The Children of Sherlock Holmes by Ben F. Eller

About the book

This novel is a Sherlock Holmes mystery set against the backdrop of 1890's Victorian England ... one of the most intriguing, mysterious, sensual, contradictory eras in human history. This country was the economic envy of the world while ten thousand of its impoverished children toiled fourteen-hour days in workhouses and factories. The society that produced Shakespeare, Thomas a'Beckett, and Dickens, watched as seven hundred of one thousand impoverished children died before the age of five. The novel portrays this life of 1890's poverty-stricken East London Children.

Holmes confronts a case and adversary so diabolical he is driven to the edge of madness. The exploitation, enslavement and murder of children ensnares Holmes in an underworld of perverse corruption that extends from impoverished London streets to the flesh merchants of the Middle East to highest levels of English government.

Holmes is plunged into the desperate lives of street and factory children as they attempt to survive a web of corrupt politicians and a ruthless factory owner. Holmes and Watson confront men of wealth who conspire to forever make legal child labor and the servitude of children.

Two brothers, Basil and Terence Bonag, and a third boy, Cleaver, are followed in their struggle to survive the squalor and cruelty of East London. As young boys they are sold to a vicious butcher, Murdo Sellers, where they are forced to endure his cruelty throughout their childhood. Murdo's death and the boys' discovery of his hoarded wealth allow them to escape into the bowels of East London.

They start their own butchery and through the cunning and brilliance of Basil the business prospers. As they grow into manhood, Basil and Cleaver perpetuate the scars of their past and become monstrous factory barons of child laborers. Exploiting the children they control, they become involved in the slave trade of the Far East. The third boy, Terence, is befriended by a kindly veterinarian. His influence leads Terence to becoming a benevolent physician only to be ensnared in his brother's schemes.

Holmes encounters Basil who is his equal in brilliance, power and cunning. Basil and his savage overseer Cleaver exploit the young girls who labor in their tannery workhouse. As the young girls come of age they are systematically drugged into a coma, declared dead and buried alive. They are retrieved and those who survive are sold into slavery to flesh merchants of the Middle East.

Following clues, Holmes and Watson travel to the Middle East to rescue the girls who are being sold into prostitution. The bedchambers of Middle East palaces reveal the perverse sexual appetites of sultans. Attempting to rescue the girls, Holmes and Watson are thrown into prison. As they languish in jail their political and industrial adversaries in London take advantage. Through their secret order, the "Brotherhood of the Barons." they scheme to pass a "Children's Suffrage" law that would make children chattel, permitting children to be treated and bartered the same as cattle and swine. The corruption permeates into the highest levels of English government.

In the end, the children's undaunted will to survive gives them and Holmes the strength and courage to confront their tormentors. With their freedom and very lives at stake they take their plight from the poverty-stricken streets and salve workhouses to the halls of the English Parliament. Their fate and the destiny of future generations of English children hang in the balance.

About the author

Ben currently resides in Cullowhee, North Carolina. his professional career has been primarily in academe .. Associate Professor of Psychology, East Tennessee State University and Professor/Program Chair, Educational Technology, the University of Alabama. He has a BS in math from Milligan College and an MS and doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Tennessee. He worked at the Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge, Tennessee while attending graduate school.

Ben has published sixty journal articles in the areas of child abuse, autism, disruptive children, and educational technology. He has a textbook with Wadsworth Publishing and has completed two novels and two filmscripts: The Children of Sherlock Holmes (historical fiction) and The Cleansing (science fiction). He has two children, a daughter and a son. His hobbies include running, (including the Boston marathon) tennis, biking, and frequent trips to Vegas.