Caleb Carr, The Italian Secretary
Aug. 11th, 2007 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedA continuing adventure of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson are invited to the Scottish summer palace of Queen Victoria, Holyroodhouse, where they are to investigate the gruesome murders of two historic preservationists -- murders which may be connected to prior attempts on the Queen's life or, barring that, to the murder of the Italian secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, several hundred years ago.
A friend's father saw that I had been (re)reading Mathew Pearl's The Dante Club -- a mystery set in 1865 Boston -- and he told me that I had to read Caleb Carr. No one past college age ever tells me I have to read anything -- I think the last time was three years ago when my aunt told me I had to read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead -- so I was curious, and the next time I was in the bookstore, I wandered over to mystery/horror to have a look. Caleb Carr is famous for his historical mystery series set in 1896 New York City, about a Frued-inspired Hungarian-German detective who solves crimes by delving into the darker side of human nature. Unfortunately, the first book in this series, The Alienist, was not on the shelves, but this book, about Sherlock Holmes, was.
So I bought it and, omg, I'm so glad I did. The Italian Secretary doesn't quite hold together as a mystery -- after so many pages of build up, the Scooby-Doo villain is a bit of a letdown -- but that's not the point. The point is, it reads like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it. <3 Granted, I haven't read any other continuing adventures, or even all of Doyle's original Holmes stories, so my opinion is suspect. But as far as I can tell, it does everything right: Holmes, Watson, Holmes and Watson, Holmes and Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes <3<3<3 Sorry, I'm suffering from an overdose of fictional character love over here.
Like, for instance, the way Holmes interacts with women: I've always liked it. XD There's a great line in this story where he orders Watson to comfort a crying woman because he "can't deal with" females. But you know what, he totally can -- because he treats them like anyone else. Like reasoning beings, first, and women, second. When it comes to this kind of characterization stuff, Carr is first-rate. He might in fact improve on Holmes' original character -- though still an eccentric, Carr, with the benefit of hindsight, has also made Homes a visionary, progressive ahead of his time. Still within bounds of the original characterization.
The Italian Secretary also has the structure of a Sherlock Holmes story: the opening section where Watson muses on how much he never expected to find himself embroiled in this last mystery, so different from all previous mysteries; the altercation between Holmes and his housekeeper at Baker Street; the call to action, speculation in transit, series of "unconnected" events, and action-filled showdown; the final analysis. Unfortunately, the second half of this sequence of events is compressed; proportionally speaking, the book is overloaded on the front end.
My only other real complaint is that Carr devotes too many pages to a sub-plot where Homes implies that he might believe in ghosts. Unlike Watson, I had a pretty good idea of where Carr was going with this -- and I think most other Holmes fans will, as well -- so as point of interest, it falls flat. This is really a shame, since in a way, it's a more important mystery than the actual central mystery -- which, as I think I said before, is solved in a fairly straightforward manner.
But oh man, the conversations between Holmes and Watson. Whether they're discussing modern science or Holme's unique sense of justice or the safety of the realm or the social sciences, I don't care, it's all good.
Watson: "Holmes had always seemed to have a naively cynical view of politics..."
Naively cynical! I know exactly what he means.
Recommend to all Sherlock Holmes fans, and I'll have to read The Alienist.
A friend's father saw that I had been (re)reading Mathew Pearl's The Dante Club -- a mystery set in 1865 Boston -- and he told me that I had to read Caleb Carr. No one past college age ever tells me I have to read anything -- I think the last time was three years ago when my aunt told me I had to read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead -- so I was curious, and the next time I was in the bookstore, I wandered over to mystery/horror to have a look. Caleb Carr is famous for his historical mystery series set in 1896 New York City, about a Frued-inspired Hungarian-German detective who solves crimes by delving into the darker side of human nature. Unfortunately, the first book in this series, The Alienist, was not on the shelves, but this book, about Sherlock Holmes, was.
So I bought it and, omg, I'm so glad I did. The Italian Secretary doesn't quite hold together as a mystery -- after so many pages of build up, the Scooby-Doo villain is a bit of a letdown -- but that's not the point. The point is, it reads like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it. <3 Granted, I haven't read any other continuing adventures, or even all of Doyle's original Holmes stories, so my opinion is suspect. But as far as I can tell, it does everything right: Holmes, Watson, Holmes and Watson, Holmes and Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes <3<3<3 Sorry, I'm suffering from an overdose of fictional character love over here.
Like, for instance, the way Holmes interacts with women: I've always liked it. XD There's a great line in this story where he orders Watson to comfort a crying woman because he "can't deal with" females. But you know what, he totally can -- because he treats them like anyone else. Like reasoning beings, first, and women, second. When it comes to this kind of characterization stuff, Carr is first-rate. He might in fact improve on Holmes' original character -- though still an eccentric, Carr, with the benefit of hindsight, has also made Homes a visionary, progressive ahead of his time. Still within bounds of the original characterization.
The Italian Secretary also has the structure of a Sherlock Holmes story: the opening section where Watson muses on how much he never expected to find himself embroiled in this last mystery, so different from all previous mysteries; the altercation between Holmes and his housekeeper at Baker Street; the call to action, speculation in transit, series of "unconnected" events, and action-filled showdown; the final analysis. Unfortunately, the second half of this sequence of events is compressed; proportionally speaking, the book is overloaded on the front end.
My only other real complaint is that Carr devotes too many pages to a sub-plot where Homes implies that he might believe in ghosts. Unlike Watson, I had a pretty good idea of where Carr was going with this -- and I think most other Holmes fans will, as well -- so as point of interest, it falls flat. This is really a shame, since in a way, it's a more important mystery than the actual central mystery -- which, as I think I said before, is solved in a fairly straightforward manner.
But oh man, the conversations between Holmes and Watson. Whether they're discussing modern science or Holme's unique sense of justice or the safety of the realm or the social sciences, I don't care, it's all good.
Watson: "Holmes had always seemed to have a naively cynical view of politics..."
Naively cynical! I know exactly what he means.
Recommend to all Sherlock Holmes fans, and I'll have to read The Alienist.