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‘Charlie Roxburgh’ writes imitation Sherlock Holmes stories and strives to recreate the dark, menacing atmosphere which makes certain original Sherlock Holmes stories so gripping. He is a stickler for respecting the characters of Holmes and Watson as portrayed by Conan Doyle. He seeks plots which involve evils so truly sinister that they really warrant exposure by Sherlock Holmes. They are evils which have a solid, factual basis in late Victorian history, though maybe airbrushed from our knowledge. Charlie Roxburgh needs serious subject matter to fire him to write.
An initial story has been published; others are in the pipeline.
Published in paperback and various e-book formats: ‘The Case of the Russian Chessboard: a Sherlock Holmes story only now revealed’. This is set among political radicals in 1890s London, where early socialists and feminists rubbed shoulders with refugee Russian dissidents. In the Russian Empire meanwhile an astonishing, Machiavellian, secret strategy for modern tyranny was being perfected – and London’s Russians were easily within its reach. Holmes dubs this strategy the ‘Russian Chessboard’. He checkmates its operation in this particular case. But the ‘Russian Chessboard’, alas, marches on - to be copied by other governments since.
Amazon reviews have praised this story’s labyrinthine plot, its ‘traditional’ characterisation of Sherlock Holmes, its political thriller character, and the accuracy of its unusual historical background.
Be advised, it is a dark tale with moments of horror - not for anyone seeking a light-hearted read.
For anyone intrigued by the historical background to the ‘Russian Chessboard’, Google and ye shall find. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Russian Communists captured the Czarist secret police files (then copied the techniques themselves) and on the web are writings by Victor Serge, a revolutionary who read them. Another set of Czarist secret police documents was traded to the United States government by the Russian Czarist spy base in Paris and you can read plenty about these on the public section of the CIA website. The CIA indeed has made such methods a mainstay of its covert operations, as demonstrated by the writings of the CIA defector, Philip Agee.
Paperback
www.amazon.co.uk/Case-Russian-Chessboard-Sherlock-revealed/dp/1780922167
Kindle
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Case-Russian-Chessboard-ebook/dp/B00506CZ6Q
Also in other e-book formats.
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