Proof that the remaining 10% is worth going through rehab for here.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for Elementary, 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.
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.
Authors and Websites
hophophop
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Comments: This author seems to specialize in Elementary fanfic, and all of it is excellent, with gorgeous writing and pitch-perfect characterization. Lots of gen, but there are shipping fics here too.
General Fic
The Art of Negotiation by language_escapes- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded, dedicatedfollower467
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: For them, negotiation is less about boundary setting and more about upping the ante.
- Comments: A one-shot gen fic that explores Sherlock and Joan's developing friendship and mutual trust. Fantastic dialogue and characterization—the author has an excellent ear for the characters' voices and even their body language. Beautifully written, funny, and ultimately very sweet even as it keeps the characters' relationship platonic. Well worth a read.
- Seconded! It's pretty hard to find good gen Elementary fic, and this is a shining example. I'd recommend this to anybody who loves Elementary and the platonic relationship between Sherlock and Joan as much I do!
for the sane mad and the bravest monsters by language_escapes
- Recommended by: Lye, caughtbluehanded
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: He sees her, and his heart breaks.
- Comments: This fic weaves an incredibly rich backstory for Sherlock and the relationships in his life. Great writing, superb characterization and wonderfully charming in its own right.
- Incredibly beautiful, heartbreaking, strangely uplifting, and just plain amazing. -caughtbluehanded
The Adventures of Clyde the Tortoise by Eva
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: Just what the title describes.
- Comments: A short fic from Clyde's point of view. Hilarious and adorable in the extreme.
- Recommended by: Lye
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: Diotima of Mantinea was a female seer whose ideas are the origin of the concept of Platonic love.
- Comments: All you need to know is that this fic contains drunk!Sherlock and exasperated!Joan, pretentious Latin shittery and an argument about how well Sherlock gives head.
A Secret History of Sherlock's Socks by dashakay
- Recommended by: Lye
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: Joan is only able to see something of the real Sherlock after she notices his socks.
- Comments: Fighting crime, getting locked up in magician's trunks, talking about wayward exes, and heartwarming resolutions told through socks.
at least you know you were taken by a pro by beanarie
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: "Moriarty said you was obsessed with puzzles," Moran had said, his eyes shining. "But he's the greatest puzzle you'll ever come across." And through the rage and growing tendrils of doubt, a distant part of Sherlock had laughed. No puzzle could be more challenging or complex than the one these people had taken from him.
- Tags: Non-consensual drug use, drug addiction, hurt/comfort
- Comments: Lovely fic with excellent characterization, a succinct-yet-evocative writing style, and an absolutely gut-wrenching hurt/comfort set-up/pay-off.
Three Continents and Many Nations by sanguinity
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded, Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: "In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents..." —The Sign of the Four
- Comments: In which Sherlock learns that he did not found the Joan Watson fanclub.
La Chanson des Vieux Amants by language_escapes
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded, Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen
- Synopsis: There are two constants in Joan's life: Sherlock and bees.
- Comments: A gorgeous, novella-length exploration of Joan and Sherlock's partnership through the years. Joan's voice is perfect and there are tons of brilliant canon references and allusions to the events of the show. You will laugh and cry and learn a lot about bees.
- Recommended by: millernumber1
- Status: Complete
- Category: Gen (mostly, in that weird way Sherlock and Joan are)
- Rating: R, for violence and sex
- Synopsis: The bad news: In 111 days, an asteroid will strike the Earth in a cataclysm that promises to destroy human civilization as we know it. The good news: There's been a murder.
- Comments: Amazing exploration of a hypothetical "what if" Sherlock and Joan were caught in an apocalyptic scenario. Worthwhile not just for the exquisite character work as well as the worldbuilding and thematic development.
Sign of Three by YourFairyGodfather
- Recommended by: albinotiger
- Status: Dormant
- Category: Humor/Drama
- Synopsis: There was no hint of it in her letters, no warning of her coming. She simply arrived one afternoon in late September, the autumn wind tugging at her coat and a small suitcase at her feet as she waited patiently on the front porch for one of them to open the door.
- Comments: Moriarty moves in with Sherlock and Joan. What follows is mind games, competition, and lots of painting. Touching and humorous Alt Fic
Shipping Fic
May You Live in Interesting Times by Medie- Recommended by: Lye
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Sherlock
- Synopsis: He grins at her. "Suffice it to say, Watson, with me? You'll never be bored." (aka Sherlock's idea of courtship? Not everyone's.)
- Comments: Well-written and delightfully in-character. This fic is excellent at maintaining the atmosphere of the show and has a perfect grasp on its quirky, slightly morbid humour.
- Recommended by: Lye
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Sherlock
- Synopsis: Sherlock and Joan pretend to be a married couple to solve a case.
- Comments: A great take on the old 'pretending to be married' trope. Entertaining, engaging, and all other complimentary words that begin with an E.
Paler Than Grass by philalethia
- Recommended by: FurryFury
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Sherlock
- Synopsis: Joan tries to date, and Sherlock gets in the way.
- Comments: The best thing about this fic are all the subtle nuances that feel just right for the characters. Absolutely perfect character voices, great dialogue and just the right amount of shippiness for these two.
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Sherlock
- Synopsis: Blackout. It started with a touch, and whirled out of control until she never wanted it to end, and then it was over and the lights came back on. Sherlock and Joan and being in the dark.
- Comments: This is basically What You Are in the Dark: The Slashfic, and the highest praise I can give it is this: It actually turned me into a Joanlock shipper. The romance and descriptions and internal monologues of ensuing sexytimes are that well-written. And on top of all that, there's a great mystery!
balanced on my head like steak knives by spellmans
- Recommended by: stardust_rain
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Moriarty
- Synopsis: Moriarty paints; Joan is painted.
- Comments: One of my favourite things to come out of that finale was the slow-but-steady growing Joan/Moriarty faction of fandom. This is just how I perceive the relationship; balanced but delightfully creepy, and with glorious build-up. The characterisations are spot-on.
- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Sherlock
- Synopsis: Their relationship as it stands has one mathematical certainty: It will end in twenty-five days. At that time, her sojourn as his sober companion will end. Either Watson will pass out of his life forever, or Holmes will have to devise another option.
- Comments: A mostly-gen fic with a heaping helping of delicious UST. It addresses Sherlock's withdrawal beautifully, and the author's take on his voice is flawless. All in all, an excellent character study.
colorblind by the evilcleavage
- Recommended by: Adele Potter
- Status: Complete
- Pairing: Joan/Moriarty
- Synopsis: Irene is the first of Jamie's masks. Moriarty will be the last.
- Comments: A beautifully written exploration of Moriarty's mind, which elicits a surprising amount of sympathy. The relationship with Joan is also really well-written, and surprisingly hopeful, despite Moriarty being who she is.
Crossover Fic
the blood, Ignoble series by bellmare- Recommended by: caughtbluehanded
- Status: Dormant
- Crossover with: A Study in Emerald
- Synopsis: From Albion to Ommerike, they trod the path of the Restorationists; Greenskin Killers, the Dagonite Butchers, names were one and the same to them.
- Tags: Graphic depictions of violence, major character death
- Comments: Ongoing fic that puts Sherlock and Joan in a modern-day version of Neil Gaiman's A Study In Emerald. Dark, strange, fascinating and imaginative.
The Duplicitous Detective by Makokitten
- Recommended by: AndiNightshade
- Status: Dead
- Crossover with: Sherlock
- Synopsis: A dynamic detective, a disgruntled doctor, and a damsel who isn't in all that much distress, thank you very much. In which a case of identity involving Sherlock Holmes himself threatens to turn several worlds upside-down, the Watsons are left to clean up the mess, and Irene Adler? Well, she just does what she wants.
- Comments: As with all of her work, Makokitten weaves an incredibly nuanced story between Elementary's Sherlock and BBC Sherlock's Irene Adler. Some tie-ins with her BBC Sherlock roleplay blog, Texts from John and Sherlock, and her post-Reichenbach story, The Siegerson Letters, both co-written with h3rring.
- This is dead. Completely. Nearly 5 years since a chapter. Definitely dead. That's even longer than one particular Certain Magical Index fic I myself found to be dead. - hanwen1234
