Fic Rec

[moon_custafer]

All right, it’s been up on AO3 for seven years, so I assume some of you must have read The Violet Hour, by breathedout; why hadn’t I, until today?

Seriously, this is better-written than most professionally-published novels (also probably more explicit, although I’m far from an expert there): Holmes/Watson, only it’s 1920, Watson’s a shell-shocked WWI medic, and they’re assisted in this adventure by Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes – Strachey because the case involves the parallel disappearance of two women eighty years apart, and Holmes needs someone to help with the historical side of things; Keynes because he insisted in coming along.

I like the complex portrayal of Holmes as someone who’s far from asexual, but whose fear of losing self-control largely prevents him from acting on his feelings; and when he does, he has to work from a script in order to feel safe. Also like the contrast of the pulp-fiction Yellow-Peril image of Limehouse with the reality; I think, from one of the author’s notes, that that part of the story with written out of annoyance with Sherlock’s “The Blind Banker.” There are author’s notes at the end of each chapter, explaining the historical references (numerous, especially given the flashbacks to the 1840s).

Anyway, if you haven’t read it yet, and you’ve got a couple of hours, go take a look.

Comments

[sabotabby]

That looks indeed like something to check out. The Sherlock fandom scares me but it sounds like it’s sufficiently removed from the show?

[moon_custafer]

I didn’t actually realize it was an AU of the show rather than of the original stories until I read some of the the author’s responses to comments— she?/they apparently chose the 1920s setting as a midway point between the two versions of the characters.