About the Author

Claire O'Dell grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in the years of the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal. She attended high school just a few miles from the house where Mary Surratt once lived and where John Wilkes Booth planned for Lincoln to die. All this might explain why she spent so much time in the history and political science departments at college. Claire currently lives in Manchester, Connecticut, with her family and two idiosyncratic cats.

Reviews

“O’Dell’s prose is sharp and clean, rising at times to the poetic, and her near-future Washington DC feels like a real city. The USA of A Study in Honor is a place with deep political divisions, and some of that comes into play in this story. It feels appropriately complicated as a future, and not a simplistic future vision of now.” — Locus Magazine

“Readers who pick this up for the novelty of Watson and Holmes as black women will be impressed by how well O’Dell realizes them as full, rich characters. This is a real treat for fans of Conan Doyle and SF mysteries.” — Publishers Weekly

“If you like dystopian future narratives, queer romance, and Sherlock Holmes, you’ll adore A Study in Honor.” — LitHub

“In this intriguing and fresh twist on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, O’Dell brings a heady mix of dystopian sf and strong female protagonists in the first of a new series.” — Library Journal

“I may be a sucker for a good Dr. Watson, or maybe Claire O’Dell (an open pseudonym for Beth Bernobich) has just written a hell of a good novel, because A Study in Honor turns out to be one of those books I find impossible to put down. I want the sequel immediately.” — Tor.com

“A gritty, fast-paced investigation with a memorable and compelling duo of main characters. I can’t wait to see what Janet and Sara get up to next.”   — Aliette de Bodard, Nebula-award winning author of The House of Binding Thorns and The Tea Master and the Detective

“A Study in Honor is a fast-moving, diverse science-fictional Holmes and Watson reinterpretation set in near future Washington DC. As a deliciously intersectional makeover of a famous literary duo it’s enormously satisfying. Clean, clear, and vastly enjoyable.” — Nicola Griffith, Lambda Literary award-winning author of So Lucky

“An entertaining and empathetic dystopian procedural that navigates the capital of an America at war with itself, tracking the path to recovery from personal and national trauma.” — Christopher Brown, author of Tropic of Kansas