The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg

This is the first in a series, and I've looked at it for a while and finally bought it a few months ago. 

I have to say Sherlock Holmes novels always make me feel like I'm just not that observant.  It's like a test on every page! And this mystery was no different. 

It's 1914. Sherlock Holmes has recently died, and Watson is an elderly retired physician, lost in the memories of all the cases he and Holmes solved in their glory days. Now Watson's son, John Jr. (a physician) makes sure his father is taken care of at 221b Baker Street, the same apartment where Holmes lived. A woman visits, asking for Watson's help. Her brother has recently died--jumped from a window to his death. She, however, doesn't believe it was a suicide, and asks for help to clear her brother's name. 

Two witnesses to the death--a young mother and her son, turn out to be Joanna  and Johnnie Blalock. Joanna is Holmes' daughter, the product of a one night affair between Holmes and Irene Adler; adopted after Irene dies shortly after giving birth to Joanna. Watson knows exactly who she is, and wow, she is as intellectual and brilliantly observant as her father and mother. 

Watson, John Jr., and Joanna soon begin digging into the mysterious suicide of Charles Harrelston, and quickly find a culprit: Dr. Christopher Moran. It seems pretty cut and dried, but this quickly became much more complicated and in-depth than I expected. There are more deaths, a secret code, old war secrets, and a race against time before Dr. Moran claims his final victim. 

My only issues were the "romance" between Watson Jr. and Joanna. It seemed kind of dumb and just thrown in for no good reason. And not much of a romance, either. Also, I was a bit annoyed at all the men being astounded at Joanna's ability to decipher clues and figure things out. Come on! Women are smart! 

I'l probably read more in the series--there are at least another 2-3 in the series after this first mystery. 

Rating: 4/6 for a good mystery that kept unfolding. A few things annoyed me, but overall a satisfying beginning to a smart series. 

Available in paperback, audio, and ebook. 

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The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg

The Bartered Brides: An Elemental Masters Novel by Mercedes Lackey

I have always been a fan of fantasy novels. I remember a high school English assignment where I had to create a make believe world (including drawings) and how much I loved doing that. My earliest reading memories were of books that involved some element of magic and fantasy-John Bellairs! and Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series are two of my favorites. This was years and years before Harry Potter, but even then, writers understood kids needed that element of magic and fantasy in their stories.

I'm still a big fan of fantasy but I don't put it at the top of my reading list, and for that I'm annoyed with myself. One series I do enjoy is Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. There are thirteen novels in the series and I haven't read them all (some sit on my bookcase...) but I've read enough that I always look forward to reading the next. She mixes late Victorian England, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, along with elemental masters. Elemental masters are people who are gifted with the power of one of the four elements: fire, air, earth, water. They serve to protect England from evil. And as we know, power corrupts, and some folks who are elemental masters are not so pleasant.

In this novel, Sherlock is dead. Not really, but only his closest friends know he's alive, actively working to shut down the evil Moriarty's vast network of minions before they can harm anyone else. Moriarty is dead, thanks to Sherlock, but of course when you're that evil, it takes a bit more to really be dead. Enter Spencer, a fellow who is an elemental master of spirits. This kind of elemental master is very rare; he can command spirits, trap them, and have them do his bidding. He can move between this world and the spirit world with ease. What he's planning is horrific: to bring Moriarty back by taking over the body of a young wealthy man. To do so, Spencer must gather enough power to make this leap possible. How to do that? By trapping the spirits of young women who are bound to him. Their anguish fuels the talisman needed to bring Moriarty back. 

Spencer is pretty awful. He finds young, poor women, promises to marry them, and takes care of them. Once they're married (by a total faker), he ends up decapitating them and keeping their heads. All this is designed to trap their spirits, and their misery in the spirit world fuels Spencer's powers. 

Headless bodies are showing up in the Thames, and no one can figure out who they are, and where they are coming from. It seems like a hopeless case, and without Sherlock around to look at the clues, the police are stumped. Nan and Sarah, two cohorts of Sherlock and Watson, and elementals in their own right, work to figure out what is going on; completely unaware that Moriarty is not completely gone--and plotting to come back and create havoc. 

I love Mercedes Lackey's Elemental series. Her use of magic using the elements, along with fairies and other creatures always peaks my interest. I'm still that kid who thinks that fairies live in the backyard, I guess. I appreciate the logic of Sherlock Holmes, and wow-who knew Watson was a Water Elemental Master?

This would be a great series to start for a middle school or high school reader who loves fantasy. There really isn't any graphic violence--most is done "off-screen" and good triumphs over evil after some great battles. 

Rating:  4/6 for a twist in the Sherlock-Moriarty battle, with a satisfactory ending and a new beginning for one of the characters. 

Available in hardcover and ebook. 

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The Bartered Brides: An Elemental Masters Novel by Mercedes Lackey