Meet Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective
Feb. 13th, 2010 12:33 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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halfamoonNow, the majority of you (all right probably 99-100% of you) are silently going, "Who the heck is Madelyn Mack?" Do not fret! I am happy to explain all.
Miss Madelyn Mack is the main character of a short collection of five detective stories written in 1914 as well as two lost silent films. And yes, she is in fact a detective. An awesome one. The collection is written from the POV of Nora Noraker, a reporter who has become renown at her newspaper for writing personal accounts of Madelyn's detective work. The setting is 1910s New York City.
When I requested this series for Yuletide, one of my descriptions was that Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective is a bit like a genderswapped Holmes and Watson.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melannen provides a brilliant comparison chart between Sherlock Holmes and Madelyn Mack in another post about the awesomeness of Madelyn Mack.
So why should you be interested in this fandom?
1. The collection is completely free. It is available for download at archive.org. Here is the link!
2. Madelyn Mack and Nora Noraker are awesome characters, both for their own personalities as well as their interactions. Not only is Madelyn Mack based off of a real female detective the author, Hugh C. Weir, knew (Mary Holland, who was also one of the first seven Americans to learn fingerprinting and the first female fingerprint instructor), but she does other amazing things: collects musical records from all around the world; goes on a world-spanning adventure trip whenever she has enough money, just for the fun of it; and understands that women are simply better at crime solving than men (although she does enjoy having an office of young men to do her paperwork).
Nora is devoted to Madelyn, and it's very obvious why. Not only is Madelyn a good friend to have, but Nora owes a great deal of her own ascent in the newspaper business to her (not all of it of course, because Nora is very obviously a talented writer in her own right).
3. The worldbuilding Weir does is great! And also a little steampunk-ish, because Madelyn Mack carries around a pocket telephone. Yes, in 1914. It's pretty awesome. Each story has well fleshed-out characters, from the villains to the victims, and the collection is a good read.
4. There is very little fanfic and meta for this fandom, but what does exist is awesome.
Silver Buttons All Down Her Back by melannen (Sherlock Holmes/Miss Madelyn Mack crossover, Madelyn Mack/Nora Noraker, Sherlock Holmes/James Watson)
Miss Madelyn Mack, Murderessflourish (Madelyn Mack, gen, dark)
SUSSEX DOWNS LADIES’ SEWING CIRCLE, DETECTION DISCUSSION GROUP AND TERRORIST SOCIETY byflourish (Sherlock Holmes/Peter Wimsey/Madelyn Mack crossover, gen with mentions of canon marriages, in which Madelyn Mack, Nora Noraker, Irene Adler, Harriet Vane, and Mary Russell form a group)
ETA: Sherlock Holmes, Petticoat Detective by verity (Sherlock BBC/Madelyn Mack crossover and AU, in which rather than Sherlock Holmes being the iconic detective in literature, Madelyn Mack is-- and John happens to be a fan)
Some excellent meta by melannen (Meta, along with a fix-it summary of a sequel to the final story)
5. As you may have noticed, this fandom is ripe for crossovers. In the first story, Madelyn Mack speaks of Sherlock Holmes in a way that suggests he is real and a possible acquaintance, so there's your Sherlock Holmes connection. We know Wooster and Jeeves lived in NYC for a time, why not have them stumble upon a crime Madelyn Mack is currently solving? Or have Madelyn Mack and Nora visit Nero Wolfe's brownstone because someone's hired both detectives for a job? (I would pay to read that fic, because Nero Wolfe meeting Madelyn Mack would be EPIC.)
ETA: In my enthusiasm, I forgot to mention one caveat about the final story-- "The Purple Thumb" has some gender and race issues. melannen offers a fix-it sequel in her journal, but yeah, I wanted to warn for that.
In other words, Miss Madelyn Mack is awesome, and if you're at all interested in a) detective mysteries, b) femslash, or c) steampunk New York City, you should definitely check the collection out.
Miss Madelyn Mack is the main character of a short collection of five detective stories written in 1914 as well as two lost silent films. And yes, she is in fact a detective. An awesome one. The collection is written from the POV of Nora Noraker, a reporter who has become renown at her newspaper for writing personal accounts of Madelyn's detective work. The setting is 1910s New York City.
When I requested this series for Yuletide, one of my descriptions was that Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective is a bit like a genderswapped Holmes and Watson.
melannen provides a brilliant comparison chart between Sherlock Holmes and Madelyn Mack in another post about the awesomeness of Madelyn Mack. So why should you be interested in this fandom?
1. The collection is completely free. It is available for download at archive.org. Here is the link!
2. Madelyn Mack and Nora Noraker are awesome characters, both for their own personalities as well as their interactions. Not only is Madelyn Mack based off of a real female detective the author, Hugh C. Weir, knew (Mary Holland, who was also one of the first seven Americans to learn fingerprinting and the first female fingerprint instructor), but she does other amazing things: collects musical records from all around the world; goes on a world-spanning adventure trip whenever she has enough money, just for the fun of it; and understands that women are simply better at crime solving than men (although she does enjoy having an office of young men to do her paperwork).
Nora is devoted to Madelyn, and it's very obvious why. Not only is Madelyn a good friend to have, but Nora owes a great deal of her own ascent in the newspaper business to her (not all of it of course, because Nora is very obviously a talented writer in her own right).
3. The worldbuilding Weir does is great! And also a little steampunk-ish, because Madelyn Mack carries around a pocket telephone. Yes, in 1914. It's pretty awesome. Each story has well fleshed-out characters, from the villains to the victims, and the collection is a good read.
4. There is very little fanfic and meta for this fandom, but what does exist is awesome.
Silver Buttons All Down Her Back by melannen (Sherlock Holmes/Miss Madelyn Mack crossover, Madelyn Mack/Nora Noraker, Sherlock Holmes/James Watson)
Miss Madelyn Mack, Murderess
flourish (Madelyn Mack, gen, dark)SUSSEX DOWNS LADIES’ SEWING CIRCLE, DETECTION DISCUSSION GROUP AND TERRORIST SOCIETY by
flourish (Sherlock Holmes/Peter Wimsey/Madelyn Mack crossover, gen with mentions of canon marriages, in which Madelyn Mack, Nora Noraker, Irene Adler, Harriet Vane, and Mary Russell form a group)ETA: Sherlock Holmes, Petticoat Detective by verity (Sherlock BBC/Madelyn Mack crossover and AU, in which rather than Sherlock Holmes being the iconic detective in literature, Madelyn Mack is-- and John happens to be a fan)
Some excellent meta by melannen (Meta, along with a fix-it summary of a sequel to the final story)
5. As you may have noticed, this fandom is ripe for crossovers. In the first story, Madelyn Mack speaks of Sherlock Holmes in a way that suggests he is real and a possible acquaintance, so there's your Sherlock Holmes connection. We know Wooster and Jeeves lived in NYC for a time, why not have them stumble upon a crime Madelyn Mack is currently solving? Or have Madelyn Mack and Nora visit Nero Wolfe's brownstone because someone's hired both detectives for a job? (I would pay to read that fic, because Nero Wolfe meeting Madelyn Mack would be EPIC.)
ETA: In my enthusiasm, I forgot to mention one caveat about the final story-- "The Purple Thumb" has some gender and race issues. melannen offers a fix-it sequel in her journal, but yeah, I wanted to warn for that.
In other words, Miss Madelyn Mack is awesome, and if you're at all interested in a) detective mysteries, b) femslash, or c) steampunk New York City, you should definitely check the collection out.
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Date: 2010-02-13 06:13 pm (UTC)Oooh, thanks for the link. This series sounds like a lot of fun!
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Date: 2010-02-14 01:32 pm (UTC)(My lone caveat about Madelyn Mack is that the final story has some gender and race issues...which I forgot to mention in the post in my enthusiasm. *goes to edit in*)
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Date: 2010-02-13 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-09-30 08:38 pm (UTC)(I firmly believe Madelyn Mack should be crossed over with every single detective fandom-- I currently have a Madelyn Mack and Nero Wolfe fic in the works.)
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Date: 2011-06-08 03:20 am (UTC)