Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Every armchair detective lives In Sherlock’s Shadow, we might beat Morse to naming the murderer, we could expose the criminality and corruption quicker than Poirot, the insurmountable Miss Jane Marple, or the devilishly understated Columbo, but compared to Sherlock Holmes we live in cramped tiny houses that act as minds, we are hemmed in by our own conduct and appreciation of the darker forces that are involved in the underworld, the far reaching tentacles of crime that never ceases to be operational, that never sleeps in search of control.
This is no disgrace, to be enchanted, thrilled, even at times confused by the sheer scope of intelligence created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in English Literature’s greatest detective, for to be In Sherlock’s Shadow is to raise our own game, it is not to wallow in the pity of the unsolvable, it is to dig in and learn from a master of their craft, and one to whom Liz Hedgecock’s examination and portrayal of one of Sherlock Holmes’ constant more silent partners in the original series, is one of priceless reveal and honesty.
Mrs. Hudson may be a product of her Victorian environment, but as Liz Hedgecock astutely shows in her second novel which examines life at 221B Baker Street through the eyes of the landlady, In Sherlock’s Shadow, growth, development, evolution, is not the preserve of the male, but is the right of any woman who wishes to further herself beyond the narrow confines of the day-to-day rigour.
If the first book in the series, A House Of Mirrors, opened the door enough to illuminate the life of Mrs. Hudson beyond that in which Conan Doyle could imagine, or indeed felt obliged, then In Sherlock’s Shadow the hinges are blown apart, the door is shattered into fragments, and the way forward is not just visible, it is exposed for all that it is worth.
The sheer intensity and scrutiny Liz Hedgecock must have ploughed through to be certain of not deviating from the original books is extraordinary, and yet all the while the sense of Victorian female empowerment is not negated, not relegated as one would bow at a superior in its wake, this is a novel that sets out to right a wrong, one as has been mentioned may have been unintentional, but glaring regardless by its omission.to show just how important seemingly secondary characters are in their own right.
Liz Hedgecock’s version of Mrs. Hudson is one of quality, she captures the soul of the period, the inequality that is intolerable to modern eyes, and Ms. Hedgecock does this whilst weaving a tale of national sabotage, of murder, of espionage and deceit in a way that honours the original with style and care.
Small, cramped lives, that is what the Victorian period insisted we all had, but none so more as women, the prim and proper society beset by its own hypocrisy, built on a foundation of duplicity and insincerity; it is to this that In Sherlock’s Shadow is self-aware of its purpose to beat the devil at his own game; and one that Liz Hedgecock creates with a delicious beating heart.
Ian D. Hall