A Holmesian Solstice

Title: The Really Final Problem
Recipient: armchair_elvis
Author: graycardinal
Verse: Elementary, Mary Russell
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes (x2), Mary Russell, Joan Watson, Estelle Holmes
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Words ~7600
Summary:

Joan Watson's Sherlock Holmes has just come back to life.
Mary Russell's Sherlock Holmes has just come home with a copy of Joan Watson's book.
One Holmes is looking for an inheritance; the other has already bestowed it.

Read on AO3: The Really Final Problem

Title and Author: An Excerpt from Blood Relatives by language_escapes
Link to Story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19040932
Recipient: language_escapes
Podfic Reader: REDACTED
Verse: Mary Russell - Laurie R. King, Dracula series - Fred Saberhagen
Characters/Pairings: Mary Russell, Mina Harker
Rating: gen
Warnings: none
Summary: A teaser excerpt from “Blood Relatives” by language_escapes. Left at home while Holmes is away applying his skills to the war effort, Russell receives an unexpected visitor.
Notes:

Intro and outro music from “We’re A Mystery” by Lindsay Phillips, from the album Taedium Vitae.

Author’s tags for the original story: Crossover, World War II, POV Female Character, Post-Canon. The complete story is tagged “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”; however, no warnings apply to this excerpt.

Apologies for the American accent; I decided to believe I could - just barely - get away with it, since Russell is technically American.

Thank you to [REDACTED] for beta!


Listen on AO3: an excerpt from Blood Relatives


 

Title: This Meeting of Like Minds
Recipient: language_escapes
Artist: starfishstar
Verse: Mary Russell x Lord Peter Wimsey
Characters/Pairings: Mary Russell & Harriet Vane
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Summary: Two women, both alumnae of the same esteemed university, meet one day at the Bodleian Library.


Read on AO3: This Meeting of Like Minds

Title: Untold Stories
Recipient: armchair_elvis
Author: amindamazed
Verse: Mary Russell
Characters/Pairings: Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes, John Watson/Sherlock Holmes
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Sherlock whump; fear of loss/death/mortality; mention of mental illness, mention of drug use
Summary: Holmes is injured; Russell and Watson react, in their emotionally constipated ways.
(there's a brief description of the injuries and how he got them, but the Sherlock Whump is just the premise, not a focus of this fic.)


Read on AO3: Untold Stories

Title: Blood Relatives
Recipient: graycardinal
Author: language_escapes
Verse: Mary Russell x Saberhagen’s Holmes-Dracula ‘verse
Characters/Pairings: Mary Russell, Mina Harker, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes; Russell/Holmes
Rating: Gen
Warnings: Use of ableist language (era-typical)
Word Count: 8379
Summary: “Mary. What do you know about vampires?”


Read on AO3: Blood Relatives

Title: Insoluble Puzzles
Recipient: graycardinal
Author: amindamazed
Verse: Charlotte Holmes, Mary Russell
Characters/Pairings: Charlotte Holmes, Araminta Holmes, Mary Russell, Leander Holmes, Jamie Watson
Rating: Teen
Warnings: mention of past (canon) traumatic events, including harm to animals. Not graphic.
Summary:
"Who would we be, we Holmeses, if not for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Mere curiosities buried in old newspapers, forgotten mentions in mouldering secret government archives and unsealed police records? Or would we be something else we never thought — were explicitly trained not — to imagine?"

---

Happy Holmestice, Gray Cardinal! I can't place all the blame for this fusion on your "Charlotte Holmes in the 22nd Century" but it was certainly an inspiration to look backward in a similar fashion. I also took the opportunity to take a closer look at "nice enough" Aunt Araminta, who is mentioned just a few times in the series. No doubt all of this will be jossed by The Case for Jamie although I hope we might at least meet Araminta there at last. I couldn't resist bringing her forward a bit as a conduit between Mary and Charlotte.

And in case no one else noticed Araminta Holmes the way I did, chapter 2 on AO3 is an appendix of her mentions in books 1 & 2.

Many thanks to [REDACTED] for beta and to the Holmestice Mods for their flexibility and patience.

Also on AO3: Insoluble Puzzles

( Insoluble Puzzles )

Title: sewing her skin together as i sew mine
Recipient: angelqueen04/AngelQueen
Author: language_escapes
Verse: Mary Russell series x Enola Holmes series
Characters/Pairings: Mary Russell; Enola Holmes; Sherlock Holmes; Lady Cecily Alistair
Rating: General Audiences
Word Count: ~9400
Warnings: Some discussions of mental illness
Summary: Mary Russell meets Sherlock Holmes in the spring of 1915. She meets his sister a few months later. A legendary friendship is formed.

Also on AO3: sewing her skin together as i sew mine

( sewing her skin together as i sew mine )

Title: A Matter of Memoirs
Recipient: amindamazed
Author: graycardinal
Characters/Pairings: Russell/Holmes
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Summary: Among all the possible reasons for writing one's memoirs, the best may be that one gets to tell the tale oneself.

A Matter of Memoirs (on AO3)

Title: The Bookkeeper's Apprentice
Recipient: sadbhyl
Author: [to be revealed]
Character/Pairings: Mycroft Holmes, Mary Russell
Rating: PG
Summary: Mycroft's promising protégée has an unfortunate taste for legwork.
A/N: This work is also a crossover with Sarah Caudwell's The Sirens Sang of Murder.


( The Bookkeeper's Apprentice )