Wolf of Baskervilles
Majanka Verstraete
(Adventures of Marisol Holmes, #3)
Published by: Firefly Hill Press
Publication date: January 21st 2020
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Who is Marisol Holmes?
She’s a teenager.
Detective.
Jaguar shifter.
And don’t forget, she’s also the descendant of the great Sherlock Holmes.
Our heroine had been in some pretty tight spots before, but now? She’s about to face her biggest challenge yet: a powerful shifter with a taste for blood. No one has faced down the deadly wolf of the Baskervilles and lived to tell the tale.
Even so, Marisol Holmes plans to do just that.

Q: Given your impressive backlist of published works, it's safe to say that you have a lot to offer in terms of story telling. What helps to keep you inspired and writing?
A: Everything inspires me, which is both a blessing and a curse. I never run out of material to write about, but sometimes I have a million thoughts swarming through my head at the same moment, and it’s tough to pick a story to write down first.

Q: When you look back on your career thus far, how do you find your writing has changed through the years?
A: My stories have become more mature, in some ways. When I first started writing, I struggled with creating relatable characters, and finding my own voice. In my recent works, I find it’s easier to relate to my characters, and I believe I have found my own voice—which will perhaps still change over the years and grow, but that’s all part of the writing process.

Q: The premise for The Adventures of Marisol Holmes is so unique and enthralling. How did the idea of it come about?
A: My publisher (the first publisher of the first book in the series) were talking about what kind of books I should right next, and she mentioned how shifters were all the rage, and how maybe I could write something mixing my background as a Criminology major with the shifter genre. That’s how the idea was born of mixing Sherlock Holmes with shifters.

Q: Looking back on the first novel in the Marisol Holmes series, how do you feel she has grown as a character? And how do you hope she, and the series, will continue to grow?
A: Marisol has come a long way! At the start of the first book, she was reluctant to trust anyone, even herself. She had gotten burned once, and she had locked up her own emotions, only willing to consider everything in an analytical, detached way. She didn’t have any friends. Slowly, over the course of the next few books, she has opened up to others, learned to trust them and to trust herself, and she’s now much more balanced, more mature. I hope that she will continue to grow over the rest of the series, becoming the leader she is meant to be.

Q: This may seem like a novelty question of sorts, but thinking of the paranormal aspects of Marisol Holmes, and the ability to shift, if you had this power: what would you shift into?
A: A jaguar, just like Marisol. That would be awesome.

Q: What do you believe makes a good mystery?
A: A good mystery needs to keep you guessing. It needs to put you on the edge of your seat, turning the pages as fast as you can, because you’re dying to figure out who is the culprit, or what is happening. But then, when the twist comes, it can’t feel like it suddenly fell out of the air—it needs to give the reader the feeling of ‘oh God, I never saw this coming... but there was a clue here and there, now I think about it.’Those are the best mysteries, in my opinion.

Q: Writing a story is always a difficult task and we all have our own variation of a writing process. What is yours?
A: I try to plan, but I never really get beyond a rough outline. I know where I want to end up, I know where to start from, and all the rest is magic. I’m joking, but sometimes it really feels like that—when things click together, odd coincidence that were at first nothing more than that, but that you can then tie in to a subplot in a way you never expected, that’s the magic of writing.

Q: As a writer and a reader, do you have any sensory memories attached to your favourite novels? Either of your own, or others.
A: I have a lot of these, too many to explain, really. Every book I enjoyed enough to read more than once, has left some kind of memory or impression on me. Sometimes I can pick up a book, and it’s like I’m transported back to the first place where I read this book, noises, smells, everything.

Q: For new readers, how would you describe the world that you've created in Marisol Holmes?
A: The world of Marisol Holmes is basically our own world, but with something lurking in the shadows. It’s Paris, London, but not exactly as you remember it. And that person who always reminds you of that particular kind of animal... He might just be one.

Q: Of all the characters that you've written, which do you relate to the most?
A: This is a tough question! I can always relate to parts of the characters I write, especially main characters. For Marisol, I can relate to her on many levels: I have felt emotionally numb at times as well (although not as extreme as Marisol, of course), the fact that she lost her father at a young age like I did, how much easier it is for her sometimes just to be alone and avoid people... All of these elements, and many more, are aspects of myself that I take, sometimes magnify, and that I then use to create a main character who, I hope, is as relatable to others as she is to me.

Author Bio:
Author Majanka Verstraete has written more than twenty unique works of fiction. A native of Belgium, Majanka’s novels explore the true nature of monsters: the good, the bad, and just about every species in between. Her young adult books include the acclaimed Mirrorland (YA Dark Fantasy) and Angel of Death (YA Paranormal) series of novels. At MHB, Majanka is currently developing a new YA shifter series with a fresh take on fierce female detectives called THE ADVENTURES OF MARISOL HOLMES.
When she’s not writing, Majanka is probably playing World of Warcraft or catching up with the dozens of TV series she’s addicted to.
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