Me name’s Tim Badger and I used to be one of them Baker Street Irregulars working for one Mister Sherlock Holmes. But being a man now, I opened me own detective agency with me friend, Ben Watson (no relation), though Mister Holmes finds it amusing that I got me own ‘Watson’ to do me detecting with. It’s a tough slog, no mistaking. Working in the East End, it’s hard to get clients willing to talk to us, and Ben with his scientific mind and all, just ready to jump on any case we get. We did get a few at first. We try to use Mister Holmes’s method as best we can, but sometimes I think it’s just as good to use our own wits to find the culprit. We’ve recovered a lost necklace, found a bloke who broke into a fella’s flat, and a few other bits and bobs, but nothing as compares with what Mister Holmes does. I reckon there’s more money in solving murders, but I don’t know if them inspectors in Scotland Yard would let a few blokes like us from the slums get in their way. But I’m always telling Ben that we just go ahead anyway and see what transpires. ‘Course, he’s never been in gaol. Not like me. But I’ve got tricks to avoid that. Ben’s a good bloke and I trust him. Even though others give him the eye, because he’s a black man, I reckon. But they don’t know him like I do.

Take the other day. We got ourselves our first good client, recommended by Mister Holmes himself. The man wasn’t too fond of sharing his tale with Ben in the room, but I stood me ground. ‘Ben and me are partners,’ I told him. ‘And if you won’t talk to him, you won’t be talking to me.’ He settled right down then, because it’s like I was telling Ben. It’s a real murder to solve, and Thomas Brent was being blamed for it. And a strange case it is, too.

This fella, Horace Quinn, got killt in the middle of séance! Right out of them penny fictions I like to read. And all his servants were there in the room, but the lights went out and none of them saw who done it. The housekeeper—and a prune-faced woman she is—the timid maid, though Ben is good at getting information from pretty little housemaids, he’s just that way. Or Thomas Brent, Horace Quinn’s footman, valet, and everything else a man could do in a household. Oh, and mustn’t forget the gypsy medium. She was there too, but didn’t wait around for the coppers to show up. So we started in right away with Ben disguised as a chimney sweep questioning the household, and me trying to find a way to climb into the attic to look around.

It’s just the sort of case we need to get some good notoriety for a change. Maybe that insufferable reportress for The Daily Chronicle Ellsie Moira Littleton would get it right about us for once instead of reporting that we’d probably planted the evidence to get our names in the papers. Blimey! There’s no accounting for it; she being a tasty little crumpet of a lass, and being a nosey-parker at the same time. I’d certainly like to see her eat her words. We’ll solve this case yet, and finally Mister Holmes can be proud of us. I’m looking forward to that!

Giveaway: Jeri has generously offered to give away one print copy of The Isolated Séance, either print (U.S. residents only) or digital (open to everyone). To enter, please leave a comment below. One entry per person. Giveaway ends June 8, 2023. Good luck everyone!


The Isolated Séance, An Irregular Detective Mystery Book #1
Genre: Historical
Release: June 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

The first in a gripping new Victorian mystery series set in London from critically acclaimed author Jeri Westerson.

Watch out, Sherlock! Introducing one-time Baker Street Irregular Timothy Badger and his partner-in-crime Benjamin Watson, two exciting and unconventional young consulting detectives, mentored by the great man himself, tackling intriguing and unusual cases in Victorian London with endearing verve and wit.

Sherlock Holmes’s protégés Tim Badger and Benjamin Watson are catapulted into a tricky first case when a man is brutally murdered during a séance.

London, 1895. Former Baker Street Irregular Tim Badger is determined to follow in the footsteps of his great mentor, Sherlock Holmes, by opening his own consulting detective agency with his partner, Benjamin Watson. The intrepid duo are ready to make a name for themselves . . . if only they had clients!

Their luck changes when Sherlock recommends his protégés to Thomas Brent. Brent is eager to find out who killed his master, Horace Quinn, during a séance at Quinn’s house. What was Quinn desperately trying to find out from his deceased business partner, Stephen Latimer, before he was stabbed through the heart?

It seems that everyone in Quinn’s household had a reason to want him dead. Can Tim and Benjamin step out of Sherlock’s shadow to navigate dark secrets and unexpected dangers in their pursuit of a cold-blooded killer?


About the author
Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson authored fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha to the Shamus. Jeri currently writes a Tudor series, the King’s Fool Mysteries, and a Sherlockian series called An Irregular Detective Mystery. She also authored several paranormal series and standalone historical novels. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of SinC (Orange County and Los Angeles), and is also a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See JeriWesterson.com for more.

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