Book Details:
Book Title:  Three May Keep a Secret: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure by Richard T. Ryan
Category:  Adult Fiction 18+, 264 pages
Genre: Mystery
Publisher:  MX Publishing
Release Date: November 29, 2021
Tour dates: November 29 to December 17
Content Rating:  G.

He has also written “B Is for Baker Street (My First Sherlock Holmes Book),” an alphabet book he penned for his grandchildren.

Among his other credits are “The Official Sherlock Holmes Trivia Book,” a
book on Agatha Christie trivia and the well-received murder mystery “Deadly Relations” that has been produced twice off-Broadway.

He pursued his graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in medieval literature. To this day, he remains a die-hard fan of the Fighting Irish.

Interview

In your bio, you say you specialized in medieval literature. How has that helped you write Sherlock Holmes mysteries?

The old adage write about what you know is a truism for me. In several of my books, most notably The Stone of Destiny, Druid of Death, Through a Glass Starkly and my latest, Three May Keep a Secret, I’ve relied upon my knowledge of the Middle Ages either to flesh out the plot or to play a key role in its development.

Can you elaborate a bit?

Let me focus on Three May Keep a Secret, my latest work. At the heart of the story is the Mérode Cup, a one-of-a-kind artifact from artifact, dating from around 1400. Holmes comes to suspect that counterfeit cups are being constructed and sold in secret to private collectors. As a result, he is forced to examine other treasures from that period, including the Lewis chessmen. Carved from walrus ivory around 1200, the Lewis chessmen are unique and quite beautiful. Given all the detecting by Holmes and the various objects involved, the end result is a blending of history and mystery.

How hard is it to write the characters of Holmes and Watson?

It’s more difficult than you might think. The language and grammar have to be precise. This was a period where your speech indicated your class, so Holmes and Watson use contractions sparingly and Watson is acutely aware of the rules of grammar when he writes. It may seem a little stiff at times, but they are, after all, proper gentlemen of their period and so they comport themselves accordingly.

Given that it was such a male-dominated society, do women play significant roles in your books?

I try to draw strong women characters who can fend for themselves, and I think as I progress, the females in my books are in every way a match for the men. I’m particularly proud of the women who grace The Vatican Cameos, The Stone, The Druid, The Merchant of Menace and Three May Keep a Secret.

Since you write pastiches, you are willing to go outside the Canon. Given the number of pastiches today, how important are the original stories?

Doyle’s 56 short stories and four novels are the wellspring for everything that follows. You can’t imitate something unless you are familiar with the original. People have done all kinds of things to Holmes and depicted him in any number of ways. However, I’m a traditionalist. I like my Holmes just as Doyle presented him. First and foremost, he is a thinking man gifted with incredible powers of observation and deduction; when necessary he can be a man of action but he is not an action hero.

Given your preference, and the way Holmes has been depicted on film, who is your favorite cinematic Holmes?

I’m very partial to the Jeremy Brett series, and it is known that Brett did his best to make the directors stick as closely as possible to Doyle’s text. I also like the first two Rathbone films – Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – before they moved the characters to what was then a contemporary setting and paid nominal attention to the original storylines. I enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller and even the Robert Downey Jr. films, but if I had to choose just one, it’s Brett every time.

Finally are there any more Holmes stories in the works?

I’m already working on my next Holmes adventure, but I’ve been saying that I might pursue something different after that. I’ll just have to wait and see when and where inspiration strikes.

Thanks you so much for taking the time to share with us, Richard. We’ll be looking forward to you next Holmes adventure. ~ Debbie

connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ goodreads

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