It’s funny how many books I’ve read recently that cross characters from different books or fictionalize (and then match up) real people who probably didn’t know each other (and certainly didn’t solve mysteries together). The Case of the Missing Miss paired up Charles Dodgson with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (which I started yesterday) pairs up the daughter of Dr. Jeckyll with Holmes and Watson (and I’m expecting Dr. Frankenstein to make an appearance, or perhaps his daughter). Then there are all the alternative Holmes/Watson stories, like The Tea Master and the Detective (Watson is a sentient spaceship who makes tea) and A Study in Charlotte, where the Holmes and Watson characters are descendants of Sherlock and the good doctor. And I have another one I’ll read soon (A Study in Honor) set in the near future with Dr. Janet Watson and Sara Holmes.
It’s essentially fan fiction (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and these last few years appear to be THE time for it.
Updated days later: Since I ended up not liking the Jeckyll and Hyde and Holmes and Watson and Frankenstein and so on and so on and so on book, I’ve lost my enthusiasm for this blog post. It’s still notable (I think) how many of these books there have been lately (or at least how many of them I’ve been reading), but I’m less inclined to gush about it since I was disappointed by the latest one*. And to be fair, I wasn’t crazy about the Dodgson/Doyle one, either. To be more fair, the issues I had with both books had nothing to do with their premises. I take issue with the execution (which I discussed in my mini reviews for both books, so I’m not going to repeat myself here). I absolutely plan to keep reading this stuff. Hey, look, that’s a sort of enthusiasm. Yay, genre! Boo, bad writing!
*I’m especially disappointed by the Alchemist’s Daughter book because I heard the author speak at Boskone in February, and I really liked her. I feel betrayed. Just a little.