Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson

Cards on the table: I’m already on record as saying that Michael Dibdin’s The Last Sherlock Holmes Story is the pinnacle of Holmes/Jack the Ripper match-ups. However, like the great detective, I like to match my theories to my facts and not vice versa, so I was quite happy to test my convictions by reading Lyndsay Faye’s debut novel, Dust and Shadow.

The set-up pretty much gives you the plot: It’s 1888, and women in Whitechapel are turning up dead in increasingly horrific circumstances. It only takes two corpses for the Yard, in the form of Inspector Lestrade, to turn to Sherlock Holmes for help, setting him and Dr. Watson on the trail of a killer so fiendishly gruesome that his name still inspires horror over a century later.

Faye’s novel reflects both her painstaking research into the Ripper murders and her deep love of Doyle’s creations, but though the historical detail is perfect and her story moves right along, her story feels more workmanlike than anything else. The difference may only be noticeable if you’ve read her excellent Sherlockian short stories, which manage to perfectly balance mystery plots with emotional insights into the characters solving them. While her Watson is strong, Holmes feels a bit flat until almost the end of the novel, and I spent a great deal of time concerned that the attention lavished on the smart, funny original female character meant that she was being set up as an Adlerian love-interest destined to be fridged.

To me, Dust and Shadow reads as the hugely ambitious and mostly successful debut of an author who’d go on to perfect her version of the world’s first consulting detective elsewhere. But despite it’s brilliant craftsmanship and entertainment value, Dust (for me) still lives in the shadow of Dibdin.

Pitting Sherlock Holmes against the most notorious serial killer of his era is irresistible and many a writer has done just that with varying degrees of success. But they rarely do justice to both the Great Detective and the fiend who sent his taunting missives with their grisly trophies “from hell.” What Ms. Faye has managed is to remain true to the facts of the Ripper’s crimes while crafting a story that sounds and feels like an authentic Sherlock Holmes story. She gets both protagonists right, she gets their voices and that of Conan Doyle right, and she gets the story structure right. What’s more the solution she provides for the world’s most famous unsolved case makes perfect sense. It has been a very long time since I have enjoyed a Sherlock Holmes story this much. More, please!

After reading other Holmes pastiches, I read positive reviews of this book and purchased it based on those recommendation. I am certainly glad I did to say the least. As a life long lover of Sherlock Holmes, I am eager to read accounts of his exploits and this is the best I have ever read outside of the cannon. An outstanding book, by a remarkable writer. The plot and the voice of Watson were perfect. I look forward to reading her other books. I can not more heartily endorse this book. I only hope she revisits a case of the master.

Stories and variations on the Sherlock Holmes detective stories are numerous and infinite in variety, but there are not a lot of books where Holmes takes a back seat and Watson comes to the forefront. “Dust and Shadow” highlights Dr Watson’s caring and honourable nature, his pride in being the close friend of the brilliant Victorian detective, Sherlock Holmes, yet sorrowful over his friend’s self-destructive nature. Written by Watson, and featuring some rather unusual and louche characters who may or may not be involved in the Ripper killings (you will have to read the book!), we are given an alternative and highly plausible reason for why the murders suddenly stopped.

The satisfying book is well-written, atmospheric in its build-up of horror, extremely accurate in historical descriptions, sympathetic in its portrayal of the inner-city poor of London and of that most dynamic of duos, Watson and Holmes. I hesitate to write more about the book as I do not want to give anything away, but suffice it to say that people who enjoy tense, well-paced and very well-written mysteries will enjoy Lyndsay Faye’s superior book. I literally could not put it down, reading until the wee hours of the morning, and I am betting that anyone who picks it up will be unable to put it down as well. Encore, Ms Faye!

Lindsay Faye has done an interesting job capturing Holmes and Watson in the traditional Arthur Conan Doyle style. She has been faithful to the true story of Jack the Ripper (to the extent it is known) and wrote her story to dovetail nicely with an ending that is creative and plausible. I won’t spoil it any more than that. If you like Doyle, or you like 19th century historical fiction, or you like Brit detective stories, or all of the above, you will enjoy this book. She does make Inspector Lestrade a bit more benign than most portrayals but he’s an agreeable enough character that this is not meant as criticism. I’m looking forward to trying one of her other books…

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