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I recently spent a very pleasant few hours reading a book. And I mean that as something totally positive (unlike a certain pet peeve of mine -- an American sports announcer for whom "pleasant" is used as a put-down.) I had fun reading Lora Roberts' THE AFFAIR OF THE INCOGNITO TENANT. It had some flaws, but they tend to be flaws that show up in a lot of historical mysteries; or maybe they're just things that bug me. But to the good stuff first, since that's more important and more impressive. Roberts, who has written a lot of other mystery novels offers here the subtitle A Mystery With Sherlock Holmes and the wording is telling. Holmes is not the only sleuth here, and it's the character of Charlotte Dodson that is the main pleasure of the book. Dodson is the housekeeper of a manor where the owner has died. She's been kept on and the house leased until the owner's remaining family can be located; Dodson, a widow with an 11-year-old son who is away at school, had a warm relationship with Major Fallowes, although not a romantic one (which some rumor-mongers insist on believing) and she helped the major write his memoirs, which included stories of his time in India. One day the Major's solicitor arrives with a prospective tenant, a thin intense man called Sigerson (yes I see you nodding over there). For those not familiar with what is called the Holmes canon, Sigerson is a not uncommon Holmes cover name (I know this from the Sherlockian I live with; I am not a fan of Doyle's work myself). Mr. Sigerson, who is studying bees, wants a quiet place for his six-month lease. In a matter of minutes, Holmes' usual assumptions about the usual housekeeper are dashed when Charlotte Dodson adopts his skills of observation and tells the prospective tenant all about himself. She's clearly not the usual female he expected and that is the joy of the book. She's perceptive, she's aware -- both of people and surroundings and of her place in Edwardian society. She's lost her position in society by losing her husband, but she's making the best of it and will not give in to the expectations and pettiness of village life. Her employer left her his substantial library, along with other items, showing not only his affection but also his respect for her (and forgive me, but the lyrics of the scandalized townsfolk from The Music Man come to mind: "He left River City the library building but he left all the books to HER"). Sigerson is hiding out -- for good reason -- but he cannot help investigating when one of the town's busybodies is found dead. He and Dodson make a lovely team; she has the skills Holmes most admires -- the ability to draw conclusions based on real evidence -- and few of the flutters of the more traditional woman in his experience. And that's where I get annoyed at books like this; why is it that so many of the working-class folks have to be so dumb, or ditzy? I've encountered this in too many books. Was every housemaid brainless? Did all the single women in town always gossip and sneer and judge? It seems to be a real ingrown tradition now in many books set in the last century or so (this particular story is set in Holmes' later years; 1903 to be precise) and I tire of the various incarnations of annoying, or flighty, or just plain dumb females. I know that education was not offered to most women of the time, and as with women like Dodson, it was often somehow their fault that they were widows. Thus they would lose their class standing and the esteem that somehow, being middle-class and married gave them. It makes me grit my teeth, I can't help it. And ditzy is the word for the fluttery Violet and Rose, given to swoons and shrieks and hysterics they seem to enjoy and the cook is just plain weird. I'm very grateful to Roberts for not rehashing that stereotype -- the fat red-faced cook who screams and throws things -- but honestly, Mrs Clithoe is not very, um, grounded. Get past that, and you'll enjoy a story that moves well, that incorporates, I think, enough of the Holmes feeling and atmosphere that it would satisfy all but the most traditional fans of the canon. Laurie R King's Mary Russell books bring Sherlock Holmes face to face with his equal. While THE AFFAIR OF THE INCOGNITO TENANT may not add a huge new dimension to the Holmes world, it is a new and I think welcome addition to the always growing list of Holmes pastiche and I think King's Mary Russell and Charlotte Dodson would get along just fine. They might even become fast friends.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, December 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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