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Annelie Wendeberg’s historical suspense novel The Fall is a sequel to The Devil’s Grin, which introduces the character of Anna Kronberg, a brilliant German medical doctor and bacteriologist, living as a man, Dr. Anton Kronberg, in the Victorian England of Sherlock Holmes. I rather enjoyed the first volume, first because of the inclusion of Holmes as a character, and second, because of the interesting portrayal of the practical and psychological issues of being a woman passing as a man.
It took me longer to engage with this book, in part because it’s primarily a novel about Kronberg and Moriarty, with Holmes appearing infrequently, and because in this novel, Kronberg is now living openly as a woman, because it is now possible, though still extremely unusual, for a woman to be a physician or scientist.
As the title suggests, this novel take place during the run-up to the canonical Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem” and provides a plot for Moriarty’s to engage in and a reason for the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty to take place in Germany. And of course Kronberg is at the centre of it.
Moriarty’s plans require the expertise of a medical researcher capable of creating almost single-handedly the field of germ warfare. Having been connected to the organisation that Holmes and Kronberg brought to justice in The Devil’s Grin, he knows that Anton Kronberg is the scientist he needs, but it has taken some time to track Kronberg down, and realise that the woman he finds at the end of the trail is in fact the brilliant supposedly male bacteriologist he seeks. True to form, Moriarty kidnaps both Kronberg and her father, using the threat of harm to the old man to force her to create weaponised anthrax.
What follows is a deadly game of wits and power plays. Kronberg manages to get word of Moriarty’s plans to Holmes, while trying to persuade Moriarty that she is becoming more amenable to his plans. We know, of course, that Holmes will succeed in breaking Moriarty’s organisation in the end, and that Moriarty is doomed, but the price paid for this outcome by Kronberg is both high and bitter in the extreme.
As I said, it took me a while to fully engage, but the psychological complexity of the unfolding relationship between Moriarty and Kronberg, two brilliant and damaged people, both in their own ways tied as much to Holmes as they are to each other, made for fascinating reading.
The third Kronberg novel, The Journey, begins with Holmes and Kronberg - five months pregnant with Moriarty’s child - hiking through wilderness, hiding from Sebastian Moran, who is undoubtedly seeking them both to avenge the death of Moriarty. It’s not an unexpected scenario - even the most casual reader of the Holmes canon knows that it will be three years from the fall at Reichenbach before Holmes resurfaces.
The novel is indeed about a journey - several of them in fact, both geographical and psychological.
Kronberg’ pregnancy gives her several months of grace before Moran will take his revenge. Moriarty, before his death, gave orders that of anything should happen to him, she should not be harmed until after his child is born. The birth of the child is key to the disbursement of Moriarty’s considerable fortune. As Moriarty’s widow, she is entitled to inherit one-third as dower right, and to be the executor of a trust which provides for the child until their majority. Moriarty’s relatives want to control the child and the money. Moran wants to be paid.
Holmes and Kronberg spend her pregnancy travelling throughout England and Europe, sometimes together, sometimes not, knowing that when she delivers, the day if reckoning will come, one way or another. Hunted and hunting simultaneously, seeking to avoid Moran while setting a trap fir him at the end of the chase.
Meanwhile, Kronberg is forced to deal with her pregnancy, her hatred if Moriarty and inability to feel anything for the child, the loss of freedom, career, independence, that will follow on becoming a mother.
And emotionally, the time spent together, learning more about each other, brings Holmes and Kronberg closer in some ways, further apart in others.
I found the ending .... unsatisfying. The back and forth, maybe we have a relationship, maybe we don’t unravelling of emotions between a deeply repressed and controlled Holmes, and a woman who, like Kronberg, fears the ways in which a relationship might trap her as much as she might long for emotional intimacy with a man who is her intellectual equal, are perfectly good reasons for them to part after the birth of Kronberg’s child. Holmes remains in Europe, to hunt down Moran, Kronberg relocates to America, a more progressive country where she may find a career while living openly as a woman. That part worked.
What seemed too facile was the sudden deep attachment she has fir her daughter. She has struggled with this from the moment she became aware of her pregnancy. The abusive, manipulative, often violent nature of her relationship with Moriarty has weighed on her mind throughout. And it all vanishes in the act of giving birth. I could accept the beginnings of a change, but for all the trauma, all the ambivalence about being chained by motherhood that she expresses, to resolve itself into unconditional acceptance and love - it does not seem realistic.
With the two most interesting aspects of the series so far - the connection with Holmes, and the struggles of a brilliant woman living a life that rejects conventional female roles, functions and behaviours - apparently gone from the ongoing narrative line, I’m not at all certain that I’ll seek out any further adventures of Anna Kronberg.
It took me longer to engage with this book, in part because it’s primarily a novel about Kronberg and Moriarty, with Holmes appearing infrequently, and because in this novel, Kronberg is now living openly as a woman, because it is now possible, though still extremely unusual, for a woman to be a physician or scientist.
As the title suggests, this novel take place during the run-up to the canonical Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem” and provides a plot for Moriarty’s to engage in and a reason for the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty to take place in Germany. And of course Kronberg is at the centre of it.
Moriarty’s plans require the expertise of a medical researcher capable of creating almost single-handedly the field of germ warfare. Having been connected to the organisation that Holmes and Kronberg brought to justice in The Devil’s Grin, he knows that Anton Kronberg is the scientist he needs, but it has taken some time to track Kronberg down, and realise that the woman he finds at the end of the trail is in fact the brilliant supposedly male bacteriologist he seeks. True to form, Moriarty kidnaps both Kronberg and her father, using the threat of harm to the old man to force her to create weaponised anthrax.
What follows is a deadly game of wits and power plays. Kronberg manages to get word of Moriarty’s plans to Holmes, while trying to persuade Moriarty that she is becoming more amenable to his plans. We know, of course, that Holmes will succeed in breaking Moriarty’s organisation in the end, and that Moriarty is doomed, but the price paid for this outcome by Kronberg is both high and bitter in the extreme.
As I said, it took me a while to fully engage, but the psychological complexity of the unfolding relationship between Moriarty and Kronberg, two brilliant and damaged people, both in their own ways tied as much to Holmes as they are to each other, made for fascinating reading.
The third Kronberg novel, The Journey, begins with Holmes and Kronberg - five months pregnant with Moriarty’s child - hiking through wilderness, hiding from Sebastian Moran, who is undoubtedly seeking them both to avenge the death of Moriarty. It’s not an unexpected scenario - even the most casual reader of the Holmes canon knows that it will be three years from the fall at Reichenbach before Holmes resurfaces.
The novel is indeed about a journey - several of them in fact, both geographical and psychological.
Kronberg’ pregnancy gives her several months of grace before Moran will take his revenge. Moriarty, before his death, gave orders that of anything should happen to him, she should not be harmed until after his child is born. The birth of the child is key to the disbursement of Moriarty’s considerable fortune. As Moriarty’s widow, she is entitled to inherit one-third as dower right, and to be the executor of a trust which provides for the child until their majority. Moriarty’s relatives want to control the child and the money. Moran wants to be paid.
Holmes and Kronberg spend her pregnancy travelling throughout England and Europe, sometimes together, sometimes not, knowing that when she delivers, the day if reckoning will come, one way or another. Hunted and hunting simultaneously, seeking to avoid Moran while setting a trap fir him at the end of the chase.
Meanwhile, Kronberg is forced to deal with her pregnancy, her hatred if Moriarty and inability to feel anything for the child, the loss of freedom, career, independence, that will follow on becoming a mother.
And emotionally, the time spent together, learning more about each other, brings Holmes and Kronberg closer in some ways, further apart in others.
I found the ending .... unsatisfying. The back and forth, maybe we have a relationship, maybe we don’t unravelling of emotions between a deeply repressed and controlled Holmes, and a woman who, like Kronberg, fears the ways in which a relationship might trap her as much as she might long for emotional intimacy with a man who is her intellectual equal, are perfectly good reasons for them to part after the birth of Kronberg’s child. Holmes remains in Europe, to hunt down Moran, Kronberg relocates to America, a more progressive country where she may find a career while living openly as a woman. That part worked.
What seemed too facile was the sudden deep attachment she has fir her daughter. She has struggled with this from the moment she became aware of her pregnancy. The abusive, manipulative, often violent nature of her relationship with Moriarty has weighed on her mind throughout. And it all vanishes in the act of giving birth. I could accept the beginnings of a change, but for all the trauma, all the ambivalence about being chained by motherhood that she expresses, to resolve itself into unconditional acceptance and love - it does not seem realistic.
With the two most interesting aspects of the series so far - the connection with Holmes, and the struggles of a brilliant woman living a life that rejects conventional female roles, functions and behaviours - apparently gone from the ongoing narrative line, I’m not at all certain that I’ll seek out any further adventures of Anna Kronberg.