Holmes, Marple & Poe: The Greatest Crime-Solving Team of the Twenty-First Century

“‘When you have eliminated the impossible,’ said Holmes, ‘whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

Boolin’s eyes narrowed. ‘That sounds like gobbledygook,’ he said. ‘But sure.’”

Boolin’s reaction to Holmes quoting one of the most famous lines from the Sherlock Holmes stories highlights how the text uses literary reference as characterization. While the Arthur Conan Doyle stories exist in the world of Holmes, Marple & Poe, not all the characters in the novels recognize those references. Those who fail to recognize the allusions, the novel suggests, lack important detecting skills made available by literary study. Here, Boolin’s ignorance offers an early glimpse of the detectives’ Fraught Relationships With Police.

“As much as she trusted her partner’s skills, Marple held out a small hope that she was wrong, at least in this case. She preferred to imagine Sloane Stone on a sunny beach with a huge margarita, laughing at the thought of men in hazmat suits trying to dig up her bones in a bean field.”

Marple’s desire to imagine another ending for Sloane—even as she knows that such a happy result is unlikely given Holmes’s detecting skill—shows her empathy and desire to see the victims in her cases as people. This difference in Gender and Detecting Styles sets her apart from Holmes and Poe, who, though not callous, do not put in the same effort at understanding the victims in their cases.

“Maybe it was all those years working on his own that made him so independent. Maybe, like the original Holmes, he considered himself the last and highest court of appeal in detection. Or maybe he just craved the drama.”

Holmes here recognizes his failure to disclose essential details to his partners as a true problem though not one that he is yet able to resolve. This establishes one of Holmes’s major arcs in the novel: He is a talented detective, but, unlike his namesake, this is not enough to make his partnership work. Instead, Holmes increasingly learns that he must curb his heroin use and learn how to rely on his partners so that their agency can work productively.

“Victims stayed with [Marple] for a long time. Especially when the victim was a young woman.”

Marple’s reflection on how she, unlike her partners, dwells on victims points to Gender and Detecting Styles and makes literary reference to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Miss Marple relies on observations about human nature and often, like this novel’s Marple, works on cold cases that have stuck in her mind for some reason. Here, the fact that victims “stay” in Marple’s thoughts is positioned as helping her in her detective work.

“[Marple] settled into a chair, closed her eyes, and took a deep, centering breath, preparing for whatever the day would bring. In this quiet room, surrounded by tales of mystery and deception, she felt most like herself.”

This reference to the armchair detective trope, which Christie’s Miss Marple fulfills, highlights the way Holmes, Marple & Poe plays with The Thrill of the Chase. Marple’s acknowledgment of the value she gets from mystery fiction parallels the text’s recognition of that same value; this novel, the references suggest, relies on the mystery traditions that came before, even those that do not match this text’s subgenre.

“Just between us chickens, do I really care about some moldy plays or a Bible with type I can’t read? No. I just like having them, because it means somebody else can’t.”

Bain’s lack of appreciation for literary history is stark in a text that continually references its literary influences. Though the novel is ultimately ambivalent about the moral value of wealth—Bain’s wealth for wealth’s sake is disdained, while Poe’s acquisition of expensive cars is relished—Bain’s comment here illustrates that the text views the misapplication of wealth as something to be mocked.

“‘No wonder,’ said Marple. ‘It’s a vaginal ring.’

‘Body piercing?’ asked Poe, cringing.

‘Contraceptive,’ said Marple.”

Though Poe and Holmes are framed as having extensive, often esoteric knowledge, Poe’s ignorance of contraceptive vaginal rings illustrates the text’s representation of gendered knowledge as something that men, including detectives, do not possess. The novel is thus conservative in its illustration of gendered roles; Marple, the sole woman on the detecting team, is framed as having qualities traditionally associated with femininity (such as her compassion for victims), as well as knowledge of other woman-focused topics. Poe’s bodily reaction to the idea of a genital piercing underscores the separation of spheres that the novel adheres to.

“Marple winked as she walked past. ‘Don’t listen to a word [Poe] says.’

‘But is he telling the truth?’ asked Grey.

‘That’s the thing,’ Marple replied. ‘You never know.’”

Marple and Grey’s conversation, which arises after Poe claims to be descended from Edgar Allan Poe, highlights how the series uses the identity of the detectives as an overarching puzzle. The question of who the private investigators are is not answered in this novel, offering a setup for further installments in a series with these same characters.

“‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Rodents simply undo me.’

Holmes wrapped his long arm around Marple’s shoulder. ‘Not to worry, Margaret,’ he said. ‘We all have our weaknesses.’”

While Marple’s fear provides another literary allusion to Christie’s Miss Marple, Holmes’s response offers a wry nod to his own flaw—his heroin use. Holmes’s addiction proves far more pivotal to the plot than Marple’s distaste for mice, leading up to his decision to attend drug rehabilitation at the end of the novel. His kindness, moreover, shows his tender feelings for Marple, which, the novel suggests, may blossom into romantic feelings later in the series.

“The people in pearls and tuxedos are often the most accomplished thieves of all.”

Though Blythe, Holmes’s art crimes contact, here references art thieves, his comment about well-to-do criminals underlines the novel’s theme about corruption in high places. Most of the perpetrators whom Marple, Holmes, and Poe uncover in the novel occupy high places in society. The novel thus implies that crime is most challenging to solve when those in power are responsible, as they have the influence and leverage to cover their wrongdoing.

“Whoever had done this didn’t just steal art; he wanted the world to appreciate it—even at the risk of exposing his crime.”

Art thief Franke’s observation about the Shakespeare First Folio and Gutenberg Bible theft foreshadows the reveal that Holmes, Marple, and Poe stole the literary artifacts from Bain. Due to the trio’s status as protagonists, this theft is implied to be justified: They, unlike Bain, appreciate the merit of literary work, which leads the novel to frame the texts’ theft less like a crime and more like liberation.

“Afterward, Grey slept deeper and longer than she had in years. Four straight hours.”

Grey’s increasing closeness to the trio of private investigators—here referenced via her sexual relationship with Poe—is framed in the text as an overall positive, even as it puts her police career at risk. Starting a sexual relationship with Poe helps Grey find peace and rest. The addendum that four hours is an extremely long period of sleep for her suggests that she, like the private investigators who work at all hours, may have an overly busy mind that she struggles to quiet.

“[The victims are] all people on the margins—sex workers, restaurant dishwashers, hotel housekeepers—people without nearby relations. Or none at all. No family to pester the police or the media year after year. Nobody to keep their cases alive.”

Poe’s characterization of the Sigliks’ victims (whose murders span decades) highlights the novel’s tacit argument about the lack of justice in crime solving. The novel posits the police as complicit in this injustice (with some outliers, like Grey, who work outside the law occasionally out of a sense of right and wrong) and the private investigators as a solution, albeit an imperfect one.

“‘Sleep—those little slices of death!’ [Poe] leaned back. ‘Do you know where that’s from?’

‘Sorry, I don’t,’ said the bartender.

‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3,’ said Poe.”

An intoxicated Poe’s claim that his quote comes from a slasher film offers a humorous reversal of the literary references that pepper the text; instead of a highbrow quote, Poe claims to offer something from pop culture. The claim is jokingly correct: An epigraph at the beginning of the third Nightmare on Elm Street movie does attribute this line to Poe, but this is a misattribution.

“‘These two love tunnels,’ said Holmes.”

Holmes’s comment about the Siglik brothers reveals how the detectives can read their own activities as plot, part of the novel’s many metafictional elements. After following the Sigliks through multiple tunnels, Holmes here wryly comments on the repetitiveness of the events. Viewing successive tunnel chases as repetitive rather than continuous shows that Holmes reads his own actions through a literary lens—only plots, not real-world events, are expected to have twists or cliffhangers.

“Poe was tapping impatiently on the steering wheel while Holmes fiddled with an app on his cell phone. The app he’d coded that afternoon.”

Holmes and Poe are depicted as both having technical proficiency that enables them to work more quickly and efficiently than the police. While much of the book shows Holmes, Marple, and Poe as having skills that come from their respect for the past, this excerpt highlights that historical knowledge does not come at the expense of a facility with modern tools.

“‘Could have turned out worse,’ said Poe.

The cop just stared at him. ‘Really? Is that what you’re gonna tell the wife?’”

Poe’s comment (and the police officer’s corresponding doubt) after Zozi Turner and Eton Charles are discovered compares the pain of losing a loved one to death to finding out that a loved one is a betrayer. Poe’s underlying logic that death is worse ties into his mysterious backstory regarding his deceased love, Annie.

“‘These guys are ghosts. Best I’ve ever seen. But if you want, I can keep digging.’

Grey thought for a moment. ‘Forget it,’ she said. ‘All you’ll find is more smoke.’”

Though Grey tells her CIA contact not to bother looking into the trio of detectives by claiming that such a search is pointless, the novel suggests that Grey instead has developed trust in the other detectives. As Grey becomes increasingly part of the detectives’ inner circle, she learns that she must build such trust on their present actions, rather than anything she can prove about their pasts. The true origins of the trio are presented as a puzzle to be explored throughout the series.

“But now Grey felt the need for a cup from the office pot. Precinct blend. Diesel strength.”

Grey’s desire for a strong cup of precinct coffee after Poe makes her a more expensive version represents Grey’s pull between her police background and the workings of the private investigators—which are often more effective, usually more rarified and niche, and not always legal. This illustrates the novel’s dual appreciation for highbrow, elegant things (shown through literary references) and simple, everyday pleasures (such as Marple liking a beat-up truck or Poe’s horror film reference).

“Wherever [the folder] came from, she knew it was enough evidence for a spectacular, career-boosting takedown.

Grey’s description of the evidence that she later learns was given to her by Marple, Holmes, and Poe is a nod to the omnipotent power sometimes granted to the novel’s detectives. Marple, Holmes, and Poe always possess the exact skills they need to do the things that need to be done. Marple, for example, notes that she has spent years practicing the perfect accent to trick Franke, while Poe’s perfect recall leads him to the Siglik residence during his inebriated wanderings. Grey’s comment is wry hyperbole—calling the trio “gods” for delivering the goods—both due to the trio’s foibles and to Grey’s increasingly complicated relationship with the NYPD.

“We’ve been kidnapped by cops.”

The way the three detectives fall afoul of the police at the climax of the novel indicates that, though various police officers serve as allies in the text, the novel itself is not necessarily allied with policing as a method of justice and that the detectives’ Fraught Relationships With Police will not be resolved any time soon. The novel is ambivalent about the police’s moral authority, framing some officers (like Grey) as just, while others are corrupt.

“Tell me something, Boolin. How does Nancy Drew here know more about this crap than you do?”

Mayor Rollins’s comment, intended to be both sexist and dismissive of private investigators more broadly, falls flat for readers, who, by this point in the text, understand the novel’s appreciation for detective fiction as a means of learning how to solve mysteries. Though the Nancy Drew books, as juvenile fiction, are not touchstones like the Christie, Doyle, and Poe stories, this comment in the mouth of one of the text’s antagonists implies that even juvenile detective fiction is not to be mocked, per the novel’s ethos.

“I should have said something. I need to work on my sharing.”

Marple’s admission that she needs to be a better member of the team comes at the end of the novel, which suggests that the development of the investigative firm’s collective detecting powers will be an ongoing theme in the series. This also reminds readers that Marple, whose areas for improvement are less transparent than Poe and Holmes’s substance use, has as much potential for development as those of her male counterparts.