Linda Stratmann is the author of fourteen non-fiction books mainly about true crime, but her work also includes Chloroform, the Quest for Oblivion, a history of the use and misuse of chloroform, and three biographies, notably her acclaimed The Marquess of Queensberry: Wilde’s Nemesis. Her most recent non-fiction publication The Secret Poisoner chronicles the efforts of science and the law to tackle poison murder in the nineteenth century. She has recently edited a new volume in the iconic Notable British Trials Series, The Trial of the Mannings.
Linda also writes three historical crime fiction series. The Frances Doughty Mysteries set in1880s Bayswater, feature a clever and determined lady detective, who has to battle both wily criminals and prejudices about suitable roles for women. Her adventures explore aspects of Victorian life such as diet, education, medicine, women’s rights, fear of premature burial and the fashion for cycling.
The second series is set in 1870s Brighton. Mina Scarletti is a deceptively diminutive lady with a twisted spine, whose boldness and confidence enable her to overcome her apparent disadvantages. Mina writes horror and ghost stories and exposes the activities of fraudulent spirit mediums who prey on the vulnerable bereaved.
Linda’s new series is The Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. It is 1876 and a youthful Holmes is newly arrived in London, where he is studying to achieve his ambition of becoming a consulting detective. He and a fellow student Stamford (the man who will one day introduce Holmes to Watson) find themselves swept up into a series of extraordinary and dangerous adventures.
Book 1 Sherlock Holmes and the Rosetta Stone Mystery will be published in October 2021, and the second book, Sherlock Holmes and the Explorers’ Club will be available for pre-order soon.
Linda has been a member of the Crime Writers’ Association since 2004 and was Chair from 2019 to 2021. She lives in London with her husband.