Now that I've just uploaded to smashwords.com The Casebook of Elisha Grey IV you might wonder if you haven't read any of the previous volumes (all e-books, all 2.99 each) why would you want to read detective/mystery stories set in Atlantis?
There's lots of reasons, however, the main one is the characters: the narrator, Kiara Ptolmai, the protagonist, Elisha Grey, and their network of friends and associates. If you haven't read any of the Casebook of Elisha Grey, here's their outlines. If you have read one or more of the Casebook of Elisha Grey series, here's a refresher:
Elisha Grey, a middle aged bachelor born and raised in Atlantis, is pioneering a new profession – consulting detective – due to his extensive academic training combined with natural curiosity, and changes in Atlantean society with regard to crime during the Second Era, including the death of his ex-lover Aurora Endymion after she entered into an abusive relationship with a wealthy man. Like many native Atlanteans, he has dark hair, dark eyes, and skin the color of the earth. Raised like the majority of Atlanteans by foster parents in a children's collective, he had five collective siblings – all sisters. He is a postgraduate student and lecturer at the Temple of Learning, where his subjects of study over his time include chemistry, biology, geology, music, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, ethics, and criminology. Willing to misrepresent himself in front of others in order to glean information, he doesn’t care what others think about him. He prefers to be messy at home but can be neat when necessary; he has a makeshift chemistry lab in his bedroom. He is adept at archery. Tall, lean and able to move with stealth, his social manners can nonetheless be abrupt. His sense of style tends toward none – drab, monochrome, comfortable and practical. While some Atlanteans prefer to wear their long, black hair in a varying array of braids or other cuts, he simply leaves his long and clips it back to keep it out of the way. Unlike the majority of Atlanteans, he considers the multimorphs (human/animal hybrids that resulted from genetic experimentation) to be not only his equals but in many cases his allies in solving crimes. He also knows where to find assistance in any given case by seeking advice from the best experts. He consults news daily on the commnet system as well as the in the two main papers, The Sun and The Bee.
Kiara Ptolmai resembles her mother – she has fair skin and red hair, making her an obvious minority in Atlantis – yet she is also the daughter of Atlantean Ambassador Menos Ptolmai, stationed in the kingdom of Chungkuo on the Western coast of the Lemurian Sea. Her mother, Viera Ptolmai, is a hands-on healer from the small mountainous region of Caucasus, where Menos Ptolmai had been previously stationed. Unlike most Atlanteans, Menos and Viera have remained a married couple and raised their only child, Kiara, themselves. She decided to pursue an education in jurisprudence in Atlantis at the Temple of Learning with her father’s blessing. She has been trained in the hands-on healing traditions of her mother and grandmother, and meditative techniques well-known in Chungkuo, which include the ability to levitate. Her limited finances require sharing her room and board with another person, who turns out to be Elisha Grey. Although she wants to focus on her studies uninterrupted, Elisha Grey asks for her assistance and accompaniment on his cases, which she chronicles in the Casebook. Acutely aware of being perceived by others to be an outsider and perhaps suspect, she too is sensitive to others who fall in the same group – foreign students at the Temple of Learning, and the multimorphs, who she meets as she works with Elisha Grey to solve mysteries. As her experience assisting Elisha Grey teaches her more about Atlantean culture and law, she shifts her studies from jurisprudence to architecture.
Twylah Tecumseh, housekeeper/landlady, is an older woman, living alone. She owns a three flat building at 83 Dragonfly Terrace. Her quarters are on the ground floor, behind the two-story foyer that houses a fish pond. East-facing windows provide light to her flat, the two bedroom upstairs flat, and the traveler’s loft flat next door to hers. Her collective children grown, her role as a landlady is her sole income. She provides light meals and housekeeping for her tenants, refurbishing Elisha and Kiara’s flat as the seasons change.
Sequoyah is the newsstand owner down the cross-street, Kingfisher Road, which ends at Dragonfly Terrace; he supplies Elisha Grey with a variety of periodicals as well as information about activities in the neighborhood.
Kamay Pellay is a self-taught artist with shaggy hair and old, unkempt clothing, he is an Atlantean of Lemurian descent through his natural mother, traceable back ten generations to the time of Atlantis’ first Civil War, and is gifted with the ability to change the weather with his intentions via his paintings. His chance meeting with Elisha Grey and Kiara Ptolmai prompts him to travel to the Baikal regions west of Chungkuo in order to study with a female shaman called a Sarangeral so that he might use his gifts more responsibly.
Ishmael Endymion is a talented chemist, flamboyant and androgynous, wears makeup and keeps one side of his hair shorn short in memory of his late sister; he is the manufacturer of a legal mind-altering drug known as Blue Sweet Fire. He lives and works at Dark Ladder Laboratories which he founded, a compound of several buildings that includes a laboratory with living quarters above, a distillery, a small maize field, vegetable gardens and egg-laying chickens to supply his live-in workers food. He is a close friend of Elisha Grey who he originally met while they were classmates in chemistry at the Temple of Learning. He introduced his collective sister Aurora to Elisha, and she became the love of his life while they were together. Her death deepened their friendship due to their mutual grief over being unable to keep her from harm.
Chiron is the demiequine multimorph and protector of his colony of fellows, all of whom are the result of genetic engineering. He is a skilled laborer often employed by Atlanteans; he can work as an ironworker and woodworker. Tacit leader of the colony, he is an ally in a number of Elisha Grey’s cases. He also has developed healing techniques needed for the peculiar types of ailments from which multimorphs can suffer. Occasionally he will challenge Elisha Grey to an archery match in order to try out a new bow.
Phaedra is Chiron’s life partner, a human/reptilian hybrid. She works at the dining commons at the Temple of Learning. She has also studied herbal medicines in order to provide care for her fellow multimorphs.
“Leo”/Simeon is the demileonine barkeep at the multimorph colony, and worker at a brewery in Atlantis where his employer has allowed him to create Lion’s Mane Ale, he is the social liaison between Elisha Grey, Kiara Ptolmai and other multimorphs.
Mara Grey is Elisha Grey's eldest sister, a glamorous, beautiful woman who is a member of the hetirae class of independent women who work as escorts for other people. Over the years she and Elisha have taught each other how better to have insights into other people’s motivations as well as to apply intuition to interpersonal relationships.
Chief Nalte heads the Capitol City’s constabulary forces; he first met Elisha Grey when Aurora Endymion was beaten to death by her lover at the time. Elisha Grey and Aurora’s brother, Ishmael Endymion, had both tried to convince her to leave the relationship yet failed. Her death led Elisha Grey to offer his services to the constabulary as a private consulting detective, and Chief Nalte often asks for his assistance.
Kaliska Saukenuk is a female constable who works undercover with Chief Nalte; she is a follower of Elisha Grey’s cases as Kiara Ptolmai chronicles them for printing in The Sun. A statuesque and attractive woman, she is also an efficient and physically able officer.
Galen Toth is a chemist and lecturer at the Temple of Learning in Atlantis who has perfected an analgesic drug with minimal psychotropic effects derived from the natural plant ying su ke, grown and used in Chungkuo both as a medicine and recreational drug. Notable for his fondness for the latest fashions despite his instructor’s wages from the Temple of Learning.
Philomena Darius is a chemistry instructor at the Temple of Learning and mentor to Elisha Grey, Galen Toth, and Ishmael Endymion; she is a premiere chemist and perfumer, founder of her own perfume manufacturing company. A petite, fine-boned woman with an acute sense of smell (a “nose” in the perfume industry) she keeps both her laboratories as well as her home free of dyes or scented chemicals of any kind.
There's lots of reasons, however, the main one is the characters: the narrator, Kiara Ptolmai, the protagonist, Elisha Grey, and their network of friends and associates. If you haven't read any of the Casebook of Elisha Grey, here's their outlines. If you have read one or more of the Casebook of Elisha Grey series, here's a refresher:
Elisha Grey, a middle aged bachelor born and raised in Atlantis, is pioneering a new profession – consulting detective – due to his extensive academic training combined with natural curiosity, and changes in Atlantean society with regard to crime during the Second Era, including the death of his ex-lover Aurora Endymion after she entered into an abusive relationship with a wealthy man. Like many native Atlanteans, he has dark hair, dark eyes, and skin the color of the earth. Raised like the majority of Atlanteans by foster parents in a children's collective, he had five collective siblings – all sisters. He is a postgraduate student and lecturer at the Temple of Learning, where his subjects of study over his time include chemistry, biology, geology, music, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, ethics, and criminology. Willing to misrepresent himself in front of others in order to glean information, he doesn’t care what others think about him. He prefers to be messy at home but can be neat when necessary; he has a makeshift chemistry lab in his bedroom. He is adept at archery. Tall, lean and able to move with stealth, his social manners can nonetheless be abrupt. His sense of style tends toward none – drab, monochrome, comfortable and practical. While some Atlanteans prefer to wear their long, black hair in a varying array of braids or other cuts, he simply leaves his long and clips it back to keep it out of the way. Unlike the majority of Atlanteans, he considers the multimorphs (human/animal hybrids that resulted from genetic experimentation) to be not only his equals but in many cases his allies in solving crimes. He also knows where to find assistance in any given case by seeking advice from the best experts. He consults news daily on the commnet system as well as the in the two main papers, The Sun and The Bee.
Kiara Ptolmai resembles her mother – she has fair skin and red hair, making her an obvious minority in Atlantis – yet she is also the daughter of Atlantean Ambassador Menos Ptolmai, stationed in the kingdom of Chungkuo on the Western coast of the Lemurian Sea. Her mother, Viera Ptolmai, is a hands-on healer from the small mountainous region of Caucasus, where Menos Ptolmai had been previously stationed. Unlike most Atlanteans, Menos and Viera have remained a married couple and raised their only child, Kiara, themselves. She decided to pursue an education in jurisprudence in Atlantis at the Temple of Learning with her father’s blessing. She has been trained in the hands-on healing traditions of her mother and grandmother, and meditative techniques well-known in Chungkuo, which include the ability to levitate. Her limited finances require sharing her room and board with another person, who turns out to be Elisha Grey. Although she wants to focus on her studies uninterrupted, Elisha Grey asks for her assistance and accompaniment on his cases, which she chronicles in the Casebook. Acutely aware of being perceived by others to be an outsider and perhaps suspect, she too is sensitive to others who fall in the same group – foreign students at the Temple of Learning, and the multimorphs, who she meets as she works with Elisha Grey to solve mysteries. As her experience assisting Elisha Grey teaches her more about Atlantean culture and law, she shifts her studies from jurisprudence to architecture.
Twylah Tecumseh, housekeeper/landlady, is an older woman, living alone. She owns a three flat building at 83 Dragonfly Terrace. Her quarters are on the ground floor, behind the two-story foyer that houses a fish pond. East-facing windows provide light to her flat, the two bedroom upstairs flat, and the traveler’s loft flat next door to hers. Her collective children grown, her role as a landlady is her sole income. She provides light meals and housekeeping for her tenants, refurbishing Elisha and Kiara’s flat as the seasons change.
Sequoyah is the newsstand owner down the cross-street, Kingfisher Road, which ends at Dragonfly Terrace; he supplies Elisha Grey with a variety of periodicals as well as information about activities in the neighborhood.
Kamay Pellay is a self-taught artist with shaggy hair and old, unkempt clothing, he is an Atlantean of Lemurian descent through his natural mother, traceable back ten generations to the time of Atlantis’ first Civil War, and is gifted with the ability to change the weather with his intentions via his paintings. His chance meeting with Elisha Grey and Kiara Ptolmai prompts him to travel to the Baikal regions west of Chungkuo in order to study with a female shaman called a Sarangeral so that he might use his gifts more responsibly.
Ishmael Endymion is a talented chemist, flamboyant and androgynous, wears makeup and keeps one side of his hair shorn short in memory of his late sister; he is the manufacturer of a legal mind-altering drug known as Blue Sweet Fire. He lives and works at Dark Ladder Laboratories which he founded, a compound of several buildings that includes a laboratory with living quarters above, a distillery, a small maize field, vegetable gardens and egg-laying chickens to supply his live-in workers food. He is a close friend of Elisha Grey who he originally met while they were classmates in chemistry at the Temple of Learning. He introduced his collective sister Aurora to Elisha, and she became the love of his life while they were together. Her death deepened their friendship due to their mutual grief over being unable to keep her from harm.
Chiron is the demiequine multimorph and protector of his colony of fellows, all of whom are the result of genetic engineering. He is a skilled laborer often employed by Atlanteans; he can work as an ironworker and woodworker. Tacit leader of the colony, he is an ally in a number of Elisha Grey’s cases. He also has developed healing techniques needed for the peculiar types of ailments from which multimorphs can suffer. Occasionally he will challenge Elisha Grey to an archery match in order to try out a new bow.
Phaedra is Chiron’s life partner, a human/reptilian hybrid. She works at the dining commons at the Temple of Learning. She has also studied herbal medicines in order to provide care for her fellow multimorphs.
“Leo”/Simeon is the demileonine barkeep at the multimorph colony, and worker at a brewery in Atlantis where his employer has allowed him to create Lion’s Mane Ale, he is the social liaison between Elisha Grey, Kiara Ptolmai and other multimorphs.
Mara Grey is Elisha Grey's eldest sister, a glamorous, beautiful woman who is a member of the hetirae class of independent women who work as escorts for other people. Over the years she and Elisha have taught each other how better to have insights into other people’s motivations as well as to apply intuition to interpersonal relationships.
Chief Nalte heads the Capitol City’s constabulary forces; he first met Elisha Grey when Aurora Endymion was beaten to death by her lover at the time. Elisha Grey and Aurora’s brother, Ishmael Endymion, had both tried to convince her to leave the relationship yet failed. Her death led Elisha Grey to offer his services to the constabulary as a private consulting detective, and Chief Nalte often asks for his assistance.
Kaliska Saukenuk is a female constable who works undercover with Chief Nalte; she is a follower of Elisha Grey’s cases as Kiara Ptolmai chronicles them for printing in The Sun. A statuesque and attractive woman, she is also an efficient and physically able officer.
Galen Toth is a chemist and lecturer at the Temple of Learning in Atlantis who has perfected an analgesic drug with minimal psychotropic effects derived from the natural plant ying su ke, grown and used in Chungkuo both as a medicine and recreational drug. Notable for his fondness for the latest fashions despite his instructor’s wages from the Temple of Learning.
Philomena Darius is a chemistry instructor at the Temple of Learning and mentor to Elisha Grey, Galen Toth, and Ishmael Endymion; she is a premiere chemist and perfumer, founder of her own perfume manufacturing company. A petite, fine-boned woman with an acute sense of smell (a “nose” in the perfume industry) she keeps both her laboratories as well as her home free of dyes or scented chemicals of any kind.