Fic Rec: A Secret Doubt

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Title: A Secret Doubt

Author: life_downsized

Characters: Sherlock, Mycroft, Peter Guillam, George Smiley

Length: 3,985 words

Rating: PG

Warnings: character death, suicide.

Verse: BBC crossover with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Author's summary: When Sherlock is five, his Uncle Peter shows him how to conjure a coin from behind his ear, installing in the child a desire to unlock the wonders of the universe. Sherlock believes himself to have found a hero in his relative. Over time, this ideology is sorely tested by circumstance, and a strange man called George Smiley.

Excerpt:

When Sherlock Holmes is five, his Uncle Peter shows him how to magically retrieve a coin – in his case, an American nickel – from behind someone’s ear. It doesn’t take Sherlock long to work out the complicated mechanics required to do such a trick, but even though he is just a child, he can still sense that look, that gleam in his uncle’s eye that says ‘the game is on.’ For the first time, he feels that all encompassing thrill of the chase, that insatiable desire to know ‘how’ and ‘why,’ and it enthrals him to the core of his five-year-old being. He works out the puzzle in less than ten seconds, but when Uncle Peter ruffles his hair and says “Well done,” he knows there and then that he will live for that feeling for the rest of his life.

Reccer's comments:
This absolutely stunning AU does a wonderful job of mixing the worlds of Sherlock and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Here, Peter Guilliam  is Sherlock's eccentric uncle, whom Sherlock adulates and distrusts in turn. The focus of the story is their relationship, which provides an unusual yet insightful vantage point from which to explore different parts of Sherlock's life story. Whether Sherlock likes it or not, Uncle Peter is a shaping force on his life, and even when Peter is absent--as he is for much of the story--he is in the back of Sherlock's mind. Peter in turn is defined by secrecy: a requirement of his job, as well as his personal life. The power of secrets to destroy peoples, relationships, even whole families is a constant presence in the story, as menacing in its own way as Moriarty. The tone of this fic is unsurprisingly somber, but in a beautiful way. Everything is understated: the quiet, meticulous writing style, the reserved characters, even the plot. Yet, the story hums with tension and inner turmoil, and is never for a moment slow. The ending is both surprising and wholly satisfying, without being in the least bit saccharin. There is no happy ending, but somehow you get the feeling that the story couldn't have finished any other way.

This is obviously a crossover, and I do think it adds something to have read the Le Carré novel (or seen the recent film), but knowledge of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is definitely not required to enjoy the story. In fact, I've read very few Sherlock fics that manage to capture the character of Sherlock as well as this crossover has. Read it. You won't regret a minute.