Irregular Detective Mystery. She wrote fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated 13 times from the Agatha to the Shamus. She also wrote several paranormal series and standalone historicals. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles), she’s a member of the LA Sherlockian Society, and a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See JeriWesterson.com.

I have only reviewed two of the Crispin Guest novels on this blog, but I loved them both

2) Serpent in the Thornes (click here)

4) Troubled Bones (click here)

I'm looking forward to learning more about her newest historical mystery series with connections to Sherlock Holmes.

Welcome Jeri Westerson!

The Adventures of a Sherlock Holmes Pastiche

When someone says deerstalker and pipe, what image does that conjure for you? Most likely the most iconic detective there is; Sherlock Holmes. And yet, neither deerstalker – that hunting/outdoorsy hat with a flap in front and back with two on either side, as well as a big curvy calabash pipe – were never used by the man in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon of work. We have two people to blame for that. First was Sidney Paget, the illustrator of the stories. He’s the one that put Holmes in a deerstalker. And as for the pipe, we have actor and playwright William Gillette, who was the first the play Holmes on stage. Holmes smoked, among others, a churchwarden and a clay pipe, both with relatively small bowls and long stems. But Gillette felt that it wouldn’t be well seen from the folks sitting in the gallery, so he picked the biggest pipe he could find, the calabash.

And what about that oft misquoted “Elementary, my dear Watson.” Even though something similar showed up in William Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes (“Elementary, my dear fellow”), it is still a misattribution. Not in canon and not in the original play did Holmes ever say that. But in many other adaptions, he began to.

Sherlock Holmes. Why did I choose to write about such a well-defined, well-loved, well-recognized character whom I didn’t create? A pastiche, if you will, but what is a pastiche after all but fan fiction? And I’m a fan.

Well, that’s why I chose to write a Sherlock adjacent series.

My series, An Irregular Detective Mystery, is most definitely about my own characters who interact with Holmes. The Doyle canon is treated like historical documents. You don’t veer from the truth by having Holmes have a daughter, son, wife, uncle – whatever! Or Dr. Watson having a love child. The canon is sacrosanct. What is fair game, are the other characters who just appeared in three stories with only one of them named. The Baker Street Irregulars. Those were Sherlock Holmes’ gang of street urchins and only the boss was named, Wiggins, no first name. I didn’t pick him. I wanted my own homegrown characters, and so that became Tim Badger, a wily street kid, who when he got too old, was no longer useful as the eyes and ears of Holmes. But he had ambitions. He decided that he learned enough about Holmes’ method of deduction that he, too, could be a detective for hire, and once he ran into another young fellow working hard at his many jobs, a black man named Ben Watson, he decreed it was Fate, and Badger and his own Watson could work together as detectives. It turns out…they were miserable at it. Until Mr. Holmes himself stepped in with much needed financial help and a bit of mentoring.

Thus, An Irregular Detective Mystery series.

After I had finished my fifteen-book Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series, the strategy was to come up with a new series to take its place. I had two ideas I put into the crucible. One was a short-term series, six books, about Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth in my King’s Fool Mysteries, and the other was An Irregular Detective Mystery. My agent liked the former. I liked both. So I pitched the latter myself without my agent to my publisher and surprise, surprise, they loved it. I had two mysteries to write a year.

This is not for the faint-hearted.

But I found, even though I had thought about the Tudor series
for some years, I really loved these two young blokes from London’s East End, and it was new for me to research the late Victorian period where there are photographs and newspapers and objects I can touch and buy for props for my events! The real thing! So different, and so fun.

I wanted a lot of humor in the series, mostly between Badger (so full of hubris and action) pitched against the more quiet and thoughtful Watson. Each with their own strengths and their own weaknesses that somehow balance out. Then add into it a love interest in the form of a female reporter (based on a real female reporter of the time) and it becomes more than the sum of its parts. If I enjoy writing them, you can be sure that readers will enjoy reading them, and they have.

Find THE ISOLATED SÉANCE, THE MUMMY OF MAYFAIR, and for pre-order THE MISPLACED PHYSICIAN at Barnes & Noble or Booskhop.org for indie bookstore purchases.

Buy Links (click here) 

Newsletter (click here) 

Book trailers: 

The Isolated Séance and also here

The Mummy of Mayfair 

THANK YOU Jeri Westerson for this wonderful peek into your newest historical mystery series.  This sounds like a hoot and I can't wait to read it.