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Thursday 7 July 2011

Here goes nothing! A wild journey into a re-telling of Sherlock the Zombie slayer.

Hello all.

Brand new to this whole blogging thing, so I will kick it off with an introduction of the first novel I wrote solo. Previously I had co-written the Zompoc survival books and Zombie Dawn Trilogy with my brother, Michael Thomas. This was my first go at it alone.

As the author of this book, I would like to introduce it, please feel free to ask questions about any of it, happy to talk, this was a really a fun project for me, really happy to discuss it in any way, let’s start with what its about:

The Book Description

Holmes is just days away from bringing down the biggest criminal ringleader in London. But his quick and wicked foe is as cautious and intelligent as he. When Moriarty learns of Holmes’ plans against him he releases an evil on England the likes of which no civilised man had ever seen.

In a desperate attempt to save England and perhaps the known world, Holmes and his trusty friend Watson travel across Europe to find the source of Moriarty’s new found power and end him and his wicked plan for good.

With the aid of every friend and ally they can find, the two detectives make regular and efficient usage of their shared experience of boxing, fencing and firearms in a bloodthirsty adventure.

The novel is available as a 254 page paperback, or as an electronic book through all the major formats, kindle, apple, kobo, etc. You can find it an Amazon US or UK, and many other places.

Further Insight

As you might tell from the name, this is not at all an attempt to create something to rival the great author’s works, but has however had a lot of love and attention put into the writing. The story itself is a retelling of the short story ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Final Problem’, of which I am sure you are all familiar with.

Inevitably from the name and synopsis, this is an outrageous, larger than life adventure. It includes a number of contemporary characters, both fictional and real historical characters. Alongside the adventure and violence, I had tried to maintain a hefty flavour of the original characters of Holmes and Watson.

As a martial arts instructor who teaches and competes in historical fighting systems, including 19th century British military sabre, the attention to detail in weapons and their usage is thorough. As a collector of antique firearms and edged weaponry, I own almost all of the weapons mentioned throughout the work, and in fact those in the cover image are period originals, even the pipe is (my great grandfathers), and you can begun to understand the knowledge that went in to these aspects.

Previously I have co-written ‘Zompoc: How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse’, “Zompoc: weapons and tactics for the zombie apocalypse’, and have since co-written the ‘Zombie Dawn’ trilogy. Additionally, I translate and transcribe historical fighting treatise, such as the 1610 manual of Capo Ferro (which I published in 2007).

I hope all of this will help to convey how much this book was a labour of love. There is no doubt that it is a trashy pulp novel to a large extent, but that is how I intended it, a guilty pleasure, an outrageous, swashbuckling roller coaster of a ride, that can appeal to those with a historical interest, and still has a certain substance, beyond a quick hashed out cash in.

I really do welcome any questions, reviews or thoughts that you have, and I hope those that chose to read my work get some enjoyment out of it! The book was released about nine months ago. There has been a good amount of interest in it since the release and I have had a lot of positive responses so far which is most welcome.

Nick