Sherlock Holmes (film)/Fanfic Recs

Proof that the remaining 10% is worth dying for here:

These are recommendations made by Tropers for Sherlock Holmes Fan Fics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

Do warn for content that is usually considered squicky or explicit. Also AU fanfics, shipping (which is, after all, Serious Business), and/or more exotic things if considered appropriate.

You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.

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Authors and Websites

Katie Forsythe

• Recommended by Polaris, bregalad
• Comments: For all your Holmes/Watson shipping needs. Katie's fics are long, plotty, incredibly detailed and emotionally resonant. She has an excellent knowledge of the canon and the period; several stories deal with canonical incidents - and how they may have occurred differently than Watson chose to record them - and historical events (Full of Grace deals with Oscar Wilde's imprisonment; The Presbury Letters with World War One). My personal favorite is The Three Favors, which deals with Holmes' return to London after Reichenbach.
  • Seconded. Her stories are amazing and you'll fall in love with her characterisations.
  • This troper agrees, her characterisations are amazing and her writing style is beautiful.
  • Her livejournal account (with some notes, stories properly arrayed by the author and podfics) can be found here. And yes, they are highly recommended.
  • Agree as well. This trooper read The Sign of Change before seeing the second movie and couldn't avoid mixing both works together. Her stories have a great canon feel.

Sacrilege!

• Recommended by Nemui10pm
• Comments: This is also a Holmes/Watson website. It's an old website that was created well before the recent adaptations that boosted the popularity of this pairing, but it's still updated once in a while. The stories, both the ones by the site's owner Miss Roylott and those by other authors, are well-written and enjoyable, with delightful references to the canon.

Wordybirdy

• Recommended by Lady Nomad
• Comments: Wordybirdy writes the funniest Sherlock Holmes that could be felt like it was canon. She researches Victorian England well and incorporates it into her fics. She writers Holmes/Watson as a couple and as really good friends.

General Fics

Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (AU, Crossover with Cthulhu Mythos. Available to read online here.)

• Recommended by Count Choculitis
• Synopsis: The Great Detective and his new flatmate investigate the murder of a member of the royal family.
• Comments: I just really love this clever twist on the plot of the first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. It's set in an alternate universe Victorian London where Lovecraftian monsters rule the earth, and... well, you should probably just read it. Beautifully written, subtle, and creepy.

Edward Meets Sherlock Holmes by Sherlock Carr

• Recommended by Novatel
• Synopsis:Why did Edward stop hunting criminals? During those brief ten years, he was just like a superhero...So why? Because he met someone. A man named Sherlock Holmes.
• Comments: Crossover with Twilight of all things, and still manages to be great. Sherlock Holmes uses his intelligence to fight Edward Cullen, a vampire.

Sub Rosa by Professor Pangaea

• Recommended by Polaris
• Synopsis: "One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve. The truly beautiful and noble puts its lover, as it were, at an infinite distance, while it attends him more strongly than ever." — Henry David Thoreau
• Comments: This is a wonderful multimedia fic, consisting largely of telegrams exchanged between Holmes and Mycroft during the former's time in hiding after "The Final Problem."

A Study in Rum by Nytd

• Recommended by Belphegor
• Synopsis: One wicked and clever pirate. One singular and brilliant detective. One hundred and fifty years apart. An impossible meeting? Perhaps just improbable... Crossover with Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Comments: Nytd is first and foremost a Pirates of the Caribbean fanfiction writer, but although this is a crossover, it remains a Holmes story throughout, with Doctor Watson as the narrator from beginning to end. It's fascinating, quite gripping and often funny, and the author has the 'voice' and feel of her characters down pat - no-one is forgotten. A definite must-read.

Jottings from a Doctors Journal By charleygirl.

• Recommended by Ancient Nonun.
• Type: Friendship
• Status: Ongoing-35 chapters.
• Synopsis: This are the alternate annotations of the Dr. John Watson, those who had not place in the adventures of the First and Only Private Detective of the World Sherlock Holmes, telling those everyday occurrences, mishaps and the insight of such an analytical mind.
• Comments: A beautiful compilation of short stories that detail the other side of the Coin in the life of Watson and Holmes, outside their adventures. Construct a profound and quite touching close relationship between the two(Bromance, not the obligatory Slash fic) and a door to the psyche of Holmes, who at times can be quite immature, lonely, childish and downright petty but at the same time more noble that the works would paint him. It's fluffy, funny and so hurtful. The solution of cabin fever is hilarious they play hidden game and face the music will make you cry. It had over other 30 works if you want to check it out.

The Fall at Reichenbach Revisited By rabidsamfan.

• Recommended by millernumber1.
• Type: Friendship, AU, shipping
• Status: complete, one-shot
• Synopsis: An AU look at what might have happened in Switzerland, from the prompt "What if Mary Watson didn't die during the Hiatus?"
• Comments: Incredibly dramatic, well written, and one of the few Watson/Mary shipping fics that doesn't go for the angst of the seemingly canon death of Watson's wife during the Hiatus. Deserves many, many reviews (and possibly encouragements for a follow up!).
• Pairing: Watson/Mary

Misery by Ancalime8301

• Recommended by Lady Nomad
• Type: Angst, Hurt/Comfort
• Status: complete, one-shot
• Synopsis: Holmes hits a rough patch just after Watson's wedding. Warnings: drug abuse, withdrawal.
• Comments: It is a dramatic, nice fic that has everyone in character and even have a few elements from the literature. While it is angsty, there are a few light moments that help balance it out with some nice Holmes and Watson banter and a few lovely friendship moments between Holmes and Mary.
• Pairing: Watson/Mary

Power of the Pen by The Fool's Hope

• Recommended by Mockingjay
• Type: Humor/Drama
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: A compilation of letters and other things written by various people after Sherlock Holmes' death.
• Comments: Contains the perfect balance of comedy and drama as the lives of Holmes' friends are detailed via telegrams, letters and other pieces of writing during the Hiatus.
• Pairing: Watson/Mary

Shipping Fics

Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.

The Baker Street Record by Featherfish (Crossover with House of Leaves. Contains slash, explicit sex.)

• Recommended by Count Choculitis, Tropers/Starshine
• Pairing: Holmes/Watson
• Synopsis: Described by the author as an exercise in dual pastiche, this crossover begins with Holmes and Watson discovering a door in their house were there wasn't one before. Holmes starts going mad trying to wrap his mind around it. Where does it lead? Is there something inside it? And then It Gets Worse. It should be noted that this is really not primarily a ship fic, but it contains Holmes/Watson slashiness and one scene of explicit sex.
• Comments: What can you expect from the story? Uh... creepiness, postmodernism, footnotes, and general awesomeness. Captures the voice of both works marvelously, and is full of clever allusions and surprises. In-character while showing the characters' descent into desperation and madness, and contains a touching portrayal of the bond between Holmes and Watson. Complete.
  • Seriously, this is a work of art. And if you're not into Holmes/Watson, don't let that put you off. The way she works it in is ingenious.
    • Speaking as someone who has never read House of Leaves and didn't really like Holmes/Watson before she read this fic, it is absolutely amazing. I would say it's the best fanfic ever written, but I'm not sure that description does this work justice. Best fanwork ever is probably more accurate.

Confessions of the Master. Recommended by ReginaTitania.

• Possibly the longest Holmes/Watson slash fic on FF.Net, this 214k+ monster is still WIP and comes pretty well recommended. It tells a dark story of love between Holmes and Watson, especially in the face of Victorian society and Watson's parental responsibilities, along with several more hypotheses regarding their backgrounds.
  • Told in the Watsonian style, one really feels as though Watson himself wrote this, although the use of footnotes does crack the illusion quite a bit. This story is something intriguing and attention-grabbing. No questions said; it is a tragedy. Take it like it is.

The adventure of Hecate House by Eyebrows2

• Recommended by Tonnocal
• Pairing Holmes/Violet Hunter
  • As Sherlock Holmes investigates an enigmatic doctor who makes extraordinary claims, he uncovers a fiendish web of dark crime. Can he & Watson unravel it before danger overtakes them? And what role does ex-client Violet Hunter play?
• Neither crude nor crud, this is pure Sherlock Holmes. The leading lady features in one of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and is true to Conan-Doyle's representation of her.

Will's Story by CSI Clue

• Recommended by Tonnocal
• Summary: After a murder at the Grande, Constable Clark and Mr. Holmes help to rescue a damsel, and Clarke gets more personallly involved.
  • • He was Will long before he was a William Clark, constable, and to his friends he was still Will when off-duty, which wasn't much these days. He roomed at a respectable house run by a retired army sergeant and his wife, and he sent home part of his pay every month to his old dad who was out in Weymouth.

Marriage á Trois by Sorrel

• Recommended by Java
• Pairing: Watson/Mary/Holmes
• Synopsis: In the aftermath of the Blackwood case, Mary determines that if she wants to have a successful marriage, she must find a way to integrate Holmes into her relationship with John. It's a decision that will have a number of unforeseen consequences, as she becomes far closer with the famous detective than she ever could have imagined.
• Comments: This fic is wonderfully realized, and I loved the gradual inclusion of Holmes. Follows the 2009 film.

A Journey to the Core by Nunewesen

• Recommended by Eona
• Pairing: Watson/Holmes
• Synopsis: Dr. Watson is finding himself unusually uncomfortable in his friendship with Sherlock Holmes. He decides to take a break to clear his mind, but finding the source of his uneasiness seems to be making things even more difficult...
• Comments: This fic feels like it could be canon. The romance between Watson and Holmes feels natural. It is rated M for explicit sexual content, but it is tasteful.

Homo Ex Machina by Toft

• Recommended by Jesaja
• Pairing: Watson/Holmes
• Synopsis: Watson accidentally publishes a pornographic novella featuring himself and Holmes, and is blackmailed into making it a serial.
• Comments: Well-written and enjoyable.
• Tags: Crack, UST, lemon.