Your Mary is the loveliest creature I've ever met in fiction. Her letter is touching beyond words. As Watson buying that Mendelssohn record... all too familiar. Holmes, please come back soon. Regarding the other letter: have you ever read/seen The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer? It contains some interesting (if not entirely feasible) guesses about the relationship between Holmes and Moriarty.
Moriarty is 100% real in 7%, he is just interpretated very differently. :) That said, I agree - Moriarty has to be real, and more or less the dangerous criminal that Watson described him. I find it a little annoying that ACD made him such a cipher. I'm curious about what you will make of his brother's letter - Watson has to be very convincing...
Oh, my. This is every bit as wonderful as I'd imagined it would be - which is quite a feat, I'll have you know, since I was expecting it to be quite wonderful indeed.
And it is. Oh, it is.
Such a quiet, understated portrait of Watson's grief in those first horrible weeks - for Mary, and for Holmes - and you've captured perfectly how difficult it is to go on with the business of living in the wake of such a loss. All the little things he doesn't expect... the difficulty of writing that final tale, the seemingly insurmountable task of buying Christmas gifts, the Mendelssohn.
At any rate - I adore this, in case that wasn't clear. And Mary's letter was absolutely perfect.
It's just awful, because at this point he's got to be so used to losing people, (father and brother as well as Holmes and Mary!) but of course he also isn't and can't be.
I just youtubed Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor, and wow, it's so Holmes. All your music choices in this and WiL have felt pitch perfect (to this classical music novice, at least.)
I'm so, SO glad Mary got to finish her letter (I worried she might not have had the chance), and what a letter it is; Watson isn't the only one with a gift for words. And I just love the different layers of text and documents you're weaving into the story as you go.
I'm especially intrigued by the letter to the Times, because, honestly, Moriarty's brother kind of makes a compelling case. For all that Watson tries, "The Final Problem" doesn't really debunk his accusations. Watson never sees Moriarty, and there's no evidence linking the events to Moriarty that doesn't come through Holmes himself. I'm still guessing up a storm as to where you're going with this, and am wondering if this is going to be RELEVANT later on, or if it's just my own paranoia. Either way, I love it. Can't wait for more.
Thank you very much! And I'm so glad you like poor Mary's letter. Yes, I had to let her write it: I wanted to flesh Mary out as much as i could (as an apology for slashing her husband with his best friend) so I thought it was important that there should be two letters -- a "selfish" one, (the first chapter), which ISN'T exclusively about devotion to Watson, which is about what she's losing as well as what Watson is, and a selfless one, which just as truthfully, is about how much she loves Watson and wants to take care of him even after her death.
... Yeeaaah you do have a point about Moriarty's brother's letter... though, to be honest, I was really just trying to work out what would be most likely to shake Watson into writing, as well as what would seem most worth printing for the Times. Also I always rather like helping bad characters figure out ingenious ways of trashing good ones, I don't know why. But it may be that more comes of it, there were fairly important things in WIL that I didn't expect to become so.
Oh wow, absolutely heartbreaking once again! Particularly Mary's letter. Holmes, how COULD you do this to him???? Really can't wait to see how the reunion in this goes...
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Regarding the other letter: have you ever read/seen The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer? It contains some interesting (if not entirely feasible) guesses about the relationship between Holmes and Moriarty.
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I haven't read/seen 7%. I'm interested, but a bit (well, really quite a lot) put off by the Moriarty thing. I REQUIRE Moriarty to be real!
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And it is. Oh, it is.
Such a quiet, understated portrait of Watson's grief in those first horrible weeks - for Mary, and for Holmes - and you've captured perfectly how difficult it is to go on with the business of living in the wake of such a loss. All the little things he doesn't expect... the difficulty of writing that final tale, the seemingly insurmountable task of buying Christmas gifts, the Mendelssohn.
At any rate - I adore this, in case that wasn't clear. And Mary's letter was absolutely perfect.
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It's just awful, because at this point he's got to be so used to losing people, (father and brother as well as Holmes and Mary!) but of course he also isn't and can't be.
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I'm so, SO glad Mary got to finish her letter (I worried she might not have had the chance), and what a letter it is; Watson isn't the only one with a gift for words. And I just love the different layers of text and documents you're weaving into the story as you go.
I'm especially intrigued by the letter to the Times, because, honestly, Moriarty's brother kind of makes a compelling case. For all that Watson tries, "The Final Problem" doesn't really debunk his accusations. Watson never sees Moriarty, and there's no evidence linking the events to Moriarty that doesn't come through Holmes himself. I'm still guessing up a storm as to where you're going with this, and am wondering if this is going to be RELEVANT later on, or if it's just my own paranoia. Either way, I love it. Can't wait for more.
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... Yeeaaah you do have a point about Moriarty's brother's letter... though, to be honest, I was really just trying to work out what would be most likely to shake Watson into writing, as well as what would seem most worth printing for the Times. Also I always rather like helping bad characters figure out ingenious ways of trashing good ones, I don't know why. But it may be that more comes of it, there were fairly important things in WIL that I didn't expect to become so.
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