The Secret Diary of Dr. Watson

by Anita Janda

Charting the course of their friendship, this ingenious pastiche explores Watson's literary ambition, the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his wife, the true identity of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and explains how Holmes died in his final dual with Moriarty - and then came back to life. Watson also reveals some of the adventures that never made it into print.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Instigated by his wife, Mary Morstan, Dr. Watson keeps a secret diary. Nobody, not even his beloved Mary, has access to it so he is free to rant about daily life and -mostly- his “friend” Sherlock Holmes.
It has some good, humorous points, like when Mary is determined to act as a matchmaker for Holmes resulting in the forge of the “Scandal of Bohemia” story to stop Mary’s activities in that regards.
But the big problem here is how Holmes is portrayed. When he is not totally out of character –pestering the Watson’s home at any time, being scruffy and untidy and acting as a stingy boss for Watson- he is just a total unsympathetic jerk. One wonders why anyone –let alone a good guy as Watson- would have Holmes as a long life friend and roommate.
For this reason, this book didn’t work on me.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for fans of the Sherlock mysteries, who nonetheless wonder about Sir Arthur’s casual disregard for continuity and details. In The Secret Diary we are privy to John’s rambling stream of consciousness thoughts on life as a friend of Holmes, which address many of these issues. By turns funny, warm, and tragic, this will delight long time fans of the mysteries. And possibly infuriate fans of Holmes himself.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the instigation of his wife Mary, Dr John Watson starts a diary detailing his writing of Holmes' adventures and his thoughts of Holmes
Enjoyable story of Watson's thoughts.

[Parmacendar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise (Watson's account of the trials and tribulations of writing up Holmes' cases for publication, including the necessity of changing many details to conceal identities or just to make a better story) is great; and there were some fun details (like Watson inventing the idea of Irene Adler as "THE woman" to Holmes in order to stop his wife from constantly trying to matchmake Holmes with all of her single friends...!); but on the whole there was just something really boring about the way it was written. Certainly as a representation of Watson's voice it was totally unconvincing. I'm a sucker for fics that deal with the real-world consequences of Watson's publications, or with Watson-as-unreliable-narrator; but this one unfortunately did not live up to the potential of its concept.

[Susankj · Rating 3 out of 5]

superb

[Bonnye Reed]

Sherlock Advent Calander 99
Endeavor Media