RogerBW's Blog

2018 near-future suspense; first in a series. Dr Janet Watson lost an arm in the civil war; the substandard replacement won't let her go back to work as a surgeon. So while she waits in DC she's in the market for a roommate…

Which would be fine; I'm quite happy with stories of Holmes and Watson translated into a new setting. But this book's going in several directions at once, and some of them work better than others.

There's the civil war in the background, which is something like a red-state rebellion that has somehow lasted several years even when one side doesn't have an economy. (And the other side doesn't seem to have much of one either.)

There are Watson's attempts to make a life for herself, unable to do the thing she's been expensively trained to do and ending in menial work. This is dispiriting, but works well.

Then there's an autistic-coded Holmes, and it's the interaction between them that really made the book for me—particularly the awkwardness of Holmes trying to do nice things but utterly misreading the situation. Whenever they're both on the page together, the whole thing sings.

And then, while there has been a certain amount of mystery as to what's going on, the mood shifts to conspiracy thriller, and the story loses me. Whom do we trust, are they all in it together, how can we get from here to there? Which, well, I'd been enjoying the mystery even if I thought it was a bit obvious, and the change was a bit of a wrench. It's all right, but the first two-thirds of the book was distinctly more to my taste.

And a side note: both Holmes and Watson are Black, and the author isn't. For me it ends up feeling just slightly appropriative. If I'd enjoyed the book more I probably wouldn't have cared.

There is another volume, but it sounds from reviews as though there's more conspiracy and less Holmes and Watson together, so I probably shan't read it.