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My Rating: 4.7 out of 5Buy on Amazon (affiliate) |
The first Holmes story I ever read was The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle; it was a present my father gave me for Christmas in 2012. Since then, I've read most of the original Sherlock Holmes stories (and am obsessed with the television shows Elementary and BBC's Sherlock). Holmes superfan that I am, I was somewhat apprehensive about Miss Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. I needn't have worried. I found Enola to be a delightful character whose talents are indeed worthy of the Holmes name.
The Case of the Missing Marquess is the first in a series of mysteries starring Enola Homes. The story begins on Enola's fourteenth birthday, when her mother inexplicably goes missing. Concerned, Enola contacts her older brothers to help her locate their mother but upon their arrival at the Holmes family estate Enola discovers that Mycroft and Sherlock, who have not been in contact with their sister or mother for over a decade, disapprove of the way Enola was raised and intend to send her to boarding school to become a proper Victorian lady. The spirited and headstrong Enola resolves that this will not be her fate. She cleverly foils her bothers' plans and secretly heads to London, alone, to find her mother. There she learns of a recent kidnapping case headlining the papers and decides to become a perditorian, a finder of lost things, all the while outrunning her famous detective brother!
Although the Enola Holmes series is marketed to children as middle grade novels, I think any reader can enjoy these short mystery stories. Like Sherlock, Enola is quite adept in creating effective disguises, is resourceful and highly observant, and knows how to create and decipher codes. But unlike her brother, Enola understands the customs and practices of, as Sherlock and Mycroft put it, "the more feeble-minded sex", allowing her to enter spaces or interact with those which Victorian propriety would not permit of the Holmes men. The youngest Holmes is bright and eager to prove herself as a capable detective in a society where scientific investigation is no activity for a respectable young lady. Indeed, Springer's vivid and engrossing writing really brings Enola's world to life (including the restrictive rules of behavior imposed on Victorian women and the sexist laws that oppressed their autonomy) in great detail, as did the outstanding voice acting of narrator Katherine Kellgren in the audiobook recording I listened to. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series and highly recommend!
CHALLENGE: Read 6 books in 3 months (June, July, August)
DEADLINE: August 31, 2017
BOOK #1: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
As always, you can check out my previous Reading Challenges here.
