A Study in Charlotte

“But I had never wanted to be her boyfriend. I wanted something smaller than that, and far, far bigger, something I couldn’t yet put into words.”

Many variations on the Holmes-Watson relationship have emerged from subsequent writers in the subgenre, but changing the gender of the detective raises the possibility of sexual chemistry between Holmes and Watson. While James admits his physical attraction to Charlotte, he recognizes that their relationship could never be as simple as “boyfriend-girlfriend.”

“If I was harboring any doubts about my part in this investigation—and to be honest, I’d had some Titanic-sized ones ever since we broke into Dobson’s room—seeing those well-thumbed books made me feel better. I belonged here, I thought, with her, as surely as anyone belonged anywhere.”

James is examining the contents of Charlotte’s lab. While he finds many of her experiments off-putting, he feels at home once he sees a copy of his ancestor’s books narrating the detective’s adventures. This is the role James inherited, and he embraces it wholeheartedly.

“‘I don’t know if I’d want to always know what other people are thinking. Where they come from, what they want. Where’s the mystery in that?’ She shrugged her shoulders with a nonchalance I didn’t quite believe. ‘I suppose few people hold up to the scrutiny. But my family’s business was never in maintaining mysteries. It’s in unraveling them.’”

James expresses the essential difference between his approach and Charlotte’s. He loves adventure for the sake of contemplating mystery, whereas she’s interested only in solving mysteries. While he always perceives himself as the pragmatist and his counterpart as the theoretician, Charlotte seems much more pragmatic than he is about how to deal with mysteries.

“‘I don’t pity you,’ I said, stunned. She turned to the wall, but I could still see her close her eyes, count backward silently from ten. ‘No,’ she said, without turning around. ‘You just choose to feel all the things that I can’t, or don’t. It’s overwhelming. Normal.’ No one had considered me anything but normal, before this.”

James has just learned that Dobson raped Charlotte while she was under the influence of oxycodone. Knowing this makes him drive his fist through a wall. While Charlotte might feel the same rage internally, she suppresses any expression of that emotion. In some sense, she needs James to express what she can’t. She takes great comfort in his normalcy, which he now appreciates for the first time too.

“The way we were with each other wouldn’t have made sense to anyone else if I’d tried to explain it. I had a habit of volleying any ridiculous statement she’d make back over the net with top spin, and we’d ramp ourselves up into fierce arguments that way.”

James acts as Charlotte’s sounding board, not because he can offer insights into her theories but because he forces her to defend her position. Arguing such points clarifies her thinking. While odd to the outside world, this give-and-take perfectly expresses the dynamic between the two.

“Charlotte and her brother made to wander around the house in blindfolds, listening at doors for practice, scolded for any emotional attachments except to each other. It sounded like a movie, but it must’ve been hell to live it.”

As a storyteller, James is initially fascinated by what he perceives as the eccentric glamor of Charlotte’s upbringing. However, as a compassionate human being, he’s appalled at how two vulnerable children were treated by their parents. Such an upbringing indirectly reinforces the value of normalcy.

“I couldn’t tell you what was in her head. I couldn’t even guess. But I was beginning to realize I liked that, the not knowing. I could trust her despite it. If she was a place unto herself, I might have been lost, blindfolded, and cursing my bad directions, but I think I saw more of it than anyone else, all the same.”

At multiple points, James expresses his frustration at Charlotte for not revealing clues she has collected or theories she has formed. She wrestles with trust issues of her own, but James seems willing to overcome his, as this statement reveals. He intuits that she has let him into her world farther than she has allowed anyone else. He seems content to simply know that much.

“I wanted the two of us to be complicated together, to be difficult and engrossing and blindingly brilliant. Sex was a commonplace kind of complicated. And nothing about Charlotte Holmes was commonplace.”

James implies that his association with Charlotte might elevate him to a level beyond the commonplace existence he has always known. Again, the gender difference between detective and writer complicates their relationship because he continues to feel physically attracted to her. However, he also realizes that their connection amounts to far more than mere attraction.

“She sat there, swinging her legs while her eyes roved around the room. I watched her put together the story of this house, of my childhood, the way a soldier assembles a gun in the dark.”

Charlotte and James have taken refuge at the Watson home. Earlier in the novel, Charlotte casually mentioned several key points about James’s family life without ever having seen his home. The analogy of a soldier loading a gun suggests that Charlotte has added to her arsenal of information and that she could weaponize this against James any time she chose.

“This isn’t about Holmes, it’s about the strings you pulled to get me here. God, you don’t even know me! I hadn’t seen you for years! How can you not understand that being bored isn’t an excuse to reach in and fuck with my life for fun?”

James is angry at his father and Leander Holmes for arranging his meeting with Charlotte. At multiple points, she moves him around like a pawn, so do Bryony and Lucien. In the battle of wits between good and evil, James sees himself as little more than an object whose value changes depending on who is handling him at the moment.

“Oh, she was brilliant. Like a hurtling comet you couldn’t look at dead on without burning your retinas right off. Like a bioluminescent lake. She was a sixteen-year-old detective-savant who could tell your life story from a look, who retrofitted little carved boxes with surprise poison springs early on a Saturday morning when everyone else, including me, was asleep in their beds. She’d set herself up to be the target of a fake crime to get us off the hook for the real one.”

James has just connected the dots regarding Charlotte’s fake poison box. Shepard is close to arresting both teens until this diversionary tactic sends him chasing other culprits. In addition, this quote exemplifies that while Charlotte is an expert at observing evidence, James is a master at observing her. No one else could appreciate her genius because no one else is scrutinizing her that closely.

“‘I’m bad with words.’ She sat down next to me. ‘Too imprecise. Too many shades of meaning. And people use them to lie. Have you ever heard someone lie to you on the violin?’”

Charlotte plays her Stradivarius violin whenever she’s trying to mentally sort out information. This quote suggests a connection between music and truth. Both possess a purity untainted by human deceit. Charlotte’s admission that she’s bad with words indicates why she needs James. He’s an aspiring writer, and words are his medium, just as chemical experiments are hers.

“Look, I’m happy to question her, but next time, I want to be in the loop. Otherwise, I’m just going to build my own chessboard and let you move me around it.”

James has just returned from interrogating Elizabeth about her attacker. Also, he has just learned that Charlotte orchestrated a way to get her parents out of the room so that he could ask his questions. Again, James is frustrated about being treated like a pawn in someone else’s game. He fails to realize that his innocence is also a strength when interrogating people because James has trouble lying to them.

“When I caught her taking twenty minutes to eat a single almond, I began wondering if there was some kind of Watsonian guide for the care and keeping of Holmeses.”

James takes a protective stance toward Charlotte. As was true of Sherlock Holmes, his descendant is heedless of the needs of the human body for food and rest. Dr. John Watson and James are both more grounded in reality and recognize that body and mind are attached. Mr. Watson helpfully provides his son with an 11-page memo outlining all the tactics that the Watsons have developed over the years to protect the Holmeses from themselves.

“Holmes smiled down at me. She wasn’t Hailey. She was something much more insidious. Charlotte Holmes without the edges, all combed and clean, well loved and loving in return. I knew it would be gone tomorrow, all of it—the gentle way she touched me, the glitter of her undivided attention, the bows and the perfume. It would all go back into her costume box, and she would be the real Holmes again.”

Charlotte is visiting James in the infirmary after his rugby concussion. She’s putting on an act as an attentive girlfriend for Nurse Bryony’s benefit. Seeing Charlotte in this light fulfills James’s fantasies about a possible romantic relationship between them. However, he recognizes that Charlotte is too complex a creature to ever settle permanently into a soothing persona.

“Was this what it was always like, doing detective work? How could you ever let yourself get close to anyone? No wonder Holmes was so determined to keep herself apart.”

After interrogating multiple suspects, James has grown paranoid, seeing everyone around him as capable of murder. This perception doesn’t fit his characteristically honest approach toward the world. He has just had a glimpse into the mental world that Charlotte inhabits, and it unnerves him. Consequently, her trust issues become more comprehensible to him.

“What I didn’t understand was why they’d bugged my room. Who was I, anyway? I wasn’t the extraordinary one. I was Jamie Watson, would-be writer, subpar rugger, keeper of the most boring journal in at least five states. I couldn’t even get people to call me by my full first name. If I was important, it was only as a conduit. Holmes’s only access point.”

James has just discovered that someone planted surveillance devices in his dorm room, but the motivation for doing so baffles him. Again, he fails to recognize the contribution he makes to Charlotte’s life and her investigation. She grew up among brilliant eccentrics like herself. She hardly needs more of the same in the outside world. A dose of “normal” is much more therapeutic.

“Charlotte Holmes wasn’t innocent. She was imperious, and demanding, with a self-destructive streak that ran as wide as the Atlantic […] Her blackmailing a math tutor into buying her drugs was only a hop, skip, and a jump away.”

James feels sorry for August Moriarty when the latter was Charlotte’s tutor. It might be tempting to see the 20-year-old math whiz as the aggressor in their relationship, but James knows Charlotte well enough to realize who the puppet master really was. Interestingly, he focuses on Charlotte’s self-destructive streak. However, the text hasn’t yet revealed its source.

“‘Oxy. Slows it all down.’ She smiled. ‘Done with coke. Hate coke. Am I disappointing you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Liar,’ she said, with sudden venom. ‘You expect impossible things, and I refuse to deliver. Can’t do it. Won’t.’”

Charlotte is well aware that James idolizes her. Although she doesn’t want to admit it, she’d like to remain on a pedestal for his sake. However, the self-destructive streak in the preceding quote prevents her from shaping up for anyone’s benefit. Both her parents and James seem to expect impossible things from her. However, her refusal to deliver isn’t simple obstinacy. She’s incapable of living up to the impossible expectations that others place on her.

“I’d started with ‘the drugs’ at twelve. I was too soft on the inside, you see. No exoskeleton. I felt everything, and still everything bored me. I was like…like a radio playing five stations at once, all of them static.”

Charlotte usually externalizes her experience and prefers to examine outer evidence. In this rare moment, she examines her internal world. Her drug use provides a very real benefit in calming or stimulating her mind, whichever is needed. In addition, her words reveal the depth of the emotional vulnerability she struggles to keep at bay. In this light, the drugs may be her only alternative to dying by suicide.

“‘She wants me to claim full responsibility for Dobson’s murder and Elizabeth’s attack.’ […] ‘This is not your fault,’ I told her, before she could go on. ‘You claiming it’s your fault makes it sound like I’m just a piece of cargo getting hauled next to you. No will of my own. So stop it.’”

Up to this point in the novel, James has complained about being treated like a pawn or a piece of cargo. In this quote, he admits that he’s a willing participant in Charlotte’s investigation. Although others frequently manipulate his actions, James is free at any moment to walk away, but he never does. Here, he takes responsibility for his own behavior.

“I’ve been through three separate rehabilitation programs. I may, in fact, simply be a terrible person at heart, but the difference between you and me is that I fight it. With every single atom of my being, I fight against it. I might be an amateur detective, but you are a bloody psychopath.”

Charlotte engages in a battle of words with Bryony, who seeks to destroy Charlotte’s confidence in her abilities as a detective and as a friend. Bryony wants to make Charlotte responsible for every bad thing that has happened since August died. She refuses to acknowledge that she isn’t innocent. Bryony killed Dobson and nearly killed Elizabeth. Charlotte recognizes her own sins, but Bryony never will.

“‘No, this was a practice round. I wanted to see what was important to you. I wanted to see how much this foolish boy trusted you. I threaten him, and you kiss him. Cue strings. Cue the applause.’ Milo whipped around to stare at his sister, but her eyes were fixed on the phone. ‘It’s good to know what matters to you, Charlotte. So very little does.’”

Lucien is on speakerphone, revealing the real reason that Charlotte was targeted for the crimes on campus: He wanted to find Charlotte’s Achilles heel, which proves to be James. Her mother once told her that sentiment is a liability in a Holmes. Clearly, the Moriartys would agree. In the future, Lucien will undoubtedly exploit Charlotte’s feelings for James to his own advantage.