At times, I’m pleased to be reminded of the glorious age we live in, where so many works are easily available to us.
I found The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson, by Michael Mallory, at a local used book store, hidden amongst a bunch of books related to Sherlock Holmes in some way. Most were traditional pastiches, more stories of Holmes the Great Detective in a vaguely Doyle-ish style, but since I’m always interested in seeing more done with women in that setting, I picked this one up. (Note: there is no queer content in this book —- unless you count occasional appearances of Mycroft Homes, “one of the queerest men [in London]” —- but seeing a woman solve crimes in the era is still interesting to me.)
Meeting Mrs. Watson
The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson collects twelve stories starring Amelia Watson, described as “the devoted, intrepid, and highly opinionated spouse of the good Dr. Watson.” As fans know, Holmes complains in “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier” that “Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife”, which is where readers deduce the existence of a second, unnamed Mrs. Watson. This one’s a former stage actress who’s quite intelligent… and unafraid to speak her truth.
The first story quickly establishes that Amelia has little patience with “that demented friend” of her husband’s. “The Adventure of the Left-Behind Wife” is structured as a letter from Amelia to a friend where she complains about John not taking care of himself, as he’s been taken ill after “stay[ing] up the entire evening hidden in a hedge, playing out some Boys Own Detective adventure yet again.”
When the two, Amelia and Holmes, finally meet, it’s dynamic, with grudging respect. Each depend on, and even love, John Watson, in very different ways, and so they come to a kind of understanding. That’s important in the second story, “The Adventure of the Other Woman”, in which Watson has been taken and Holmes and Amelia must team up to rescue him.
“The Adventure of the Ripper’s Scrawl” takes on a Jack the Ripper-inspired series of murders, with an added cipher, while “The Adventure of the Retiring Detective” brings back Irene Norton, nee Adler. As Amelia’s career as an amateur investigator continues, her attitude towards Holmes mellows.
Not Too Much Holmes
The other stories in the book rarely include Holmes, and some of them barely mention Watson. (There’s a reason given in one of them for Holmes’ absence. In general, he’s considered to be “retired”.) Amelia takes on a life of her own and demonstrates herself to be quite an acceptable detective, while Holmes is a sometimes supporting character, a cameo to remind us of the time and setting of the stories. But I like that, that the Holmesian world can be expanded to have room for characters other than the white men we’re already familiar with.
If you think Holmes is an unassailable hero, you won’t enjoy this read; but if, like me, you don’t mind the occasional snarky comment about his habits, it’s a fun set of period mysteries. Amelia visits a small-town inn with a ghost, returns to acting (this time on film), and meets Mycroft Holmes in royal company. She finds two kidnapped boys, goes to the theater, and watches her husband testify in a court case. She even accompanies Dr. Watson on a speaking tour of America, solving a murder in San Francisco.
More Mrs. Watson
This volume is copyright 2000. Since it’s almost a quarter-century old, I had little hope of finding more, but since then, there’s been the development of this thing called print on demand. Which meant that the other three books featuring her were easily available at my favorite online retailer.
It did take a little research to realize which volumes I wanted. The Exploits of the Second Mrs. Watson (2008) is a followup collection of 13 more short stories. It begins with a biographical sketch to establish the character, and continuing from the previous collection, she is definitely the lead. The stories in this book often send Holmes and Watson off-page with other adventures, although understandably, Watson is seen more often.
There are two additional novels I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading, Murder in the Bath (2009) and The Stratford Conspiracy (2011). Another two collections of short stories reprint the Adventures in large-format type: The Other Mrs. Watson and The Return Of The Other Mrs. Watson. The two novels are available in that large-print line as Mrs. Watson And The Death Cult and Mrs. Watson And The Shakespeare Curse.
I’ve enjoyed the tales as expansions of my favorite fictional world, making more space for a woman’s point of view.
(This review originally appeared in the fourth issue of the So Far Down Queer Street journal.)
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