cover image THE SECRET DIARY OF DR. WATSON

THE SECRET DIARY OF DR. WATSON

Anita Janda, . . Allison & Busby, $27.95 (279pp) ISBN 978-0-7490-0570-2

In this episodic first novel, purportedly derived from Dr. Watson's diary, Janda provides a mildly diverting revisionist view of the early years of the good doctor's association with Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, the author's survey approach generates little tension or drama. Taking center stage, Watson details such unknown and less than exciting matters as his relations with his publishers and with his wife, the former Mary Morstan. One of the more amusing revelations concerns Mary's doomed matchmaking efforts on behalf of Holmes, who turns out to have been even more of a misogynist than the canonical adventures suggest. In "A Scandal in Bohemia" Watson apparently invented the business about the detective's attraction to Irene Adler purely to add to the story's appeal. A not particularly likable Holmes remains a shadowy figure, glimpsed mainly through retellings of familiar tales. A lengthy paraphrase of The Hound of the Baskervilles varies in no significant way from the original, while the true story behind Professor Moriarty and the struggle above the Reichenbach Falls is scarcely more interesting. A light, rambling narrative takes a decidedly darker turn when we learn of Mary's sad fate and of Watson's real feelings about his friend's unexpected resurrection. These late developments might have been more affecting had we come to care more about Janda's self-centered Watson, whose great failing, in contrast to Conan Doyle's Watson, is his inability to tell a gripping yarn. (Aug. 1)

Forecast:Elementary. Only Holmes pastiche completists will pick up this one.