Short Story Wednesday: "A Scandal in Brooklyn" by Lauren Wilkinson

 

The description of this story at Goodreads starts out with...

"A classic Holmesian detective untangles a locked-room mystery with a very modern twist in this venomously diverting short story by Lauren Wilkinson, the Washington Post bestselling author of American Spy."

But to be honest, I really did not connect the story to a Holmes pastiche until I was at least halfway through reading it. That might be because I haven't read that much fiction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I have read very few pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

The title of the story and a super-intelligent protagonist named "Irene Adler" does point in that direction. There are other connections. Bees figure into the story. There is a character named Shinwell Johnson (which I only remembered from the TV series Elementary).

The setup:

Irene Adler requests that Tommy Diaz, the narrator of the story, meet her and her friend Priya, whose husband has been missing for four days. The husband works for a large multinational tech corporation and had been part of a secret project before his disappearance. Due to Irene's connections with the owner of the corporation (the owner is her husband and they are negotiating a divorce), Irene, Priya, Tommy are able to gain admission to the warehouse where the project is taking place. Almost immediately after they arrive, Priya's husband is found dead in a room set up to look like a clearing the woods.

My Thoughts:

• I think if this had not been a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, I would have dismissed it as too long (46 pages), too many characters that I could not keep track of, and no real depth to the plot. On the other hand, it was not boring, the solution to the puzzle was clever, and clues were supplied; but it was all solved too quickly at the end. 
• The reader is just dropped into the story; the back story of the main characters was too sparse. More information on how Tony and Irene met or previously worked together might have smoothed the way for me. I can see that a series of these stories which each included a little more background or development of the main characters could work well but this story by itself was lacking.
• The story is full of technology and AI references; I think it's possible that younger readers would enjoy this story more than I did (although I usually enjoy stories with AI characters).  
• I really need to read more Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and some pastiches in short story form.

This short story was published in 2022 by Amazon Original Stories. I read the story because I was familiar with the author, Lauren Wilkinson, and I enjoyed her espionage thriller, American Spy, in 2019. In addition to being a spy fiction story, it is an exploration of family dynamics and influences, and how the past shapes us.

Reading Summary for September 2020

I am having a hard time believing that we are already into October and I am summarizing my reads for September. My reading changed a lot this year. It was partially due to Covid-19, I am sure but not only because of that. I think some of my challenges that I started the year with are not going to be completed and I doubt if I will push myself in the last three months to catch up. 

This month I read seven books. Four of the books were vintage mysteries, published in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Two of them were spy fiction, although they were very different books. And one of the books was science fiction. All of them were very good reads.

Science Fiction

The Last Emperox (2020) by John Scalzi

This is the last book in the Interdependency trilogy. The first book was The Collapsing Empire, which I reviewed here. I liked the 2nd and 3rd books in the trilogy even more than the first one.

Crime Fiction

The Way Some People Die (1951) by Ross Macdonald

This is the third Lew Archer book, and Lew is trying to find a missing woman for her mother. He tells the mother that this type of case is for the police; she doesn't want the police involved. The plot is very convoluted and the characters are great. My review here.

The Arms Maker of Berlin (2009) by Dan Fesperman

I could not decide whether this was spy fiction or just a thriller. Certainly intelligence agents are involved, and the thrills are low key. A history professor who specializes in German resistance during World War II gets mixed up with the FBI when his former mentor is arrested for stealing important documents. His work leads to exposure of wartime secrets and deceit, and includes visits to Bern, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany. I loved this book; it did have a slow start, but there is lots of action towards the end.

The Beast Must Die (1938) by Nicholas Blake

This is the 4th book in the Nigel Strangeways series. Frank Cairnes is a writer of detective fiction, a widower, and cannot accept that his only son is dead and the hit-and-run driver has never been found. The book starts with a journal where Cairnes describes his plans to find and kill the person who killed his son. Strangeways doesn't show up until about halfway through the book. My review here.

Laurels Are Poison (1942) by Gladys Mitchell

This is the 14th book in the Mrs. Bradley series, a series which totals 66 books. In this one, Mrs. Bradley is serving as Warden of Athelstan Hall at Cartaret Training College. She is there to investigate the disappearance of Miss Murchan, the previous Warden. I read this as part of a group read, hosted at Jason Half's blog. I enjoyed the book and will be reading more in this series.

American Spy (2019) by Lauren Wilkinson

This is a debut novel. It can be classified as spy fiction, but it is not only focused on espionage. The protagonist, Marie Mitchell, is black and female, and has been working for the FBI in the New York office. The story is set partially in New York, and partially in Burkina Faso, and it has an unusual structure, told in the style of a journal written for her young sons. It is an exploration of family dynamics and influences, and how the past shapes us. There are many flashbacks to Marie's childhood, her motivation for being a spy, and why she fits in that job so well. 

Voyage into Violence (1956) by Frances and Richard Lockridge

This is the 21st of 26 mysteries featuring Mr. and Mrs. North. I consider these mysteries to be light, fun reads. I don't want a steady diet of them, but they are great for mixing in with more gritty or serious reading. Over the course of the series, Pam and Jerry North have become good friends with Bill Weigand, New York City homicide detective, and his wife Dorian. In this book the two couples are taking a Caribbean cruise to Havana. A man is murdered and Bill is called on to investigate.