Q&A: Jack Anderson, Author of ‘The Return of Moriarty’
We chat with author Jack Anderson about The Return of Moriarty, which picks up after Professor Moriarty survives Reichenbach Falls and Sherlock Holmes dies and Moriarty finds himself caught up in a locked-room mystery Holmes couldn’t solve.
Hi, Jack! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! My name’s Jack Anderson, and I’m an author from Sheffield in the United Kingdom! I’m mostly known online for writing the serial The Left/Right Game on the subreddit NoSleep. As well as writing, I’m a big fan of boardgames and tabletop rpgs, and I’m just now realising I need more outdoor hobbies.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, I’ve just always loved the process of it.
When I was ten years old, I wrote a 120 page novel, featuring a child superspy who was also called Jack Anderson. Considering the huge font and wide margins I used, it was probably 60 pages tops. I also conducted no research for the story, describing Moscow as being “over a hundred miles away” from London. Which I suppose isn’t wrong.
I like to think I’ve gotten better since!
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I’ll always have a soft spot for The Hobbit, the first book that I started by having read to me, and finished reading myself. There’s a reason everyone I talk to has a core memory about Bilbo and his companions!
- The one that made you want to become an author: On theme for me, it was a Sherlock Holmes story! I believe the Hound of the Baskervilles. The Sherlock Holmes canon was the first series where I began to realise the craft of writing a story, and began to think about writing one myself!
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The latest example of incredible craft I’ve read was Gone Girl, which I delayed reading for a long time. Whenever I try to intelligently plot a story, the winding and cleverly placed narrative of that book always seems like the gold standard!
Your latest novel, The Return of Moriarty, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Moriarty’s the detective now? Terrifying!
What can readers expect?
A true Sherlockian adventure but with a far less principled investigator. Games of wit and deception in a crumbling ancestral house full of secrets.
Set in an alternate timeline where James Moriarty survives his final battle with Sherlock Holmes, the master criminal is now destitute, disgraced and forced to ask himself… what next.
Where did the inspiration for The Return of Moriarty come from?
I’ve always been a fan of James Moriarty, and I always felt like his demise was, in some ways, the neatest end he could have asked for; locked in battle with his nemesis. I always wondered what it would be like for him if he survived, what he would do the next day, the next month, the next year.
The more I thought about that strange predicament, the more I couldn’t resist writing it.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The principle narrator, Clara Mendel, became one of my favourite characters I’ve written. A medical student returning to her childhood home, to find a mysterious stranger already lodging there. Moriarty is no Sherlock Holmes, and Clara is far from the moral paragon, Dr John Watson. Writing the interactions between these two characters, figuring each other out, and the limits of their own morality, was an absolute joy.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
This was my first time writing historical fiction, and I wanted to ensure I did my research. What followed was roughly a year of bothering historians and academics in across Germany and Switzerland, embarrassing myself with incredibly foolish questions so that I had the right answers.
On an easier note, ensuring the story was as accurate as possible to the Sherlock Holmes canon required me to listen the entire series in audiobook form, which was frankly a pleasure.
What’s next for you?
The Return of Moriarty is the first book in a series, the second of which I am currently working on. My dream is to have the master criminal Professor Moriarty engaged in mysteries that would be worthy of the great detective… though perhaps not for the right reasons!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
While my newborn has kept me very rightly occupied this year, the book I’ve been snatching moments to read is “Is a River Alive? By Robert Macfarlane”. A non-fiction work which makes the case for rivers and other aspects of nature to be recognised as living beings.
I originally read it as training for my own writing, as Macfarlane’s prose has always been inspiring to me. What I’ve found since is a truly engaging and persuasive argument about the natural world, and all the fantastic prose that I expected!
