A final note on Watson. He flagellates himself rather a lot, as this narrative shows. He shouldn’t. He is lovely and warm and quite brave and a bit heedless of his own safety and by any measure the best man I’ve ever known. I’ve discovered that I am very clever when it comes to caring about him, and so I will continue to do so.
Later today I will ask him to spend the rest of winter break at my family’s home in Sussex. (I must remember to tell my parents, though I’m sure they’ve already deduced my intentions.) My always-amusing uncle Leander is due in for a visit. We will look for a good murder or, at the very least, an interesting heist to solve. Watson will say yes, I’m sure of it. He always says yes to me.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, so many thanks to my wonderful editor, Anica Rissi, for her keen eyes and edits and her belief in this book. I am so indebted to you. Thanks too to Alexandra Arnold and everyone else at Katherine Tegen Books and HarperCollins. I feel so incredibly lucky to be a Katherine Tegen author.
To Lana Popovic, my amazing agent, editor, and friend—you have encouraged me every single step of the way. I know for sure this wouldn’t be a book without you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking a chance on me.
Many thanks to Terra Chalberg for championing this book abroad and to everyone else at Chalberg and Sussman, wonder agency.
Thank you to my friends Chloe Benjamin, Rebecca Dunham, Rebecca Hazelton, Emily Temple, and Kit Williamson for being amazing, encouraging readers, and to my professors Liam Callanan and Judy Mitchell, who told me I could. And to Ted Martin, for his endless patience for discussing Sherlockiana with me.
I’m deeply indebted to William S. Baring-Gould for his Sherlock Holmes scholarship—his Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street was invaluable, and I’ve littered this novel with loving reference to his work. Endless thanks to Leslie Klinger; his New Annotated Sherlock Holmes has sat dog-eared on my desk for the last two years. I’m greatly indebted, too, to all the other scholars and writers who have played the Game before me.
Thanks to my parents, for being my biggest champions from day one. To my grandfather, for giving us the Holmes stories in the first place. Thanks and love to Chase, for his love and patience while I’ve filled my hours and covered our walls with this book. I never thought I’d find somebody like you. I am so lucky I did.
And finally, and most importantly, thanks to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for giving us all Holmes and Watson in the first place. This is, more than anything, a work written for love of them.