Think you know Sherlock Holmes? Think again!
In A Study In Starlets, the latest Holmesian novella from Abaddon (which is available for preorder now), Gini Koch’s Holmes is quite unlike any you’ve ever seen before. She – aha! – is, among other things, based in LA, and solving crimes by trawling Hollywood’s dark underbelly…
‘It’s apt that Gini Koch’s chosen the world of television as the backdrop for her stories,’ says Abaddon chief David Thomas Moore. ‘Gini’s Sherlock is one of those characters you start mentally casting the moment you meet her (Anne Hathaway, if you’re wondering). She’s a true Holmes – insightful, sharp, impatient and unassailably self-righteous – but with a warmth, and a loving wit, that both perfectly complement the character and take you entirely by surprise. A Study in Starlets is a brutal takedown of Hollywood, and an utterly joyous romp.’
Along with her partner Dr. John Watson , she’s just settling in as a consulting detective in hernew home, when notorious reality starlet Irene Adler comes to call, asking for their help solving an extraordinary—and embarrassing—theft.
As a thoroughly smitten Watson closes the door on Adler’s back, TV producers Joey Jackson and Tony Antonelli call on the pair. Their partner, Cliff Camden, has disappeared without a trace on the eve of filming for the new show; rumour has it he’s taken off with their money. The LAPD aren’t interested and Watson has nothing but contempt for the three, but Holmes takes the case.
As they pick their way amongst the grumbling crew, the neurotic actors and the low-level sleaze that permeates the city, it starts to become clear the two cases are connected—when a murder turns everything on its head…
A Study in Starlets is the second of three new novellas following on from the stories in Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets, and includes the story “All the Single Ladies.”
A Study In Starlets is out on 11 September.