Annelie Wendeberg: The Devil's Grin

[bibliogramma]

In Annelie Wendeberg's The Devil's Grin, the protagonist, Anna/Anton Kronberg, is a passing woman and a skilled doctor, working at Guy's Hospital in the very new field of bacteriology. When at home, she lives in one of the poorest districts of London and offers what medical help she can to the poor around her - passing in this milieu as a nurse.

She meets Sherlock Holmes when she is called to examine the corpse of a man found in the water treatment works, a possible victim of cholera. When Holmes insists on observing the autopsy, they both realise that there is something very suspicious about the man's death - and the game's afoot.

As Holmesian pastiches go, it was adequate - her characterisation of the world's first consulting detective was better than many, though not the best. As a story about a passing woman trying to hold the disparate pieces of her life together and survive the daily deceit needed to be who she needs to be, It caught my attention and made me care about the protagonist.

The most annoying thing, for me, was Wendeberg's occasionally awkward and anachronistic use of language. Modern slang, inappropriate word choices and clumsy sentence construction - all possibly due to Wendeberg writing in her second language? - these things tended to kick me out of the story from time to time, but not badly enough to keep me from diving back in.

Fun, fast read with some interesting psychological insights into the situation of someone forced to live her life as a constant masquerade in order to be true to herself.