The Formula for Murder (40 page)

A
RTHUR
C
ONAN
D
OYLE WENT ON
to write “A Scandal in Bohemia,” a Sherlock Holmes short story published in
The Strand Magazine,
1891, featuring Irene Adler, the only woman who outwitted Holmes. Thereafter, he continued to write the tales of the detective and his bumbling doctor friend until he tired of them and killed off Holmes—later bringing him back alive at the demand of his fans.

Following the success of
The Portrait of Dorian Gray,
Oscar Wilde went on to write numerous plays and poetry. In the 1890s he wrote and produced four society comedies, making him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London. By the mid 1890s his lifestyle, in which he openly flaunted the mores of the day, came crashing down on him when his love affair with the Marquis of Queensberry’s son became a catalyst that sent him to prison after he foolishly sued the marquis for libel. After prison, he moved to Paris and spent the last years of his life in the city that was considered the intellectual beacon of the world.

H. G. Wells went on to become one of the most highly regarded science-fiction writers in history.
The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau
,
The Invisible Man,
and
The Time Machine
are still selling over a hundred years later and each has been made into a movie—at least twice.
The Invisible Man
and
The Island of Dr. Moreau
were both premised upon mad science.

Wells also is noted for being one of the great intellectuals of his era, a socialist, pacifist, and … a free-love advocate, a belief he maintained in his personal life. After a brief marriage to a cousin that was unsuitable for both of them, Wells remarried. The marriage lasted thirty-two years, until the death of his wife, but true to his beliefs about love, he conducted a number of love affairs.

Nellie, too, went on to write mystery stories. Sadly, only one of them,
The Mystery of Central Park,
survived the ravages of time. The editors have not been able to find a copy of any of her other books. One has to wonder if any of these adventures she kept secret at the time were included in the lost books.

  
1
. The London matter was part of the investigation related in
The Alchemy of Murder
.—The Editors

  
2
. Nellie hid her lack of education with a vague reference to a “heart problem.” She actually left high school after the first year because the lawyer her father had entrusted with the money for her education stole it.—The Editors

  
3
. Nellie’s adventure of going around the world in seventy-two days is recorded in
The Illusion of Murder
.—The Editors

  
4
. By August 1890,
Around the World in 72 Days
, first edition of 10,000 copies, had sold out and it went into a second printing.—The Editors

  
5
. Nellie constantly lied about her age. She was twenty-six when she went to the UK, not twenty-three.—The Editors

  
6
. The dangers Nellie encountered during her trip around the world are the basis for the novel
The Illusion of Murder
.—The Editors

  
7
. Dime-novel fiction was mystery, adventure, and melodrama in a paperback form. Nellie was hired to write a series of mystery dime novels with a heroine protagonist. She never completed them. A friend told her, she had “no plot, characters, or ability to write dialogue.”—The Editors

  
8
. Ten thousand dollars then is about two hundred thousand dollars today. Mr. Cockerill earned a similar amount from Pulitzer as one of the nation’s highest paid editors.—The Editors

  
9
. The Sherlock Holmes book commissioned at the dinner by the American publisher who met with Oscar and Arthur Conan Doyle was
The Sign of the Four
.—The Editors

10
. John Sholto Douglas, The 9th Marquess of Queensberry, lent his name and patronage to what became known as the “Marquess of Queensberry rules” a set of twelve rules for conducting boxing matches which are basically in effect even today.—The Editors

11
. Elizabeth Jane Cochran was Nellie’s real name. Because newspaper reporting was not considered a respectable job for a woman, her editor chose “Nellie Bly” from a Stephen Foster song, “Nelly Bly.” Nellie’s grammar and spelling were “rocky” and she spelled it “Nellie.”—The Editors

12
. Galen, a prominent physician from the second century, wrote that the hysteria was a disease caused by sexual deprivation, particularly affecting passionate women: Hysteria was noted quite often in virgins, nuns, widows, and occasionally, married women. The prescription in medieval and renaissance medicine was intercourse if married, marriage if single, or vaginal massage (pelvic massage) by a midwife as a last recourse.—The Editors

13
. From Nellie’s experience of going undercover as a prostitute, she wrote her first mystery novel,
Murder in Central Park
.—The Editors

14
. The aid Louis Pasteur gave Nellie in Paris is related in
The Alchemy of Murder
.—The Editors

15
. Nellie wrote about her adventures in Mexico in a book called
Six Months in Mexico
.—The Editors

16
. About one hundred dollars today.—The Editors

17
. Twenty-five British pounds in 1890 was one hundred twenty-five U.S. dollars and the approximant equivalent of twenty-five thousand dollars today.—The Editors

18
. Doyle was paid one hundred pounds, which was five hundred U.S. dollars, the equivalent of about ten thousand dollars today. He also retained many future rights for the work.—The Editors

19
. In order to get a job with Pulitzer’s New York newspaper, Nellie went undercover to investigate conditions at the notorious women’s insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island. She had to convince police, a judge, and three psychiatrists that she was hopelessly insane. She wrote about the experience in
Ten Days in a Madhouse
. The madhouse escapade was also featured in
The Alchemy of Murder
.—The Editors

20
. Conan Doyle’s
The Hound of the Baskervilles,
published in 1901, is based upon the black beast legend.—The Editors

21
. The ballad can also be found in S. Baring-Gould’s
A Book of the West,
1899.—The Editors

22
. Nellie was an accomplished equestrian as a young girl and even won ribbons.—The Editors

23
. Blood types were not discovered until eleven years later in 1901.—The Editors

F
ORGE
B
OOKS BY
C
AROL
M
C
C
LEARY

The Alchemy of Murder

The Illusion of Murder

The Formula for Murder

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CAROL McCLEARY was born in Seoul, South Korea, and has lived in Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines. She now lives on Cape Cod in an antique house that is haunted by ghosts. McCleary is the author of
The Alchemy of Murder
and
The Illusion of Murder
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE FORMULA FOR MURDER

Copyright © 2012 by Carol McCleary

All rights reserved.

Cover art by Getty Images

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-2869-4 (hardcover)

ISBN 9781429943628 (e-book)

First Edition: July 2012