06/15/2018
During the New Civil War, Dr. Janet Watson served on the battlefield treating wounded soldiers until a bullet destroyed her arm and ended her surgical career. Having lost her parents, her girlfriend, and now her profession, she heads to Washington, DC, where she meets Sara Holmes, who is also black and a member of the LGBTQA community, but as enigmatic and mercurial as Watson is angry and dogmatic. Holmes offers Watson a home and more questions than answers. Yet when Watson discovers that veterans from the war have begun dying mysteriously, she risks her tenuous position to discover the truth with the help of Holmes's own position as a covert agent. References to politics, race, and veterans' issues enhance a vivid, near-future universe. VERDICT In this intriguing and fresh twist on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, O'Dell (pseudonym for author Beth Bernobich) brings a heady mix of dystopian sf and strong female protagonists in the first of a new series.—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
04/09/2018
This riveting mystery (fantasist Beth Bernobich’s first work under the O’Dell pseudonym), set in near-future Washington D.C., spotlights delightfully fresh adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters. After Dr. Janet Watson loses her arm in an attack by the New Confederacy, she is discharged from the Army and returns home. She meets the fascinating, if infuriating, Sara Holmes, and they become roommates in Georgetown, Va., where, as two black women, they are not entirely welcome. Watson observes troubling patterns in her new job at the VA, and these, along with prompts from Holmes’s top secret connections, send the women on a high-stakes search for answers. As the mystery unfolds, it departs from direct Doyle parallels and takes on an entertaining life of its own. Attention to detail about futuristic elements, such as Watson’s mixed feelings about her temperamental mechanical arm, helps construct a believable setting. Readers who pick this up for the novelty of Watson and Holmes as black women will be impressed by how well O’Dell realizes them as full, rich characters. This is a real treat for fans of Conan Doyle and SF mysteries. (July)
O’Dell’s prose is sharp and clean, rising at times to the poetic, and her near-future Washington DC feels like a real city. The USA of A Study in Honor is a place with deep political divisions, and some of that comes into play in this story. It feels appropriately complicated as a future, and not a simplistic future vision of now.” — Locus Magazine
“Readers who pick this up for the novelty of Watson and Holmes as black women will be impressed by how well O’Dell realizes them as full, rich characters. This is a real treat for fans of Conan Doyle and SF mysteries.” — Publishers Weekly
“If you like dystopian future narratives, queer romance, and Sherlock Holmes, you’ll adore A Study in Honor.” — LitHub
“In this intriguing and fresh twist on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, O’Dell brings a heady mix of dystopian sf and strong female protagonists in the first of a new series.” — Library Journal
“I may be a sucker for a good Dr. Watson, or maybe Claire O’Dell (an open pseudonym for Beth Bernobich) has just written a hell of a good novel, because A Study in Honor turns out to be one of those books I find impossible to put down. I want the sequel immediately.” — Tor.com
“A gritty, fast-paced investigation with a memorable and compelling duo of main characters. I can’t wait to see what Janet and Sara get up to next.” — Aliette de Bodard, Nebula-award winning author of The House of Binding Thorns and The Tea Master and the Detective
“A Study in Honor is a fast-moving, diverse science-fictional Holmes and Watson reinterpretation set in near future Washington DC. As a deliciously intersectional makeover of a famous literary duo it’s enormously satisfying. Clean, clear, and vastly enjoyable.” — Nicola Griffith, Lambda Literary award-winning author of So Lucky
“An entertaining and empathetic dystopian procedural that navigates the capital of an America at war with itself, tracking the path to recovery from personal and national trauma.” — Christopher Brown, author of Tropic of Kansas
I may be a sucker for a good Dr. Watson, or maybe Claire O’Dell (an open pseudonym for Beth Bernobich) has just written a hell of a good novel, because A Study in Honor turns out to be one of those books I find impossible to put down. I want the sequel immediately.
A gritty, fast-paced investigation with a memorable and compelling duo of main characters. I can’t wait to see what Janet and Sara get up to next.”
An entertaining and empathetic dystopian procedural that navigates the capital of an America at war with itself, tracking the path to recovery from personal and national trauma.
“A Study in Honor is a fast-moving, diverse science-fictional Holmes and Watson reinterpretation set in near future Washington DC. As a deliciously intersectional makeover of a famous literary duo it’s enormously satisfying. Clean, clear, and vastly enjoyable.
If you like dystopian future narratives, queer romance, and Sherlock Holmes, you’ll adore A Study in Honor.
O’Dell’s prose is sharp and clean, rising at times to the poetic, and her near-future Washington DC feels like a real city. The USA of A Study in Honor is a place with deep political divisions, and some of that comes into play in this story. It feels appropriately complicated as a future, and not a simplistic future vision of now.
Despite narrator Lisa Renee Pitts’s warm, listenable voice, her inconsistent pacing occasionally obscures this new take on Holmes and Watson by fantasy writer Claire O’Dell. The detective pair are now lesbian women of color in a near-future America engulfed in civil war. Watson, a surgeon, lost an arm in service and is coping with PTSD. Holmes is on the trail of greedy executives doing nasty stuff to soldiers. Pitts gives an interesting, audibly wounded voice to Watson, a bit of edge to Holmes, and well-rounded characterizations of a few other key players. It’s the narrative that sounds choppy, almost as if the punctuation was confusing. It’s something to improve for next time, as this may be the start of an intriguing new series. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Despite narrator Lisa Renee Pitts’s warm, listenable voice, her inconsistent pacing occasionally obscures this new take on Holmes and Watson by fantasy writer Claire O’Dell. The detective pair are now lesbian women of color in a near-future America engulfed in civil war. Watson, a surgeon, lost an arm in service and is coping with PTSD. Holmes is on the trail of greedy executives doing nasty stuff to soldiers. Pitts gives an interesting, audibly wounded voice to Watson, a bit of edge to Holmes, and well-rounded characterizations of a few other key players. It’s the narrative that sounds choppy, almost as if the punctuation was confusing. It’s something to improve for next time, as this may be the start of an intriguing new series. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
