CANR

PERSONAL

Born March 1, 1938, in New York, NY; son of Jack and Stephanie Kurland; married three times (divorced three times).

Attended Hiram College, 1955-56, University of Maryland, 1959-60, foreign study in Germany, 1960-61, and Columbia University, 1963-64.

ADDRESS

• Home - CA.

CAREER

Writer. Full-time writer, 1963—. News editor, KPFK-Radio, Los Angeles, CA, 1966; High school English teacher in Ojai, CA, 1968; managing editor, Crawdaddy magazine, 1969; editor, Pennyfarthing Press, San Francisco and Berkley, CA, beginning 1976. Occasional director of plays for Squirrel Hill Theatre, beginning 1972.

U.S. Army, Intelligence, 1958-62.

Politics, bear baiting, barn storming, lighter-than-air craft, carnivals, vaudeville, science fiction incunabula.

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Mystery Writers of America, Science Fiction Writers of America, Institute for Twenty-First-Century Studies, Baker Street Irregulars, Computer Press Association.

Edgar Scroll, Mystery Writers of America, 1971, for A Plague of Spies, and 1979, for The Infernal Device; American Book Award nomination, 1979, for The Infernal Device.

WRITINGS

• FICTION
• (With Chester Anderson) Ten Years to Doomsday, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1964
• Mission: Third Force, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1967
• Mission: Tank War, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1968
• Mission: Police Action, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1969
• A Plague of Spies, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1969
• The Unicorn Girl, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1969 , published as Dover (Mineola, NY), 2019
• Transmission Error, Pyramid (New York, NY), 1971
• (Under pseudonym Jennifer Plum) The Secret of Benjamin Square, Lancer Books (New York, NY), 1972
• The Whenabouts of Burr, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1975
• Pluribus, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1975
• Tomorrow Knight, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1976
• The Princes of Earth, Thomas Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1978
• The Infernal Device (also see below), New American Library (New York, NY), 1979
• (With Barton Whaley) The Last President, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1980
• Psi Hunt, Berkley (New York, NY), 1980
• (With H. Beam Piper) Death by Gaslight (also see below), New American Library (New York, NY), 1982
• Gashopper, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1987
• Ten Little Wizards (for young adults), Berkley (New York, NY), 1987
• Star Griffin, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1987
• Perchance, New American Library (New York, NY), 1988
• A Study in Sorcery, Ace (New York, NY), 1989
• Button Bright, Berkley (New York, NY), 1990
• Too Soon Dead, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 1997 , published as Titan Books (London, England), 2015
• The Girls in the High-Heeled Shoes, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 1998 , published as Titan Books (London, England), 2016
• The Bells of Hell ("Welker & Saboy" Series), Severn House (London, England), 2019
• “PROFESSOR MORIARTY” SERIES
• The Infernal Device & Others: A Professor Moriarty Omnibus (contains The Infernal Device, the previously unpublished The Paradol Paradox, and Death by Gaslight ), St. Martin’s Minotaur (New York, NY), 2001
• The Great Game, St. Martin’s Minotaur (New York, NY), 2001
• The Empress of India, St. Martin’s Minotaur (New York, NY), 2006
• Who Thinks Evil, Minotaur Books (New York, NY), 2014
• NONFICTION
• The Spymaster’s Handbook, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1988
• World Espionage: A Historical Encyclopedia, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1993
• A Gallery of Rogues: Portraits in True Crime, Prentice-Hall General Reference (New York, NY), 1994
• How to Solve a Murder: The Forensic Handbook, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1995
• How to Try a Murder: The Armchair Lawyer’s Handbook, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1997
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Unsolved Mysteries, Alpha Books (Indianapolis, IN), 2000
• Irrefutable Evidence: Adventures in the History of Forensic Science, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 2009
• EDITOR
• Avram Davidson, The Redward Edward Papers, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1978
• The Best of Avram Davidson, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1979
• (From H. Beam Piper’s unfinished manuscript) First Cycle, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1982
• My Sherlock Holmes: Untold Stories of the Great Detective, St. Martin’s Minotaur (New York, NY), 2003
• Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, St. Martin’s Minotaur (New York, NY), 2004
• Sherlock Holmes: The American Years, Minotaur Books (New York, NY), 2010

Author of editorials for National Examiner, 1966, and of “Impropa-Ganda” column in Berkeley Barb, 1967. Contributor to Worlds of Tomorrow.

SIDELIGHTS

Michael Kurland is a prolific author of both fiction and nonfiction. With over thirty novels to his credit, he has published in genres from mainstream fiction to mystery. His first novels dealt with science fiction themes, and he built a notable career in that genre. However, by the 1980s he had moved to mystery and has become best known for his novels featuring the fictional nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Moriarty. Kurland has also edited and contributed stories to several Sherlock Holmes anthologies.

As a science fiction author, Kurland is, as Richard A. Lupoff noted in Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, “highly adept at creating societies which are compellingly believable and populating them with vivid and sympathetic characters. His style is lively, warm, and highly informal. His stories are told with rapidity of pace and great variety of setting and incident.” Kurland’s first novel was a collaborative effort with Chester Anderson. Ten Years to Doomsday concerns a planet with only a decade to prepare for a planned invasion. In order to defend themselves from the attack, the people determine that they must change their feudal state to an industrial and technological one. Kurland says that this novel is intended as a parody of the works of Poul Anderson. Lupoff commented: “Either as a parody or in its own right, the book is fairly successful.”

The Bells of Hell marked the start of Kurland’s “Welker & Saboy” series of novels in 2019. Andrew Blake is an unemployed typesetter who chose the wrong building to squat in. He witnesses the torture and murder of Johann Steuber, a man who had posed as a German toy exporter and was apprehended by Nazi operatives posing as FBI agents when his ship docked in Brooklyn in the year 1938. While Blake does not attempt to prevent Steuber’s torture out of fear, he does report what he saw to the police. This leads to him being recruited by the Office of Special Intelligence to infiltrate the Bund in their New York City branch. After earning the trust of several American Nazi sympathizers, he discovers that the men who killed Steuber are part of a plot of Nazi aggression against the United States. With assistance from agent Jacob Welker, British cultural attaché Lord Geoffrey Saboy, and his wife, Lady Patricia, Blake must prevent this from happening. A contributor to Publishers Weekly stated: “As Kurland’s ‘Professor Moriarty’ series with its creative plotting and characterization shows, this author can do better.”

Kurland once told CA: “ The Unicorn Girl is part of a unique trilogy, the middle work of a linked three-book opus with three different authors. The first [is] The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson, and the third [is] The Probability Pad by T.A. Waters.” The Butterfly Kid includes the three authors as characters in a comical plot involving an alien invasion of a bohemian community in the 1960s. The Unicorn Girl continues with the same themes and characters, although it was less successful than the first part of the trilogy.

The protagonist of Transmission Error is considered likable, resourceful, and witty by critics but constantly finds himself in difficult situations. For example, he is inadvertently taken to an alien planet where he faces a potential life of slavery. Although he escapes this threat, he soon finds himself facing other challenges. Lupoff pointed to Transmission Error as an illustration of the weakness of many of Kurland’s novels. He explained: “Their major flaw is a failure—whether by the author or his protagonist—to grapple with and satisfactorily resolve problems. The ‘solutions’ offered are almost invariably flight rather than confrontation.”

Pluribus is regarded as Kurland’s most successful science-fiction novel. Set in a future barbaric United States, the novel is replete with vivid imagery such as the horse-drawn Highway Patrol cruiser that carries the protagonist away after his arrest. The Princes of Earth, which Lupoff deemed “favorably comparable to standard [Robert] Heinlein juveniles,” contains typical Kurland elements—future societies, characters, and movement from problem to problem. The author also uses satire, as in his parody of the Church of Scientology.

Kurland’s writing career changed direction in 1979 when he was commissioned to write a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by a paperback publisher, but not from the point of view of the great detective. Thus he chose Holmes’s archrival, Professor Moriarty. But in Kurland’s interpretation, Moriarty is not the “Napoleon of Crime” that Holmes makes him out to be. Rather he is a highly intelligent and resourceful man who happens to steal from the rich; otherwise he attempts to do good. The first Moriarty title, The Infernal Device, led to a contract for further titles. Death by Gaslight appeared in 1982, The Great Game in 2001, and five years later came The Empress of India. Allen O. Pierleoni described the Moriarty books in the Sacramento Bee as “fascinating, historically accurate reads in which Moriarty is shown not as some deranged genius with no regard for human life, but as a calm, sophisticated adventurer who happens to be a criminal. At the same time, Holmes is rather humorously depicted as obsessive in his suspicions that Moriarty is behind every crime committed in London.”

The Great Game finds Moriarty joining forces with Holmes to prevent the assassinations of Queen Victoria of England and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austro-Hungary. A Publishers Weekly reviewer praised this work as a “deliciously complex and abundantly rewarding novel,” and further commended the dialogue, which “sparkle[s] with wit, erudition and unerring diction.” Writing in Booklist, Connie Fletcher noted the Moriarty novels are “acclaimed for their historical accuracy and adept plotting,” going on to comment that in The Great Game, Kurland succeeds in bringing “fin de siecle Europe to brilliant life.”

In The Empress of India, Moriarty is unjustly accused of stealing a shipment of gold from the eponymous cargo ship and decides to catch the real villain and thus clear his name. A Kirkus Reviews critic felt that this title “carries forward the never-ending franchise with authentic flavor.” Similarly, Booklist contributor David Pitt concluded: “This one’s ideal for Holmes experts and novices alike.”

In 2014 Kurland continued the series with Who Thinks Evil. Moriarty teams up with Holmes to help keep Queen Victoria on the throne and get to the bottom of who is framing her grandson for a series of murders. A group of well-connected lords manage to secure Moriarty’s release from Newgate Prison in exchange for his help in clearing the prince’s name of any wrongdoing and find who ultimately is responsible.

Reviewing the novel in CriminalElement.com, Corrina Lawson claimed that “this is a fun read and a nice return to Victorian London, populated by some interesting characters, including Mycroft Holmes, but, unfortunately, it’s not about to make me a fan of this version of Moriarty.” Lawson concluded: “While I, on a personal and philosophical basis, may not pick up any more of the Moriarty mysteries, I was impressed enough with Kurland’s writing skill to investigate.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called the novel “a preposterous, entertaining farrago.” Booklist contributor David Pitt labeled the novel “splendid stuff,” noting that Moriarty is “a fine sleuth and sure makes for a compelling protagonist.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly found Moriarty to be “as astute a detective as his nemesis.” However, the same contributor lamented that the killer’s identity is made known before the end, reasoning that it makes Who Thinks Evil “more a suspense novel than a whodunit.”

In an interview in the Big Thrill with George Ebey, Kurland talked about the challenges of setting this series in nineteenth-century London. When asked about the necessity of attention to period details, Kurland admitted: “I have at least twenty books on the period, but I try not to wave my research in the reader’s face. My hope is that no one will catch me out in any glaring errors. But if anyone does spot any anachronism please let me know so I’ll do better next time.”

Additionally, Kurland has served as editor for anthologies of Sherlock Holmes tales. Margaret Flanagan, reviewing My Sherlock Holmes in Booklist, found the collection “extremely entertaining.” Kurland’s second Holmes anthology, Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, fills in the missing months in the great detective’s life from when he seemingly fell to his death on the Reichenbach Falls in 1891 until he returned to 221 Baker Street in 1894. A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt Kurland “scores again in this lively all-original anthology.”

Kurland published Irrefutable Evidence: Adventures in the History of Forensic Science in 2014. The account offers a survey of forensics and covers the range of techniques employed in forensic investigations. Kurland also provides a history of the development of these techniques, featuring profiles on Eugene Francois Vidocq, Edward Henry, Juan Vucetich, and Alphonse Bertillon. Individual studies are included to show how forensic evidence is applied to actual cases. A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that “Kurland shifts abruptly between detailed descriptions of techniques and oversimplifications” that would “surely frustrate forensic fans” looking to read more “in-depth analysis.”

BIOCRIT
BOOKS

• Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1991.

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, July 1, 1975, review of Pluribus, p. 1109; April 1, 1978, review of The Princes of Earth, p. 1249; March 1, 1987, review of Star Griffin, p. 983; July, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of The Great Game, p. 1988; December 15, 2002, Margaret Flanagan, review of My Sherlock Holmes: Untold Stories of the Great Detective, p. 737; December 15, 2005, David Pitt, review of The Empress of India, p. 28; January 1, 2014, David Pitt, review of Who Thinks Evil, p. 54.

• Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 1975, review of Pluribus, p. 333; February 15, 1978, review of The Princes of Earth, p. 205; April 1, 1980, review of The Last President, p. 465; February 1, 1987, review of Star Griffin, p. 178; January 15, 1997, review of Too Soon Dead, p. 99; July 1, 1998, review of The Girls in the High-Heeled Shoes, p. 934; June 1, 2001, review of The Great Game, p. 775; December 15, 2002, review of My Sherlock Holmes, p. 1809; December 1, 2005, review of The Empress of India, p. 1258; February 1, 2014, review of Who Thinks Evil.

• New York Times Book Review, August 31, 1980, review of The Last President, p. 17.

• Publishers Weekly, March 21, 1980, review of The Last President, p. 54; February 6, 1987, Sybil Steinberg, review of Star Griffin, p. 88; January 27, 1997, review of Too Soon Dead, p. 80; July 30, 2001, review of The Great Game, p. 65; January 6, 2003, review of My Sherlock Holmes, p. 42; October 11, 2004, review of Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, p. 59; November 14, 2005, review of The Empress of India, p. 46; September 28, 2009, review of Irrefutable Evidence: Adventures in the History of Forensic Science, p. 57; December 2, 2013, review of Who Thinks Evil, p. 63; October 14, 2019, review of The Bells of Hell, p. 48.

• Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 2010, review of Irrefutable Evidence.

• Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA), August 21, 2006, Allen O. Pierleoni, “Elementary, My Dear Kurland.”

• SciTech Book News, March 1, 2010, review of Irrefutable Evidence.

• Washington Post Book World, June 1, 1980, review of The Last President, p. 10.

ONLINE

• Best Reviews, http://www.thebestreviews.com/ (July 6, 2001), Harriet Klausner, review of The Great Game; (January 26, 2003), Harriet Klausner, review of My Sherlock Holmes; (November 29, 2004), Harriet Klausner, review of Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years; (January 14, 2006), Harriet Klausner, review of The Empress of India.

• Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (January 31, 2014), George Ebey, author interview.

• BookLoons.com, http://www.bookloons.com/ (November 20, 2006), Tim Davis, review of The Empress of India.

• CriminalElement.com, http://www.criminalelement.com/ (February 3, 2014), Corrina Lawson, review of Who Thinks Evil.

• Michael Kurland, http://www.michaelkurland.com (November 19, 2019).