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liznutting 's review for:
The Italian Secretary
by Caleb Carr
As someone who used to dabble in the world of fan fiction, I've always been baffled by the resistance of some authors to fan-originated treatments of their characters. I understand the standard response: Works of literature are the author's bread and butter and to allow someone else to encroach on the same territory cheapens the original product, the way a faux Gucci bag sold on a New York City street cheapens the original Gucci brand. But I think there is a fundamental flaw in that logic, at least when it comes to books and stories. The product of an author is not a zero-sum commodity in the same way a purse is. Engaging in fan fiction, whether as a reader or a writer, does not preclude the 'consumption' of the original product. In fact, one is unlikely to seek out fan fiction or spend any amount of time with it, if one is not already deeply engaged with the original work. And members of the fan fiction community are usually the first to pre-order a new book by a favorite author or wait in line at midnight for the premier showing of a movie or collect every DVD in a favorite television series.
But the other reason that I think the protests against fan fiction are disingenuous is that the pros do it too. Hollywood's bread and butter is the film adaptation of literary classics (and the not so literary or classic). And no other fictional character has been adapted more times in more formats than Sherlock Holmes. In film alone, 75 different actors have portrayed the detective in over 200 films. But film is not the only medium that breeds new Holmes stories. Cruise the mystery shelves of any bookstore and one finds lots of "further adventures of" novels featuring the clever detective. Although the books are of varying quality, no one is claiming that these dozens of new Holmes' adventures are cheapening the original "brand" or causing readers to fly to the faux Holmes and away from Conan Doyle's. In fact, I suspect quite the opposite is happening. Director Guy Ritchie introduced a whole new generation to his version of Sherlock Holmes, Action Hero. Inevitably some of those movie goers are going to pick up Conan Doyle's stories. I had never read a single original Sherlock Holmes story before reading Laurie R. King's wonderful The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
Caleb Carr's The Italian Secretary is a fine example of "professional" fan fiction staring Sherlock Holmes. As the author of several critically acclaimed mysteries set in the same late Victorian era, Carr is well-suited as an interpreter of Holmes. And The Italian Secretary even has the imprimatur of the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle. In Carr's tale, Holmes and Watson are summoned by Sherlock's brother Mycroft to the Scottish palace of Holyrood, residence of Scottish monarchs since 1505, where two brutal murders have threatened Queen Victoria's safety and evoked claims of spectral activity by the ghost of The Italian Secretary, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was viciously murdered in front of the Queen by her consort, Lord Darnley, in 1566.
How much one enjoys any given "further adventure" of Sherlock Holmes will depend on how well one thinks the author has captured the main characters of Holmes and Watson. I enjoyed Carr's version of both, although at times I thought them a touch anachronistic, which surprised me from an author who is also a published historian (so perhaps I'm wrong). Watson is disturbed by Holmes' apparent willingness to entertain the possibility of ghostly activity over other, more rational, explanations. When this inconsistently is addressed and we are made aware of Holmes' reasoning, it didn't ring true to me and sounded more like late 20th Century psychological analysis than what I would expect the "real" Holmes' to believe. In another spot, Watson describes Balmoral Castle as a "Victorian Gothic masterpiece"; I wonder if someone living in the middle of Victoria's reign would really have invoked her name to describe an architectural style. Wouldn't that description more likely be applied retrospectively from the vantage point of a post-Victorian consciousness?
I've vacillated between 2 and 3 stars for The Italian Secretary. I'm giving it three because I enjoyed it as a story in its own right, even if I sometimes felt the tone of Holmes and Watson didn't quite fit my take on Conan Doyle's characters. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years before I finally read it; it is one of those books that is perfect to slip in between more serious novels, like the crackers at a wine tasting.
But the other reason that I think the protests against fan fiction are disingenuous is that the pros do it too. Hollywood's bread and butter is the film adaptation of literary classics (and the not so literary or classic). And no other fictional character has been adapted more times in more formats than Sherlock Holmes. In film alone, 75 different actors have portrayed the detective in over 200 films. But film is not the only medium that breeds new Holmes stories. Cruise the mystery shelves of any bookstore and one finds lots of "further adventures of" novels featuring the clever detective. Although the books are of varying quality, no one is claiming that these dozens of new Holmes' adventures are cheapening the original "brand" or causing readers to fly to the faux Holmes and away from Conan Doyle's. In fact, I suspect quite the opposite is happening. Director Guy Ritchie introduced a whole new generation to his version of Sherlock Holmes, Action Hero. Inevitably some of those movie goers are going to pick up Conan Doyle's stories. I had never read a single original Sherlock Holmes story before reading Laurie R. King's wonderful The Beekeeper's Apprentice.
Caleb Carr's The Italian Secretary is a fine example of "professional" fan fiction staring Sherlock Holmes. As the author of several critically acclaimed mysteries set in the same late Victorian era, Carr is well-suited as an interpreter of Holmes. And The Italian Secretary even has the imprimatur of the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle. In Carr's tale, Holmes and Watson are summoned by Sherlock's brother Mycroft to the Scottish palace of Holyrood, residence of Scottish monarchs since 1505, where two brutal murders have threatened Queen Victoria's safety and evoked claims of spectral activity by the ghost of The Italian Secretary, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was viciously murdered in front of the Queen by her consort, Lord Darnley, in 1566.
How much one enjoys any given "further adventure" of Sherlock Holmes will depend on how well one thinks the author has captured the main characters of Holmes and Watson. I enjoyed Carr's version of both, although at times I thought them a touch anachronistic, which surprised me from an author who is also a published historian (so perhaps I'm wrong). Watson is disturbed by Holmes' apparent willingness to entertain the possibility of ghostly activity over other, more rational, explanations. When this inconsistently is addressed and we are made aware of Holmes' reasoning, it didn't ring true to me and sounded more like late 20th Century psychological analysis than what I would expect the "real" Holmes' to believe. In another spot, Watson describes Balmoral Castle as a "Victorian Gothic masterpiece"; I wonder if someone living in the middle of Victoria's reign would really have invoked her name to describe an architectural style. Wouldn't that description more likely be applied retrospectively from the vantage point of a post-Victorian consciousness?
I've vacillated between 2 and 3 stars for The Italian Secretary. I'm giving it three because I enjoyed it as a story in its own right, even if I sometimes felt the tone of Holmes and Watson didn't quite fit my take on Conan Doyle's characters. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years before I finally read it; it is one of those books that is perfect to slip in between more serious novels, like the crackers at a wine tasting.