NCWN

The Unpleasantness at Parkerton Manor 

by Barry S Brown

Publisher: Sunstone Press

Release date: June 10, 2010

ISBN-10: 08653477654

ISBN-13: 978-0865347656

List price: $22.95

Readers of Dr. John Watson’s reports will be surprised to learn that his only description of the true wizard of 221b Baker Street is to speak of “her stately tread.” Sadly, this has been misinterpreted to infer that Mrs. Hudson was substantially overweight. The Doctor’s description refers, of course, to her air of authority and the respect he felt for the woman who was nominally his housekeeper. The Unpleasantness at Parkerton Manor is the first in a series designed to set straight the workings of London’s premier consulting detective agency. It establishes the genius of Mrs. Hudson even as it clarifies her need, in Victorian England, to hide behind the convenient facade of her boarder, Sherlock Holmes. It achieves that objective through investigation into the murder of Sir Stanley Parkerton who has died after a dinner in which he had the same food and drink as all others present. His death was ruled the result of natural causes by the attending physician. Since the attending physician is also the dead man’s son-in-law, and since all three of the Parkerton children and their spouses, as well as his widow, stand to benefit handsomely from Sir Stanley’s death, the detectives are off to Parkerton Manor to investigate. When the Parkertons’ coachman, who drinks too much and knows too much, is also murdered, the game is truly afoot. To solve the mystery Mrs. Hudson and her colleagues will not only have to sort through the intrigues of both staff and family, they will also have to contend with the unanticipated appearance of the White Rajah of Sarawak and the sudden intrusion of headhunters into the English countryside.

The chronicler of these events, Barry S Brown, has published two books of nonfiction and more than a hundred research articles, as well as five short stories. He lives with his wife, Ann, in Carolina Beach, a safe distance from the mayhem of Victorian England.