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Victorian girl detectives
For today's entry, I thought I'd review two manga titles (well, technically it's a manga and a manhwa) about female detectives set in the Victorian era.
The first is Young Miss Holmes, in which the titular protagonist is Christie, the precocious ten-year-old niece of Sherlock Holmes, who would rather solve cases alongside her famous uncle than study boring lessons with her governess. (In fairness to Christie, we're told that she's already at the level of an Oxford scholar--which would require quite a stretch of belief if this were a more realistic title, but it's written in a lighthearted and humorous manner that's obviously not meant to be taken too seriously.)
As the School Library Journal review points out, the title is slightly misleading, since despite the summary on the gomanga site that refers to our heroine as "Christie Holmes," her last name is actually Hope (her mother is Sherlock's sister, so Christie has the same last as her father). The original Japanese title is Christie: High Tension, which presumably was changed in order to stress the Sherlock Holmes connection for American readers, so it's just a minor quibble and didn't really bother me.
Christie doesn't exactly help her uncle solve cases, which might have pushed the story into Mary Sue territory; it's more like she hears about his current case, then puzzles it out on her own while he's working the case, and eventually comes to same conclusion, which is confirmed by Holmes when he tells her how the case worked out. So it's more like they're solving the case in parallel rather than in tandem.
As Sean Gaffney's review points out, Christie is a likeable character, but her maids steal the show at times. The head maid Ann Marie is always scolding the new maid Nora for her improper language and behavior--it's clear that she is supposed to be from the lower class and hasn't learned proper upper-crust etiquette yet. But we soon learn why she was hired in spite of her failings, when it becomes clear that she's as much (or more than) a bodyguard as she is a lady's maid. She is awesomely badass when she wields a whip against the bad guys! And the seemingly prim and proper Ann Marie has a few surprises hidden up her sleeve, too.
This manga is a lighthearted adventurous romp that I really enjoyed. I think the only detraction might be that for diehard Sherlock Holmes fans who are already familiar with the original stories, it might seem a bit anti-climatic since they already know the solutions to most of the cases. (From what I've heard, the endings to a couple of the stories were altered, but the others are the same as the originals, aside from a few liberties taken in order to work Christie into the story.) Since I've only read a couple of the original Holmes short stories, that wasn't a problem for me.
Oh, and one of the chapters is a crossover with the manga Dance in the Vampire Bund. I liked the Bund character Mina enough to check out that series, but as the SLJ review warns, it's considerably different in tone--much darker, with explicit nudity and violence (often sexualized) that is rather disturbing. It's an interesting though problematic story, and I'll share my thoughts about the series in a later post.
I borrowed the first omnibus volume of Young Miss Holmes from the library, but I liked it enough that I'll probably buy the second rather than wait for the library to get it.
***
The second series, Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries, is a manhwa (Korean manga) title that is also being published by Seven Seas, the US publisher of Young Miss Holmes. Lizzie, a wealthy heiress who writes popular detective stories under a male pseudonym, uses Holmes-like methods of logical deduction to solve crimes (though Holmes does not appear as a character here). In the first volume, she deduces that an apparent suicide is actually murder, and sets about proving it to the skeptical police. She is reluctantly aided by the stern but efficient steward of her estate, Edwin White. He was taken in and mentored by her father as a child (he was an orphan, if I recall correctly), and eventually became a brilliant lawyer who is famous for never having lost a trial. However, he gave up his career in order to become the family's steward and look after Lizzie for the sake of her father, who is now deceased. (I don't have the book with me now, and I don't think it's stated outright, but I believe it's implied that it was the father's request that Edwin take care of Lizzie, so they must have made some sort of arrangement before he died.) The father also apparently arranged for them to become engaged, because he's referred to as her fiance--with admiration and envy by Lizzie's female acquaintances (because of his good looks and his reputation as a famous attorney), although Lizzie frequently complains about how embarrassing it is to be engaged to one's steward.
It was a fun read, but not quite as enjoyable as Young Miss Holmes. There's quite a bit of telling rather than showing, with much of the mystery being revealed by Lizzie lecturing the police on why the "suicide" is actually a murder, and how the murder was carried out. There's a detective who serves as a foil to Lizzie; he's smart enough to deduce that the suicide might be a murder, but holds women in contempt because he believes them to be incapable of logical thought. Lizzie, of course, proves him wrong, much to his chagrin.
Another reason why I didn't like it as much as the other series is that sometimes Lizzie rubs me the wrong way. Her complaints about being engaged to her steward seem surprisingly snobbish and a bit hypocritical when she's so offended by the police detective's prejudice towards women. However, I'll try to reserve judgment for now, because I suspect that she might just feel confused and conflicted about Edwin, not so much because he's a steward, but because they grew up together almost like brother and sister. She does act very impulsively and a bit immaturely (compared to the serious and responsible Edwin), so I can see her trying to cover up her confusion with some outward bluster, and it's clear that they do care about each other, though the relationship currently seems more like older brother-young sister than sweethearts.
Edwin is a very interesting character. He's much more reserved than Lizzie, and we don't get to see as much of his inner thoughts, but at one point he comments on how, as someone who was born in the lower class but raised into the upper class by Lizzie's father, he doesn't truly belong to either world. I have to admit, that hidden angst hits one of my narrative kinks, and I'm eager to learn more about him in future volumes.
I also borrowed the first volume of this series from the library, and I'm not sure yet if I like it enough to buy it. For now I'll wait and see if the library picks up the next volume when it comes out.
The first is Young Miss Holmes, in which the titular protagonist is Christie, the precocious ten-year-old niece of Sherlock Holmes, who would rather solve cases alongside her famous uncle than study boring lessons with her governess. (In fairness to Christie, we're told that she's already at the level of an Oxford scholar--which would require quite a stretch of belief if this were a more realistic title, but it's written in a lighthearted and humorous manner that's obviously not meant to be taken too seriously.)
As the School Library Journal review points out, the title is slightly misleading, since despite the summary on the gomanga site that refers to our heroine as "Christie Holmes," her last name is actually Hope (her mother is Sherlock's sister, so Christie has the same last as her father). The original Japanese title is Christie: High Tension, which presumably was changed in order to stress the Sherlock Holmes connection for American readers, so it's just a minor quibble and didn't really bother me.
Christie doesn't exactly help her uncle solve cases, which might have pushed the story into Mary Sue territory; it's more like she hears about his current case, then puzzles it out on her own while he's working the case, and eventually comes to same conclusion, which is confirmed by Holmes when he tells her how the case worked out. So it's more like they're solving the case in parallel rather than in tandem.
As Sean Gaffney's review points out, Christie is a likeable character, but her maids steal the show at times. The head maid Ann Marie is always scolding the new maid Nora for her improper language and behavior--it's clear that she is supposed to be from the lower class and hasn't learned proper upper-crust etiquette yet. But we soon learn why she was hired in spite of her failings, when it becomes clear that she's as much (or more than) a bodyguard as she is a lady's maid. She is awesomely badass when she wields a whip against the bad guys! And the seemingly prim and proper Ann Marie has a few surprises hidden up her sleeve, too.
This manga is a lighthearted adventurous romp that I really enjoyed. I think the only detraction might be that for diehard Sherlock Holmes fans who are already familiar with the original stories, it might seem a bit anti-climatic since they already know the solutions to most of the cases. (From what I've heard, the endings to a couple of the stories were altered, but the others are the same as the originals, aside from a few liberties taken in order to work Christie into the story.) Since I've only read a couple of the original Holmes short stories, that wasn't a problem for me.
Oh, and one of the chapters is a crossover with the manga Dance in the Vampire Bund. I liked the Bund character Mina enough to check out that series, but as the SLJ review warns, it's considerably different in tone--much darker, with explicit nudity and violence (often sexualized) that is rather disturbing. It's an interesting though problematic story, and I'll share my thoughts about the series in a later post.
I borrowed the first omnibus volume of Young Miss Holmes from the library, but I liked it enough that I'll probably buy the second rather than wait for the library to get it.
***
The second series, Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries, is a manhwa (Korean manga) title that is also being published by Seven Seas, the US publisher of Young Miss Holmes. Lizzie, a wealthy heiress who writes popular detective stories under a male pseudonym, uses Holmes-like methods of logical deduction to solve crimes (though Holmes does not appear as a character here). In the first volume, she deduces that an apparent suicide is actually murder, and sets about proving it to the skeptical police. She is reluctantly aided by the stern but efficient steward of her estate, Edwin White. He was taken in and mentored by her father as a child (he was an orphan, if I recall correctly), and eventually became a brilliant lawyer who is famous for never having lost a trial. However, he gave up his career in order to become the family's steward and look after Lizzie for the sake of her father, who is now deceased. (I don't have the book with me now, and I don't think it's stated outright, but I believe it's implied that it was the father's request that Edwin take care of Lizzie, so they must have made some sort of arrangement before he died.) The father also apparently arranged for them to become engaged, because he's referred to as her fiance--with admiration and envy by Lizzie's female acquaintances (because of his good looks and his reputation as a famous attorney), although Lizzie frequently complains about how embarrassing it is to be engaged to one's steward.
It was a fun read, but not quite as enjoyable as Young Miss Holmes. There's quite a bit of telling rather than showing, with much of the mystery being revealed by Lizzie lecturing the police on why the "suicide" is actually a murder, and how the murder was carried out. There's a detective who serves as a foil to Lizzie; he's smart enough to deduce that the suicide might be a murder, but holds women in contempt because he believes them to be incapable of logical thought. Lizzie, of course, proves him wrong, much to his chagrin.
Another reason why I didn't like it as much as the other series is that sometimes Lizzie rubs me the wrong way. Her complaints about being engaged to her steward seem surprisingly snobbish and a bit hypocritical when she's so offended by the police detective's prejudice towards women. However, I'll try to reserve judgment for now, because I suspect that she might just feel confused and conflicted about Edwin, not so much because he's a steward, but because they grew up together almost like brother and sister. She does act very impulsively and a bit immaturely (compared to the serious and responsible Edwin), so I can see her trying to cover up her confusion with some outward bluster, and it's clear that they do care about each other, though the relationship currently seems more like older brother-young sister than sweethearts.
Edwin is a very interesting character. He's much more reserved than Lizzie, and we don't get to see as much of his inner thoughts, but at one point he comments on how, as someone who was born in the lower class but raised into the upper class by Lizzie's father, he doesn't truly belong to either world. I have to admit, that hidden angst hits one of my narrative kinks, and I'm eager to learn more about him in future volumes.
I also borrowed the first volume of this series from the library, and I'm not sure yet if I like it enough to buy it. For now I'll wait and see if the library picks up the next volume when it comes out.