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221b_recsTitle: The Adventure of the Expert Cracksman
Author: marycrawford
Pairing: gen
Length: 7,000 words
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD Books
Author's summary: Who was Sherlock Holmes before he met Watson?
Reccer's comments: In one of the original Doyle stories, "The Abbey Grange," Holmes confesses to Watson that he sometimes feels he has done more real harm by discovering a criminal than the criminal had ever done by his crime. He says that he has learned to be cautious of too blindly following the law at the cost of his own conscience. It's a wonderful little moment in the stories that implies important, unseen history in Holmes's early crime-fighting days.
This fic fills in that backstory. It gives us a glimpse of a young man, bored and lonely yet determined to make his way as a self-invented consulting detective, who ventures into the society of London thieves. He means only to learn, but he finds himself more emotionally involved in the lives of these criminals than he ever meant to be. He makes certain choices about who to turn over to the law, and who to pass over, and experience teaches him some painful lessons about the consequences both of mistaken severity and of mistaken lenience. The fic acknowledges the harshness of the Victorian justice system, which issued punishments that were in some cases vastly disproportionate to crimes (particularly property crimes). At the same time, it points out the dangers of turning a blind eye to the law for personal motives.
An intriguing character study and an adventure all in one.
Author: marycrawford
Pairing: gen
Length: 7,000 words
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD Books
Author's summary: Who was Sherlock Holmes before he met Watson?
Reccer's comments: In one of the original Doyle stories, "The Abbey Grange," Holmes confesses to Watson that he sometimes feels he has done more real harm by discovering a criminal than the criminal had ever done by his crime. He says that he has learned to be cautious of too blindly following the law at the cost of his own conscience. It's a wonderful little moment in the stories that implies important, unseen history in Holmes's early crime-fighting days.
This fic fills in that backstory. It gives us a glimpse of a young man, bored and lonely yet determined to make his way as a self-invented consulting detective, who ventures into the society of London thieves. He means only to learn, but he finds himself more emotionally involved in the lives of these criminals than he ever meant to be. He makes certain choices about who to turn over to the law, and who to pass over, and experience teaches him some painful lessons about the consequences both of mistaken severity and of mistaken lenience. The fic acknowledges the harshness of the Victorian justice system, which issued punishments that were in some cases vastly disproportionate to crimes (particularly property crimes). At the same time, it points out the dangers of turning a blind eye to the law for personal motives.
An intriguing character study and an adventure all in one.
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no subject
Date: 2016-05-22 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-25 12:07 pm (UTC)