Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Crossover Cover: The Case of the Limehouse Laundry

The Baker Street Irregulars investigate the disappearance of a number of flower girls. One of the Irregulars, Rosie, is told of the disappearances by a flower girl named Eliza, the daughter of an alcoholic dustman. Eliza was recently approached by a gentleman who offered to teach her to speak like a proper lady. Professor Moriarty proves to be behind the vanishings. Eliza is Eliza Doolittle from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. The gentleman is Professor Henry Higgins. A boatman named Enoch claims that the Chinese festival occurring in Limehouse during the climax of this novel is to celebrate “New Year or summat.” However, Enoch is incorrect, as Pygmalion takes place in Summer 1899, and Chinese New Year (the beginning of the Year of the Pig) fell on February 10 in 1899. The Moriarty in this book must be the second Professor Moriarty; that is, the first Professor’s younger brother, James Noel Moriarty, posing as his elder sibling.

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