View source for Review:The Problem of the Missing Miss/Sonia Fetherston

{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles
 |Date=1999-06-01
 |Book=The Problem of the Missing Miss
 |BookAuthor=Roberta Rogow
 |Reviewer=Sonia Fetherston
 |Topics=Pastiche
}}
This review of the book ''"The Problem of the Missing Miss", by Roberta Rogow'' was written by [[Sonia Fetherston]] and published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999).

This review discusses Roberta Rogow's ''The Problem of the Missing Miss'', a historical mystery that brings together [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] and Lewis Carroll as amateur investigators in Victorian Brighton. The reviewer is initially skeptical of the premise and subject matter, but ultimately judges the novel engaging and effective, especially for its lively portrayal of the young [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]].


== Review ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p160-review-fetherston.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 160)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p161-review-fetherston.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 161)]]

: [[File:st-martin-press-1998-mising-miss.jpg|100px]]
: '''The Problem of the Missing Miss'''
: Roberta Rogow 
: New York: St Martin's Press, 1998; 261 pp. 
: ISBN: 0-312-18553-7; U.S.$22.95 


'''Reviewed by Sonia Fetherston'''

I wanted to dislike The Problem of the Missing Miss. 

After all, it's a mystery-fiction uniting (of all people) [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. And, after all, it makes these two authors into detective wannabes: Dodgson as a prototype [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] and [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] as a Watson-in-the-rough. After all, it deals with the repugnant subject of the sexual exploitation of little girls. And, after all, it comes pretty damned close to giving away too much, nearly spoiling that all-important element of surprise. 

But in spite of the cautionary after-alls, I did actually like The Problem of the Missing Miss. I'll tell you why in a moment. First, though, more about the book and its new novelist. 

The story is set in Brighton, in 1885, where young [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] and his bride Touie are honeymooning. As fate would have it, they cross paths with the venerable Oxford mathematician Dodgson in the railway station. He's got a terrible problem: a young girl entrusted to his care has vanished. That her name is Alice, um, 'Alicia', is convenient. A search for her takes the doctor and the don through the lurid underworld of Victorian child prostitution. Rogow didn't resist the temptation to introduce a handful of other real-life characters — Salvation Army General William Booth, for one — but that slippery slope sometimes claims the best of us. And what the heck? Dodgson and [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] were real enough themselves. 

Dodgson and [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] do sometimes come across as more Felix and Oscar than Sherlock and John. Still, Dodgson is an intriguing choice on which to model [[Sherlock Holmes]]. Recent scholarship into his unpublished and lesser-known work shows that Dodgson was a logician of astounding depth. One authority (Morton N. Cohen) goes so far as to say that Dodgson's work in the field of logic reached 'ethereal, theoretical heights. ... Charles pushed out the intellectual boundaries of thinking about logic'. Rogow alludes to this side of Dodgson, but she knows her intended audience and wisely steers away from such a heavy subject. Another area she avoided, but one which must be in the back of any reader's mind given Rogow's plot, was Dodgson's own troubling fascination with little girls. In our age, his hundreds. of nude photographs of them would have been seized by the police in advance of a pornography trial. In his age, many parents seemed to feel flattered that the creator of Wonderland wanted to disrobe, and capture the images of, their pre-pubescent daughters. Most of his photographs were destroyed when he died. The few which remain frankly shock modern viewers. 

Rogow's [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] is boyish and energetic. He's glad to plunge into any situation, be it a gruesome autopsy or a boring tea party given by the local rector's wife. This [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]], as was the original, is consumed by curiosity about the world around him. He's smart, observant, and a good judge of others. Painfully shy about his own literary ambitions, it takes him the entire book before he finally musters the courage to ask if Dodgson will critique something he's written. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] is gentlemanly, though not a gentleman in the strict social sense, as other characters are apt to remind him. Dodgson, for example, accepts [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s offer of assistance only because the shabby honeymooner happens to be [[Richard Doyle|'Dicky' Doyle]]'s nephew. The interesting member of the family, though, is Touie. She's a very bizarre bride, strangely eager to shoo her new husband out to traipse about after Dodgson. Her behaviour is so odd, readers should be forgiven if they find themselves wondering whether shedunnit! 

A librarian in her other life, Rogow lives and works in New Jersey. While this is her first novel, she's a practised hand at writing. Her articles and pastiches are familiar to many Sherlockians and S-F fans, with credits going back some twenty years. Marvin Kaye encouraged her to write this book, and I'm glad he did. Which brings me to the reason I liked it, after all. 

Rogow is simply a great wordsmith. Her wonderful turns of phrase kept me turning the pages. Her dialogue is brisk, and she's got a decent ear for slang. She's done her homework on Victorian Brighton; the resort springs to beautiful life on her pages. Those little idiosyncracies which can make or break a character (especially her truly fictional ones) are on the mark every time. She does an excellent job of capturing many of Dodgson's peculiar personality traits. It's a pity that new biographical matter on [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s life wasn't available in time to be included. The approach provided by Stashower's new biography, for example, could have enriched Rogow's treatment of the doctor. A possible sequel book is hinted at in the afterword. If this does become a series, it will be interesting to see how she develops the relationship between Dodgson and Conan Doyle-men who, as far as we can ascertain, never met in real life. Dodgson's later years were marked by distressing forgetfulness and illness. It was during this same period that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] hit his stride, emerging as a confident author and activist. How this substantial shift in power might change their relationship could make for an engaging follow-up. Rogow's window of opportunity is limited (Dodgson died rougly twelve years after this story takes place), but she is an able writer who could be on to something. It's a workmanlike first book... after all. 

Sonia Fetherston








{{footer_acd_society_article}}
{{footer_periodicals}}
{{footer_review_articles}}