Holmes, Marple & Poe: The Greatest Crime-Solving Team of the Twenty-First Century

Holmes, Poe, and Marple study a file on Eton Charles, which shows “an upstanding citizen […] at least on the surface” (103). He married single mother Addilyn 10 years prior.

As their phones ring incessantly, Poe wonders if they “overdid the publicity” (105). Grey calls with another case: Numerous human skeletons have been found.

In the abandoned subway tunnel where the bodies were found, Poe teases Grey with the possibility that he really is descended from Edgar Allan Poe.

Grey reports that during a soil inspection, a human kneecap was unearthed in the tunnel. More bones have been found, though no remnants of flesh or fabric cover them. Holmes demands to see a skull, which, like the others, has no teeth. He determines that the bodies are evidence of multiple murders.

Despite lingering discomfort from the horrifying subway tunnel scene, Marple considers the impressiveness of Holmes’s instant analysis of the bodies, which are all of people 20 to 30 years old. The bones, he said, had been dissected surgically; the murders were recent.

Marple distracts herself with the decades-old cold case of the murder that happened in their building. Mary McShane, an Irish 19-year-old immigrant who worked overnight in the bakery, was killed in 1954 when her throat was slit. The impoverished neighborhood was under-resourced; the case was not thoroughly investigated. Marple hears a thump from the corner of her room.

Holmes hears Marple scream. He and Poe rush to her room and break through the door to find Marple trembling over a mouse.

Marple, sheepish about her fear of mice, canvasses Zozi’s neighborhood, a task that she, unlike her partners, enjoys. She asks a local bodega proprietor about the Charleses; the shopkeeper recognizes Zozi easily but knows Eton only vaguely. She confirms having seen Zozi at five o’clock in the evening on the day before her disappearance, when Zozi bought two coolers. Addilyn calls; she’s been contacted by kidnappers.

Addilyn plays the recorded call for Marple. The altered voice demands $5 million for Eton and Zozi’s return and insists that Marple “back off or everybody dies” (120).

In a New Jersey warehouse, Holmes meets Essen Blythe, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who specializes in art theft. Blythe says that the warehouse is full of so-called orphaned art, with undetermined provenance, that was stolen by the Nazi regime. A secret area reveals a replica of the Sistine Chapel.

Holmes marvels at the near-perfect replica of the Sistine Chapel, created by Blythe’s team of “the finest art forgers in the world” (125). Blythe explains that his team uses forgeries to trap criminals using art sales to launder money. His team deems the Bain theft impossible to have been carried out by someone not on the inside, but Blythe doesn’t see Bain as a viable suspect. He points Holmes to Luka Franke, a skilled art thief who has never been caught.

Poe goes to the New York City morgue with Grey despite being unauthorized. Poe finds the trespassing thrilling. He examines the bones from the subway tunnel, noting that some were cut by a hand, others using a power blade. He concludes that the flesh was dissolved in acid but that similarly dissolving the bones would be impractical.

The medical examiner enters, noting Poe’s name and its connection to the Edgar Allan Poe story “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Poe notes that the story was named after a fictional Paris street, not a morgue. The examiner notes that the murders occurred over six decades, indicating multiple killers, and teases Grey about potentially dating Poe.

Holmes, Marple, and Poe visit Bain at work to update the billionaire as he demands. Bain, frustrated with their lack of progress, threatens to fire them. In his anger, he smashes an expensive antique vase, which makes him even more furious as the detectives leave.

Poe visits an animal shelter and is impressed when the young worker, Virginia, recognizes his car’s year and make. He asks to adopt “a good mouser” to protect Marple from mice (138), is taken with Virginia’s sales pitch for an unwanted cat, adopts the cat, and offers Virginia a job.

Holmes purchases heroin, tests it for purity, and then takes the drug. He relishes the fear of being discovered as much as the high.

Holmes enjoys his diminished ability to smell while under the influence of heroin, pleased to “[dull] his occasionally overwhelming sensitivity” (143). After a subway ride, he is shocked to suddenly feel “wobbly” when he exits the subway, wondering if he “miscalculated the dose” (144). He falls unconscious.

Holmes wakens in an alley to find his cash, drugs, and testing kit stolen. He has no injuries but is disgusted to note that he urinated while unconscious.

Poe dreams of a romantic encounter with his deceased partner, Annie. When he wakes, he thinks, guiltily, of his culpability in Annie’s death. He reaches for alcohol.

Holmes stumbles home, feeling guilty about using drugs instead of working on cases. He fails to unlock the office, puzzled that someone has changed the entry code. He climbs the side of the building, feeling that the dangerous act is a kind of penance. When he makes a sound, Poe looks outside, wielding a gun. Holmes identifies himself and is relieved that Poe is intoxicated, as it makes Holmes feel like he has “company” in “the realm of bad habits” (150).

Holmes wakes hours later, still dressed in his filthy clothes. Sober, he recognizes that he could have been killed the night prior and vows to avoid any more drug use until all the detectives’ cases are solved. He goes downstairs and is surprised to meet Virginia, whom Poe has hired as their assistant. Marple enters, holding the cat, Annabel. Marple praises Virginia’s efficiency, which includes updating the codes to the security system.

Addilyn calls—she has received a bloodstained shirt via mail.

Grey scolds the private detectives for not telling her about Eton’s and Zozi’s disappearances, threatening to “have their licenses” (154). After the discovery of Eton’s bloody undershirt, both the NYPD and the FBI were summoned. An FBI agent named Brita Stans takes over the case, to Holmes and Poe’s dismay.

Lucy thrills at her first modeling job, a Central Park photoshoot with a horse. When the other two models balk at mounting the horse, Lucy eagerly volunteers, impressing the photographer with her riding skills. She gets a threatening text that says, “FOUND YOU.”

Luka Franke is staggered that the thief who bypassed Bain’s security is advertising the Shakespeare and Gutenberg texts online. He tries and fails to hack the origin of the images. He considers the thief careless; he would have quietly moved the stolen items, not bragged about taking them. He looks forward to selling art he stole a decade prior; finding the right buyer is his favorite “part of the game” (160).

Marple assumes the name Lucinda Sadler to wait for Franke at a bar. Franke approaches her and boldly orders them expensive drinks. Marple, anticipating an interesting night, checks on the gun that Holmes insisted she carry.

Marple, feigning intoxication, admires the collection of stolen art in Franke’s apartment. She asks how he has “slipped the noose all these years,” which he attributes to “luck [and] friends” (165). Franke flirts with Marple and then leads her to his bedroom, where he shows her a stolen Van Gogh painting.

Franke makes suggestive comments, pressing to kiss Marple even when she asserts her disinterest. She throws a drink in his face and draws her gun. He insists that he doesn’t know where to find the Shakespeare and Gutenberg texts. She holds him at gunpoint while she leaves, shooting one of his works of art as she departs.

As Marple returns home, someone shoots at her twice. Poe emerges with a gun, while Holmes, panicked, pulls Marple inside to safety. Poe is annoyed that one of his cars has been shot. Marple asserts that Franke hired the shooter to warn rather than kill her—a professional would have successfully killed her if he’d been trying to do so. She sends Franke a taunting text, which alarms Holmes.