A Study in Synchronicity — Daniel D. Victor

A STUDY IN SYNCHRONICITY weaves an English murder mystery set in 1906 into the framework of a modern-day whodunit. The contemporary plot begins when American writer Todd Stringer wins a writing contest for his short story set in turn-of-the century London. Not only does the story feature the Sherlock Holmes-like detective Corliss Simms, but it also echoes the language of Simms's celebrated but long-dead creator, the Conan Doyle-like Sir Reginald Bertrand Dunbarton. As Todd's real life oddly begins to parallel murderous aspects of his own crime story, he becomes more intertwined in his fictional narrative than he could ever have imagined. For just after the publication of his story is halted, the executor of Dunbarton's estate turns up murdered in the same manner as the victim in Todd's fictional story, and Todd finds himself the target of an actual murder investigation. What began as an attempt to get his story published becomes, with the help of a lovely young woman he meets in England, a quest to find the real murderer, a quest which takes on added urgency as he tries to eliminate himself as the prime suspect.