Hello Silver Birch readers. I write TV shows, plays, and articles for magazines, but my favourite thing is to create larger-than-life characters (some say “weirdoes”) and put them into very dramatic situations in novels. My nine books have dealt with the likes of high-wire walkers, sasquatches, and sumo wrestlers.

I’m excited that you will be reading “Death in the Air: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Second Case,” which is the second novel in my series about the childhood adventures of the world’s greatest detective. No one has ever attempted to uncover the great Sherlock’s early days, so there has been quite a bit of attention focused on this series. I like to write about things I am passionate about, and that’s what I did with “Death in the Air.” It is a dark, edgy story, has a larger-than-life lead character, is set in the foggy, dangerous streets of London, England in the 1860s, and features the amazing world of 19th century show business, and dangerous performances like the flying trapeze. It also has a great deal to say about good and evil, and the fact that most of us aren’t entirely good, or entirely bad. Our goal, like Sherlock’s, is to try to be as good as we can be.

I live in an old, Victorian house in the woods, way out in the woods, north of Cobourg, Ontario, with my wife and three children. We like to tell stories – the stranger the better – read together, and run around the forest with our wonder dog, Watson.

Interesting Facts:
While researching for my writing I have learned how to walk a high wire (which I did publicly), perform on the flying trapeze, ride a mechanical bull … and eat like a sumo wrestler.