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The Janet Watson Chronicles #1
A Study in Honor
Dr. Janet Watson knows firsthand the horrifying cost of a divided nation. While treating broken soldiers on the battlefields of the New Civil War, a sniper’s bullet shattered her arm and ended her career. Honorably discharged and struggling with the semi-functional mechanical arm that replaced the limb she lost, she returns to the nation’s capital, a bleak, edgy city in the throes of a fraught presidential election. Homeless and jobless, Watson is uncertain of the future when she meets another black and queer woman, Sara Holmes, a mysterious yet playfully challenging covert agent who offers the doctor a place to stay.
Watson’s readjustment to civilian life is complicated by the infuriating antics of her strange new roommate. But the tensions between them dissolve when Watson discovers that soldiers from the New Civil War have begun dying one by one—and that the deaths may be the tip of something far more dangerous, involving the pharmaceutical industry and even the looming election. Joining forces, Watson and Holmes embark on a thrilling investigation to solve the mystery—and secure justice for these fallen soldiers.
Watson’s readjustment to civilian life is complicated by the infuriating antics of her strange new roommate. But the tensions between them dissolve when Watson discovers that soldiers from the New Civil War have begun dying one by one—and that the deaths may be the tip of something far more dangerous, involving the pharmaceutical industry and even the looming election. Joining forces, Watson and Holmes embark on a thrilling investigation to solve the mystery—and secure justice for these fallen soldiers.
296 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 2018
155 people are currently reading
4256 people want to read
About the author
Claire O'Dell
12 books133 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Pen name of Beth Bernobich
Pen name of Beth Bernobich
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 351 reviews
January 14, 2019
“It’s not as expensive as you think.”
Sara Holmes leaned against the entry to the parlor, arms folded and mouth quirked into a smile. The lace gloves on her hands were just visible, though their color had faded to a pale gray.
“How did you-”
“Deduction. And a certain empathy born of like experience.”
god, this was so good. it's a really fucking awesome reimagining of Sherlock Holmes but they're both black sapphic ladies and also, it takes place in a post-Trump era, and also, it's a political thriller.
[this feels like it should be a solid recommendation all on its own.]
So I have not read Sherlock Holmes, but I do know from general life experience [and from watching this hilariously dedicated literary analysis, like, eight times] that it is episodic in nature. Something this does not do, as an adaptation, is act episodic in nature. Another thing this does not quite do, as an adaptation, is give you the clues and let you figure it all out. Also, Irene Adler is a villain. I think. This is slightly disappointing. However, the element this novel chooses to adapt well is the characterization of the two leads, and personally, I thought that was pitch perfect.
So I mean, the plot is fine, but the best part of the book? The characterization. I mean, first of all, there are the two lead characters themselves. Watson is super well-written and one of my new fave characters of the year. She’s the focal character here, disabled and dealing with ptsd and constantly stressed. Oh, and Holmes is this gloriously sarcastic and enigmatic character who also feels human. All of the Holmes-is-completely-a-dick narratives can go fuck themselves; this Holmes is occasionally a dick, yeah, but she's also a genuinely loving and caring person who wants to use her smarts for good.
And then there’s the centerpoint of the novel, and the reason I loved it so much: the relationship between Watson and Holmes. Their dynamic is this weird in-between where they're best friends but also Watson is just so Tired™ of Holmes but also they have a vague amount of romantic chemistry, and it's kind of the best thing about the whole damn book. I still kind of want them to be girlfriends, but I… also am happy with their current relationship? Which I actually think is the authorial intent and I. Love. It. I found their dynamic so effortlessly compelling and interesting and fun.
This is also the first book I’ve read that feels very much like fiction that is… explicitly a reaction to the Trump presidency. So let’s talk about that. In recent months, we have seen an incredible immigration crisis – in which children, down to preschool age – were separated from parents. This is a crisis author could have in no way known of when she wrote this book, yet the book itself is explicitly a book about an America in which political discourse has become tinged in racism and discrimination no matter which faction you belong to.
Which is… harrowing. And accurate.
I’m wondering how this novel will hold up in five years, but still, it’s a frightening portrayal of a world gone wrong; just not in the overt, dystopian way. It’s gone just wrong enough that people like Janet Watson, a disabled veteran and a sapphic black woman, would feel it. Would hurt because of it. But not wrong enough that it feels like a far cry from our society, which is perhaps the most terrifying thing of all. We are so complicit when we want to be.
The world is horriying and the way that we as human beings use the media we produce and consume to deal with it is fascinating. Anyway.
On the whole, I thought this was excellent. Like this year’s earlier Witchmark, despite my feelings that the plot was hovering somewhere around “just good,” the character dynamic is so completely 20/10, and I adored all the themes and various existential tensions so much that I just can’t not five star this. I will definitely be revisiting this when I’m sad and you should definitely pick up your copy immediately when it releases on July 31st.
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November 6, 2018
DNFed at page 100. It’s compelling enough to pull you in, but then for me it kept hitting sour notes, and I was disturbed by the author photo.
The book’s written in the first person, plus the heroine writes about herself in her journal. We get an unlikely amount of background info (ie infodumping) from that journal. Nobody writes a summary of recent current events in their journal, do they? For that matter, do they write in a bland, complete-sentences style appropriate for a letter to an aunt?
Then, it’s the fact that the heroine has no local friends. She lived in DC for many years, but the only person she knows is an older guy she met elsewhere in the military? He and her weird lack of connections are plot devices that exist to introduce her to and keep her reliant on Holmes.
The whole Holmes thing strikes false notes. In particular I was disturbed by Holmes’ violation of Watson’s privacy - she reads her journal, enters her room when it’s locked, etc - and manipulation of the relationship with money, she pays the lion’s share of rent and gifts Watson with jewelry, a fancy phone and beautiful clothing. If this were strictly a romance novel, these would be massive red flags regarding coercion.
There were also false notes in the setting - why would any woman wear panty hose voluntarily on an August evening in DC? What therapist would eagerly re-see a client who punched her in the stomach on the first meeting? How could Watson use the metro to get to Georgetown where her apartment with Holmes is when there’s famously no metro there due to racism when the metro was built? (White residents didn’t want blacks being able to easily get there.)
Which brings me to race. Although there’s a chance I guess that the author identifies as black, she looks super white in her author photo. I’m pretty sure this is not an ownvoices book.
Obviously there’s no requirement that it be. You can write what you want to write. On the other hand, I just spent the weekend back in DC, where I was freaked out to see how severe the gentrification is these days. We drove through many neighborhoods that had been nearly 100% black, but now I saw white people all over the place. Old black-owned businesses going under, new white ones taking their place.
On the plane coming home, I opened this book. It’s a black alt-history of DC written by a white woman. It’s been *heavily* promoted by its big mainstream publisher.
Now we all know it’s hard for black women to get books published by mainstream press. And we all know mainstream publishers tend to limit the number of books they publish featuring POC. So here an author probably has benefited to some degree from her white privilege to get her book about black women in DC published.
It feels a heck of a lot like cultural appropriation.
I don’t think the author set out to do that. I think she wrote the best book she could based on her inspiration. I’m sad though that this highly vaunted book with black women on the cover isn’t apparently by an actual black woman. If today’s publishing world published all work fairly, disregarding race, it wouldn’t matter. But that’s not the case. What is the case is that the slot entitled ‘black woman Sherlock Holmes” has been taken by what appears to be a white author.
And, despite her growing up in DC, it’s a white woman who thinks women should wear panty hose when they go out for an evening there in August.
The book’s written in the first person, plus the heroine writes about herself in her journal. We get an unlikely amount of background info (ie infodumping) from that journal. Nobody writes a summary of recent current events in their journal, do they? For that matter, do they write in a bland, complete-sentences style appropriate for a letter to an aunt?
Then, it’s the fact that the heroine has no local friends. She lived in DC for many years, but the only person she knows is an older guy she met elsewhere in the military? He and her weird lack of connections are plot devices that exist to introduce her to and keep her reliant on Holmes.
The whole Holmes thing strikes false notes. In particular I was disturbed by Holmes’ violation of Watson’s privacy - she reads her journal, enters her room when it’s locked, etc - and manipulation of the relationship with money, she pays the lion’s share of rent and gifts Watson with jewelry, a fancy phone and beautiful clothing. If this were strictly a romance novel, these would be massive red flags regarding coercion.
There were also false notes in the setting - why would any woman wear panty hose voluntarily on an August evening in DC? What therapist would eagerly re-see a client who punched her in the stomach on the first meeting? How could Watson use the metro to get to Georgetown where her apartment with Holmes is when there’s famously no metro there due to racism when the metro was built? (White residents didn’t want blacks being able to easily get there.)
Which brings me to race. Although there’s a chance I guess that the author identifies as black, she looks super white in her author photo. I’m pretty sure this is not an ownvoices book.
Obviously there’s no requirement that it be. You can write what you want to write. On the other hand, I just spent the weekend back in DC, where I was freaked out to see how severe the gentrification is these days. We drove through many neighborhoods that had been nearly 100% black, but now I saw white people all over the place. Old black-owned businesses going under, new white ones taking their place.
On the plane coming home, I opened this book. It’s a black alt-history of DC written by a white woman. It’s been *heavily* promoted by its big mainstream publisher.
Now we all know it’s hard for black women to get books published by mainstream press. And we all know mainstream publishers tend to limit the number of books they publish featuring POC. So here an author probably has benefited to some degree from her white privilege to get her book about black women in DC published.
It feels a heck of a lot like cultural appropriation.
I don’t think the author set out to do that. I think she wrote the best book she could based on her inspiration. I’m sad though that this highly vaunted book with black women on the cover isn’t apparently by an actual black woman. If today’s publishing world published all work fairly, disregarding race, it wouldn’t matter. But that’s not the case. What is the case is that the slot entitled ‘black woman Sherlock Holmes” has been taken by what appears to be a white author.
And, despite her growing up in DC, it’s a white woman who thinks women should wear panty hose when they go out for an evening there in August.
August 11, 2018
I was really looking forward to this book, and although it has some great qualities, I didn't enjoy it. I have not read many published Sherlock Holmes adaptations, but I think I've rated them all two or three stars. So, please keep in mind that I may be more biased against adaptations with these characters than I realize.
The cover is absolutely perfect; it's so rare for a cover to show the characters exactly as they're described, and I am always glad to see black women on the cover of a novel. It also illustrates a specific moment in the book, which is nice.
There's some lovely writing, and I usually found it easy to relate to the main character (apologies for possible errors in this quote; I transcribed it from the audiobook):
I feel like I'm definitely in this book's target audience. I'm a casual fan of Sherlock Holmes and an avid science-fiction reader, and I prefer to read about queer characters. I also like fanfiction. The book is overt about its political leanings, but it's in line with my own beliefs, more or less. The main character, Janet Watson, fought on the federal side of a second US civil war, against (what sounds like) right-wing terrorists; Trump and his supporters are explicitly named as responsible for this current crisis, and GWB is also mentioned as contributing to the problems. I didn't realize at first that the author was white, but I don't object to non-own-voices books on principle; I'm also white, and some of my favorite authors (like KJ Charles) regularly write about marginalized groups they don't belong to.
This book does deal directly with Watson's identity as an American black woman. I didn't notice any problems on that front, but it isn't my place to say whether it's good representation or not. I am a queer woman and I was happy with that aspect of Watson's character, but her queerness is given less attention than her race. It's set in the near future but there's no specific date given; it could be 5 years down the road or 50, but it mostly feels like today with a little more technology, as well as the societal ramifications of the second civil war. So, the author didn't really give herself leeway on conveying the experience of black and/or queer people in the real world, because the setting is sort of a version of the real world. But again, a black reader would be more qualified than I am to say whether the representation is accurate or not.
But overall, I found the book boring as well as sad. Watson is deeply depressed, with good reason, but her misery is unrelenting. She suppresses almost every laugh and smile. She has thoughts like this frequently:
We spend almost the entire book deep in Watson's mind, as she analyzes events, thinks about her life, writes in her journal (why did we need journal excerpts in the book when it's written in first person?), notices the grim landscape, and is generally unhappy. There are at least two long and detailed sections of her doing nothing but riding the city bus or wandering around the city while nothing worth mentioning happens for seemingly endless paragraphs, but the author reports every bit of minutiae anyway. Late in the book, she ends up on a long car ride with Holmes which has the same boring level of detail, and they rarely speak to each other, even though at this point they're investigating the book's main mystery. Holmes has shared some info with Watson, but she withholds important details until the last moment, for no real reason except maintaining narrative tension.
Most damningly, Watson doesn't admire Holmes. She does not even like Holmes, although she is attracted to her. While I haven't read a lot of the newer versions of these characters, I've seen many of the TV & movie adaptations; one element all of those versions have in common is the companion's admiration for the detective's intellect. The admiration doesn't have to inspire romantic feelings, but I do think it needs to be there. Janet Watson doesn't care about Sara Holmes' powers of deduction. She is not impressed. Really, she's too deep in her misery to find anything impressive. She's also highly intelligent herself, which I think is fine in a Watson-type character; they should be smart, with their own skills, just not as skilled at deduction as Holmes. But since we are firmly in Watson's PoV, I didn't admire Holmes' intellect either. We don't really see Holmes do anything all that impressive except use cool gadgets and arrange convenient transportation, which come across as signs of her wealth and connections; she's good at what she does because of her resources, not because of her abilities, and I think Holmes should work the opposite way (enhancing their abilities with their resources).
The author doles out information in a really annoying way. I never knew what Holmes knew or what she was doing. I actually still don't know who all the glamorous people were that she entertained at their apartment. I was confused for most of the book, and the ultimate reveal was a serious letdown. I don't know if I was confused because of my own shortcomings or because of the book, but I rarely get confused in this way when reading.
I kept thinking of a book with a slightly similar structure, Seven Summer Nights, which is also about a veteran suffering from PTSD because of a specific incident. You don't know the details of this incident until far into the book, but the author shares a lot of info about it without giving all the details; I never felt lost or irritated at the lack of info. Here, everyone else in this book knew the basics of what had happened at Alton; it was a major battle in the war and the kind of incident that everyone who knew about would have an opinion on, but the reader was basically in the dark. When we do find out more details, they're incredibly anticlimactic. To me, it would've been a much better book if we'd seen that event clearly from Watson's perspective very early on.
So, the mystery was not gripping, and the real villain does not actually make an appearance in the book. I guess there will probably be a sequel, but I don't know if I'll read it. The plot was basically a backdrop to Watson being miserable. I think there is a romance plot; I read it that way, but it isn't totally clear. I also think it would've been a better book if the romance plot had been more in the foreground, and if it had seemed at any point that Watson actually liked Holmes - not just because I enjoy romance (I do), but because any moment of lightheartedness would've made this book significantly more enjoyable.
On a positive note, I really liked the audiobook narrator, Lisa Renee Pitts, and I'll seek out other books she's narrated. She chose distinct voices for everyone and kept my attention with her delivery, even when the writing itself was extremely dull. But I don't really recommend this book.
The cover is absolutely perfect; it's so rare for a cover to show the characters exactly as they're described, and I am always glad to see black women on the cover of a novel. It also illustrates a specific moment in the book, which is nice.
There's some lovely writing, and I usually found it easy to relate to the main character (apologies for possible errors in this quote; I transcribed it from the audiobook):
An image of my younger self came back sharp and strong. Who was she, I wondered. That tall and stocky girl who dragged her suitcase up the stairs that hot and rainy August afternoon. Would we recognize each other? Nostalgia had a funny sharp edge when you came down to it. I liked that young girl with her attitude and her belief she could conquer the world. I wasn't so sure she would like me back.
I feel like I'm definitely in this book's target audience. I'm a casual fan of Sherlock Holmes and an avid science-fiction reader, and I prefer to read about queer characters. I also like fanfiction. The book is overt about its political leanings, but it's in line with my own beliefs, more or less. The main character, Janet Watson, fought on the federal side of a second US civil war, against (what sounds like) right-wing terrorists; Trump and his supporters are explicitly named as responsible for this current crisis, and GWB is also mentioned as contributing to the problems. I didn't realize at first that the author was white, but I don't object to non-own-voices books on principle; I'm also white, and some of my favorite authors (like KJ Charles) regularly write about marginalized groups they don't belong to.
This book does deal directly with Watson's identity as an American black woman. I didn't notice any problems on that front, but it isn't my place to say whether it's good representation or not. I am a queer woman and I was happy with that aspect of Watson's character, but her queerness is given less attention than her race. It's set in the near future but there's no specific date given; it could be 5 years down the road or 50, but it mostly feels like today with a little more technology, as well as the societal ramifications of the second civil war. So, the author didn't really give herself leeway on conveying the experience of black and/or queer people in the real world, because the setting is sort of a version of the real world. But again, a black reader would be more qualified than I am to say whether the representation is accurate or not.
But overall, I found the book boring as well as sad. Watson is deeply depressed, with good reason, but her misery is unrelenting. She suppresses almost every laugh and smile. She has thoughts like this frequently:
Perhaps it was just as well my life had crumbled into dust.
We spend almost the entire book deep in Watson's mind, as she analyzes events, thinks about her life, writes in her journal (why did we need journal excerpts in the book when it's written in first person?), notices the grim landscape, and is generally unhappy. There are at least two long and detailed sections of her doing nothing but riding the city bus or wandering around the city while nothing worth mentioning happens for seemingly endless paragraphs, but the author reports every bit of minutiae anyway. Late in the book, she ends up on a long car ride with Holmes which has the same boring level of detail, and they rarely speak to each other, even though at this point they're investigating the book's main mystery. Holmes has shared some info with Watson, but she withholds important details until the last moment, for no real reason except maintaining narrative tension.
Most damningly, Watson doesn't admire Holmes. She does not even like Holmes, although she is attracted to her. While I haven't read a lot of the newer versions of these characters, I've seen many of the TV & movie adaptations; one element all of those versions have in common is the companion's admiration for the detective's intellect. The admiration doesn't have to inspire romantic feelings, but I do think it needs to be there. Janet Watson doesn't care about Sara Holmes' powers of deduction. She is not impressed. Really, she's too deep in her misery to find anything impressive. She's also highly intelligent herself, which I think is fine in a Watson-type character; they should be smart, with their own skills, just not as skilled at deduction as Holmes. But since we are firmly in Watson's PoV, I didn't admire Holmes' intellect either. We don't really see Holmes do anything all that impressive except use cool gadgets and arrange convenient transportation, which come across as signs of her wealth and connections; she's good at what she does because of her resources, not because of her abilities, and I think Holmes should work the opposite way (enhancing their abilities with their resources).
The author doles out information in a really annoying way. I never knew what Holmes knew or what she was doing. I actually still don't know who all the glamorous people were that she entertained at their apartment. I was confused for most of the book, and the ultimate reveal was a serious letdown. I don't know if I was confused because of my own shortcomings or because of the book, but I rarely get confused in this way when reading.
I kept thinking of a book with a slightly similar structure, Seven Summer Nights, which is also about a veteran suffering from PTSD because of a specific incident. You don't know the details of this incident until far into the book, but the author shares a lot of info about it without giving all the details; I never felt lost or irritated at the lack of info. Here, everyone else in this book knew the basics of what had happened at Alton; it was a major battle in the war and the kind of incident that everyone who knew about would have an opinion on, but the reader was basically in the dark. When we do find out more details, they're incredibly anticlimactic. To me, it would've been a much better book if we'd seen that event clearly from Watson's perspective very early on.
So, the mystery was not gripping, and the real villain does not actually make an appearance in the book. I guess there will probably be a sequel, but I don't know if I'll read it. The plot was basically a backdrop to Watson being miserable. I think there is a romance plot; I read it that way, but it isn't totally clear. I also think it would've been a better book if the romance plot had been more in the foreground, and if it had seemed at any point that Watson actually liked Holmes - not just because I enjoy romance (I do), but because any moment of lightheartedness would've made this book significantly more enjoyable.
On a positive note, I really liked the audiobook narrator, Lisa Renee Pitts, and I'll seek out other books she's narrated. She chose distinct voices for everyone and kept my attention with her delivery, even when the writing itself was extremely dull. But I don't really recommend this book.
February 22, 2019
I have a lot of thoughts about this novel and I'm reviewing primarily to work my way through them - probably not very coherently. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Some positives: I thought the handling of trauma was excellent and the setting scary plausible as was the indifference of 'caring' bureaucracies for individual suffering. I loved all the little genre-nerd call outs with Watson's reading and that she primarily reads black women authors.
Ultimately however, I had a lot of issues with this novel. A Study in Honor is very a character focussed book, the actual central mystery is pretty straightforward with clues heavily signposted. I just couldn't get past the horrendous relationship between Holmes and Watson. This Holmes is a predator who variously manipulates, drugs, imprisons, controls, isolates and violates the privacy of Watson, who is disabled, has severe PTSD, very few resources and apparently zero support networks. Watson is completely reliant on Holmes for stable, safe housing and remaining in D.C. where she is able to access employment opportunities and support services for veterans. Their relationship is breathtakingly abusive and made all the creepier by Holmes showering Watson with expensive gifts and referring to her as 'my love'.
So what we have here on my reading is a novel that turns around the monstrous behaviour of a dark-skinned black queer woman, toward a second very vulnerable queer black woman in tight focus while the actual (white/corporate) antagonists are vaguely sketched. There is a huge amount of ground between the myriad anti-social but hyper competent portrayals of a Holmes and this one. This matters a great deal. Her abuse and mistreatment of Watson overshadow her competence which it seems that she is oddly invested in concealing from her bosses. Her redeeming features are that she can cook, play piano and deduce blindingly obvious things. And is wealthy I guess, which seems to be a virtue if you're writing in the US in a way I just.don't.get...
Fellow white people, if you're going to try your hand at writing a complicated and unlikable and/or overwhelmingly toxic queer black woman character in 2019 you don't get to ignore how queer black women are traditionally portrayed and you had better be aiming to disrupt those negative, dehumanising stereotypes rather than compounding them. You also really need to think about what it means to ask a reader to ship an abuser and a victim in that context. What does it means if your audience is able to set aside the suffering the victim where her identity is multiply marginalised? You can't just map tropes formed via cishet white men characters onto queer black women and ignore the vast differences in those identities. No amount of pointing out racist microaggressions and referring to black hairstyles correctly in the text is going to make up for that massive failing to account for context- if anything I suspect I'm all the more frustrated by this because to my admittedly inexpert eye it seemed like the author had done some thinking about how her characters identities shaped their individual experience of the world.
That being said, I didn't think those individual experiences of racism were linked up to the broader themes in any way. This is a novel in which there is a White Supremacist civil war, which is set in DC during a Presidential election in which one of the candidates is explicitly suggesting curtailing civil rights to end the war and the other dog whistling the racist right. It is very definition of high stakes but neither Holmes nor Watson takes much notice. No one is organising. There are no demonstrations. There are no community leaders of any kind speaking up. There are no refugees from the White Supremacist states or those impacted by fighting. There is no violence or abuse by white people directed at people of colour. No one is afraid, or angry or despairing or affected at all really. No matter how isolated the main characters are supposed to be, it also extends to the minor characters and background worldbuilding and that inattention despite potentially drastic consequences felt unrealistic to me.
There is such a huge tension in genre fiction regarding representation and who should write which stories which I'm grappling with (poorly). Do I think the world needs portrayals of messy, complicated, even toxic (e.g.) black queer characters, whether protagonist or antagonist? Absolutely, representation in all its complexity matters. Do I think we need positive, empathetic, joyful portrayals of (e.g.) queer black women more in this trash fire world? Increasingly yes. I'm also deeply unsure that many white folks are equal to the task of building up enough cultural competence to do either, but especially the first, of those stories justice. I feel like a corollary of white writers especially trying to do that work of unpacking privilege and writing fully formed marginalised characters is that some will fail - hopefully that is how some folks will get better and others will learn from their mistakes. For myself the more own voices works I read the more noticeable just how... patchy and under developed a lot of attempts by white folks are and for me A Study in Honor is a prime example of that.
Some positives: I thought the handling of trauma was excellent and the setting scary plausible as was the indifference of 'caring' bureaucracies for individual suffering. I loved all the little genre-nerd call outs with Watson's reading and that she primarily reads black women authors.
Ultimately however, I had a lot of issues with this novel. A Study in Honor is very a character focussed book, the actual central mystery is pretty straightforward with clues heavily signposted. I just couldn't get past the horrendous relationship between Holmes and Watson. This Holmes is a predator who variously manipulates, drugs, imprisons, controls, isolates and violates the privacy of Watson, who is disabled, has severe PTSD, very few resources and apparently zero support networks. Watson is completely reliant on Holmes for stable, safe housing and remaining in D.C. where she is able to access employment opportunities and support services for veterans. Their relationship is breathtakingly abusive and made all the creepier by Holmes showering Watson with expensive gifts and referring to her as 'my love'.
So what we have here on my reading is a novel that turns around the monstrous behaviour of a dark-skinned black queer woman, toward a second very vulnerable queer black woman in tight focus while the actual (white/corporate) antagonists are vaguely sketched. There is a huge amount of ground between the myriad anti-social but hyper competent portrayals of a Holmes and this one. This matters a great deal. Her abuse and mistreatment of Watson overshadow her competence which it seems that she is oddly invested in concealing from her bosses. Her redeeming features are that she can cook, play piano and deduce blindingly obvious things. And is wealthy I guess, which seems to be a virtue if you're writing in the US in a way I just.don't.get...
Fellow white people, if you're going to try your hand at writing a complicated and unlikable and/or overwhelmingly toxic queer black woman character in 2019 you don't get to ignore how queer black women are traditionally portrayed and you had better be aiming to disrupt those negative, dehumanising stereotypes rather than compounding them. You also really need to think about what it means to ask a reader to ship an abuser and a victim in that context. What does it means if your audience is able to set aside the suffering the victim where her identity is multiply marginalised? You can't just map tropes formed via cishet white men characters onto queer black women and ignore the vast differences in those identities. No amount of pointing out racist microaggressions and referring to black hairstyles correctly in the text is going to make up for that massive failing to account for context- if anything I suspect I'm all the more frustrated by this because to my admittedly inexpert eye it seemed like the author had done some thinking about how her characters identities shaped their individual experience of the world.
That being said, I didn't think those individual experiences of racism were linked up to the broader themes in any way. This is a novel in which there is a White Supremacist civil war, which is set in DC during a Presidential election in which one of the candidates is explicitly suggesting curtailing civil rights to end the war and the other dog whistling the racist right. It is very definition of high stakes but neither Holmes nor Watson takes much notice. No one is organising. There are no demonstrations. There are no community leaders of any kind speaking up. There are no refugees from the White Supremacist states or those impacted by fighting. There is no violence or abuse by white people directed at people of colour. No one is afraid, or angry or despairing or affected at all really. No matter how isolated the main characters are supposed to be, it also extends to the minor characters and background worldbuilding and that inattention despite potentially drastic consequences felt unrealistic to me.
There is such a huge tension in genre fiction regarding representation and who should write which stories which I'm grappling with (poorly). Do I think the world needs portrayals of messy, complicated, even toxic (e.g.) black queer characters, whether protagonist or antagonist? Absolutely, representation in all its complexity matters. Do I think we need positive, empathetic, joyful portrayals of (e.g.) queer black women more in this trash fire world? Increasingly yes. I'm also deeply unsure that many white folks are equal to the task of building up enough cultural competence to do either, but especially the first, of those stories justice. I feel like a corollary of white writers especially trying to do that work of unpacking privilege and writing fully formed marginalised characters is that some will fail - hopefully that is how some folks will get better and others will learn from their mistakes. For myself the more own voices works I read the more noticeable just how... patchy and under developed a lot of attempts by white folks are and for me A Study in Honor is a prime example of that.
November 9, 2019
Soooo.... let me begin by saying that I was given the sequel to this book in exchange for an honest review, but I really hate starting a series anywhere but the beginning. Like, DUH! So of course I then had to track down a copy of this book, which I couldn’t find anywhere except online. Thank God for Amazon! Lol. Anywhoo, it turns out that I actually really enjoyed the book! I really liked the characters and I love how in this version of “Sherlock Holmes” both Watson and Holmes are women! I liked Sara a whole lot more than Janet. I think because she is such a badass! Lol. I can’t help but get attracted to her as I read about all her talent, skill, gadgets, and resources. With that being said though, I am not at all saying that I didn’t care for Janet. I am just saying that I was a lot more invested in Sara’s character if that makes sense.I did sympathize with Janet throughout the book. Anyways, long story short, I recommend this book AND this series!
August 24, 2018
Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid. I’m always game for a genderbending Sherlock Holmes story (hello, Elementary!), but I was pretty disappointed here. Maybe most puzzling were the decisions to make Holmes a spy rather than a detective, and to keep Watson in the dark most of the time and/or repeatedly drug her while the bigger plot happens offscreen — why?? Without getting a chance to see those deductive skills at work, or a true partnership forming, I don’t think you can even properly call this a spin on Sherlock Holmes: this is just borrowing the names and pasting them on top of a paper-thin thriller plot.
The worldbuilding could have been interesting if it were more fully fleshed out, but instead it came across as a somewhat incoherent political rant. I never really had a good idea of why the two factions were fighting (other than “liberals = good, conservatives = bad”, I suppose), and the boundaries of the New Confederacy seemed to be poorly defined too - I was surprised that Florida apparently wasn’t part of it, for instance.
Overall this felt like a really rushed manuscript that made it to publication before it was quite fleshed out, just to satisfy someone’s political leanings. Some “drawer treatment” followed by heavy revisions probably would have done it some good.
The worldbuilding could have been interesting if it were more fully fleshed out, but instead it came across as a somewhat incoherent political rant. I never really had a good idea of why the two factions were fighting (other than “liberals = good, conservatives = bad”, I suppose), and the boundaries of the New Confederacy seemed to be poorly defined too - I was surprised that Florida apparently wasn’t part of it, for instance.
Overall this felt like a really rushed manuscript that made it to publication before it was quite fleshed out, just to satisfy someone’s political leanings. Some “drawer treatment” followed by heavy revisions probably would have done it some good.
May 21, 2020
This was an interesting enough novel about a future in which the US is involved in a second Civil War. However, I didn't understand the point of it being a Sherlock Holmes retelling. Apart from the names, almost nothing is the same, so it would have made more sense to me to just write a completely separate novel. I mostly enjoyed this though, but I did find it a little boring at times.
Rep: queer Black MC with a prosthetic arm, Black side character
CWs: war, violence, PTSD, involuntary drugging
Rep: queer Black MC with a prosthetic arm, Black side character
CWs: war, violence, PTSD, involuntary drugging
December 10, 2018
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
Oh man, what to make of this? I love so many things about it: the casually queer main character, the fact that it’s a Sherlock Holmes retelling/homage with female Holmes and Watson, the fact that they’re also black, all the references to the books they’re reading (Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, Martha Wells — all names I know, treated as classics). I enjoyed the characterisation of Janet, her sense of duty and honour, her dedication to finding the truth, her unwillingness to be jerked around.
At other times, though, I felt like I didn’t quite know what was happening. A little too much was held back from the reader, so I didn’t follow the leaps to understand exactly what Sara was up to. Janet’s a heck of a smart cookie too, and she left me behind in her understanding of Sara, who is just — man, I’d just want to kick her all the time for being insufferable, and I can’t quite understand the closeness that grows up between the two. Mind you, that goes for the original Sherlock and Watson too, in many ways.
In terms of being a Sherlock Holmes retelling, it isn’t quite. There’s a lot else going on, and a lot more focus on the war-time issues that are affecting their society. It’s more inspired by and referencing Conan Doyle than really using his characters or situations. Janet isn’t John; Sara isn’t Sherlock. They’re their own people, and very much so.
I wasn’t always convinced by the political background. It references recent events like Trump becoming president, and then talks about them being quite a ways in the past and things having been better again… only to describe a situation that sounds very much like current politics, only with more technology (but not quite enough technology to make me believe that it had been a long time). It was very relevant and topical, but I couldn’t fit it all together in my head.
That might very well be a case of it being me and not the book, and even with my quibbles above, I tore through the book and enjoyed it. Janet’s a good person, struggling with various issues but trying to do her best — not only for her own sake, but to do her best ethically, which makes her exactly the kind of character that attracts me. I’d read more of Janet and Sara’s adventures, for sure. My rating feels a little unfair, if it was a case of it’s-me-not-you, but this is another of those rare cases where I kind of wish I used half-stars, just to denote my on-the-fence-ness. I enjoyed the book a lot, but I’m not sure how it’ll stick with me and whether it’ll improve or fall apart as I turn it over in my brain.
Oh man, what to make of this? I love so many things about it: the casually queer main character, the fact that it’s a Sherlock Holmes retelling/homage with female Holmes and Watson, the fact that they’re also black, all the references to the books they’re reading (Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, Martha Wells — all names I know, treated as classics). I enjoyed the characterisation of Janet, her sense of duty and honour, her dedication to finding the truth, her unwillingness to be jerked around.
At other times, though, I felt like I didn’t quite know what was happening. A little too much was held back from the reader, so I didn’t follow the leaps to understand exactly what Sara was up to. Janet’s a heck of a smart cookie too, and she left me behind in her understanding of Sara, who is just — man, I’d just want to kick her all the time for being insufferable, and I can’t quite understand the closeness that grows up between the two. Mind you, that goes for the original Sherlock and Watson too, in many ways.
In terms of being a Sherlock Holmes retelling, it isn’t quite. There’s a lot else going on, and a lot more focus on the war-time issues that are affecting their society. It’s more inspired by and referencing Conan Doyle than really using his characters or situations. Janet isn’t John; Sara isn’t Sherlock. They’re their own people, and very much so.
I wasn’t always convinced by the political background. It references recent events like Trump becoming president, and then talks about them being quite a ways in the past and things having been better again… only to describe a situation that sounds very much like current politics, only with more technology (but not quite enough technology to make me believe that it had been a long time). It was very relevant and topical, but I couldn’t fit it all together in my head.
That might very well be a case of it being me and not the book, and even with my quibbles above, I tore through the book and enjoyed it. Janet’s a good person, struggling with various issues but trying to do her best — not only for her own sake, but to do her best ethically, which makes her exactly the kind of character that attracts me. I’d read more of Janet and Sara’s adventures, for sure. My rating feels a little unfair, if it was a case of it’s-me-not-you, but this is another of those rare cases where I kind of wish I used half-stars, just to denote my on-the-fence-ness. I enjoyed the book a lot, but I’m not sure how it’ll stick with me and whether it’ll improve or fall apart as I turn it over in my brain.
September 7, 2019
4.5
The concept for this is AMAZING and the execution is also REALLY good. My only complaint is that the mystery kind of fell short because there was so much focus on character development. However amazing that character developent may have been (see: very amazing), this is a Holmes retelling, so I do expect a good, complex mystery, and I'm not sure if I got that here... But I'm also not sure it matters since this was an awesome book otherwise.
Full review to come
The concept for this is AMAZING and the execution is also REALLY good. My only complaint is that the mystery kind of fell short because there was so much focus on character development. However amazing that character developent may have been (see: very amazing), this is a Holmes retelling, so I do expect a good, complex mystery, and I'm not sure if I got that here... But I'm also not sure it matters since this was an awesome book otherwise.
Full review to come
July 23, 2019
A number of my friends had recommended this, primarily because I love Sherry Thomas's Charlotte Holmes series. I was uncertain, even though this book does feature women in the major roles and the mystery sounded interesting. It was the story's setting that had me concerned. Well, it is rather dark and disturbing (near future US experiencing a second Civil War); however, the two main characters just grabbed me and wouldn't let go.
I loved Dr Janet Watson! Loved her righteous anger, wept for her distress, cheered for every gain she made and shared her total confusion over Sara Holmes' reasons for befriending her.
Sara Holmes was harder to like because she is such a slippery character. Janet (and the reader) is never sure just what Sara is up to--who does she work for? why is she so interested in what Janet is doing? how does she know so much of Janet's personal history? and a thousand other questions. The author made her just devious enough to be intriguing and interesting and a great foil for Janet's straightforwardness.
The mystery is tricky, with a really clever solution. I was so pleased with myself for figuring out at least part of it before the dramatic climax.
Bring on book 2--I want more!
I loved Dr Janet Watson! Loved her righteous anger, wept for her distress, cheered for every gain she made and shared her total confusion over Sara Holmes' reasons for befriending her.
Sara Holmes was harder to like because she is such a slippery character. Janet (and the reader) is never sure just what Sara is up to--who does she work for? why is she so interested in what Janet is doing? how does she know so much of Janet's personal history? and a thousand other questions. The author made her just devious enough to be intriguing and interesting and a great foil for Janet's straightforwardness.
The mystery is tricky, with a really clever solution. I was so pleased with myself for figuring out at least part of it before the dramatic climax.
Bring on book 2--I want more!
June 17, 2018
I was given a copy of this book, free, in exchange for my honest opinion.
This is a gender and race flipped Sherlock Holmes retelling. Though I was interested in it, I have to admit that I ended up enjoying it a lot more than expected. Dr. Janet Watson was a surgeon in the army, on the front lines during the new civil war. She was discharged when she was shot and lost her arm during one of the battles against the New Confederacy. Now that she is back in DC hoping to get her metal prosthetic replaced for one more fitting for a surgeon, she realizes that things are not going to get any better anytime soon. Once she realizes that the VA has no immediate plans to replace her metal arm anytime soon, she decides to stay in DC. All she needs is a job and a place to stay. She finds a job with the VA and then a friend introduces her to Sara Holmes, someone she is not sure she can stand. As Watson gets comfortable with her new job, new roommate and new routine, she uncovers a mystery that doesn't make sense, someone is killing civil war veterans.
The first third of the book is getting to know the characters, Watson in particular but also Holmes. While it seems like a big deal that civil war veterans are being killed, that mystery doesn't really start until a third of the book. While I wouldn't say that this is a slow book, it is not fast paced either. There were parts of the book that I felt i was making progress only because I continued to read, there were other parts that seemed to fly by. Somehow it works for this book, it fits with Watson's style. The ending was explosive with the action that was happening on the page, but not with the resolution of the mystery. That was a bit more subdued, happening as Watson recovers in the hospital.
There were small things that I enjoyed, like the nod to Octavia Butler that occurs once or twice throughout the book. The way that Holmes hair is described in locs and another character's hair is described as being in boxed braids. The way people either see them or overlook them in different situations. Those are the small things that make it apparent that the characters are black. But there was still something that was a bit off, as if the characters were black because the author wanted them to be black and not because they actually were black. I am not sure if that even makes sense.
I really enjoyed this book. It was quiet with its observations even though what was going on around inside the book was very loud. I am definitely looking forward to continuing on with this series.
This is a gender and race flipped Sherlock Holmes retelling. Though I was interested in it, I have to admit that I ended up enjoying it a lot more than expected. Dr. Janet Watson was a surgeon in the army, on the front lines during the new civil war. She was discharged when she was shot and lost her arm during one of the battles against the New Confederacy. Now that she is back in DC hoping to get her metal prosthetic replaced for one more fitting for a surgeon, she realizes that things are not going to get any better anytime soon. Once she realizes that the VA has no immediate plans to replace her metal arm anytime soon, she decides to stay in DC. All she needs is a job and a place to stay. She finds a job with the VA and then a friend introduces her to Sara Holmes, someone she is not sure she can stand. As Watson gets comfortable with her new job, new roommate and new routine, she uncovers a mystery that doesn't make sense, someone is killing civil war veterans.
The first third of the book is getting to know the characters, Watson in particular but also Holmes. While it seems like a big deal that civil war veterans are being killed, that mystery doesn't really start until a third of the book. While I wouldn't say that this is a slow book, it is not fast paced either. There were parts of the book that I felt i was making progress only because I continued to read, there were other parts that seemed to fly by. Somehow it works for this book, it fits with Watson's style. The ending was explosive with the action that was happening on the page, but not with the resolution of the mystery. That was a bit more subdued, happening as Watson recovers in the hospital.
There were small things that I enjoyed, like the nod to Octavia Butler that occurs once or twice throughout the book. The way that Holmes hair is described in locs and another character's hair is described as being in boxed braids. The way people either see them or overlook them in different situations. Those are the small things that make it apparent that the characters are black. But there was still something that was a bit off, as if the characters were black because the author wanted them to be black and not because they actually were black. I am not sure if that even makes sense.
I really enjoyed this book. It was quiet with its observations even though what was going on around inside the book was very loud. I am definitely looking forward to continuing on with this series.
dnf
March 13, 2019DNF at 46%
I’m just so fucking bored this story is inundated with political commentary, bureaucracy, corruption etc etc but they overpower the story in my humble opinion. I definitely agree with Watson’s politics so that’s not my issue, I simply feel like it’s incredibly heavy handed. So many passages, pages and pages dedicated to the politics which were of course important but I wanted more intrigue.
I wanted more mystery. I wanted to like the characters. I just feel so distant from the story because there’s not alot of intimate character moments, there’s not many conversations it’s all Watson’s private ruminations on the political world. What really weirds me out is how everything is so formal, the writing itself is very simplistic which is neither a pro nor a con but we get so called glimpses into Watson’s intimate thoughts through journal entries....these entries serve as a vehicle for info dumping. A quick and easy way for the author to give summaries of interim events and i hated that. It didn’t feel real or intimate at all it felt like the author’s writing notes inserted in so she could hand hold us through the story or something. The concept of this was so interesting to me - a black sapphic reimagining of the classic detective pair Holmes and Watson - but I personally found the execution really lacking. In all I’d say it just isn’t holding my attention and I find myself actively avoiding it so that’s my sign to DNF. Alot of my Goodreads friends really liked this one tho so it’s likely this is a good book but it simply wasn’t for me
I’m just so fucking bored this story is inundated with political commentary, bureaucracy, corruption etc etc but they overpower the story in my humble opinion. I definitely agree with Watson’s politics so that’s not my issue, I simply feel like it’s incredibly heavy handed. So many passages, pages and pages dedicated to the politics which were of course important but I wanted more intrigue.
I wanted more mystery. I wanted to like the characters. I just feel so distant from the story because there’s not alot of intimate character moments, there’s not many conversations it’s all Watson’s private ruminations on the political world. What really weirds me out is how everything is so formal, the writing itself is very simplistic which is neither a pro nor a con but we get so called glimpses into Watson’s intimate thoughts through journal entries....these entries serve as a vehicle for info dumping. A quick and easy way for the author to give summaries of interim events and i hated that. It didn’t feel real or intimate at all it felt like the author’s writing notes inserted in so she could hand hold us through the story or something. The concept of this was so interesting to me - a black sapphic reimagining of the classic detective pair Holmes and Watson - but I personally found the execution really lacking. In all I’d say it just isn’t holding my attention and I find myself actively avoiding it so that’s my sign to DNF. Alot of my Goodreads friends really liked this one tho so it’s likely this is a good book but it simply wasn’t for me
November 6, 2018
Janet Watson became first a surgeon, then enlisted in the military, all to help others. After years fighting the New Confederacy, she returned home invalided out of the army and with few options or hope of a better life. Right when she was beginning to give up hope, she met Sara Holmes, a rich and mysterious woman with a talent for deduction. They team up and solve a medical mystery that turns out to involve people at the highest levels of the US government and the pharmaceutical industry.
I really wanted to like this. I love Holmes and Watson teaming up, and I love the concept of two black women versions of the characters in a futuristic USA. But this is told with all the subtlety and nuance of a brick to the head. The mystery is about as obvious as it gets, with no twists, turns, or surprises. Neither Watson nor Holmes (especially not Holmes) read like updated, adapted versions of their characters, but rather like kinda boring random people that supposedly have skills but never seem to actually use them. (Well, Holmes basically throws around her wealth and ability to drug or coerce people, but does very little detecting.) The writing is just not good, and it really ruined the book for me.
I really wanted to like this. I love Holmes and Watson teaming up, and I love the concept of two black women versions of the characters in a futuristic USA. But this is told with all the subtlety and nuance of a brick to the head. The mystery is about as obvious as it gets, with no twists, turns, or surprises. Neither Watson nor Holmes (especially not Holmes) read like updated, adapted versions of their characters, but rather like kinda boring random people that supposedly have skills but never seem to actually use them. (Well, Holmes basically throws around her wealth and ability to drug or coerce people, but does very little detecting.) The writing is just not good, and it really ruined the book for me.
August 21, 2018
Honestly, I'm a bit annoyed about the author's attempt to write with a black voice. I only made it to chapter 4, but every instance of the author trying to point out the problems of race seemed forced and inauthentic. Plus, the introduction of Watson to Holmes was utterly ridiculous and made no sense, honestly. I will not be finishing this book.
February 17, 2023
I see that I failed to write an actual review of this so, I'm going based off memory! I'll need a reread of this eventually, but for now what I recall this was surprisingly enjoyable. I've vague recollections about this and that's all I have. I've got the book at my library so I may check this out again along with book two so that it's fresher in my mind. 4.5 ⭐
November 21, 2021
➸ Trigger warnings for .
▷ Representation: Janet (mc) Black, sapphic and has a prosthetic arm & PTSD; Sara (sc) Black & sapphic; Black & BIPOC scs.
Blog • Trigger Warning Database • Twitter • Instagram
▷ Representation: Janet (mc) Black, sapphic and has a prosthetic arm & PTSD; Sara (sc) Black & sapphic; Black & BIPOC scs.
Blog • Trigger Warning Database • Twitter • Instagram
January 29, 2021
The top review for this book wonders how this book reads in a post-Trump era. I regret to report from the view here in 2021 that A Study in Honor's imagined dystopia of a divided USA vastly overestimates a calculated sedition while underestimating the toxic stew of White grievance and deranged conspiracy theory cultists. I'm not sure I bought the idea of another Confederacy, logistically speaking; it was a little hard to picture exactly how that worked, because the characters seemed to have no problem zipping around state lines, and the war didn't seem half as disruptive as you'd expect, but...? Maybe I missed the details, because unfortunately I spent most of this book alternating between the discovery that I actually do have Opinions about the Sherlock Holmes character, and boredom. At its core, this is a mystery novel, and the mystery just isn't very engaging.
I did like the exploration of (Janet) Watson's PTSD, a throughline that never let up for convenience's sake; Watson is traumatized and angry, and right to be, and that all felt right. (Not so compelling: take a shot every time you come across the word 'rage'. That'll be 20 shots minimum, so either be a slow reader or have a basin handy.)
Much less impressive to me was the Sherlock Holmes gimmick. If a creator's takeaway about this character is that Holmes Is An Asshole But Smart So It's Finehello, BBC Sherlock, we do not at all agree about the core of the character or what makes them so compelling. This Holmes is in the Asshole camp, so I wasn't a fan, personally, but also, she's not... smart? I'm hard pressed to think of a single situation where she presented herself as someone with keen powers of observation or a singular intellect above the ordinary. Sara Holmes's greatness seems to primarily stem from the fact that she is rich and well-connected enough to have whatever she wants at hand. Which is entirely a different thing. That's not Holmes, IMO. Might as well have named her something else, but then we wouldn't have a gimmick to trick readers into buying the book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Frankly, I completely lost any shred of patience for this read of Holmes when
Miscellaneous:
• "Nadine" Adler is
• Weird passage where the characters are in Lansing, Michigan: It took me several moments before I shook off the cold and took in my surroundings, only to realize we were the only black people there [at the hospital]. Ah, yes. Lansing, Michigan, that famous white bastion (umm) where minorities are so very rare (uhhh) to the point of it being remarkable that a black person would dare show their face at... a local hospital??? X for doubt. I couldn't tell if I'd missed an earlier signpost that something had happened to Michigan in this alternate future dystopia or if the author managed to confuse Michigan for Maine. It's okay, both states kinda look like mittens if you squint, I guess.
I did like the exploration of (Janet) Watson's PTSD, a throughline that never let up for convenience's sake; Watson is traumatized and angry, and right to be, and that all felt right. (Not so compelling: take a shot every time you come across the word 'rage'. That'll be 20 shots minimum, so either be a slow reader or have a basin handy.)
Much less impressive to me was the Sherlock Holmes gimmick. If a creator's takeaway about this character is that Holmes Is An Asshole But Smart So It's Fine
Frankly, I completely lost any shred of patience for this read of Holmes when
Miscellaneous:
• "Nadine" Adler is
• Weird passage where the characters are in Lansing, Michigan: It took me several moments before I shook off the cold and took in my surroundings, only to realize we were the only black people there [at the hospital]. Ah, yes. Lansing, Michigan, that famous white bastion (umm) where minorities are so very rare (uhhh) to the point of it being remarkable that a black person would dare show their face at... a local hospital??? X for doubt. I couldn't tell if I'd missed an earlier signpost that something had happened to Michigan in this alternate future dystopia or if the author managed to confuse Michigan for Maine. It's okay, both states kinda look like mittens if you squint, I guess.
didnt-finish
February 13, 2025DNF @ 11%. I thought I was going to get something exciting here, but the veeeery long time we spend sitting with Watson and her depression felt like I was being dragged through molasses to get to a promise of something good. Then, when I came to Goodreads to read a few reviews to see if it was worth going on, I saw the author. And you know what? I'm not doing this during Black History Month. ✌🏾
September 11, 2021
I want to make this perfectly clear: this rating is not due to a lack of interesting elements, but a lack of meaningful capitalization on the interesting elements that exist. Meaning, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to continue the series, this just read like a very forgettable, lackluster pilot that just sets up the world and characters so that interesting things can be done with them later.
A Study in Honor, sadly, didn't amount to much for me. The concept is great - a near future Sherlock Holmes retelling in the midst of the rise of the New Confederacy and an American civil war. And Janet Watson's pretty great, too, with O'Dell capturing the nuances of the original character while still making our Dr. Watson her own person. Unfortunately, nothing that felt significant happened throughout the majority of the novel in terms of plot or character/relational arcs. Watson's experiences in the first half were very repetitive, and the mystery didn't pick up until the second half, and when it did, it was strangely conveyed and felt oddly insignificant. On top of that, there's very little change in Watson and Sara's relationship (referring to them as such because that's how the narrative most often has them addressed) throughout the novel. In other words, it doesn't feel like anything moves forward organically.
This one was just disappointing for me, and reading it felt like a chore once I realized nothing was going to let up. I hope subsequent installments are better, but for now, it's off to something different.
A Study in Honor, sadly, didn't amount to much for me. The concept is great - a near future Sherlock Holmes retelling in the midst of the rise of the New Confederacy and an American civil war. And Janet Watson's pretty great, too, with O'Dell capturing the nuances of the original character while still making our Dr. Watson her own person. Unfortunately, nothing that felt significant happened throughout the majority of the novel in terms of plot or character/relational arcs. Watson's experiences in the first half were very repetitive, and the mystery didn't pick up until the second half, and when it did, it was strangely conveyed and felt oddly insignificant. On top of that, there's very little change in Watson and Sara's relationship (referring to them as such because that's how the narrative most often has them addressed) throughout the novel. In other words, it doesn't feel like anything moves forward organically.
This one was just disappointing for me, and reading it felt like a chore once I realized nothing was going to let up. I hope subsequent installments are better, but for now, it's off to something different.
December 2, 2018
What do I even say? It was a slow start but A Study in Honor came alive and made me remember why I, a Holmes and Watson fan, love Sherlock Holmes so much.
4/4.5 🌟's!!
4/4.5 🌟's!!
February 1, 2018
So cool. That's what this book is.
It combines sci-fi and Sherlock Holmes in a feminist telling of the Holmes mythos with Janet Watson and an LGTBQA Sara Holmes in a future after a second Civil War.
The author has created spins on the characters that are true to their origins. Clearly, author O'Dell is having a blast with the characters. This is Holmes at the Holmesiest.
Beyond the Holmes stuff, the story is a frenetic, intelligent mystery. O'Dell has opened up a new world that I hope she revisits. Right now. Is she done with the next one yet?
(Review from an early, early review copy.)
It combines sci-fi and Sherlock Holmes in a feminist telling of the Holmes mythos with Janet Watson and an LGTBQA Sara Holmes in a future after a second Civil War.
The author has created spins on the characters that are true to their origins. Clearly, author O'Dell is having a blast with the characters. This is Holmes at the Holmesiest.
Beyond the Holmes stuff, the story is a frenetic, intelligent mystery. O'Dell has opened up a new world that I hope she revisits. Right now. Is she done with the next one yet?
(Review from an early, early review copy.)
August 2, 2020
This book had me at queer, black, female Sherlock Holmes honestly.
I enjoyed the writing style, and I loved the characters. Especially Sara (Sherlock). Her whole demeanour and personality is phenomenal, every time she spoke I was in love. Janet (John) felt less interesting to me, though I was still drawn to her. The author did a good job with the presentation of her PTSD and kept it consistent throughout, which a lot of books tend to fall short on.
The near-future vibes were exciting, but other than vaguely explained bits of technology there was nothing to it. It did still feel like we were in the present day and I would’ve liked that to be accentuated better.
The pacing wasn’t particularly fast, but I still found myself unable to put it down at times I was so intrigued by the characters. Obviously, it’s a mystery at heart but I wasn’t even really reading it for that aspect of the plot, I was just really enjoying how the two protagonists interacted and developed throughout. The ending??? Had me on edge. I was SO frustrated. In a good way.
As I’m not a black person myself, I can’t fully comment on it but the fact that the topic of race is such a prominent part of the story and the author is a white woman did rub me the wrong way. It almost felt at times the author was trying too hard.
Overall though, I really did enjoy this. I probably won’t read the next one any time soon, but this feels like a universe you could dive in and out of comfortably.
I enjoyed the writing style, and I loved the characters. Especially Sara (Sherlock). Her whole demeanour and personality is phenomenal, every time she spoke I was in love. Janet (John) felt less interesting to me, though I was still drawn to her. The author did a good job with the presentation of her PTSD and kept it consistent throughout, which a lot of books tend to fall short on.
The near-future vibes were exciting, but other than vaguely explained bits of technology there was nothing to it. It did still feel like we were in the present day and I would’ve liked that to be accentuated better.
The pacing wasn’t particularly fast, but I still found myself unable to put it down at times I was so intrigued by the characters. Obviously, it’s a mystery at heart but I wasn’t even really reading it for that aspect of the plot, I was just really enjoying how the two protagonists interacted and developed throughout. The ending??? Had me on edge. I was SO frustrated. In a good way.
As I’m not a black person myself, I can’t fully comment on it but the fact that the topic of race is such a prominent part of the story and the author is a white woman did rub me the wrong way. It almost felt at times the author was trying too hard.
Overall though, I really did enjoy this. I probably won’t read the next one any time soon, but this feels like a universe you could dive in and out of comfortably.
September 28, 2018
A Study in Honor is a sci-fi thriller written by Claire O'Dell. It follows Janet Watson, a military surgeon who during the Second Civil War loses her arm in the battlefield. With an ill-fitting prosthetic arm and severe PTSD, Watson arrives in DC and tries to get her life back on track; there she meets Sara Holmes, and her life soon becomes threatened.
I was so disappointed by this book, which makes me sad, since when I first heard about it, it sounded amazing. A military thriller involving modern/futuristic female versions of Sherlock and Watson? Sign me up.
Unfortunately, this book did not deliver, and the biggest issue I have was the plot.
I will say O'Dell did a great job on the world building; while I don't think a Second Civil War on US soil is plausible, I could maybe see an even darker timeline where it does happen. The descriptions of DC, the political situation, the social context were all great, felt realistic and well researched. However, they were all in service of a plot, that, for lack of a better word was, non-existent.
The first half of this book is spent with Janet trying to get her life in order; she becomes Holmes' roommate and gets a job, but before then there is a long section where we just follow her ineffectual attempts to get a new arm, and her just living in a shitty motel. The first interesting thing happens on page 100, when Janet gets attacked, a third of the way through the book. And even still, the plot grinds to a halt for another 100 pages where we just watch Janet eat, sleep, have a panic attack, get fired, have another panic attack, etc. Finally, when the plot actually starts, and we learn what the connection between Watson, Alton, and the dead veterans is, the book ends. What? Finally we got something somewhat interesting, and it's over before it even starts! We don't even ever meet the villain in this book!
The other issue is the super inconsistent characterization. Sara Holmes fared slightly better, but that's only because we are reading this from Janet's perspective. I liked how instead of playing the violin, she plays the piano, and she cooks very well, but her actual personality? She is sometimes violent, can fight, but is also just supremely rich and speaks like a Bond villain from the 60's. I didn't understand if maybe she was supposed to be British? Because she's never described as having an accent, and she works for the FBI here, but she keeps using "shall" and "shan't" and calling people "love". Her cadence and speech didn't fit the book at all, and it was very distracting.
She's also not very intelligent. That's kind of the main drive of a Holmes-like character, that they are very intelligent and observant. Sara is neither; she uses technology that connects her to data bases to make connections and deductions about the people around her, and she doesn't actually solve the case. What little she does 'solve' is also very badly told, because we as the audience would have never guessed it. We had no idea who owned the company that's involved or who the general was before Sara tells us about them; the mystery doesn't work unless there are you know... clues?
Janet Watson on the other hand... oh boy. Let me get one things out of the way first. Janet is black. She's black, and she really, really wants us to know it. She mentions it every 2 pages; she's always uncomfortable, always angry, always on the defensive, because she's black. Now, I have read a fair share of own voices black characters, and none of them speak like this. So I was very confused as to why this needed to be reiterated so much, only to realize that Claire O'Dell is a pen name... for a white author.
Janet was a badly written character is what I'm saying. She doesn't speak like someone who was a soldier or who grew up in the South. She also constantly flip flops between sever depression and crippling PTSD and blind rage. While this isn't necessairly bad, I just don't understand why we needed so many scenes of her crying, having panic attack, sweating, heaving and just being miserable. I understand PTSD is a big part of her character, but it didn't feel like it actually informed her character; it was more like the author was afraid we would forget if she had it unless Janet was sweating profusely or having a panic attack every few pages.
Janet is also a terribly inactive character. She doesn't do anything out of her own volition, except for looking up Belinda Diaz's file. She is constantly drugged, attacked, manipulated by Holmes, or tormented by the FBI. It was just not fun to read about her when she was always talking about taking her life in her hands and then having everything she was supposed to be fighting for over the course of the book just handed to her on a silver platter by Deus-ex-Sara.
Their relationship too, was not well developed. They start of with Sara "showing off" and Janet just running away. Then for no reason I could glean Janet agrees to live with Sara, and then just allows Sara to search her room, feed her, steal her possessions, drug her and just control her life in every possible way. She is completely spineless in this relationship, and never calls Sara out on anything Sara does. FFS even Watson from BBC Sherlock stood up to Sherlock and fought him when Sherlock crossed the line, and Janet did NOTHING.
I do not recommend this book. It was not fun, it was not well written, and I will not be continuing the series.
I was so disappointed by this book, which makes me sad, since when I first heard about it, it sounded amazing. A military thriller involving modern/futuristic female versions of Sherlock and Watson? Sign me up.
Unfortunately, this book did not deliver, and the biggest issue I have was the plot.
I will say O'Dell did a great job on the world building; while I don't think a Second Civil War on US soil is plausible, I could maybe see an even darker timeline where it does happen. The descriptions of DC, the political situation, the social context were all great, felt realistic and well researched. However, they were all in service of a plot, that, for lack of a better word was, non-existent.
The first half of this book is spent with Janet trying to get her life in order; she becomes Holmes' roommate and gets a job, but before then there is a long section where we just follow her ineffectual attempts to get a new arm, and her just living in a shitty motel. The first interesting thing happens on page 100, when Janet gets attacked, a third of the way through the book. And even still, the plot grinds to a halt for another 100 pages where we just watch Janet eat, sleep, have a panic attack, get fired, have another panic attack, etc. Finally, when the plot actually starts, and we learn what the connection between Watson, Alton, and the dead veterans is, the book ends. What? Finally we got something somewhat interesting, and it's over before it even starts! We don't even ever meet the villain in this book!
The other issue is the super inconsistent characterization. Sara Holmes fared slightly better, but that's only because we are reading this from Janet's perspective. I liked how instead of playing the violin, she plays the piano, and she cooks very well, but her actual personality? She is sometimes violent, can fight, but is also just supremely rich and speaks like a Bond villain from the 60's. I didn't understand if maybe she was supposed to be British? Because she's never described as having an accent, and she works for the FBI here, but she keeps using "shall" and "shan't" and calling people "love". Her cadence and speech didn't fit the book at all, and it was very distracting.
She's also not very intelligent. That's kind of the main drive of a Holmes-like character, that they are very intelligent and observant. Sara is neither; she uses technology that connects her to data bases to make connections and deductions about the people around her, and she doesn't actually solve the case. What little she does 'solve' is also very badly told, because we as the audience would have never guessed it. We had no idea who owned the company that's involved or who the general was before Sara tells us about them; the mystery doesn't work unless there are you know... clues?
Janet Watson on the other hand... oh boy. Let me get one things out of the way first. Janet is black. She's black, and she really, really wants us to know it. She mentions it every 2 pages; she's always uncomfortable, always angry, always on the defensive, because she's black. Now, I have read a fair share of own voices black characters, and none of them speak like this. So I was very confused as to why this needed to be reiterated so much, only to realize that Claire O'Dell is a pen name... for a white author.
Janet was a badly written character is what I'm saying. She doesn't speak like someone who was a soldier or who grew up in the South. She also constantly flip flops between sever depression and crippling PTSD and blind rage. While this isn't necessairly bad, I just don't understand why we needed so many scenes of her crying, having panic attack, sweating, heaving and just being miserable. I understand PTSD is a big part of her character, but it didn't feel like it actually informed her character; it was more like the author was afraid we would forget if she had it unless Janet was sweating profusely or having a panic attack every few pages.
Janet is also a terribly inactive character. She doesn't do anything out of her own volition, except for looking up Belinda Diaz's file. She is constantly drugged, attacked, manipulated by Holmes, or tormented by the FBI. It was just not fun to read about her when she was always talking about taking her life in her hands and then having everything she was supposed to be fighting for over the course of the book just handed to her on a silver platter by Deus-ex-Sara.
Their relationship too, was not well developed. They start of with Sara "showing off" and Janet just running away. Then for no reason I could glean Janet agrees to live with Sara, and then just allows Sara to search her room, feed her, steal her possessions, drug her and just control her life in every possible way. She is completely spineless in this relationship, and never calls Sara out on anything Sara does. FFS even Watson from BBC Sherlock stood up to Sherlock and fought him when Sherlock crossed the line, and Janet did NOTHING.
I do not recommend this book. It was not fun, it was not well written, and I will not be continuing the series.
April 13, 2019
I'll be honest, I struggled with how to rate this. Usually when I give a 3/5, it's because the book had flaws, but was largely harmless. That was not the case here! With this book, the stuff I liked, I really liked, and the stuff I didn't soured the genuinely good aspects.
First, the good stuff: I loved the main character. I loved her narrative voice. I loved the way O'Dell depicted her PTSD and depression, her anger, her stubbornness, her knowledge of her place in the world and the injustice of it. I loved the political commentary, and the (frighteningly plausible) depiction of a near-future America. If Janet Watson were the only protagonist of this book, I would happily have given it 5/5. But . . .
I hated this book's Sherlock ("Sara") Holmes. Hated her. For two reasons: one, I'm an old school Sherlock Holmes aficionado, and while I don't expect every adaptation/re-imagining/pastiche to adhere to my own ideas about his character, I'm sick to death of the "jerkass genius" interpretation that's gotten wildly, undeservedly popular. It's not backed up by the original text! Like, at all! Mind you, I hate jerkass genius characters in general; it just sticks in my craw even more when it's ostensibly based on a canonical foundation that just isn't there.
But even if the Sherlock connection didn't exist, I would still have hated Sara. I understand that O'Dell was trying to write a capricious genius; what she actually wrote was an asshole. At their first meeting, Sara taunts Janet with her own insecurities just to prove that she can. She lies to Janet constantly - and I'll grant you that some of that is justified in the text, it's a piss-poor basis to build a series-long partnership on. Most egregiously, she drugs Janet without her knowledge or consent - MULTIPLE TIMES - imprisons her in her own apartment, and steals her phone and electronic devices so she can't call for help. Am I expected to see her as a likeable character? Am I supposed to root for their partnership, or what I read as an impending romance? Hell no. If Janet was my friend, I would be telling her to get the hell out of there.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, Janet turns suddenly on a dime from (justifiably) hating and mistrusting Sara to seeing her as an ally. Because Sara tells her the truth. Once. I got the distinct impression that this heel face turn was written in as a way to keep the plot moving, and to justify their continuing acquaintance past the conclusion of the mystery. It did not work. The only way I'd be interested in reading more of this series is if Janet ditched Sara entirely and went off to get her groove back. Sadly, I doubt that's on the table.
First, the good stuff: I loved the main character. I loved her narrative voice. I loved the way O'Dell depicted her PTSD and depression, her anger, her stubbornness, her knowledge of her place in the world and the injustice of it. I loved the political commentary, and the (frighteningly plausible) depiction of a near-future America. If Janet Watson were the only protagonist of this book, I would happily have given it 5/5. But . . .
I hated this book's Sherlock ("Sara") Holmes. Hated her. For two reasons: one, I'm an old school Sherlock Holmes aficionado, and while I don't expect every adaptation/re-imagining/pastiche to adhere to my own ideas about his character, I'm sick to death of the "jerkass genius" interpretation that's gotten wildly, undeservedly popular. It's not backed up by the original text! Like, at all! Mind you, I hate jerkass genius characters in general; it just sticks in my craw even more when it's ostensibly based on a canonical foundation that just isn't there.
But even if the Sherlock connection didn't exist, I would still have hated Sara. I understand that O'Dell was trying to write a capricious genius; what she actually wrote was an asshole. At their first meeting, Sara taunts Janet with her own insecurities just to prove that she can. She lies to Janet constantly - and I'll grant you that some of that is justified in the text, it's a piss-poor basis to build a series-long partnership on. Most egregiously, she drugs Janet without her knowledge or consent - MULTIPLE TIMES - imprisons her in her own apartment, and steals her phone and electronic devices so she can't call for help. Am I expected to see her as a likeable character? Am I supposed to root for their partnership, or what I read as an impending romance? Hell no. If Janet was my friend, I would be telling her to get the hell out of there.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, Janet turns suddenly on a dime from (justifiably) hating and mistrusting Sara to seeing her as an ally. Because Sara tells her the truth. Once. I got the distinct impression that this heel face turn was written in as a way to keep the plot moving, and to justify their continuing acquaintance past the conclusion of the mystery. It did not work. The only way I'd be interested in reading more of this series is if Janet ditched Sara entirely and went off to get her groove back. Sadly, I doubt that's on the table.
September 18, 2018
If you’d handed me A Study in Honor knowing nothing except what’s in the blurb, I’d probably have told you that I’m not really into near-future dystopian political thrillers, even one that’s re-visioning of Holmes and Watson featuring two queer black women. But tell me that [author I love] is coming out with a new series under a new nom de plume and I’ll give anything she writes a try. I would have missed out on a great book if I’d gone just by my usual genre and setting preferences.
O’Dell has created two strong personalities with just enough of their literary antecedents that you know what your getting in terms of interpersonal dynamic. One has clawed her way up from a working class background, one was born of privilege. One is damaged to the edge of breaking by her experiences in the war, one is smooth and polished and always so very much in control. But you believe that these two can be thrown together, can survive the initial distrust and conflict, and can begin to forge what we recognize as the enduring Holmes/Watson partnership that has made its way into legend. As with the original canon, we see the events through Watson’s eyes, leaving the internal workings of Holmes’s mind (and her backstory) enough of a mystery to be intriguing.
I’m not going to lie about the setting: the line that can be drawn between where were are today and the terrifying vision the book offers of political turmoil and civil war is too believable to be enjoyable. The tech is just the far side of futuristic but the sociology is entirely too familiar. But the story is about human beings and how they make it through, first and foremost by caring about truth, honor, and each other. And that makes all the difference in envisioning how we might recover from such a future.
The icing on the cake is that both protagonists are casually and unapologetically queer without needing to insert a romance plot into the dynamic. I long for the day when I can pick up any random book and consider that a possibility. Until then, I’ll always be seeking out books like this that combine representation with rock-solid writing.
O’Dell has created two strong personalities with just enough of their literary antecedents that you know what your getting in terms of interpersonal dynamic. One has clawed her way up from a working class background, one was born of privilege. One is damaged to the edge of breaking by her experiences in the war, one is smooth and polished and always so very much in control. But you believe that these two can be thrown together, can survive the initial distrust and conflict, and can begin to forge what we recognize as the enduring Holmes/Watson partnership that has made its way into legend. As with the original canon, we see the events through Watson’s eyes, leaving the internal workings of Holmes’s mind (and her backstory) enough of a mystery to be intriguing.
I’m not going to lie about the setting: the line that can be drawn between where were are today and the terrifying vision the book offers of political turmoil and civil war is too believable to be enjoyable. The tech is just the far side of futuristic but the sociology is entirely too familiar. But the story is about human beings and how they make it through, first and foremost by caring about truth, honor, and each other. And that makes all the difference in envisioning how we might recover from such a future.
The icing on the cake is that both protagonists are casually and unapologetically queer without needing to insert a romance plot into the dynamic. I long for the day when I can pick up any random book and consider that a possibility. Until then, I’ll always be seeking out books like this that combine representation with rock-solid writing.
September 9, 2021
Sherlock retellings abound but this one featuring black gay women sounded extremely promising. The result does indeed have good aspects but also problematic ones...
The narration is as you would expect from the point of view of Dr Janet Watson, a captain, who has just been honourably discharged after being hurt. We follow her experience coming back to DC in order to get a new mechanical arm (the one that was fitted on the battleground is unsuitable and ‘faulty’, not allowing her to work as the surgeon she is) and rebuild her life.
The world that O’Dell portrays is seriously bleak. A post-Trump USA characterised by a New Civil War tearing its very fabric, a presidential election furthering division, white supremacists vying for more and more power, and rampant racism barely disguised. It is all too easily believable, and yet... We get very little details on how the population, all the different factions, are reacting to this. It’s as if the narrative is in a bubble, which is annoying because part of the plot is connected to this.
My other problem is in Holmes and her relationship with Watson. Now, Sherlock Holmes as we know is not a ‘nice’ person but a manipulative, cold, unemotional, eccentric. The list carries on but you know what I mean. I expected some of this to show in covert agent Sara Holmes, but the result is awkward, especially in light of the state in which Watson finds herself. Holmes manipulates her, violates her privacy again and again, puts her in a position where she controls her livelihood, and so forth. This left me with a bad aftertaste. There was not enough to balance the scales the ‘other way’ as Conan Doyle did.
It is a pity because the idea, setting and plot had much potential.
The narration is as you would expect from the point of view of Dr Janet Watson, a captain, who has just been honourably discharged after being hurt. We follow her experience coming back to DC in order to get a new mechanical arm (the one that was fitted on the battleground is unsuitable and ‘faulty’, not allowing her to work as the surgeon she is) and rebuild her life.
The world that O’Dell portrays is seriously bleak. A post-Trump USA characterised by a New Civil War tearing its very fabric, a presidential election furthering division, white supremacists vying for more and more power, and rampant racism barely disguised. It is all too easily believable, and yet... We get very little details on how the population, all the different factions, are reacting to this. It’s as if the narrative is in a bubble, which is annoying because part of the plot is connected to this.
My other problem is in Holmes and her relationship with Watson. Now, Sherlock Holmes as we know is not a ‘nice’ person but a manipulative, cold, unemotional, eccentric. The list carries on but you know what I mean. I expected some of this to show in covert agent Sara Holmes, but the result is awkward, especially in light of the state in which Watson finds herself. Holmes manipulates her, violates her privacy again and again, puts her in a position where she controls her livelihood, and so forth. This left me with a bad aftertaste. There was not enough to balance the scales the ‘other way’ as Conan Doyle did.
It is a pity because the idea, setting and plot had much potential.
June 27, 2020
I have to admit that I was looking for and expecting something different from what I got here with A Study in Honor (The Janet Watson Chronicles #1) by Claire O'Dell. I was hoping for more of a gender bent Sherlock Holmes retelling with dash of f/f romance, but that never quite came to pass here. Janet herself was an intriguing character who is different from her inspiration (although I'd argue that we didn't need to see the excerpts of her journal with the story being in first person from her perspective) and can easily stand apart on her own. It's Sara Holmes herself that really bugged me. The spy part I could work with, but we hardly get to see her do anything interesting like making deductions. Plus, we barely get to see her partnership with Janet since most of the action happens offscreen or while Holmes has drugged or isolated Watson. Finally, I wanted a lot more world-building out of this character driven story. What we get feels too loose without a whole lot of detail to back up what Holmes and Watson are toward in the first place. Overall, this is more of a thriller than a mystery and while a few elements worked for me I doubt I'll be back to continue the series.
August 3, 2018
lovely dystopian procedural
I had forgotten, when I started reading it, that it was a re-imagined Sherlock and Holmes with black women. The characterizations are all delightful and the action builds at a terrific, measured pace.
I can’t say I’m unconcerned about a white women writing black lives at a time when black authors are struggling to get published, but the work strikes me as well-done.
I had forgotten, when I started reading it, that it was a re-imagined Sherlock and Holmes with black women. The characterizations are all delightful and the action builds at a terrific, measured pace.
I can’t say I’m unconcerned about a white women writing black lives at a time when black authors are struggling to get published, but the work strikes me as well-done.
November 27, 2025
(2.5)
CWs: racism, mention of self harm/attempted suicide (side character), death, depictions of war & PTSD
CWs: racism, mention of self harm/attempted suicide (side character), death, depictions of war & PTSD
March 26, 2018
(Review originally posted on the John H Watson Society website.)
General Review
I think most people could guess by now that I love twists on the classic Holmes story. While I do enjoy the more traditional pastiche—give me a Lyndsay Faye story any day!—there is something that continues to intrigue me about pastiches that do something different to our characters. Holmes and Watson were, after all, men of their time, even if they were eccentric. Pastiches that throw them into different times, different genders, different sexualities, different abilities help shine a light on what makes a Holmes and a Watson intrinsically Holmes-and-Watson, in my mind; they are conductors of light.
One can imagine my sheer and utter excitement when, while doing my monthly search for upcoming Holmesian novels, I found A Study in Honor on the list. Holmes and Watson in the near (somewhat dystopian, utterly plausible) future, as Black queer women? I am pretty sure I screamed myself hoarse, and then proceeded to digitally scream on my twitter and Facebook and tumblr. I hopped right over to Edelweiss, which had ARCs available, and requested it. When I didn’t hear back right away, I requested it again. And also reached out to the author to squeal at her. Thankfully, Edelweiss came through, and I soon had a fresh, shiny ARC on my Nook.
I plowed this book in a day. I considered savoring it, taking my time with it, but I just couldn’t. The characters were too fascinating; the plot was too intense. O’Dell has created an amazing pastiche, and I cannot recommend it enough.
The worldbuilding is, in some ways, sparse—O’Dell doesn’t spend a lot of time providing an info dump, especially given the book takes place in the near future. Yet despite the sparse worldbuilding, it all works, because of how close it takes place to our present. The things described are all too plausible, all too real, for better or worse. A second Civil War is happening when the book opens. Janet Watson is a veteran of that war, her arm destroyed in the fighting and fitted with a prosthetic that feels only one generation removed from current prosthetic advancements (and, in many ways, doesn’t quite live up to current prosthetic science, as Janet is given one that doesn’t quite suit her; much of her struggle throughout the book is navigating the VA, trying to get a prosthetic that actually works correctly for her, something we’ve all certainly read about or perhaps personally experienced). Sara Holmes has a device that allows the Internet to be downloaded right into her brain, something that seems too real as things like Google Glass come onto the market; it’s not too far a stretch to imagine that soon we’ll just have implants in our head.
Sara Holmes herself is an enigma, at times frustratingly so. I wish there had been a more explicit conversation about what, precisely, she does, as I found the secrecy around her work confusing for the reader, and not just for Janet, but despite that issue, I found her utterly charming. I can easily see someone falling under her spell and being endlessly intrigued by her. I loved the updates to the classic Holmes; I can absolutely see Victorian Holmes wanting implants that would give him access to all the information in the world. I was tickled by the fact that Sara Holmes plays the piano, rather than the violin. Her solicitous nature with Janet was adorable. Though Watsons are always intrigued by Holmeses, it’s so rare to really see, in depth, a Holmes intrigued by a Watson, as Sara clearly is with Janet. And her masterful quality was hilarious, especially since it always put Janet on her back foot.
I will fully admit that I found the plot somewhat convoluted at times. I think a second read through would make things clearer to me, and others may not have that problem; as I said, I read this book so quickly, I could easily have missed things. Despite knowing that I missed things, I found the mystery absolutely heart-wrenching. I don’t want to get into it much, as I feel like anything I write about it leads to spoilers, but the victims are what drive the case, and drive Janet the entire time. Her determination to give them justice drove the story. It was wonderfully done, and I still tear up when I think of Belinda Diaz.
I would like to add in a good word for the secondary characters as well. Jacob Bell, RN Roberta Thompson, Saul Martinez, even the weasely Terrence Smith, are richly drawn. I would love to see some of them become recurring characters, because I loved them as much as I loved Janet and Sara.
There are two particular things I want to mention about this book that might give people pause. It is a very political book, and if you are looking to escape politics for the time being, you may wish to consider this; and most importantly, this book about two queer Black women is written by a white woman. As a white woman myself, I do not feel qualified to say if she did well by the characters in terms of their race. However, here is what I do know: O’Dell’s editor is Amber Oliver, a Black woman; she lists having taken a Writing the Other workshop in her acknowledgements; she had many readers look over her book. It does appear she has done some work in trying to avoid stereotypes and poor representation.
I am very much looking forward to owning a copy of this book when it comes out in July. I suspect it will take a place of honour on my Sherlock Holmes shelves, as it’s certainly one of the most ambitious and intriguing pastiches I’ve read in a while.
What About Our Watson?
This is entirely Janet Watson’s book. I have read a number of fine Watsons in my goal of providing reviews for the Society. Some of them have even been excellent. But Janet really takes the cake, because she isn’t a strong-willed narrator of Holmes’ adventures, as so frequently happens. Instead, Janet is entirely her own person, with her own hopes and dreams and loves and history outside of Holmes, and the book focuses on her struggles and desires as she steps into a realm that has always been helmed by a Holmes.
I want to spend a moment on Watson as a war veteran. One of my ongoing… I won’t say frustrations, but perhaps disappointments, is that pastiche writers don’t do more with Watson post-war. I have always wanted to see a Watson with a more consistent war wound than ACD gave him, one that impacts him in a real way. I’ve also always hoped that some writer (whether of a book or a film/TV show) would explore the idea of Watson having PTSD, as there is certainly fodder for such in canon. I’ve seen the occasional pastiche or adaptation make an attempt, but across the board, it’s been rather half-hearted. A Study in Honor, though, stares unflinchingly at Janet Watson’s war wounds, both physical and mental. Much of Janet’s internal conflict comes from her struggles to get a prosthesis that actually works, and her turmoil over losing her arm and learning to adapt in a world that has little interest in adapting for her. Her PTSD is visceral, in a way that I finally recognize, with certain sounds, phrases, smells, triggering flashbacks and memories. She regularly sees a therapist, and opens up to her, attempting to heal and thrive, rather than remain stuck in her survival instincts. The depiction of trauma in this book, with Janet and with others, is raw and hard and beautifully done.
Janet is also a woman who takes no shit from her Holmes, which everyone knows I’m a sucker for. I like a Watson who is willing to push back, to demand respect, to even yell at times at a Holmes. I like a Watson who won’t be steamrolled. Janet is that kind of Watson. While she concedes certain battles (I teared up about the journal), she is also willing to fight back against Holmes and her casual acceptance that she’s in control at all times. I loved the ongoing sneakiness over the text device, for example, and Watson’s dismissal of the gifts that Holmes continued to offer. I laughed heartily over her continued rejection of Holmes’ pet names for her. Janet Watson clearly trusts Sara Holmes, but also refuses to blithely accept her word; she wants answers and explanations, and demands them when Sara is less than immediately forthcoming.
Janet is deeply loyal, to her patients, to her military comrades, and Holmes, as well as compassionate; she is also tenacious and stubborn, qualities I do love in a Watson. Her determination to heal, to solve the case, to bring justice to the victims is present throughout the entire story. I can think of nothing better to sum it up than to provide a quote from Janet’s journal (journaling is important throughout the entire book; we frequently get to read Janet’s journal as she writes it): “I WILL HAVE MY VICTORY. I WILL HAVE MY LIFE BACK. I SWEAR IT.”
I really can’t ask for more from my Watsons. Janet is an absolute treat, and I think any Watsonian will love her.
You Might Like This Book If You Like:
Dystopian futures; recovery stories; tough yet vulnerable women protagonists; conspiracy theories
General Review
I think most people could guess by now that I love twists on the classic Holmes story. While I do enjoy the more traditional pastiche—give me a Lyndsay Faye story any day!—there is something that continues to intrigue me about pastiches that do something different to our characters. Holmes and Watson were, after all, men of their time, even if they were eccentric. Pastiches that throw them into different times, different genders, different sexualities, different abilities help shine a light on what makes a Holmes and a Watson intrinsically Holmes-and-Watson, in my mind; they are conductors of light.
One can imagine my sheer and utter excitement when, while doing my monthly search for upcoming Holmesian novels, I found A Study in Honor on the list. Holmes and Watson in the near (somewhat dystopian, utterly plausible) future, as Black queer women? I am pretty sure I screamed myself hoarse, and then proceeded to digitally scream on my twitter and Facebook and tumblr. I hopped right over to Edelweiss, which had ARCs available, and requested it. When I didn’t hear back right away, I requested it again. And also reached out to the author to squeal at her. Thankfully, Edelweiss came through, and I soon had a fresh, shiny ARC on my Nook.
I plowed this book in a day. I considered savoring it, taking my time with it, but I just couldn’t. The characters were too fascinating; the plot was too intense. O’Dell has created an amazing pastiche, and I cannot recommend it enough.
The worldbuilding is, in some ways, sparse—O’Dell doesn’t spend a lot of time providing an info dump, especially given the book takes place in the near future. Yet despite the sparse worldbuilding, it all works, because of how close it takes place to our present. The things described are all too plausible, all too real, for better or worse. A second Civil War is happening when the book opens. Janet Watson is a veteran of that war, her arm destroyed in the fighting and fitted with a prosthetic that feels only one generation removed from current prosthetic advancements (and, in many ways, doesn’t quite live up to current prosthetic science, as Janet is given one that doesn’t quite suit her; much of her struggle throughout the book is navigating the VA, trying to get a prosthetic that actually works correctly for her, something we’ve all certainly read about or perhaps personally experienced). Sara Holmes has a device that allows the Internet to be downloaded right into her brain, something that seems too real as things like Google Glass come onto the market; it’s not too far a stretch to imagine that soon we’ll just have implants in our head.
Sara Holmes herself is an enigma, at times frustratingly so. I wish there had been a more explicit conversation about what, precisely, she does, as I found the secrecy around her work confusing for the reader, and not just for Janet, but despite that issue, I found her utterly charming. I can easily see someone falling under her spell and being endlessly intrigued by her. I loved the updates to the classic Holmes; I can absolutely see Victorian Holmes wanting implants that would give him access to all the information in the world. I was tickled by the fact that Sara Holmes plays the piano, rather than the violin. Her solicitous nature with Janet was adorable. Though Watsons are always intrigued by Holmeses, it’s so rare to really see, in depth, a Holmes intrigued by a Watson, as Sara clearly is with Janet. And her masterful quality was hilarious, especially since it always put Janet on her back foot.
I will fully admit that I found the plot somewhat convoluted at times. I think a second read through would make things clearer to me, and others may not have that problem; as I said, I read this book so quickly, I could easily have missed things. Despite knowing that I missed things, I found the mystery absolutely heart-wrenching. I don’t want to get into it much, as I feel like anything I write about it leads to spoilers, but the victims are what drive the case, and drive Janet the entire time. Her determination to give them justice drove the story. It was wonderfully done, and I still tear up when I think of Belinda Diaz.
I would like to add in a good word for the secondary characters as well. Jacob Bell, RN Roberta Thompson, Saul Martinez, even the weasely Terrence Smith, are richly drawn. I would love to see some of them become recurring characters, because I loved them as much as I loved Janet and Sara.
There are two particular things I want to mention about this book that might give people pause. It is a very political book, and if you are looking to escape politics for the time being, you may wish to consider this; and most importantly, this book about two queer Black women is written by a white woman. As a white woman myself, I do not feel qualified to say if she did well by the characters in terms of their race. However, here is what I do know: O’Dell’s editor is Amber Oliver, a Black woman; she lists having taken a Writing the Other workshop in her acknowledgements; she had many readers look over her book. It does appear she has done some work in trying to avoid stereotypes and poor representation.
I am very much looking forward to owning a copy of this book when it comes out in July. I suspect it will take a place of honour on my Sherlock Holmes shelves, as it’s certainly one of the most ambitious and intriguing pastiches I’ve read in a while.
What About Our Watson?
This is entirely Janet Watson’s book. I have read a number of fine Watsons in my goal of providing reviews for the Society. Some of them have even been excellent. But Janet really takes the cake, because she isn’t a strong-willed narrator of Holmes’ adventures, as so frequently happens. Instead, Janet is entirely her own person, with her own hopes and dreams and loves and history outside of Holmes, and the book focuses on her struggles and desires as she steps into a realm that has always been helmed by a Holmes.
I want to spend a moment on Watson as a war veteran. One of my ongoing… I won’t say frustrations, but perhaps disappointments, is that pastiche writers don’t do more with Watson post-war. I have always wanted to see a Watson with a more consistent war wound than ACD gave him, one that impacts him in a real way. I’ve also always hoped that some writer (whether of a book or a film/TV show) would explore the idea of Watson having PTSD, as there is certainly fodder for such in canon. I’ve seen the occasional pastiche or adaptation make an attempt, but across the board, it’s been rather half-hearted. A Study in Honor, though, stares unflinchingly at Janet Watson’s war wounds, both physical and mental. Much of Janet’s internal conflict comes from her struggles to get a prosthesis that actually works, and her turmoil over losing her arm and learning to adapt in a world that has little interest in adapting for her. Her PTSD is visceral, in a way that I finally recognize, with certain sounds, phrases, smells, triggering flashbacks and memories. She regularly sees a therapist, and opens up to her, attempting to heal and thrive, rather than remain stuck in her survival instincts. The depiction of trauma in this book, with Janet and with others, is raw and hard and beautifully done.
Janet is also a woman who takes no shit from her Holmes, which everyone knows I’m a sucker for. I like a Watson who is willing to push back, to demand respect, to even yell at times at a Holmes. I like a Watson who won’t be steamrolled. Janet is that kind of Watson. While she concedes certain battles (I teared up about the journal), she is also willing to fight back against Holmes and her casual acceptance that she’s in control at all times. I loved the ongoing sneakiness over the text device, for example, and Watson’s dismissal of the gifts that Holmes continued to offer. I laughed heartily over her continued rejection of Holmes’ pet names for her. Janet Watson clearly trusts Sara Holmes, but also refuses to blithely accept her word; she wants answers and explanations, and demands them when Sara is less than immediately forthcoming.
Janet is deeply loyal, to her patients, to her military comrades, and Holmes, as well as compassionate; she is also tenacious and stubborn, qualities I do love in a Watson. Her determination to heal, to solve the case, to bring justice to the victims is present throughout the entire story. I can think of nothing better to sum it up than to provide a quote from Janet’s journal (journaling is important throughout the entire book; we frequently get to read Janet’s journal as she writes it): “I WILL HAVE MY VICTORY. I WILL HAVE MY LIFE BACK. I SWEAR IT.”
I really can’t ask for more from my Watsons. Janet is an absolute treat, and I think any Watsonian will love her.
You Might Like This Book If You Like:
Dystopian futures; recovery stories; tough yet vulnerable women protagonists; conspiracy theories
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