Chronicles of the Lost Years

Review 1: This book sets out to give the true story, through Watson's pen, of Sherlock Holmes's adventures during his three year absence from Baker Street - the Great Hiatus. There are many surprises in store for those used only to the account in the Canon of a lone journey through such places as Tibet, Mecca and Khartoum, not the least of which is to learn that Holmes was accompanied by not only Watson for much of the time but by a woman, Elizabeth Sigerson. Sigerson? Yes, the name is familiar, and Watson explains the connection most convincingly.

This Elizabeth is a most unusual woman, cerainly not a typical one of her times. Highly intelligent, a crack shot, a match for Holmes in matters of deduction, she is altogether a fitting companion for the great man on his travels. Or is she? There is more than one mystery here, and plenty of action to keep the plot boiling.

To find out what Watson has been hiding from us for all these years, you must read the book. And if you are still not satisfied, I am advised that a sequel is due to be published soon. The book should be available in this country [UK] at the usual outlets, and on the Internet at such sites as Amazon, at about £9-£10.

NOTE I was able to interview the author by e-mail, and was told that her interest in Holmes was re-kindled when she saw Jeremy Brett in The Sign of Four. An Australian by birth, she won the Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia's annual award for the best pastiche, and later emigrated to Edmonton, Alberta. Her varied career has included spells as a secretary, clerk, public speaker, freelance editor, law student and the first female cinematograph operator in Western Australia.

Reviewed by: Eric Monahan, [The Torr, Spring, 2000]

Review 2: Following The Siam Question by Timothy Francis Shiel, comes another conjecture about the events of the Great Hiatus. In Chronicles of the Lost Years: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Tracy Cooper-Posey introduces a woman - not Irene Adler, but the even more remarkable Elizabeth Sigerson. For very good reasons her name has been excised from the Canonical accounts, but we learn here that Miss Sigerson played an important rôle in Holmes's private and professional life.

Before and after the struggle at Reichenbach, her presence was both a help and a danger to him. She was his companion in his travels to Tibet and back, and has an important part in the capture of Colonel Moran and its deadly aftermath. It always jars rather to think of Holmes as other than essentially asexual - 'as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position,' says Watson - but if any woman could have captured his heart, Elizabeth Sigerson is that woman.

Chronicles of the Lost Years is a clever, exciting and very engaging adventure.

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson, [District Messenger, 198, 2000]