A review by lem119
A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes by Steve Berman, Elka Cloke, Ruth Sims, Joseph R.G. DeMarco, Rajan Khanna, Stephen Osborne

2.0

While Star Trek fans who saw a romantic connection between Kirk and Spock are credited with coining the term "slash," the idea of audiences noticing romantic tension between two male characters (who are not canonically in a relationship) came far before that, and therefore it is no surprise that there are many who believe that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's relationship could have potentially been more than platonic, and that there are quite a few interpretations of their relationship in this way. Some of them are very good, I think, but unfortunately this collection as a whole is not one of them. Not all of the stories focus on Holmes or Watson as homosexual; in some cases it is a client or a villain, and the concepts developed are very interested but not well executed. They mostly attempt to discuss the illegality of homosexuality in Victorian England, but do so in a heavy handed and rather un-compelling way. There are a few stories in this collection that I did quite like—The Kidnapping of Alice Braddon, and The Adventure of the Poesy Ring particularly—but overall the stories were unmemorable. I've read better Holmes pastiches, and I'm sure there are better adaptations that examine the possibilities of Holmes' and/or sexuality or that of their acquaintances.