{"id":4601,"date":"2013-11-29T22:30:21","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T22:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=4601"},"modified":"2014-12-20T04:52:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T04:52:15","slug":"the-adventure-of-the-sherlock-holmes-aficionado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/the-adventure-of-the-sherlock-holmes-aficionado\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventure of the Sherlock Holmes Aficionado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the thou\u00adsands of read\u00aders of my Dako\u00adta Stevens mys\u00adter\u00adies, in the past 18 months I\u2019ve been able to ful\u00adfill two life\u00adlong dreams.<\/p>\n

The first was going to Paris, spend\u00ading two sol\u00adid weeks explor\u00ading every inch of that gor\u00adgeous city, and walk\u00ading in the foot\u00adsteps of my lit\u00ader\u00adary idols\u2014including Hem\u00ading\u00adway, Fitzger\u00adald, Joyce, Flaubert and Mau\u00adpas\u00adsant. (You can read about that trip here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The sec\u00adond, which I ful\u00adfilled only two months ago, was dri\u00adving through all of Eng\u00adland and Scot\u00adland, see\u00ading the cas\u00adtles of my ances\u00adtors in the Scot\u00adtish High\u00adlands, and vis\u00adit\u00ading the icon\u00adic loca\u00adtions asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded with my favorite works of Eng\u00adlish lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture: the Chatsworth estate (the basis for Mr. Dar\u00adcy\u2019s Pem\u00adber\u00adley in Jane Austen\u2019s Pride & Prej\u00adu\u00addice<\/em>), Strat\u00adford-upon-Avon (the birth\u00adplace of Shake\u00adspeare), and 221B Bak\u00ader Street in Lon\u00addon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"In

In front of the ruins of one of my fam\u00adi\u00adly\u2019s ances\u00adtral cas\u00adtles in Scot\u00adland. <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"A

A famous vista at Chatsworth. <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSCN3452\"

The Riv\u00ader Avon. Pho\u00adto \u00a9 by Chris Orcutt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"In

In front of Shake\u00adspeare\u2019s birth\u00adplace in Strat\u00adford-upon-Avon.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The plaque des\u00adig\u00adnat\u00ading 221B Bak\u00ader Street in Lon\u00addon.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This last loca\u00adtion, of course, is the res\u00adi\u00addence of the most famous detec\u00adtive ever\u2014Sherlock Holmes. A detec\u00adtive so famous that some peo\u00adple don\u2019t real\u00adize that he and his part\u00adner, Dr. John Wat\u00adson, were entire\u00adly fictional\u2014the cre\u00adation of Arthur Conan Doyle, a med\u00adical doc\u00adtor him\u00adself.<\/p>\n

From the time I was 10 years old, well into my late teens, I was obsessed with Sher\u00adlock Holmes. I read all 56 short sto\u00adries and four nov\u00adels mul\u00adti\u00adple times. I col\u00adlect\u00aded Sher\u00adlock Holmes ency\u00adclo\u00adpe\u00addias and books about Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan Lon\u00addon. I read biogra\u00adphies of Doyle. I read text\u00adbooks about crim\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adis\u00adtics and foren\u00adsic sci\u00adence (this was many years before the CSI TV shows). And I went to col\u00adlege to study foren\u00adsic sci\u00adence, with the orig\u00adi\u00adnal intent of grad\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading and work\u00ading at the FBI crime lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One

One of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal illus\u00adtra\u00adtions from a Sher\u00adlock Holmes sto\u00adry.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

My plan to get a degree in foren\u00adsics and work for the FBI last\u00aded two semes\u00adters. Through one of my courses\u2014Criminalistics and Crime Scene Investigation\u2014I met a foren\u00adsic sci\u00aden\u00adtist from the state crime lab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adto\u00adry and shad\u00adowed him. I vis\u00adit\u00aded his lab, interned for a few hours a week, and accom\u00adpa\u00adnied him when he tes\u00adti\u00adfied in court. Doing these things, I began to real\u00adize that I was\u00adn\u2019t cut out for the large\u00adly tedious work involved in foren\u00adsic test\u00ading, nor would I enjoy being grilled on the wit\u00adness stand by needling lawyers sec\u00adond-guess\u00ading every test I per\u00adformed.<\/p>\n

By then I knew that I did\u00adn\u2019t want to become a foren\u00adsic sci\u00aden\u00adtist, and I had decid\u00aded that the sci\u00adences were bor\u00ading; ulti\u00admate\u00adly the answers (or at least some of them) were in the back of the book. Besides, I had dis\u00adcov\u00adered that I was more inter\u00adest\u00aded in ques\u00adtions than answers, and I enjoyed lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture and sto\u00adry\u00adtelling too much to give it up for what I per\u00adceived would be a hum\u00addrum life of sci\u00adence. So I changed my major to phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy, expand\u00aded my read\u00ading of the clas\u00adsics, and began doing seri\u00adous\u00adly some\u00adthing that I had done since I was 11 years old\u2014writing sto\u00adries.<\/p>\n

But it all went back to Sher\u00adlock Holmes. Even though I did\u00adn\u2019t write a mys\u00adtery of my own for many years, the rich\u00adness of the Holmes char\u00adac\u00adter, and the verisimil\u00adi\u00adtude of his world (as described by Wat\u00adson) had made a deep impres\u00adsion on me. I knew that what\u00adev\u00ader the sub\u00adject or genre, my goal was to write sto\u00adries as enter\u00adtain\u00ading and com\u00adpelling as Doyle\u2019s, with char\u00adac\u00adters that were equal\u00adly strong and larg\u00ader-than-life.<\/p>\n

As I believe I\u2019ve men\u00adtioned else\u00adwhere, when I was cre\u00adat\u00ading the Dako\u00adta Stevens series, Sher\u00adlock Holmes and Wat\u00adson could\u00adn\u2019t help but be lit\u00ader\u00adary touch\u00adstones for me. I want\u00aded a Holmes\u2013Watson dynam\u00adic, but I want\u00aded such a duo to reflect mod\u00adern sen\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties, and I knew that I want\u00aded the coun\u00adter\u00adpoint, the yin and yang, of hav\u00ading my \u201cWat\u00adson\u201d be a woman. And so I asked myself, \u201cWhat would the dynam\u00adic of a mod\u00adern Holmes and Watson\u2014a man and woman detec\u00adtive team\u2014look like?\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where Dako\u00adta Stevens<\/a> and his \u201cWatson\u201d\u2014the bril\u00adliant and beau\u00adti\u00adful Svet\u00adlana Kr\u00fcsh\u2014came from.<\/p>\n

I did\u00adn\u2019t get a chance to vis\u00adit 221B Bak\u00ader Street until the morn\u00ading of my last day in the UK. Alexas and I had specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly cho\u00adsen our hotel because it was in the Blooms\u00adbury neigh\u00adbor\u00adhood of Lon\u00addon, rel\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly close to Holmes\u2019s address, and when we exit\u00aded the hotel ear\u00adly that Sun\u00adday morn\u00ading, we were unsure whether to try and walk there, or take the Under\u00adground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The black Lon\u00addon cab that whisked me to 221B Bak\u00ader Street.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were fum\u00adbling with the map when I glanced down the side\u00adwalk and saw a cab\u00adbie buff\u00ading his fresh\u00adly-washed black cab. One of my oth\u00ader, small\u00ader, dreams was to ride in a Lon\u00addon black cab, and so I got the idea of ful\u00adfill\u00ading two dreams at once. I would take a Lon\u00addon black cab to 221B Bak\u00ader Street.<\/p>\n

I asked the cab\u00adbie if he was tak\u00ading pas\u00adsen\u00adgers yet (it was bare\u00adly sev\u00aden-thir\u00adty), and when he replied, \u201cAbsolute\u00adly,\u201d Alexas and I climbed eager\u00adly in.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo 221B Bak\u00ader Street, my good man,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd hur\u00adry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though it was ear\u00adly on a Sun\u00adday morn\u00ading, there was con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable traf\u00adfic on the streets, and it took a good fif\u00adteen min\u00adutes to reach 221B. Dur\u00ading the ride, the cab\u00adbie asked me why I want\u00aded to go there, and I gave him an abridged ver\u00adsion of every\u00adthing you\u2019ve read so far. I also told him some of the his\u00adto\u00adry of Sher\u00adlock Holmes, and how Doyle had based the char\u00adac\u00adter in part on a med\u00adical school pro\u00adfes\u00adsor, Dr. Joseph Bell. I men\u00adtioned that I was a mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel\u00adist from the States (\u201cNot famous\u2014yet,\u201d I added), and the cab\u00adbie said he would buy my books on Kin\u00addle (Dako\u00adta Stevens #1<\/a> & #2<\/a>). Final\u00adly he dropped us off, and I gave him an extrav\u00ada\u00adgant tip. I want\u00aded him to remem\u00adber me as gen\u00ader\u00adous so he\u2019d be more like\u00adly to buy my books and tell oth\u00aders about them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"221B

221B (left) and a Sher\u00adlock Holmes museum\/shop (right). Holmes\u2019s apart\u00adment is on the 2nd floor.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the excep\u00adtion of a few con\u00adstruc\u00adtion work\u00aders gath\u00ader\u00ading in front of a build\u00ading a few doors down, Bak\u00ader Street was emp\u00adty and qui\u00adet. A sin\u00adgle door, marked 221B, sat next to a closed Sher\u00adlock Holmes col\u00adlectibles store. I knew from my read\u00ading ahead of time that Holmes and Wat\u00adson\u2019s apart\u00adment on the sec\u00adond floor was dec\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded and staged as though they still lived there and had just stepped out. I also knew that admis\u00adsion to the apart\u00adment was ridicu\u00adlous\u00adly expen\u00adsive, and was sure to be a disappointment\u2014what with hav\u00ading to share the expe\u00adri\u00adence with a mob of peo\u00adple who were mere\u00adly going there so they could check one more item off of a \u201cbuck\u00adet list.\u201d It was unlike\u00adly that the true Holmes lovers, the seri\u00adous afi\u00adciona\u00addos, would be part of any tour group. They\u2019d all know it was a Bar\u00adnum sideshow.<\/p>\n

Besides, the build\u00ading, with a Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan fa\u00e7ade on it, did\u00adn\u2019t fit with the oth\u00ader build\u00adings on the street. Not only were the oth\u00ader build\u00adings of more mod\u00adern archi\u00adtec\u00adture, the build\u00ading num\u00adbers were out of sync. It was clear that 221B used to be far\u00adther down the street, but that build\u00ading had been torn down and rebuilt, so they cre\u00adat\u00aded a new 221B Bak\u00ader Street (in Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan style) and wedged it in a few doors down.<\/p>\n

But it was\u00adn\u2019t about the actu\u00adal, phys\u00adi\u00adcal address any\u00adway. It\u2019s not as though Holmes and Wat\u00adson had real\u00adly lived, and I was see\u00ading the exact build\u00ading and apart\u00adment where they\u2019d resided. No, it was about the idea<\/em> of 221B Bak\u00ader Street. It was about what 221B rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00aded<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As I stared up at the win\u00addows, the sto\u00adries came flood\u00ading back to me: \u201cThe Adven\u00adture of the Speck\u00adled Band\u201d (a great TV ver\u00adsion here<\/a>). \u201cThe Bruce-Part\u00ading\u00adton Plans.\u201d \u201cThe Final Prob\u00adlem.\u201d \u201cThe Mus\u00adgrave Rit\u00adu\u00adal.\u201d \u201cA Scan\u00addal in Bohemia.\u201d A Study in Scar\u00adlet.<\/em> The Hound of the Baskervilles.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was about all of the plea\u00adsure these sto\u00adries had giv\u00aden me since I was a boy, and how Sher\u00adlock Holmes had been a con\u00adstant com\u00adpan\u00adion to me through my dif\u00adfi\u00adcult and awk\u00adward teenage years. It was about how these sto\u00adries had launched me in a cer\u00adtain direc\u00adtion in life, and how they had inspired me to write the best detec\u00adtive nov\u00adels I pos\u00adsi\u00adbly could.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"At

At last, in front of 221B Bak\u00ader Street in Lon\u00addon.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alexas took some pho\u00adtos of me stand\u00ading proud\u00adly in front of 221B Bak\u00ader Street, and then we took a few of a young Japan\u00adese woman who knew that 221B was famous for some\u00adthing<\/em>, but famous for what, she had no idea.<\/p>\n

So often in life, the moment of actu\u00adal\u00adly real\u00adiz\u00ading a goal, ful\u00adfill\u00ading a dream, is a let\u00addown com\u00adpared to how we imag\u00adine it will be. But not this time. Not for me. See\u00ading 221B Bak\u00ader Street\u2014the home of my child\u00adhood hero\u2014affected me much more deeply than I thought it would. As I stared at it for the last time, I real\u00adized then how much I had dreamed of being there, how impor\u00adtant the place was to me. And I told Alexas so, and began to cry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the thou\u00adsands of read\u00aders of my Dako\u00adta Stevens mys\u00adter\u00adies, in the past 18 months I\u2019ve been able to ful\u00adfill two life\u00adlong dreams. The\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,3,57,47,4,19,7,48,11,12,32,46,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-craft","category-driving-in-the-uk-travel","category-england","category-favebooks","category-fiction","category-personal","category-scotland","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-the-rich-are-different","category-travel","category-united-kingdom","category-writers","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6336,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions\/6336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}