Wednesday, August 28, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Hound of Justice by Claire O'Dell




The Hound of Justice is the second book in Claire O'Dell's "The Janet Watson Chronicles", after her prior work, A Study in Honor (Reviewed here).  In case you couldn't tell from the series name, the series is indeed a take on the Sherlock Holmes and Watson stories, but it's a very different take than the usual, and not just in its more obvious changes to the setting: this is a dystopian near-future SciFi gender and race-flipped take on Holmes and Watson in a US torn apart by racial and homophobic backlash to socially liberal policies to the point of civil war.  I really liked the first book's alternate take on Watson and Holmes, with Watson more decisively the main character than Holmes in this incarnation, and was excited to see how the sequel would follow up.

And the result is still pretty strong.  O'Dell's Janet Watson is an excellent heroine and drives the story as before, with her emotions and drives, personal and political, being really well done.  The plot takes some surprising turns along with some predictable ones as it explores this all too real dystopian SF setting, and it wraps up with a very satisfying ending.  So yeah, this series is still recommended, and I hope to see more in the future from it.


---------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
A Few Months have passed since the incident with Nadine Adler, and Doctor Janet Watson has had her new state of the art prosthetic arm for all that time.  And yet, to her immense frustration - and seemingly the frustration of some of her new bosses at Georgetown University hospital -  she still doesn't feel confident in it to actually use it to perform an actual surgery.  Meanwhile, her roommate Sara Holmes is seemingly driving herself batty due to Holmes' suspension from duties at her covert agency as a result of the Adler mission, making life even more miserable for Watson.

Yet when a terrorist group opposing possible peace between the New Confederacy and the remaining Federal Government attacks the new president's inauguration, it seems the horrors of war have returned to Watson's doorstep.  And while Watson is just trying to find a way to deal with it all as a surgeon - and maybe establish a new romantic life - it isn't long before Sara Holmes takes actions that will draw Watson back into conflict.   A conflict with some surprisingly familiar actors once again taking acts that could devastate the United States....and what freedoms still remain in this literally divided country for those who don't quite into the supposed majority demographic.....
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As I noted in my review of the first book, The Hound of Justice differs in some large ways from the typical Holmes stories, especially in how the focus is really on its version of Watson.  This is Janet's story, not the story of Sara Holmes, and it's her life and adventure that is the focus of the narrative.  Not only is Sara Holmes not a detective in this incarnation (but a spy/covert-agent), but whereas other stories use Watson as a point of view character to comment on Holmes' genius (even when Watson is him/herself a three dimensional well built character), O'Dell really isn't that interested in that kind of perspective - hell, whether Holmes is indeed brilliant or just eccentric and devoted to doing right is a pretty serious question here and one that O'Dell doesn't even try to answer.

This works really damn well, because Watson is a really really great character here, maybe the best version of the character I've ever seen.  Her PTSD, her insecurities, her belief in doing what's right despite who much it could cost her - she's just terrific and easy to root for, and drives the plot wonderfully.  The book here introduces a romantic interest for her who works rather well (and who, unsurprisingly, Holmes naturally gets in the way of at one point) and Watson's medical work, both at the hospital and outside of it, is a major focus of the book that really works, as she tries to get herself back into working shape and deals with the ramifications of hospital work in this environment.

Which is not to say the other characters and setting don't work well.  Sara Holmes is a much smaller but still significant part of this book and works well, as does her sister Micha (this version of Mycroft presumably).  Watson's therapist and hospital colleagues also are all built up decently so that it never feels like a side plot - indeed, it's more of the main plot of the book that the adventure parts.  And the setting is expanded with our heroes stepping into the grounds of the New Confederacy and seeing the fight against evil firsthand.

O'Dell does an excellent job with all of this and the book reads incredibly well, with really excellent dialogue and pacing that had me tear through this in under 2 days, just like the first novel.  My only real complaints honestly are that the book tries one fake-out near the end that no reader could possibly believe and that a twist involving Watson's experiences at the Hospital is a bit too similar to what happened in the first book.  But these are minor complaints that really don't diminish the experience much, and yeah, I recommend this series a lot.
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