Myrtle Mondays: ‘Tis the Season to be Spooky-the ghost stories of a Victorian Christmas

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The experienced reader knows it was Christmas Eve, without my telling him. It always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story. …For ghost stories to be told on any other evening than the evening of the twenty-fourth of December would be impossible in English society as at present regulated. –Jerome K. Jerome, “Told After Supper,” 1891

It’s no secret that I love ghosts. In my considered opinion, a ghost can improve pretty much any story. For this reason (along with the whole dressing-up bit), Hallowe’en has always been my favorite holiday. But Victorian England had an entirely different holiday for telling ghost stories, and that holiday was… Christmas!

“Marley’s Ghost” by John Leech, 1843

Ho-ho-hooooooooooo! (Say that in a spooky voice.) Most of us only remember the Victorian Christmas ghosts of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), which helped kickstart the modern celebration of Christmas as we still know it today. But Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come were just part of a large and robust tradition that spanned the century and recalled the days (and people) of yore.

Tradition often links this to ancient pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice: on the longest night of the year, the boundary between the living and the dead is at its weakest, the most likely time for ghosts to come walking. That feels a little tenuous to my anthropologist’s brain, and the truth is, we just don’t know for sure how or why the Victorians came to associate Christmas with ghost stories, except that the tradition of grim tales in wintertime did stretch back centuries. Even Shakespeare noted it:

A Winter’s Tale, c. 1610

Dickens didn’t stop with Scrooge. The magazines he edited, Household Words and All the Year Round, included ghost stories—by Dickens himself as well as other authors—as regular features in their December editions.

The “Extra Christmas Number” of All the Year Round from 1859 included Charles Dickens’s story “The Haunted House”

You can read three of Dickens’s own Christmas ghost stories, including 1866’s wonderful railway tale “The Signal-Man” at this link.

Myrtle Hardcastle would enjoy our next story—it’s a legal one with a gruesome murder.  A tale of ghostly jurisprudence, Algernon Blackwood’s “The Kit-Bag” was originally published in the December 1908 issue of Pall Mall Magazine. It concerns a young member of a defense attorney’s staff, the Christmas holidays, and justice from beyond the grave.

Even the frontispiece to Jerome’s collection is funny (and creepy).

Late in the century, humorist Jerome K. Jerome examined the entrenched tradition while giving it his signature comical spin in Told After Supper, his own collection of holiday ghost stories.

A magnificent horde of Christmas ghosts from Arthur Rackham’s 1915 illustrations for A Christmas Carol

So. If you find yourself getting to the end of a long (long, very long, exceptionally long) year and feeling restless or nostalgic or wishing that Hallowe’en was longer, why not resurrect (ahem) the grand old tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve? Fa-la-la-ha-ha-ha-ha!

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#Myrtle Mondays: Myrtle in Translation

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I am so excited to share the news that Premeditated Myrtle has been picked up for (so far) two foreign/translation editions: Russian and German. These are my very first foreign sales, so I am doubly doubly excited! (Quadruply excited? Excited squared?)

Here’s last week’s announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Huge thanks to the fine folks at Rights People for making this possible. I’m thrilled to have Myrtle & Co. in the capable hands of Von Dem Knesebeck and The Five Quarters.

Peony in German is Pfingstrose!!

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#MyrtleMondays: Your Holiday Gift List

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I’m known as the gift guru in our family (that’s an unofficial title). If anyone needs an idea for the perfect present for somebody, they come to me. This year, I’m sharing this superprowess with you, Dear Reader, should you find yourself in need of the Perfect Holiday Gift for the Victorian mystery fan (or, ahem, author…) on your list!

Even in the twenty-first century, we have strong associations with the Christmas season and the Victorian era, and no wonder—they redefined the holiday for the modern age. Book three of the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, Cold-Blooded Myrtle, takes place at Christmas, but you won’t get to read that until October 2021. In the meantime, please consider supporting the bookstores who hosted launch events for Premeditated Myrtle and How to Get Away with Myrtle this fall. They may still have signed bookplates available when you order copies!

Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, MA

Prairie Fox Books, Ottawa, IL

Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, KS

The Book Bungalow, St. George, UT

If all your friends and loved ones already have the first two Myrtle books (in hardcover, ebook, and rave-reviewed audio editions!), never fear! I have plenty more suggestions for how to stuff those stockings. I am not affiliated with any of the merchants listed below, but I have patronized them and know they would appreciate your business, as well.

For the Antique Lover

1901 Underwood sterescope, ecb’s collection

For the Victoriana fan, there’s nothing better than genuine 19th century artifacts. Thanks to the boom in mass production and consumer culture, many antiques have survived and are readily available on the secondary market—and depending on your interests, can be quite affordable.

Consider a stereoscope viewer and stereographs for the travel buff or Viewmaster fan. They can be found easily on ebay, along with hundreds of “Views” (images). See this post on stereographs for more information–and some views you can print off for your own device!

Nothing says Victorian home decor more than a crazy quilt. Early versions date from mid-century, but the crazy quilting craze swept the US and England after the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Period quilts in good condition command high prices for their luxurious fabrics and exquisite embroidery.

Or if you just happen to have heaps of velvet, brocade, and satin lying about, you could make your own! (Probably not in time for this year’s holiday season, though.)

For the Old Soul

If real antiques aren’t in your budget or practical for your lifestyle, then allow me to introduce you to Victorian Trading Company, a local business here in my hometown that’s been providing reproductions and Victorian-inspired goods to the discerning customer since late last century.  A prowl through their outlet shop on their rare Open House days is a treasure hunt, but for those who can’t make it here, their catalogue/website offers a world of period delights—everything from food, stationery, reproduction toys, luxurious clothing and accessories, home decor, books, and more.

I liked this scarf so much, I bought two!

For the Reader

Book lovers never get tired of getting books as gifts! Here are some of my own favorite recent mystery recommendations, for readers of all ages:

The prototype for all girl detectives to come, Violet Strange is an ideal heroine for the Edwardian age, and her debutante sleuthing makes for delightful and puzzling reads. (More of Green’s books are on my own wish list this year…HINT. Ahem.)

In the first of four middle-grade novels, a young Zora Neale Hurston and friend Carrie solve a paranormal mystery in 19th century Eatonville, Florida. Highly recommended for the kids on your list!

When my editor at Alqonquin Young Readers acquired the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, she said they’d be perfect for the younger siblings of Jackaby fans—and then she sent me Will Ritter’s first ghostly Victorian mystery to prove her point. (Well played, Editor, well played.)

Oh, what Myrtle would have made of such a book! My friend Bridget Heos has compiled the perfect history of forensic science for young readers, from the earliest days of crime scene investigation, to up-to-the-minute modern techniques. Hand this one to Myrtle fans who want to know how far the science of criminology has come.

For the Anglophile

If you are stuck in the US and craving things like Really Good Tea, Christmas pudding, and Violet Flake, Brits USA in Lawrence, KS, is your answer.

And while you’re sipping your Really Good Tea and nibbling your custard tarts, you will want some English TV to watch. Streaming options for classic British series and films include Britbox and Acorn TV (available on most streaming platforms). I highly recommend “Campion” on Britbox, based on the novels of Margery Allingham and starring Peter Davison.

For the Less Fortunate

The Ghost of Christmas Present exhorts Scrooge not to turn away from Ignorance and Want, in Charles Green’s 1912 illustration for A Christmas Carol.

And lest we forget, giving to charity was a time-honored tradition near and dear to Victorian hearts. Many of our most well-known and respected organizations, like the Salvation Army (1865, London) and the ASPCA (1866, New York City), had their origins in the 19th century. Be sure to include your own favorite cause among those you remember this holiday season.

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#Myrtle Mondays: Premeditated Myrtle is a Best Book of the Year!

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Well, of course *I* think so, but don’t just take my word for it! I’m so excited to share the news that Premeditated Myrtle has been named to several Best of 2020 lists, including Amazon’s Top 20 Children’s Books.

(There’s some more exciting Amazon news a’brewing, so stay tuned for that!)

Not to be outdone, IndieBound selected Premeditated Myrtle as a Fall IndieNext pick!

**BREAKING NEWS! THIS JUST IN:**

We’ve just learned this morning that BookPage has also named Premeditated Myrtle one of its Best Books of 2020, saying, “This series opener charmingly evokes the spirit of Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, if Harriet were a bit more inclined toward afternoon tea.”

Publisher’s Weekly includes it in their annual  Holiday Gift Guide of children’s books, saying:

Channeling classic Victorian whodunits, Bunce’s detective series opener features a quirky, winning narrator and a lively secondary cast. Thanks to governess Miss Judson, 12-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle, who is middle-class and white, is training to become a Young Lady of Quality, but Myrtle tends to be anything but proper. She erects an observation point from which to chronicle neighborhood events, and when her elderly next-door neighbor, scornful Miss Wodehouse, doesn’t follow her routine one morning, Myrtle summons the constabulary. After the revelation of Miss Wodehouse’s death and the arrival of the elderly woman’s heretofore unknown relatives, Myrtle suspects she was murdered and enlists Miss Judson to solve the mystery. A generous, well-wrought relationship between governess and charge complements tightly plotted twists. 

And Moms.com has named it one of their Best Children’s Books of 2020, calling it a “thrilling mystery” that’s “great for kids who have an interest in science.” Thanks, Moms!

I am so honored to be included in such a great class of fellow 2020 books! Thanks to all the readers and reviewers who’ve made Premeditated Myrtle one of their favorites.

Cheers,

One Response to “#Myrtle Mondays: Premeditated Myrtle is a Best Book of the Year!”

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#MyrtleMondays: Riddle Me This…

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This week is the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) virtual conference—an event I was originally scheduled to attend in person, to share the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries with educators from all over America. Of course, those plans have been rearranged a bit, so my appearance there will now be pre-recorded and hosted at the Algonquin Young Readers virtual booth. Visitors will have an opportunity to win a classroom set of Premeditated Myrtle by solving some authentic Victorian-era brainteasers!

I have been a lifelong brainteaser fan (probably no surprise). They were just as popular in the Victorian age. Merriam-Webster tells us that the word dates from 1850, but mind-bending puzzles have been with us since the dawn of civilization.  Scholars have unearthed ancient Sumerian puzzles, and ancient Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes is said to have been fond of creating them to stump his friends.

Archimedes puzzled over the ways in which the pieces of an ostomachion puzzle could be rearranged to form a square.

Now it’s your turn to match your wits against Victorian puzzlers. See how you do solving some of these favorite 19th century brainteasers! (Check your work against the answers at the end of the post.)

1.) Rebuses

Popular throughout history, rebus puzzles (from the Latin rebus, meaning things) hit a heyday in the early Victorian era. Words in the message are replaced by symbols or graphics (a yew tree for “you,” etc). People sent each other rebus letters, used them in greeting cards and invitations, and advertised their products with them.

This American escort card (a type of calling card) from 1865 features a charming and flirtatious rebus. Can you decode its message?

2.) Riddles

The Victorians also enjoyed riddles, and books like The Amusing Puzzle Book from the 1840s kept them well supplied with new material, like:

Without a bridle or a saddle,
across a thing I ride astraddle.
And those I ride, by help of me,
though almost blind, are made to see.
What am I?

And lest you think all Victorian amusements were highbrow and erudite, they were not above some real groaners, either. Check out these punny stumpers from Answers Magazine in the 1890s:

Answers: Britain’s National Weekly entertained (and advertised to) readers from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Q: How is a tube like a silly Dutchman?
A: One is a hollow cylinder, and the other is a silly Hollander

Q: Why are the waves at Margate like Mount Ararat?
A: Because they are crested there (the Ark rested there).

3. Wordgames were also popular (see this post about the parlor game Logomachy). Try your hand at this great anagram puzzle from 1897’s The Green Guess Book, by co-author Mary Watson.

Reprinted editions of this collection of 100+ original brainteasers are still available.

Why _____ you so?” she said.
“To see your _____,” quoth he.
“You mourn o’er market _____ whose head
Should toss as the ____ free.”
“The freest floweret droops its head
If choked by ____,” said she.

How did you do? Check out the answers below:

1.) May I see you home, my dear?

2.) Spectacles

3.) Stare, tears, rates, aster, tares

Teachers and librarians, hope to “CU” at NCTE this week!

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#MyrtleMondays: The Comforting Power of Murder Mysteries

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Well, hasn’t this been a nerve-wracking week? The protracted election drama, coupled with record-setting coronavirus cases, put us all on edge. I remarked to a friend that thinking about murdering imaginary people has been remarkably cathartic…

I am far from the first mystery author (or reader!) to have that thought. In fact, the Golden Age of British Mysteries—the era that brought us the works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown, and more—can be directly tied to the effects of the Great War (1914-1918) on the English psyche.

Millions of Britons across the empire answered the call to fight for king and country… and never came home.

As English people tried to make sense of the violence and destruction wrought during the war, they turned to a surprising source of comfort: murder mysteries.

Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920

We’ve talked about the evolution of the mystery genre here before. As the world changes, mysteries change with it. The sensation and violence of the mid-19th century penny dreadful gave way to the meticulous investigation of professional Victorian detectives and police investigators. The years between the world wars saw the reign of the amateur detective and the cozy mystery: one where all the violence occurs offstage, and the fascination is in the solving of a cleverly-devised puzzle.

The glory advertised in England’s recruitment posters could not stand up against the blistering horror of the realities of the war.

A war like the Great War had never been seen before, and Britons struggled to make sense of the incomprehensible carnage—countless senseless, random deaths on both sides. In contrast, the deaths in mystery novels make sense: murderers have clear motives, clues add up to a tidy explanation, and justice prevails. It resets the natural order of things.

Dorothy Sayers set one of her most famous mysteries in a women’s college at Oxford, recalling the changes that rocked many of England’s ancient institutions.

And the order of things had been thoroughly overset by the Great War. It was the violent end to the Victorian-Edwardian era, and much of its familiar social order was blown away as well. Gender roles, social classes, economics, and politics were all upended in one fell swoop. Mysteries helped readers navigate this new world, while reassuring them that somewhere—in fiction, at least—everything worked out exactly as it should.

Capitalizing on the huge popularity of cozy mysteries, Ngaio Marsh’s first novel takes place at a murder mystery party at an English country house–even in fiction, fictional people enjoyed mysteries in their leisure time!

So the next time someone in your household needs to recover from four straight days of CNN with a few hours of “Forensic Files,” have no fear. She’s not morbid—it’s a perfectly natural reaction to unsettling times!

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#MyrtleMondays: Dressing the Victorian Detective

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Last week, I spent Halloween Eve (yes, All Hallow’s Eve Eve) with fellow Algonquin Young Readers authors Sarah Jean Horwitz (The Dark Lord Clementine and the Carmer & Grit series) and Will Ritter (Oddmire and Jackaby series)—at an event with Prairie Fox Books of Ottawa, Illinois. As it was Halloween, we swiftly decided costumes would be in order!

Naturally, I dressed as everyone’s second-favorite Victorian detective.

A deerstalker hat, caped coat, and magnifying glass are instantly recognizable as the accoutrements of Sherlock Holmes—so much so that they’ve been endlessly imitated for the last 130 years:

I rest my case.

Let’s break down this iconic ensemble and its history.

Holmes first appears in his signature deerstalker hat in 1891’s “Boscombe Valley Mystery,” in Sidney Paget’s illustration for The Strand:

The cap is an indication that they are headed to the countryside: the deerstalker is the headgear of rural sportsmen (hence the name), although it was not only for men or for hunting. A young cyclist wears hers with aplomb in this 1880s fashion plate:

Although never actually named by Doyle in the text, Holmes’s hat is described as a soft cap with ear flaps, and Sidney Paget (himself a deerstalker aficionado) went with the most common such hat of the day.

Artist Sidney Paget punting in his own deerstalker, c. 1900

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and artists like Sidney Paget and Frederic Dorr Steele, who illustrated the American editions of the Sherlock Holmes stories, were cognizant of the enormous and long-lasting popularity of the character. As stage and screen adaptations ran alongside the stories, they began to feed off each other, further cementing a single recognizable image for the famous detective.

American actor William Gillette played Sherlock Holmes on stage more than 1000 times (and in this silent film from 1916), and is said to have been Frederic Dorr Steele’s model for his depictions of the detective.

Steele’s illustration for a 1903 reprint of “The Adventure of the Final Problem”

Despite the rural origins of the deerstalker cap, it became so synonymous and inseparable from Holmes’s image that Paget himself depicted Holmes wearing it in the city in later stories (a departure from Holmes’s typical impeccably correct fashion sense).

Holmes can thank Doyle for his characteristic caped coat. The style was variously known as an Inverness cape or Ulster coat (or an Inverness coat or Ulster cape!), after two notoriously stormy locations, apparently, in which one would definitely want the double protection of both coat and cape. Popular from the early 1800s for men, women, and children, Holmes’s ulster graced his very first appearance, 1887’s A Study in Scarlet:

Artist David Henry Friston illustrated the first Sherlock Holmes story, including the Inverness cape right from the start. (Paget’s deerstalker came later.)

Notably, Watson also wears an ulster coat, as he tells us in several stories, including “The Blue Carbuncle,” although to distinguish him from his partner, he’s rarely if ever shown in one.

Holmes was at the cusp of fashion in this style—here’s a splendid women’s ensemble (with matching hat!) from around 1890:

See more detailed images of this fantastic ensemble at AntiqueDress.com

And an illustration from an 1880s American catalogue, for a girl’s version:

Might we see another Victorian detective of our acquaintance in such a garment? Hmmm….

As Holmes’s popularity in print, stage, screen, and radio grew, these elements of his costume came to represent the character himself, long after they passed out of everyday fashion. One of the most recognizable Sherlock Holmes actors of all time, Basil Rathbone played the detective in fourteen films in the 1930s and 1940s, many set in the early 20th century. Although the Victorian outerwear had long gone by the wayside, the most famous of Victorian detectives stayed resolute in his iconic wardrobe:

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in a publicity shot featuring all the now-necessary elements of the costume

It has become impossible to separate Holmes from his deerstalker, so much so that even modern depictions include at least a nod to the famous costume:

My favorite Holmes, Jeremy Brett in 1984’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Starfleet officers Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) and Data (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Elementary, Dear Data,” 1988

Benedict Cumberbatch, 2010’s Sherlock

In Premeditated Myrtle Myrtle is given a deerstalker cap as a gift, and instantly recognizes its significance.

And your Learned Author? Elementary.

Click the links for more details about my modern interpretation of the ulster and its accompanying deerstalker hat. More information about the 18″ doll costume can be found here.

I had a lot of fun stepping into the tradition for a bit and dressing my own inner Victorian detective!

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#MyrtleMondays: Help Find Peony!

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Dear Reader,

Myrtle Hardcastle’s loyal sidekick, Peony the Cat, has gone missing in Instagram! Is she lost, catnapped, or off hunting suspects? You can help find her, and win a Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries prize pack from Algonquin Young Readers!

Can you find Peony’s hiding places?

Several sneaky Instagram accomplices are helping keep Peony hidden. You can foil them by following the hashtags #MHDS and #DoubleMyrtle. When you find Peony in one of their posts, share the post as your Instagram Story and tag @algonquinyr. Each time you find Peony (and share her, and tag @algonquinyr), you are entered for one chance to win a Myrtle Hardcastle Detective Society prize at the end of the month. Keep searching throughout the entire month, because you can enter the contest as many times as you can find Peony!

The Myrtle Hardcastle Detective Society needs your help!

All this week, I will be keeping Peony concealed in my own Instagram posts, so be sure to follow me and my fellow co-conspirators!

Winners will be announced by Algonquin Young Readers at the end of the month.

Where will she go next?

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#Myrtle Mondays: The Fight to Vote

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Americans have a big election coming up in a few weeks, with early voting and voting by mail happening right now, and 2020 marks the centennial of national women’s suffrage in the United States. But many of us aren’t aware of just how rocky and uneven the road to universal suffrage has been—full of switchbacks, detours, closed roads, and obstacles—or how precarious those rights continue to be.The right of citizens to participate in their own government is the hallmark of democracy. But throughout history, exactly which cititzens are good enough to vote has been hotly debated—and all too often frightfully limited. Even after people have secured their right to vote, efforts to restrict voting rights have continued to suppress access to this most fundamental democratic process.

1866 suffrage demonstrations in London led to riots (Hyde Park riots, Illustrated London News)

In the 19th century, it became more and more common in England and the US for people to protest the lack of voting rights. In the 1830s, less than 1% of the male population of Britain (and 0% of the females) could vote in parliamentary elections. The vote was restricted to wealthy property owners, and many British subjects were not represented in Parliament (this had been one of the primary grievances of the American colonists that sparked the Revolutionary War fifty years earlier). Efforts to expand suffrage continued throughout the century, with reforms coming piecemeal. Not until 1918—with the passage of the Representation of the People Act (which extended voting rights to some women for the first time)—would Englishmen enjoy universal male suffrage.

The United States’s record isn’t all that much better. Property requirements were gradually eliminated, state by state, through the 1820s, granting the right to vote to most white men. And while Black men were technically enfranchised with the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, in actual practice, many states instituted new discriminatory laws that made access to the polls all but impossible for African Americans and poor whites, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and other measures.

This 19th c. English suffrage poster shows a hunger striker being force fed

Women’s suffrage demonstrations in the US and Britain have become notorious for the lengths officials went to suppress their protests. In America, many individual states had granted women the right to vote, beginning with Wyoming in 1890, but the 19th Amendment extended the franchise nationwide. Again, this effectively applied mostly to white women, as laws throughout the country still restricted voting based on race. In addition to the discriminatory laws targeting Blacks that most of us are aware of, the vote was also withheld from many Native Americans (as late as 1948) and Asian Americans (1943) until well into the 20th century.

Activist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, an immigrant from Hong Kong, organized women’s suffrage demonstrations in New York as a teen during the 1910s, despite the fact that the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented her from becoming a US citizen at the time.

Near-universal suffrage in the United States was not guaranteed until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensured fair access to the polls regardless of race. A Supreme Court decision followed in 1966, finally abolishing wealth and tax requirements.

Wikipedia has an eye-opening timeline for US voting rights here.

The Voting Rights Act has been expanded and reinforced several times since its passage—but it has also faced challenges. In 2013 some of its provisions were struck down by the Supreme Court. The new ruling removed a requirement that states—especially those with a history of discriminatory voting practices—appeal to the federal government to change their voting laws, weakening national voting protections. (And, in fact, some states immediately moved to change their own laws.)

Our right to vote might seem secure, but even today efforts to make it harder for Americans to vote are in full swing. The state of Kansas, where I live, recently attempted to require proof of US citizenship to vote, which was rejected and declared unconstitutional in April, 2020. Such measures are often couched as necessary efforts to safeguard the security and authenticity of the voting process, but their application unfairly affects minorities, immigrants, and the poor.

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak, voters in Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary were required to vote in person when a US Supreme Court ruling knocked down a state executive order allowing mail-in ballots

The best way to protect our hard-won right to vote is to exercise it. Learn more about voter registration in your state here. In most states, there’s still time to register and request a mail-in ballot.


2 Responses to “#Myrtle Mondays: The Fight to Vote”


  1. J. Hyde
    Thank you for this post. Interesting, shocking (but not necessarily surprising), and timely.

    Reply


  2. Michele
    Thank you for this. Such an important topic, and one of which shockingly few people know the history.

    Reply

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#MyrtleMondays: Sherlock Holmes, Myrtle, & Me: The Strand Magazine

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If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you no doubt know the name The Strand. This British and American magazine is famous for publishing many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mysteries, beginning with “The Scandal in Bohemia” in 1891 and continuing well into the twentieth century (not counting the Great Hiatus). Doyle’s association with The Strand lasted forty years and included some 200 stories, articles, poems, and serialized novels.

Budding Victorian detective Myrtle Hardcastle (whose first two adventures, Premeditated Myrtle and How to Get Away with Myrtle are now available) is a great admirer of Doyle’s consulting detective, and therefore an avid reader of The Strand. In fact, as Book 3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle (coming October 2021) begins, Myrtle is eagerly awaiting the release of the December 1893 edition. This is the issue that literally—if temporarily—sounded the death-knell for Holmes. In the infamous “The Final Problem,” Holmes has his legendary encounter with Professor Moriarity at Reichenbach Falls.

Sidney Paget’s illustration of the mortal conflict between Holmes and Moriarity, from The Strand, December 1893

I am thrilled to announce that I now have my very own personal connection to this historical literary tradition (besides the name, which also connects us: Strand comes from the famous London street near the Thames, from an Old English word for the bank of a river. That same word gave me my Norwegian family name of Strand, meaning beach. End fascinating etymological footnote.). Last week, The Strand published my article “Those Meddling Kids: A History of Our Favorite Young Detectives!”   

It is not hyperbole to say that this is a highlight of my career! Writing a piece about detective fiction for one of the publications known for creating the genre? It doesn’t get much more thrilling than that.

Although Doyle continued to publish pieces in The Strand, Holmes would not make another appearance until 1901’s serialization of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Strand’s tradition of detective fiction is hardly limited to Sherlock Holmes, however. They also published—and continue to publish—original works by Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and more.

December 1935 issue, featuring a Hercule Poroit story by Agatha Christie

Unfortunately for Myrtle, Holmes’s “Great Hiatus” from 1893-1901 means that she won’t see any more Sherlock Holmes adventures for some time. But fortunately for modern readers, today’s Strand continues in print and online. See more at their website here.

Additional resources:

The Strand archives at Arthur Conan Doyle.com

The Strand archives at the Agatha Christie Wiki

Sherlock Holmes and 19th century detective fiction at the British Library

One Response to “#MyrtleMondays: Sherlock Holmes, Myrtle, & Me: The Strand Magazine”


  1. J. Hyde
    High five to you! Two new novels and a Strand article! Awesome! Loved the article. Loved Myrtle #1. Partway into Myrtle #2 as we speak. 🙂

    Reply

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