The Red-haired Man - Inspired by “The Red-Headed League” by Arthur Conan Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes IV

By Andrew Delaplaine

In "The Red-haired Man," inspired by Conan Doyle's "The Red-Headed League," Holmes is visited by a man with flaming red hair who wants to find out what happened to the League of Red-haired Men that closed suddenly and without explanation, depriving him of a healthy income.

Sherlock Holmes IV is a direct descendant of the famed detective whose daring exploits were so vividly chronicled by Dr. John Watson and related to us by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...


This new Sherlock Holmes owns a small hotel (The Fleming House named after Ian Fleming of James Bond fame) on Miami's South Beach, and this Sherlock is just as renowned in the present day as his illustrious ancestor was in his. 

"Imagine Sherlock Holmes—or rather, his great-great-great-grandson—living on South Beach and solving crimes and mysteries with the same aplomb as his famous forebear and you'll get the picture of what's going on here…"
                        --Bartholomew Fox, author of "Deadlock"


"Witty and clever, with a whole new cast of characters to support this new Holmes and this new Watson. They live in a small boutique hotel on Lincoln Road called Fleming House (named after Sherlock the IV's love for James Bond author Ian Fleming). Holmes paces about in the penthouse while Watson (yes, he's a direct descendant of Dr. Watson) manages Fleming House. The cast of supporting characters, from the unseen brilliant but tempestuous Chef Hilario to the colorful Bjorn Karlsen, the gay manager of the Crown Colony restaurant in the hotel who has to put up with the irascible Cuban chef, are refreshing and contemporary."
                 --Renee Rodgers, author of "A Tuned Body"
 

"There have been countless mutations of the iconic Holmes over the last century, but none has this contemporary approach using not merely a reworked manifestation of the original character, but a descendant of the first Holmes."

--- Nathaniel Pembroke, author of  "A James Joyce Chronicle"

"You'll like not only this new Sherlock Holmes, but the hip new world he finds himself living in… South Beach. Lady Gaga even makes an appearance in 'The Red-haired Man'!"
            --Sophie Charpentier, author of "Country Club Tennis Rules"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gramercy Park Press
• Release date: Oct 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386155119

Andrew Delaplaine

Delaplaine lives on South Beach, Miami’s Billion Dollar Sandbar. He writes in widely varied fields: screenplays, novels (adult and juvenile) and journalism. He also has a series of Long Weekend Guides covering some 50 cities around the world. Email: [e-mail] He writes several series: The “JACK HOUSTON ST. CLAIR” political thriller novels. “THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IV,” a series of novels starring the great-great-grandson of the famous consulting detective. “THE ANNALS OF SANTOPIA” series, an epic that follows a Santa born in 1900 through to his death 82 years later. The AMOS FREEMAN police thrillers. Other novels: “The Trap Door” follows a boy who is taken back in time to 1594 and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. “The Meter Maid Murders,” a comic look at a detective trying to nab a serial killer on South Beach who only murders meter maids. Has written and directed three features (one doc, two narrative features), as well as several short films and won several awards for his film work. (See imdb.com for details).  His latest film, “Meeting Spencer,” starring Jeffrey Tambor, won the prestigious Milan International Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay.  DELAPLAINE’S “LONG WEEKEND” GUIDES These no-nonsense guides contain Delaplaine’s recommendations and advice for travelers visiting these places for 3 or 4 days. As "The Food Enthusiast," he writes a series of restaurants guides, updated annually. He has no hobbies.

Book preview

The Adventures

of

Sherlock Holmes IV

THE

RED-HAIRED

MAN

Inspired by The Red-Headed League

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Andrew Delaplaine

A list of the author’s other travel guides, as well as his political thrillers and titles for children, can be found at the end of this book.

Gramercy Park Press

New York - London – Paris

© Copyright 2012

by Gramercy Park Press

All rights reserved

Inquiries to: [e-mail]

Author’s Note

Background Information on

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes IV

SINCE THIS BOOK IS one in a series on the exploits of Sherlock Holmes IV, it might be useful to the Reader to know how he came to find himself in Miami and how he came to find himself associated with Watson and Lestrade. 

Some of this backstory cannot be revealed at this moment because it is integral to developments that occur in books in the series yet to be written. This is how Holmes relates the story in The Red-haired Man:

I was just explaining to Mr. Janklow here that I emigrated from London to South Beach strictly because of Inspector Lestrade. It really was quite astonishing, Mr. Janklow. I was returning from a case in Ecuador, and I had to change planes here in Miami. I knew that Lestrade had come over from London years before when he married a Cuban woman, and since I was here for a couple of days, I decided to look him up.

That’s exactly right, Mr. Holmes, said Lestrade with a thin-lipped smug grin.

I’d never met the descendant of my ancestor’s colleague at Scotland Yard, Holmes went on, and I thought as the opportunity for me to return to Miami might not arise again, I ought to look him up.

And what does he do, Mr. Janklow? Lestrade said, leaning forward for emphasis, "he goes and buys this hotel on Lincoln Road and moves here!"

And even stranger, Mr. Janklow, two years after I opened Fleming House, John Watson comes here for a visit and ends up staying on as my general manager!

I’d read of course about the reunion of the descendants of Holmes and Lestrade, said Watson, and when I had a one-week holiday, thought I’d come over to meet them both.

And when he got here, Holmes took over the narrative, it turned out that he was a top manager at the Connaught. I was having the devil of a time managing Fleming House, so I offered him a berth here and that pretty much brings us up to date.

And that, dear Reader, as far as it goes, brings you up to date as well.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes IV

The Red-haired Man

Chapter 1

The Lady Gaga Dilemma

Chapter 2

The Red - haired Man

Chapter 3

The Ad in the Paper

Chapter 4

Getting the Job

Chapter 5

The Work Routine

Chapter 6

Managing Fleming House

Chapter 7

Reconnoitering

Chapter 8

Gilberto Vila

Chapter 9

A Puzzle

Chapter 10

Inspector Lestrade

Chapter 11

The Janklow Collection

Chapter 12

Setting the Trap

Chapter 13

Springing the Trap

Chapter 14

The Riddle Solved

Chapter 15

Lunch with a Lady

Chapter 1

The Lady Gaga Dilemma

TO SAY THAT WATSON was engaged in a violent argument with Mrs. Portillo would have been an understatement. This was not an argument because he had not been able to get a word in edgewise (if that in itself is a proper word, he wondered). He was merely the recipient of a barrage of linguistic flotsam (half English—half Spanish) emanating from the housekeeper of Fleming House, the boutique hotel on South Beach owned by his friend, Sherlock Holmes the 4th.

"I do not know why we put up with this trash—this Lady Gaga and her people. I know royalty. In El Salvador, I was married to a very important man in the Alianza Republicana—we had connections to the Presidential Palace—and I have seen fine people. But this—this trash. Have you seen her?"

It wasn’t exactly a question. Everyone at Fleming House had seen Lady Gaga. How could one miss her?

"It’s rather hard not to see Lady Gaga, Mrs. Portillo," Watson sighed.

Lady Gaga was in town for a concert stop that would take place over three nights, and she was in rehearsals the week before the concert launch. This was the beginning of December, and the town was rapidly filling up for the annual Art Basel bash that consumed Miami this time of the year.  

The problem Mrs. Portillo had concerned the continuous flow of Lady Gaga’s attendants and entourage in-and-out of the suite she occupied on the second floor just above the Goldeneye Bar where Watson was trying to enjoy a soft and squishy barbecued beef brisket on a soft, toasted and buttered Kaiser roll created just for him by the acclaimed Chef Hilario, Holmes’s prized possession at Fleming House.

(If the hotel should explode in flames, Watson, make not the slightest effort to save me, a poor beggar. Save the one person in this hotel who has contributed so much to the refinement and pleasure of mankind. Save Chef Hilario! he once declared after a single sip of the chef’s famous fennel and cream soup, which he made very rarely. I have solved some of the great crimes and mysteries of the modern world, Watson, he’d gone on, "but I could never plumb the mind of a man who could create this," he’d said, pointing his spoon for emphasis to what in Watson’s opinion was an ordinary bowl of soup.)

Mrs. Portillo was concerned because Lady Gaga had taken over not only the suite above Goldeneye, but the one across the hall above the Crown Colony, the swank eatery where Chef Hilario displayed his culinary achievements for all the world to appreciate.

But her manager has already taken that suite, and they want the other two suites on the floor as soon as they are vacated, Watson tried to explain.

Mrs. Portillo began tapping her toe on the intricate Mexican tiles that covered the entire