A Study On Sherlock
Author Robert J. Harris is bringing Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest character back to life
Author Robert J. Harris brings Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest character back to life
ST ANDREWS-BASED novelist Robert J. Harris has had a life-long love affair with the written word.
The author, pictured, began his career penning stories with his good friend, American author Jane Yolen, before going solo. Since then, he’s written a number of successful children’s books including The World Goes Loki series, Will Shakespeare and the Pirate’s Fire and The Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries, based in Edinburgh.
In 2017, Robert turned his attention to writing great adventure stories for adults, creating follow-on tales for John Buchan’s Thirty-nine Steps hero, Richard Hannay. Now, the author is taking on another legendary character – Sherlock Holmes.
After spending so much time in Conan Doyle’s head to write fictional boyhood adventures, penning the Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Crimson, seems like a natural progression for Robert. But the novelist admits he was initially hesitant.
“When I was writing The Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries, writing an adult Sherlock Holmes novel, did cross my mind,” Robert says.
“The problem was that there are a lot of follow-up Sherlock Holmes books out there. I was worried that even if I did write a really terrific novel, it would just disappear among all the others. Then, when I was working on the Richard Hannay novels, I had an idea about how I could make a Sherlock Holmes book work.
“For years, our whole family used to sit down together on a winter’s night, and watch the old black and white
Sherlock Holmes films, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.”
“When Universal Pictures made the movie Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, they updated Holmes and brought him forward in time to the 1940s, London wartime. I realised no one had ever written a Sherlock Holmes book, with that version of the detective.”
Robert wrote a proposal for his publisher, who gave him the go ahead to write three new Holmes tales.
“I didn’t have a plot at that point, but then one day I was flipping through the book, The World of Sherlock Holmes, and I came across a chapter on Jack the Ripper.
“That made me think – what if someone in 1942 was carrying out Ripper-like killings on the anniversaries of the victim’s deaths? It would be like Sherlock Holmes does Jack the Ripper, but transposed into wartime London, so rather than having a Victorian fog, you’d have black outs. That would be a great environment for all sorts of crime.”
A Study in Crimson opens in Scotland, with Holmes investigating the disappearance of a government scientist, before the action moves to London.
“The novel’s villain sends a taunting letter to the police and signs it Crimson Jack,” Robert says. “And that’s where the title comes from. I love that my first Sherlock Holmes novel reflects Arthur Conan Doyle’s title, A Study in Scarlet.”
Robert says he’s a great admirer of Conan Doyle’s work.
“As a kid and a teenager, I pretty much read only science fiction, but during my university years I began to branch out. I remember going to the library and taking out this huge volume of Sherlock Holmes stories and thoroughly enjoying them. At the moment, I’m reading his historical novels. “I have this pet notion that to be a genius, you have to do two great things, one is not enough. Arthur Conan Doyle proved himself over and over again. He didn’t just create Sherlock Holmes, he also created the terrific, imaginative adventure story, The Lost World too.”
When it comes to taking on another author’s character, Robert says you have to tread very carefully.
“When you’re taking on a character like Sherlock Holmes or Richard Hannay, you really want to enrich that legacy. When people do it badly, it can taint the original.
“I’ve worked really hard with the Buchan and Conan Doyle novels to make sure they’re really, really good. It’s about taking something that’s already there and weaving in something new, to add to the enjoyment.”
Robert says that he finds writers like Conan Doyle and Buchan, who helped create the tradition of the Scottish adventure story, inspirational.
“There is a real tradition in Scotland for creating thrilling adventure stories. When you look at Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, which is a terrific tale, or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped and Treasure Island – you can see that Scotland has been producing brilliant adventure stories for a very long time.
“Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson’s work went on to inspire Arthur Conan Doyle and then John Buchan. It was Buchan who developed the modern-day thriller, which then went on to influence other creators such as Alistair Maclean, who wrote Second World War stories like The Guns of Navarone and South by Java Head.”
The Dundee-born author is delighted that his Richard Hannay books – which include The Thirty-one Kings and Castle Macnab – have sparked a new interest in the original thrillers. “The sales of the original John Buchan books went up after mine came out. It’s wonderful to think my books encouraged people to remember them.”
With two more Sherlock Holmes books and another Richard Hannay novel in the pipeline, Robert is very much in demand. But the novelist says his writing life hasn’t always been so easy.
“It’s fantastic to be in demand. I’ve not had a gap where I’ve been begging somebody to publish me for a while. So many authors do go through that.
“Authors really do write for the love of their craft. They don’t get paid much – they do it because they have stories they want to share. I’ve been through tough periods, but I’m having a very lucky streak right now, so I try and do what I can, to encourage other writers.
“It’s such a joyous thing to see your book published, and to hear that people have read and enjoyed it.”
“Scotland has been producing brilliant time.” adventure stories for a very long