Talking over the series Sherlock with my wife who is a great Agatha Christie fan I realized that Sherlock and Miss Marple are mirror images. He's young and physical and a master of scientific method but not great with social details. She is old and limited physically, but a master of behavioral and social science while weak on the hard sciences. She never uses a magnifying glass to solve a murder, and he never uses motive to prove the guilty.
These strict differences were probably purposefully created by Agatha Christie when she created Miss Marple well after Doyle quit writing about Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is in his 40's or so come 1900. He's in his 20'3 to 30'3 in the 1890's with the Doyle stories were set.
Miss Marple is in her 50s or 60s in 1930, when her stories were created. That would put her in her 20's or 30's in 1900.
She never married, though romance fills all her stories. Agatha Christie wrote love stories drenched in murder. Hercule Poirot, while never really a love interest, was a grown up cupid.
We never hear about Miss Marple's love life.
What if she goes to London one time and meets Mr. Holmes. He does his deductions on her, finding out about her life from the clothes she's wearing. Then she turns around and does her routine on him, how he reminds her of Captain Farsworth of.... Both are impressed with each other. For Miss Marple it could lead to the love of her life, who simply can not return the feelings (as he still pines for Irene Adler?).
Together they solve a mystery. Or perhaps he solves her mystery and she helps him comprehend the motivations behind Moriarty or his replacement as I see this taking place after the Dr. Watson years.
This idea came to me at 6pm yesterday and I am ready to start the rough draft today....
but...
While everyone seems to enjoy making new Sherlock Holmes versions, so I assume its in the public domain, Agatha Christie's descendents probably have a tight lock on their characters legally. If I create this story would it be relegated to the /fic / Fanfiction end of the internet?
What could be options?
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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You could just call her Jane. Or give her an in-story reason for not wanting to use her real name. Or have her as the narrator, in the manner of Mrs de Winter, who never mentions what others call her. You could make it clear who she was through characterization, without ever being explicit, as a wink to those clued up enough to notice.
I think there was some book series I never read about Holmes meeting and marrying a twenty-something in his sixties, but I'm sure there's something different you could do with it.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Clive Cussler put James Bond in one of his Dirk Piit books in a matter similar to how Bella describes.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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