“On that, Hannah,” I said, my voice thickening somewhat, “you have my solemn vow.”
AFTERWORD
As promised in the Foreword, this chronicle is not just an account of a case investigated and solved by Mr Sherlock Holmes. It brings into relief an aspect of my own life.
Even now, reflecting across a span of some eight years to the events I have been describing, I think of Hannah Woolfson with nothing but fondness and a tinge of regret. One cannot change what has been, but one is entitled to wish it had developed otherwise.
I have had a wife, Mary. For the few years that we were married, she was my companion and helpmeet and the most supportive and decorous spouse a man could hope for. I will never cease to mourn her.
I had hoped, briefly and in the event vainly, that Hannah might take her place by my side. It was not to be. I draw some cold consolation from the fact that the lady remains to this day unwed. She uses her time profitably to carry on prosecuting her causes, campaigning for the emancipation of women and their right to vote. She has even helped Emmeline Pankhurst with the setting up of the Women’s Social and Political Union. No doubt this makes her father grind his teeth with frustration, and if so, long may it continue.
There may yet be, for me, the prospect of another wife on the horizon, a second Mrs Watson. Until then, I shall cherish the memory of Hannah and keep it dear in my heart. She embodies a lost ideal, a missed opportunity, and the surrender of personal happiness to duty. In that regard, as Irene Adler is to Sherlock Holmes, Hannah Woolfson will always be, to me, the woman.
J.H.W.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Lovegrove is the New York Times best-selling author of The Age of Odin, the third novel in his critically acclaimed Pantheon military SF series. He was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1998 for his novel Days and for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2004 for his novel Untied Kingdom. He also reviews fiction for the Financial Times. He has written Sherlock Holmes: The Stuff of Nightmares, Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War and Sherlock Holmes: The Thinking Engine for Titan Books; his new series, The Cthulhu Casebooks, launched in 2016 with Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows.
SHERLOCK HOLMES
THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES
James Lovegrove
A spate of bombings has hit London, causing untold damage and loss of life. Meanwhile a strangely garbed figure has been spied haunting the rooftops and grimy back alleys of the capital. Sherlock Holmes believes this strange masked man may hold the key to the attacks. He moves with the extraordinary agility of a latter-day Spring-Heeled Jack. He possesses weaponry and armour of unprecedented sophistication. He is known only by the name Baron Cauchemar, and he appears to be a scourge of crime and villainy. But is he all that he seems? Holmes and his faithful companion Dr Watson are about to embark on one of their strangest and most exhilarating adventures yet.
“[A] tremendously accomplished thriller which leaves the reader in no doubt that they are in the hands of a confident and skilful craftsman.” Starburst
“Dramatic, gripping, exciting and respectful to its source material, I thoroughly enjoyed every surprise and twist as the story unfolded.” Fantasy Book Review
“This is delicious stuff, marrying the standard notions of Holmesiana with the kind of imagination we expect from Lovegrove.” Crimetime
TITANBOOKS.COM
The Labyrinth of Death Page 29
