Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000246 EndHTML:0000015489 StartFragment:0000003379 EndFragment:0000015453 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/twk/Desktop/00_2015newversionebooks/Embassy%20Row-yarbro_new_id5.5%20/bookfiles/Embassy%20Row_metadata.doc Embassy Row: A Mycroft Holmes Novel Mycroft Holmes 02 By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Bill Fawcett (writing as Quinn Fawcett) Price: $4.99 ISBN: Publication: June 30, 2015 Imprint: Event Horizon EBooks/Event Horizon Publishing Group Copyright © 2015 by Bill Fawcett & Associates Original Print Copyright © 1997 by Quinn Fawcett PRINT HISTORY: Tor Forge/October 1999 Print Pages: 384 Description: Agent of the Empire Mycroft Holmes is more than a simple agent of Her Majesty’s government—his immense mind calculates and guides the entire political and economic agenda of the British Empire. Paterson Guthrie, Mycroft’s secretary, accompanies his employer to secret negotiations with the Japanese, intended to secure England’s position in Japanese- controlled waters. But many highly placed Englishmen do not wish to ally themselves with a people they consider inferior, and the Japanese are wary of close ties with a society they find increasingly hostile. And why is the flirtatious Miss Gatspy, sometimes spy, sometimes assassin, lurking around the embassy—is she after information, or she after Guthrie? Despite misunderstandings and suspicious “accidents,” the agreement is near completion. But the night the papers are to be signed and sealed, a British diplomat firmly opposed to the negotiations is found dead with a Japanese dagger in his back. Mycroft and Guthrie must solve his murder, expose the agitators behind it, and see to the finalization of the agreement—without finding themselves on the wrong end of the knife. FROM THE PERSONAL JOURNAL OF PHILIP TYERS: Sutton has finally put Webster’s tragedy aside and is now taking his tea in the study. He asked me to join him, but I am determined to remain at my post, watching those who are without doubt observing this building. Much as I have tried to dismiss it, I have a growing sense of apprehension that has become more acute with every passing hour. I have recommended to Sutton that he avoid sitting near the windows, for it may be that those who are set to observe us have something more than observations alone in their plans. The messenger from the Admiralty arrived this afternoon with a small case of documents for M H to examine tonight regarding the current political situation in India. I have put this away against M H’s return tonight. I expect the contents will demand a good portion of M H’s time this evening. There is also another missive from Baker Street, this one confirming the first report, that none of the street gangs were involved in the attack on M H and G. This has provided me less comfort than I might have wished. Note: This use of the character of Mycroft Holmes is done with the kind permission of Dame Jean Conan Doyle. Review Quotes: “Authorized by the Conan Doyle Estate—and great fun to boot.” —Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer “Mycroft relies on action, negotiation, and manipulation—rather like John Le Carré’s Smiley. The book is appealing, with a nice dash of actual Victorian political characters and events. It’s fun to read.” —San Jose Mercury News “Any Sherlock Holmes fan will want to read Quinn Fawcett’s homage to the great detective.” —Midwest Book Review “The star is Holmes, and the narrator is his sidekick. But the Holmes is Mycroft, Sherlock’s older, smarter brother; and the narrator is Paterson Erskine Guthrie, not Dr. Watson. Absorbing.” —Publishers Weekly Bio: A professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-2 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet. After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers. She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories. In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco. She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera. Keywords: Holmes, mystery, plot, murder, intrigue, spy, assassin, Victorian, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
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