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crack_van2007-06-14 11:37 pm
periwinkle27.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2007-06-14 11:37 pm
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The Study of Falling by Lesley C. Johnson (PG-13)
Title: The Study of Falling
Pairing: Holmes/Russell
Author on LJ: unknown
Website: archived on The Hive
Why this must be read:
At the beginning of the month I mentioned that there is now a fandom built around Mary Russell and Holmes. I thought I would present one story about them for your reading pleasure.Some people love Laurie R King's character, others feel she's a distraction and would prefer Holmes to stay with Watson. You'll have to make your own decisions.
From “Publisher’s Weekly”: Separately and jointly, Mary and Sherlock utilize familiar tools: research, disguises, trips to London and France and the connections and expertise of Mycroft Holmes to ferret out crimes committed and contemplated. Though some Baker Street Irregulars may humbly beg to differ, King comes close to matching the fine intelligence and wit that informed Doyle's original adventures, providing irresistible entertainment.
Mary Russell:
Let us suspend disbelief for a moment and treat the Great Detective as a living person – (and many people actually do believe in him. The London Post Office still gets letters addressed to 221B Baker Street.
We only know Holmes’s life story from when he meets Watson until the illustrious detective retires to Sussex and takes up bee keeping as Watson does not move with him. Based on the very last story, Mrs. Hudson does. After the move, Holmes no longer works with Scotland Yard, and a search of the newspapers does not turn up any mention of him. At the time, he is possibly around 40 or so, although that is open to debate.
Watson works with him on one last adventure during the War (His Last Bow) but otherwise we know nothing about the years after he retires. It seems unlikely that he did not investigate any cases during that period, but nothing of Holmes’s career during that time was recorded.
At some point, according to Laurie R. King, (I would place it around his fiftieth birthday), Holmes began to lose his energy and his interest in life. This is a man, remember, who used to turn to his “seven per cent solution” of morphine to keep his mind racing when there were no cases to occupy it.
One day in 1915, a fourteen-year-old girl, walking and reading, literally stumbles over Holmes as he is lying down on the ground observing some bees. In talking to the girl, whose name is Mary, Holmes discovers a person with an intellect and deductive abilities equal to his own and he takes her on as an apprentice.The partnership helps Mary also, as she is basically a prisoner in her own house, subject to her aunt’s whims. Mary is an orphaned heiress, the daughter of a British Jewish mother and an American millionaire father. Her aunt is her guardian and she treats the young woman shamefully. It has only been a few months since Mary’s parents and brother were killed in a car accident, an accident that left Mary hospitalized and scarred. Her partnership with Holmes gives her a reason to stop mourning and begin living again.
Holmes trains Mary for seven years, and during that time they fall in love with each other. When Mary turns 21, Holmes proposes marriage.
Mary is a product of a different era than Holmes. Holmes still has much of the Victorian gentleman in him, whereas Mary, a young American entering college, is independent – she uses her maiden name after marriage – and a feminist and fights Holmes constantly to be an equal partner in the cases. She is still alive, although elderly, and has a blog on Myspace
In reality, Mary Russell is the creation of noted mystery writer Laurie R. King who, with the exception of this new character, writes involved adventures in Doyle’s style.
This seven-chapter story is set after their marriage and shows them going out on a case for Mycroft, as well as Holmes continuing to hone Mary's skills. You have to return to The Hive to move to the next chapter.
It was only six weeks after our wedding when Holmes' brother had asked us to look into a little problem for him in Malta. Our investigation was to begin in Sicily, with further travel dependent on our initial findings. At least in the Mediterranean, I thought to myself, we could expect to sleep in something marginally more comfortable than a goat's hair tent. And if time and events permitted, Holmes had promised, we would see the Tuscan villa I had inherited upon attaining my majority.
The Study of Falling
Pairing: Holmes/Russell
Author on LJ: unknown
Website: archived on The Hive
Why this must be read:
At the beginning of the month I mentioned that there is now a fandom built around Mary Russell and Holmes. I thought I would present one story about them for your reading pleasure.Some people love Laurie R King's character, others feel she's a distraction and would prefer Holmes to stay with Watson. You'll have to make your own decisions.
From “Publisher’s Weekly”: Separately and jointly, Mary and Sherlock utilize familiar tools: research, disguises, trips to London and France and the connections and expertise of Mycroft Holmes to ferret out crimes committed and contemplated. Though some Baker Street Irregulars may humbly beg to differ, King comes close to matching the fine intelligence and wit that informed Doyle's original adventures, providing irresistible entertainment.
Mary Russell:
Let us suspend disbelief for a moment and treat the Great Detective as a living person – (and many people actually do believe in him. The London Post Office still gets letters addressed to 221B Baker Street.
We only know Holmes’s life story from when he meets Watson until the illustrious detective retires to Sussex and takes up bee keeping as Watson does not move with him. Based on the very last story, Mrs. Hudson does. After the move, Holmes no longer works with Scotland Yard, and a search of the newspapers does not turn up any mention of him. At the time, he is possibly around 40 or so, although that is open to debate.
Watson works with him on one last adventure during the War (His Last Bow) but otherwise we know nothing about the years after he retires. It seems unlikely that he did not investigate any cases during that period, but nothing of Holmes’s career during that time was recorded.
At some point, according to Laurie R. King, (I would place it around his fiftieth birthday), Holmes began to lose his energy and his interest in life. This is a man, remember, who used to turn to his “seven per cent solution” of morphine to keep his mind racing when there were no cases to occupy it.
One day in 1915, a fourteen-year-old girl, walking and reading, literally stumbles over Holmes as he is lying down on the ground observing some bees. In talking to the girl, whose name is Mary, Holmes discovers a person with an intellect and deductive abilities equal to his own and he takes her on as an apprentice.The partnership helps Mary also, as she is basically a prisoner in her own house, subject to her aunt’s whims. Mary is an orphaned heiress, the daughter of a British Jewish mother and an American millionaire father. Her aunt is her guardian and she treats the young woman shamefully. It has only been a few months since Mary’s parents and brother were killed in a car accident, an accident that left Mary hospitalized and scarred. Her partnership with Holmes gives her a reason to stop mourning and begin living again.
Holmes trains Mary for seven years, and during that time they fall in love with each other. When Mary turns 21, Holmes proposes marriage.
Mary is a product of a different era than Holmes. Holmes still has much of the Victorian gentleman in him, whereas Mary, a young American entering college, is independent – she uses her maiden name after marriage – and a feminist and fights Holmes constantly to be an equal partner in the cases. She is still alive, although elderly, and has a blog on Myspace
In reality, Mary Russell is the creation of noted mystery writer Laurie R. King who, with the exception of this new character, writes involved adventures in Doyle’s style.
This seven-chapter story is set after their marriage and shows them going out on a case for Mycroft, as well as Holmes continuing to hone Mary's skills. You have to return to The Hive to move to the next chapter.
It was only six weeks after our wedding when Holmes' brother had asked us to look into a little problem for him in Malta. Our investigation was to begin in Sicily, with further travel dependent on our initial findings. At least in the Mediterranean, I thought to myself, we could expect to sleep in something marginally more comfortable than a goat's hair tent. And if time and events permitted, Holmes had promised, we would see the Tuscan villa I had inherited upon attaining my majority.
The Study of Falling