Michael Kurland
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Michael Kurland is a writer of Speculative Fiction and Mystery Fiction. Michael Kurland is also a character in the Hugo-nominated science fiction novel, The Butterfly Kid, by Chester Anderson (which also starred Anderson), and its sequel, The Unicorn Girl, by...Michael Kurland (which introduced the character of Tom "T.A." Waters, who wrote the third book in the series).
Kurland has also written two novels in the Lord Darcy series, and a variety of other SF, and the Professor Moriarty series featuring the Sherlock Holmes villain as an Anti-Hero. The first of the Moriarty novels, The Infernal Device, was nominated for an Edgar award.
Michael Kurland provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Universe: The Unicorn Girl features quite a bit of world-hopping, as does The Whenabouts of Burr.
- Amnesiac Liar: In the Moriarty novel, The Empress of India, Sherlock Holmes manages to do it to himself. He has a secret identity as a criminal, as a way of keeping an eye on the criminal underworld. When he suffers a Tap on the Head and wakes up in this lair, he deduces that this is his true identity, and proceeds to become a successful criminal.
- Devil in Plain Sight: In The Unicorn Girl, the people with the Weirdness Censor regarding nudity are easy prey for immodest criminals.
- Flying Saucer: One repeatedly shows up around the same time as the world-shifting BLIPs in The Unicorn Girl.
- Naked People Are Funny: In The Unicorn Girl, Michael and friends are visiting a Victorian-style world, when they come across a bunch of people frolicking naked in a field, who begin to spell out obscenities with their bodies as the travellers pass by.
- Shout-Out: In The Unicorn Girl, Michael and friends end up visiting the world of Lord Darcy (years before Michael took over the job of writing Lord Darcy novels).
- Spy From Weights and Measures: used as a cover for his two agents in The Whenabouts of Burr.
- Stage Magician: When Michael encounters fellow author Tom Waters in The Butterfly Kid, he (Tom) is working as a fortune teller and trickster at a traveling carnival. (In real life, Tom Waters was indeed a professional magician and member of the Magic Castle.)
- Weirdness Censor: In The Unicorn Girl, in the Victorian-style world they visit, most people are utterly unable to see anyone nude. This proves handy for our heroes when they have to make a hasty escape.