Enola Holmes and the Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

A librarian friend and I exchange books on a regular basis, since we like a lot of the same authors though sometimes we each find the other’s selections to be a bit dubious. Such was the case when I opened the latest box from her and found the first four books in the Enola Holmes series.  While I have no qualms about picking up a Young Adult or children’s book to read*, I have been a little burned out on Sherlock Holmes. After all, there seems to be no end to the books, TV shows, and movies featuring the character.  Some of these are quite good, but there are just so many of them.  So. Very. Many.

As it turned out, I needed to read a YA book for Book Bingo so I decided Enola would do.  She was handy and the book looked short.

The premise is that the Holmes boys (Mycroft and Sherlock) have a much younger sister back at the family estate in the care of their mother, their father having passed away sometime previous to the start of the story.  Their mother is a staunch Suffragist with radical notions about women being able to make their own choices and to fend for themselves if need be, so Enola has been brought up to know all sorts of strange things, such as how to ride a bicycle, how to break codes, and how to think for herself.  She is less well trained in, say, needlepoint or cookery.

As the story opens, Enola discovers that her mother has disappeared.  There is no note, no explanation. When the next morning comes and there is still no word, Enola travels to town to make enquiries and to send telegrams to her brothers, advising them of the situation.

They turn up promptly, shocked at Enola’s lack of ladylike qualities and propose to rectify that by sending her off to boarding school while they track down the errant Lady Holmes. Enola in turn knows enough about boarding schools to be horrified, but they refuse to listen to her and go about the preparations.

So Enola takes to her heels and runs away.

She must be clever enough not only to make her own way in the world, but to evade her brothers—including the one who is the world-famous detective—and to find what has become of her mother.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book.  In fact, I read the other three in quick succession and then checked out the last two from our children’s library. While each book has its own mystery to solve, they form one long story arc.

Enola is clever, brave, and ingenious, every bit a match for her brothers.  She is young and makes some of the mistakes of youth but she is extremely resourceful.  She is also a caring, decent girl who wants to help others. It was delightful to see her grow and become more confident as the books progressed.

I also found I enjoyed seeing Sherlock from a fresh perspective, that of brother and (somewhat stodgy) gentleman. To his credit, he does gradually re-examine some of his prejudices over the course of the series in a way that is believable and doesn’t necessarily contradict the original tales.

One of the things I liked was Springer’s honest description of the London of the day and the status of women.  While we tend to picture it as filled with well-dressed, well-fed genteel folk, Enola is very aware of the dire poverty and degradation that lurks at every turn.  Some of the descriptions were hard to read, even though Springer doesn’t linger there. The rosy view of women then as being all afternoon teas and beautiful dresses doesn’t take into account the reality of many social and economic barriers, not to mention corsets.  (If you laughed at the latter, you won’t when you finish the series.)

Fun, thoughtful, empowering, and informative, these are marvelous adventures. I was sorry to finish the last one even as I was aching to find out what happened.  To my delight, I found that Springer has finally written another in the series, so I will be watching for Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche to come out in August 31.

In the meantime, I will also try to watch the Netflix adaptation of the series starring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola and Henry Cavill as Sherlock.

The series is better read in order:

The Case of the Missing Marquess

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline

The Case of the Gypsy Goodbye

 

 

*I sometimes find that YA and children’s books are more committed to telling a good story than adult books which sometimes pad the prose to the point that I wonder if the author is paid by the word.

A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

Reviewed by Jeanne

Sherlock Holmes seems to be everywhere these days.  Two TV series, one American and one British, feature modern versions of the great sleuth and both are successful.  Movies continue to be made, the most recent series of films featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes.  One would think that a character created back in 1887 would have worn out his welcome by now, but people keep molding him in slightly new images to suit the times.

To add to this present bounty of Sherlocks, I read recently that Sir Ian MacKellen will play the Great Detective in a movie based on the book A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin.  I’ve read a number of Sherlock pastiches but had not read this one, so I decided to give it a try.

It’s 1947 and a ninety-three year old Sherlock has retired to the county to keep bees.  He is a shadow of his former self; his mind plays tricks on him, and he loses track of both events and people and yet, he still has dazzling moments of clarity and memory.  He walks with two canes, and is looked after by a housekeeper and Roger, her young son, who has taken an interest in bees as well.  He still receives inquiries from all over the world, dismissing most, but occasionally taking an interest in a letter—mostly those to do with bees and royal jelly, not cases to be solved.  He has recently taken a trip to post-war Japan on one such errand, but is having some trouble recalling the details.  Meanwhile, Roger has come across an account of a case Holmes dealt with years before, but that account is woefully incomplete.  It involves a woman who captured Holmes’ imagination, though he can’t quite say why and the boy hopes that some day he will learn what happened.

Time moves back and forth in this beautifully written novel, with Sherlock recalling times long past while being unable to hang on to some parts of the present.  There are at least three main story threads, involving Roger who obviously worships Holmes, the long ago lady whose husband was sure she was involved in something untoward, and the Japanese gentleman who has an ulterior motive for contacting Holmes.  Sherlock’s observations, weariness, and meditations make for a fully realized character, someone quite different from the occasional one-dimensional versions of the character.

This is much more a literary novel than most Sherlock stories; in fact, it would have succeeded if the author had chosen the beekeeper to be someone other than Holmes, but using Sherlock does give the book an added poignancy.  The sections set in Japan after the Bomb are particularly memorable; again, not quite what I would have expected.  I’d recommend this to anyone who likes a well-written novel, but one in which not all answers are revealed.  If you’re a thriller or mystery fan, this might not be your cup of tea. And yes, I enjoyed it, though I do admit all the time-shifting sometimes made me pause and try to reorient my thoughts. The title is very well chosen, I think.

And I'll be really interested to see how they film this! Ian MacKellen should make quite a fascinating Holmes.

Garment of Shadows by Laurie King

Reviewed by Doris

There seems to be a great revival of interest in Sherlock Holmes. The new TV series Elementary and the remarkable BBC series Sherlock along with a couple of authors writing new Holmes stories have fueled the imaginations of a whole new Holmes audience. There is a series of books of Holmes stories done by author Laurie R. King that I have particularly enjoyed over the years. These Holmes stories do have Sherlock in all his glory, but the main character is Mary Russell Holmes, Sherlock’s much younger apprentice and eventual wife.
Beginning in the spring of 1915 with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice King takes Mary Russell from her teen age years as acolyte to the great detective who has retired to the English countryside into the 1920’s with all the changes in the world brought about by World War I. A most unusual young woman, Mary Russell shows the same intrepid behavior one expects from Holmes. A combination of crime stories—after all Holmes must have a mystery to solve—historical fiction, and a bit of romance, Russell and Holmes travel the world during a time of much upheaval. King brings into her stories themes of women’s’ rights, politics, oppressions by governments, and religious freedom and expression in a way that shows both how far we have come and how little things have not changed for many places in the world.

The just published Garment of Shadows is the twelfth books in the Mary Russell Holmes series and is set in Morocco. Russell wakes up one day unsure of her whereabouts, wearing native garb, blood on her hands, and no clue who she is. Just to keep things interesting there seems to be a war going on and French soldiers may be hunting for her. Meanwhile Holmes is roaming the Atlas Mountains dodging bullets and visiting with a relative, happily unaware his wife is missing and an amnesiac. Using the unsettled and often brutal history of Morocco as a core element of the story, King writes to her strengths in this book. The characters of Russell and Holmes are well-drawn. The settings with their exotic locales and strife set a stage for action and intrigue. The relationship between Holmes and Russell is both tender and prickly and often amusing. A couple of old friends from Palestine turn up to add to the drama and to a final twist in the plot.

As with any series there are some books better than others. Kings says of her first book in the series, “The Beekeeper's Apprentice was intended as a coming-of-age novel, in which a brilliant young mind grows into its own under the guidance of an equally brilliant, if unlikely, tutor: one Sherlock Holmes. That book set the stage for a life (and a relationship) that has circled the globe both physically and metaphorically,and over the decade of their adventures, she has definitely evolved.” Most of the books in the series have been best sellers and acclaimed, but books nine, ten, and eleven veered way off course and the books were not worth the effort. With Garment of Shadows King does return to her strengths and the novel is a lovely read.

“The great marvel of King’s series is that she’s managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes’s character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart.”—The Washington Post Book World