John Allen was born in Long Beach, CA. An engineer “by education,
training, and experience,” he describes himself as “a recovering
engineer.” He left engineering to become
the junior partner in Allen & Allen Semiotics Inc., a corporation that his
wife, Lynn, launched for their diversified home business. Their projects
include designing databases for mid-sized companies. John Allen holds a BS from
the United States Air Force Academy, an MS from the University of Southern
California, and an MA from the University of California, Riverside.
About the Book:
Author John Allen has a theory
about the creator of Sherlock Holmes:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not
create Holmes. It was Doyle’s wife, Louise Hawkins Conan Doyle, who gave birth
to the beloved sleuth.
Allen has put his beliefs to the
test, writing and publishing the first of a projected 12-novel series of Holmes
mysteries titled BRIMSTONE. His
detective is Louise Hawkins Conan Doyle, and Allen names her as the author of
the tale he presents, set in 1879 Bristol, England.
In a previous book, SHADOW WOMAN, Allen set out to prove
that Louise was the true creator of Sherlock Holmes. The inspiration for his
startling and controversial theory of authorship was a 1980s essay by Martin
Gardner called “The Irrelevance of Arthur Conan Doyle.” Gardner claimed that
Arthur was “too gullible and to easily duped to have created Sherlock Holmes.”
Allen determined that Gardner was
correct, but Gardner identified no alternative author. Allen continues, “So I
decided to give it a try. I came to suspect Louise as the actual author, but I
lacked the knowledge and tools to make a solid case.”
Then the Internet came along,
giving Allen a valuable research tool. He became convinced that Louise did in
fact create Sherlock Holmes. Allen presented his case in SHADOW WOMAN, which was published in 2017. To further advance
Louise as Holmes’s creator, to give her the credit he believes she is due, he
is now featuring her in a series of mystery novels, the first of which is BRIMSTONE.
As if Allen hadn’t set the bar
too high already, he has added a subtext to BRIMSTONE
that explores contemporary wrongful convictions through his Victorian
thrillers.
BRIMSTONE brims with appeal to multiple audiences, from lovers
of detective stories to those interested in justice for the wrongfully
convicted. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.
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I’d like to know more
about you as a person first. What do you
do when you’re not writing?
For money, I design custom
database solutions for large companies companies. As an avocation, I work to
help free innocent people from their wrongful imprisonment.
When did you start
writing?
After my fourth stint as a
juror for a criminal case, I became concerned that we are wrongfully
imprisoning many people in this country. That prompted me to start writing my Skeptical Juror blog, which became
reasonably well known among those concerned about such issues. I then wrote
four non-fiction books on wrongful convictions.
After failing to prevent the
execution of someone I am convinced was innocent, I fell into a blue funk. I
decided to turn my attentions to something less depressing, something that had
interested me for a long time. Specifically, I wrote and had published Shadow Woman: The True Creator of Sherlock
Holmes (2017). In that book, I present my case that it was Louise Conan
Doyle, Arthur's first wife, who created Sherlock Holmes and wrote the early
adventures.
My Louise Conan Doyle Mystery
Series is a fictional extension of that non-fictional work. Brimstone is the first book in that
series.
As a published author,
what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
As part of my investigation
into the authorship of the Holmes adventures, I wrote my own stylometric
analysis program to help attribute the proper author to various works that
Arthur Conan Doyle published under his name. Stylometry analyzes elements of
stories to determine who wrote them. When I first ran the program, I was
surprised to learn that Louise, Arthur's first wife, wrote the early Holmes
adventures and that Jean, Arthur's second wife wrote the later Holmes
adventures. Arthur coordinated with Louise on the first Holmes adventure and
wrote two short Holmes stories on his own. He also actually wrote most of the
non-Holmes works attributed to him, including The Lost World.
Upon reviewing the first
results from that stylometric analysis program, I became convinced that my
hypothesis was correct. That result provided me sufficient confidence to
publish my findings in Shadow Woman
and to continue writing about Louise Conan Doyle in a mystery series featuring
her.
If you could go anywhere
in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?
I would travel to the Isle of
Wight off the south coast of mainland England. Brimstone opens and closes with Louise living in Victorian Bristol,
England. By the end of Gambit, the
second book in the series, Louise ends up living with her mother on the Isle of
Wight. At the beginning of Ember, the
third book in the series, Louise will still be living on the Isle of Wight.
It's a lovely place, and I would be pleased to visit for any number of reasons.
If you had 4 hours of
extra time today, what would you do?
I would work on completing Gambit. I'm currently so distracted by
my database and wrongful conviction demands that I have been unable to work on
Louise for far too long.
Where would you like to
set a story that you haven’t done yet?
Though in Ember, the third book in the series,
Louise will be living on the Isle of Wight, the mystery will involve one of the
first electrified houses in England. That rather stately house will be in some
majestic rural area of England that I have yet to select.
Back to your present book,
Brimstone, how did you publish it?
Lynn, my wife of 22 years,
started our home business, Allen & Allen Semiotics, Inc. I continued my
conventional job to maintain a steady income. After she doubled her income for
three years straight, she taught me how to design custom databases. I then left
my conventional job to assume my role as the junior partner in A&A. When I
started writing books, she added publishing to our company's product line. As I
developed my writing craft, she developed her publishing craft. Our latest
product, Brimstone, is our best work
yet. We are quite proud of it.
In writing your book, did
you travel anywhere for research?
Though I did not travel in
preparation for either Shadow Woman
or Brimstone, I did once have the
opportunity to visit England. That was certainly educational and enlightening.
My challenge was not just one
of location, though. The Louise Conan Doyle Mystery Series is set in Victorian
England. To familiarize myself with that time and place, I watched period
pieces, read a lot of period books, browsed Victorian era magazines, and
referred to lots of old maps.
Why was writing Brimstone so important to you?
The prime directive of any
mystery writer is to provide the reader with an intriguing mystery featuring an
engaging personality. Beyond that, I hope to that the public will finally
recognize Louise for her literary contribution and her brilliance. I also would
like the readers to become aware of the problem of wrongful convictions. Each
plot in the Louise Conan Doyle Mystery series is based on a real-world wrongful
conviction from today's U.S. transported back to Victorian England. In the
Author's Note at the end of each book, I explain the relationship.
Where do you get your best
ideas and why do you think that is?
My best ideas come while I'm
writing. Though I try to plot and plan before I write, the writing seldom
proceeds as I plan. The plot and the characters seem to take control of my
fingers and cause them to type paragraphs and chapters that surprise even me.
These nearly out-of-body writing episodes are my favorite moments in writing.
Any final words?
Brimstone is
now available on Amazon in print and Kindle format, and on Barnes and Noble in
print and Nook format. We’re working on an Audiobook format as well. And keep
an eye out for Gambit, the second
book in the series. When you find yourself in the midst of Gambit, assume nothing to be true. Trust no one.