The Mrs. Hudson Mysteries (Book Review)

In general, I would say I’m not a huge fan of authors picking up and continuing and/or changing the works and characters created by others. On second thought, though, I realize that this has of course been going on ever since mankind first began telling stories…

One fictional character that even survived his original creator’s attempt to kill him off to get rid of him, is the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, got tired of him and sent him to his death in one story… But got such massive protests from his readers that he had to resurrect him again! Since then Sherlock has lived on and survived not only his creator, but also the copy-rights.

One of several modern writers who have tried adding their own twist to the characters and setting of the Holmes stories is Martin Davies. I’m not sure I would have felt tempted to pick up this series if not for the fact that I had already read four other books by this author – all different from each other, and I liked them all. (The Conjuror’s Bird, The Unicorn Road, The Year After and Havana Sleeping.) So I decided to give his take on Sherlock Holmes a go as well – and don’t regret it!

I read The Spirits’ Curse back in February this year; The Malabar Rose in June; and just finished The Lazarus Testament.

In the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Mrs Hudson is the landlady from whom Holmes and Dr Watson rent their rooms. In Davies’ version, Holmes and Watson buy or rent the house, and then employ Mrs Hudson as housekeeper. She also takes in an orphaned kitchen maid to help her around the house. Not knowing her own origin, the maid goes by the name of Flotsam (as in ‘flotsam and jetsam’), or Flottie.

Mrs Hudson’s past remains a bit of a mystery as well, but having served as housekeeper in several wealthy households, she turns out to be nearly as well-connected with all kinds of people as her new employer, the famous detective – and also just as sharp-witted, in her own more down-to-earth way. And Flottie soon finds herself serving not only as kitchen-maid, but also as the downstairs counterpart of Dr Watson. As Conan Doyle told the Sherlock Holmes stories through Dr Watson, Martin Davies tells his stories through Flottie (supposed to be looking back on events from some time in the fictional future). So what we get in these books is a kind of “Downton Abbey” or upstairs/downstairs view of the famous 221b Baker Street. Important clients still come to seek the help of the famous detective; but we also get the kitchen perspective of events, and Mrs Hudson’s keen eye and her many contacts play a huge role in the background.

Very conveniently, there is a little storage room across the hall from the sitting room where Holmes and Watson usually receive their guests – and doors are often left ajar… So Mrs Hudson and Flottie overhear a lot while polishing silver and folding linen and setting tables and whatnot. And when home alone, Holmes and Watson sometimes also pop into the kitchen and end up having a cup or glass of something in front of the cosy fire there, discussing things with Mrs H – and even with Flottie.

On the whole, I think Davies has managed to nail the classic characteristics of Holmes and Watson quite well – just from a somewhat different perspective. The novels are well-written, the mysteries intricate and very much in the Sherlock Holmes-style, and the general atmosphere seems authentic for the time period.   

What perhaps appears a little less believable to me is the friendship formed between Flottie and two young upper class cousins of around her own age. Mrs H arranges for Flottie to be tutored by the young man who knows a lot about science; and she also becomes friends with his female cousin residing in the same house, and gets treated by them like their equal. But it serves the story, as it allows Flottie to move more and more easily between different roles and classes of society. (The two cousins reappear in the following books as well, and get involved in those stories too. They also serve a kind of comic relief purpose, which makes it easy to overlook the credibility issue.)

In Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse, Holmes gets a visit from a traveler recently returned from the Far East, who fears he's under a curse that will end his life.

In Mrs Hudson and the Malabar Rose, a world famous magician is about to perform in London, and Sherlock Holmes is asked to guard a priceless ruby.

In Mrs Hudson and the Lazarus Testament, an ancient religious artefact has gone missing - and so has the viscount who holds the only clue as to its whereabouts. The trail leads Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, as well as their female servants, to the lonely Cumbrian moors, and a country house in need of a housekeeper.

Book Review: Havana Sleeping by Martin Davies

On my Kindle, during the month of October, I’ve been reading Havana Sleeping by Martin Davies, also author of The Conjuror’s Bird, The Unicorn Road and The Year After. (The links go to my blog reviews of those books. The first title I read before my blogging days.)

This novel “of espionage, love and murder” (as the cover says) is set in Havana in the 1850’s. It is a fictional novel but based on some real events. The author’s notes on the historical background can be found in an afterword. They contain certain spoilers though, so on the whole I think I have to agree with the editor’s note (at the beginning) that they are best left till the end. (Which I did, even if there were times during the reading that I felt tempted…)

As in his earlier books, I find Davies very good at creating images of the past, and making the reader feel as if we were there, watching. However, with this novel I have to admit I found it hard to get “involved”, and to keep track of the male characters involved in this novel – like who is working for whom, in what capacity and even their nationality. The women in the story on the other hand are very few, and only one of them, a mulatta by name of Leonarda, really stands out as a main character. But even her role in among all these men is not easy to pin down – as she does not really fit into any accepted social patterns of her own time, but seems to move freely in and out of them as she pleases.

Looking back at the whole novel now, it hits me that in trying to express my frustration and confusion about the characters keeping to escape me (not to mention the whole mess of 1850’s English-American-Spanish-Cuban politics), I think I may actually have caught the very essence of it. This is not a story told from a clear black-or-white angle. (Which also makes Leonarda just the right person to lead us through it.) It may start out as a rather conventional murder mystery (which may lure us into also expecting a traditional ending) – but it turns out way more complicated than that. The whole novel is full of “red herrings” – just as politics and espionage tend to be…

My Kindle as usual asked me for a star rating when I reached the end. Hesitating between 3 and 4 (out of 5), I decided on 4, because I can’t get away from a feeling that the book is probably cleverer than I am. Whether in the long run it will turn out to have left a lasting impression – well, only time will be able to tell, when enough of it has passed! With ‘The Year After’ (the year after what?), I had to go back to my review now to remember what it was about. ‘The Conjuror’s Bird’ and ‘The Unicorn Road’ on the other hand - those titles immediately bring back impressions, even if not all the details. I suspect that with ‘Havana Sleeping’, the title itself may be a strong enough clue to conjure up images as well – even if I’ll probably soon forget names and who was who and played which part in the puzzle.

Quotes:

“In all his years in the Foreign Office, [he] had never been abroad. The realities of foreign postings were new to him, and evidently more complicated than he had anticipated.”

“She recognised them instantly. They were the friends she had grown up with, each of them exactly as she remembered. She knew them by the patterns of fading on their bindings, by their thumbed decreptitude, by the familiar rips and tatters on their spines. --- Memories so strong she felt the stirring of tears.”

“You don’t become a spy all at once. You don’t sign the articles. You probably don’t even know it’s happening.”

BTT & Book Review: The Year After

The Year After by Martin Davies
*****

This novel is set in Britain, December 1919, just after the first World War. Tom Allen is one of the lucky ones returning from the battlefields seemingly intact; but not knowing what he is going to make of the rest of his life. Meanwhile, he accepts an invitation to spend Christmas with old friends at Hannesford Court, where he used to spend happy days in the past, before the war.

In some ways, it's almost as if nothing has changed. Dinners, games, hunting; plans to resume the tradition of the New Year Ball. Everyone is there who used to be there – except for all the young men that died in the war, and are now mourned and celebrated as heroes. Because what other way is there to make sense of it all?

There were others who died too, even if not on the battlefield. The old German professor… What exactly was it that happened to him, just before the war broke out? And that young girl who supposedly drowned herself? … Everything that happened before the war seems so very long ago now – and seen in relation to all the war-related deaths, does it really even matter?

In returning to Hannesford, Tom finds himself confronted in unexpected ways with the past as well as how to deal with the present and the future.

Some questions are raised early on in this book, but it takes time before they start to come together. I think the slowness is intentional. A fragment here, a glimpse there… It puts the reader in the same kind of reflection and hesitation as the characters in the story. There are two different main narrators: Tom Allen, and Anne Gregory, former companion to Lady Stansbury, and now nurse to the vicar’s wife in the village.

For me this book reminds of Downtown Abbey (the recent TV-series),  Agatha Christie style mysteries, The Great Gatsby (which I recently reread), and Brideshead Revisited (I never read the novel by Evelyn Waugh, but have seen the 1980’s TV-series based on it more than once). (Must put that novel on my list…)

For me, living in a country that was not actively involved in neither WWI nor WWII, this book really drives home the point of how many young men died in the first world war, and what imbalance in society that must have caused afterwards.

Quotes:

And in almost every house, a photograph, prominently displayed. I hadn’t realised that ours had become a nation of shrines.
…
Sometimes it was hard to remember who was alive and who was dead.
…
In every such gathering, that year and every year, there would be young women who did not dance because their partners lay dead in the fields of France. They would be sitting out those dances for the rest of their lives.
…
‘There were telegrams in Germany too, you know. They’ve got the same empty places at their tables. Empty beds. But they can’t stand in church like we can and thank God for victory and try to persuade themselves it was all worthwhile.’
…

As I mentioned in my Teaser Tuesday post, this book is quite different from the previous two titles by the same author (The Conjuror’s Bird and The Unicorn Road) - which in turn were not like each other either. I’ll be curious to read whatever comes out of Martin Davies’s pen next, though. (Yes, it is said that he actually writes his manuscripts in longhand!)

… 

I’m linking this review to Booking Through Thursday, where Deb asks: “Happy Spring Equinox, everyone! What book are YOU choosing to celebrate with?”

As for Spring Equinox… There’s really nothing outside my windows to indicate it yet. Okay, okay – there is the light. The days are getting longer. But the sun has not won the battle against the snow yet. This week some days we’ve had icy winds, snowfall and sunshine at the same time. (I suppose that’s better than snowstorm without any sun, but still… It’s weird!)