Welcome to the world and works of author Michael Kurland.

In commenting on his novels, various reviewers have said:

Kurland demonstrates a keen ear for dialog, comedic scenes and witty personalities. -- Chicago Tribune

In this deliciously complex and abundantly rewarding novel... That such material entertains for page after page is a tribute to Kurland's remarkable talent. Multiple plots leapfrog across chapters in a perfect pace. Surprises abound. Uncommon are the pleasures such writing affords. --- Publisher's Weekly

Trepoff naevnes flygtigt i SCAN. Her er han gjort til russisk Superskurk, der bekaemper Anarkisterne med alle Midler og endogsaa, i slutningen af 1880' erne, vil spraenge Dronning Victoria i Luften, da hun befinder sig om Bord paa "Victoria and Albert", med Torpedoen fra en Garrett-Harris Undervandsbaad. -- Sherlockiana [Danmark]

Kurland has the talent to create and sustain interesting characters and he paces his fiction so well it sails along with the reader in tow -- happily in tow. A good read. -- Science Fiction Review

And reviewers of his non-fiction have enthused [Bill Pronzini hates the word "enthused." It's used here just to annoy him.]:

"...a valuable contribution to the field... Congratulations again on this very nice publication." -- Lawrence Koblensky, PhD. (Prof. Forensic Science, John Jay College of Criminal Justice)

This is absorbing stuff, a literate walk on the shady side of the street. -- Jackie Loohaus, The Milwaukee Journal

And the author, this Michael Kurland, what sort of fellow is he?

A plump, middle-aged man with greying hair and mild, hazel eyes looking out from behind wire-rim glasses, Author Michael Kurland has the perpetually nervous look of a rabbit invited to lunch at the Lions' Club. He has been a teacher of obscure subjects to uninterested children, the editor of a magazine even more idiosyncratic than himself, a seeker of absent persons, an explainer of the obscure to the befuddled, and guest lecturer at numerous unrelated institutions and events. Kurland is a triviaphile, and has the largest collection of mint unperforated trivia on the West Coast of North America, between San Francisco and Fort Ross.

There are some critics who believe that Kurland does not write his own books, but instead they are written by another man named Michael Kurland. Others maintain that Michael Kurland is a pseudonym of the Great Rabbi of Prague, dead these 800 years. The rumors that Kurland is a direct descendant of the Marquis de Sade are untrue, and those spreading it should be whipped.

When asked why he writes, Kurland quotes Robert Burns:
         Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash;
         Some rhyme (vain thought) for needfu' cash;
         Some rhyme to court the country clash,
            An' raise a din;
         For me, an aim I never fash;
            I rhyme for fun.

Kurland also bears some responsibility for The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Unsolved Mysteries but not for the titles. In The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Memory, written with Richard Lupoff, Kurland successfully conceals the fact that he can seldom remember what day it is or where he put his glass eye.

You can probably find How to Solve a Murder: the Forensic Handbook and How to Try a Murder: the Handbook for Armchair Lawyers in your local library and, with a little luck, even at a bookstore (although the original publisher has been sold three times, and the books are thus thrice orphaned).

The Empress of India the fourth in a series of books featuring the amoral Professor James Moriarty, villain in the Sherlock Holmes stories, is in most bookstores and libraries now.

Of it The Booklist said:

England, 1890. A cargo ship, the Empress of India, is about to dock with a large shipment of gold. The arrival of this shipment has not been publicized, but somehow, the gold vanishes while the ship is still at sea. The British government turns to the one man they know can solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes. And the great detective soon surmises that only one villain is clever enough to pull off such a feat: Professor James Moriarty. But—and here comes the twist that will delight fans of Holmesian literature—Moriarty is innocent. Of course nobody believes him, so he decides to solve the crime himself and, soon enough, winds up face-to-face with a villain at least as fiendishly clever as he is. This is Kurland's fourth Moriarty novel, and the series is nowhere near wearing out its welcome. Readers unfamiliar with the world of Sherlock Holmes need not fear: the author avoids the overabundance of in-references that render some other Holmes-related fiction incomprehensible to the casual visitor. This one's ideal for Holmes experts and novices alike. —David Pitt

The short story collection, Images Conceits and Lollygags, out last year from Gryphon Books, has an introduction by Richard Lupoff, and the cover is by Frank Kelly Freas, than which one cannot do much better. The stories are among those that Kurland is fondest of, although picking among your own children is always difficult. They're a mix of SF, fantasy mystery, and, as the auctioneer said, "call it what you want to and use it for the same purpose."

The Great Game, which came out a couple of years ago from St. Martin's Minotaur,is the third Professor Moriarty novel. The first, The Infernal Device,won a Mystery Writers of America "Edgar" scroll and was nominated for an American Book award To the left is the jacket of the trade paperback edition, which became available in February, 2003.

St. Martin's has also reprinted the first two Moriartys, The Infernal Device,and Death by Gaslight.along with a brand-new Moriarty short story, "The Paradol Paradox," in a one-volume trade paperback, The Infernal Device and Others.

If you're not sufficiently convinced that Kurland has a fascination for Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian world, take a look at the two Holmes anthologies he edited, both published by St. Martin's Press. The first,called My Sherlock Holmes, contains stories from the point of view of various people mentioned in the Holmes canon except Dr. Watson or Holmes himself.
For more information, a list of the contributors and the characters whose viewpoints they have assumed, click here.

The second,Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, relates some of the adventures Holmes had during the time between his disappearance at Reichenbach Falls and his reappearance two years later. Just out in trade paperback, it has stories by, among others, Bill Pronzini, Peter Beagle, Linda Robertson, and Kurland himself. One of the tales, "The Adventure of the Missing Detective," by Gary Lovisi, was nominated for an Edgar as best short story of the year.

If you're into more recent history in your reading, look at Kurland's two novels (so far) set in the 1930s and chronicling the mystery-solving talents of Alexander Brass, a columnist for the New York World: Too Soon Dead and The Girls in the High-Heeled Shoes. Both published by St. Martin's Press. There's also an Alexander Brass short story, "He Couldn't Fly," in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley.

Kurland's prodigious oeuvre also includes a dozen or so science fiction novels written in his youth, notably Tomorrow Knight, Ten Years to Doomsday (with Chester Anderson), Pluribus, Perchance, and First Cycle (with H. Beam Piper). The Unicorn Girl (recently reprinted by Cosmos, there's the new cover on the right), sequel to Chester Anderson's The Butterfly Kid and prequel to T.A. Waters The Probability Pad, was nominated for a Hugo. Two novels set in the world of Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy, Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery, were on the Locus best-seller list.

A couple of Kurland's novels, notably Button Bright and The Last President (written with S.W. Barton), fit tenuously into that nondescript category known as "mainstream." A phrase that usually means "We don't know where to put this," or, "Hey, this can't be science fiction (or a mystery), this is good!"

A schedule of forthcoming publications, as well as book store signings, library talks, random appearances, or whatever, where Kurland will talk interminably about this and that and autograph his new books as well as any old ones his numerous fans would like to bring, can be found here.

If you have any comments, questions, parables, witticisms, homilies, shoes, ships, or sealing-wax, messages for the author can be emailed to: mkurland@continentalops.org
or posted to: Michael Kurland - P.O. Box 2005 - Petaluma CA 94953-2005

The Continental Ops

If you're a mystery fan check out the Continental Ops website, where mystery writers talk to their readers and each other. find out who has what book out, and who's showing up where to do what (and to whom):
Continentalops.org

Check this site out occasionally. It will be revised regularly, updating, improving, changing the facts to suit the changing times and the mood of the author, and adding oddities, and probably a few quiddities and malaprops, as well as the promised images (mostly of book jackets, but with a few unusual items added to surprise and amuse you,) conceits (from the older meaning, "that which is conceived"), and lollygags.