The Case of the Forgotten Letter

By Karen J. Carlisle

Dr John Watson is devastated. Mary Watson, worried about her husband's prolonged melancholia, engages Mrs Hudson's help.

He needs an adventure - a challenge to prove he can survive without his dear friend. A favour is called. A mystery concocted. A plan is afoot... until a misread number sends it all awry.

Now Watson is tracking Moriarty's gang as they both search for a missing letter.

This is the second short the the Holmesian mystery series, 'Mrs Hudson Investigates'. Available in eBook only.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen J. Carlisle
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005039592

Karen J. Carlisle

Karen J Carlisle is a writer and illustrator of speculative fiction - steampunk, Victorian mystery and fantasy. She graduated in 1986, from Queensland Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Optometry and lives in Adelaide with her family and the ghost of her ancient Devon Rex cat. Karen first fell in love with science fiction when she saw Doctor Who as a four-year old (she can’t remember if she hid behind the couch). This was reinforced when, at the age of twelve, she saw her first Star Destroyer. She started various other long-term affairs with fantasy fiction, (tabletop) role-playing, gardening, historical re-creation and steampunk – in that order. Her first book, Doctor Jack and Other Tales, was published in 2015. She has had articles published in Australian Realms Roleplaying Magazine and Cockatrice (Arts and Sciences magazine). Her short story, An Eye for Detail, was short-listed by the Australian Literature Review in their 2013 Murder/Mystery Short Story Competition. Karen's short story, Hunted, is featured in the Trail of Tales exhibition in the Adelaide Fringe, 2016. She currently writes full-time and can often be found plotting fantastical, piratical or airship adventures. Karen has always loved chocolate - dark preferred - and rarely refuses a cup of tea. She is not keen on the South Australian summers. 

Book preview

THE CASE OF THE FORGOTTEN LETTER

A Mrs Hudson Investigates Mystery

by Karen J Carlisle

Smashwords Edition 2022

Copyright 2022 Karen J Carlisle

Originally published 2020

Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

All rights reserved.

This eBook is for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold, reproduced or redistributed or given away to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real places or events or real persons, living or dead, is purely incidental.

Cover design: Copyright Karen J Carlisle 2022

Thank you for purchasing this eBook.

CONTENTS

The Case of the Forgotten Letter

Author’s Notes

About the Author

Other Titles by Karen J Carlisle

THE CASE OF THE FORGOTTEN LETTER

Flames crackled in the hearth. They writhed along the bricks and licked at the grate. There was no dancing today, nor had there been since the Reichenbach Falls incident.

Mrs Hudson's hand hovered over her filigree cigarette case. The nicotine's pull was strong, but she couldn't bring herself to smoke cigarettes any more. Not since that day. She shoved the case into her pocket, sat in Mr Holmes' favourite armchair.

His loaded revolver rested on the breakfast table, ready should any past rival come calling in search of a memento of the Great Detective, now he was...

Mrs Hudson's hand trembled.

She snatched up Mr Holmes' pipe, retrieved the tobacco from the Persian slipper on the table next to her, and lit the pipe's bowl. She closed her eyes and inhaled. Smell was, after all, an excellent conduit for memories. The smoke filled her lungs, calming her nerves. She relaxed her fingers, leaned back into the armchair and surveyed the Sitting Room.

It was just as he'd left it. By orders of his brother, Mycroft, supposedly to honour his memory, but she suspected there was more to the request. She'd recognised the secretive ambiguity in his eyes; the same look had developed in her second husband's eyes during their sojourn within the Japanese Empire's borders.