Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

 

This is one of those series of books that I've seen around so many times over the years, and never picked it up. The new show on Netflix (September 23) had me deciding it was finally time to read the first in the series and see just what it was about. I had another one of those "why did I wait so long?!" moments when I finished it this morning. 

Enola Holmes is the younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. Years after her brothers were born, their mother produced Enola, embarrassingly at an older age when respectable women didn't have babies. Enola is now fourteen, and it's her birthday. 

She lives with her mother at the family estate, and she's had a pretty free life since her father died years ago, and her brothers have not visited in all that time. She's smart, quick, and loves to ride her bike. She's corset free, and happy about it. Until the morning of her birthday, when her mother steps out the door and never returns. 

Enola doesn't understand why her mother would leave her, and her confusion and sense of loss are a bit heartbreaking. However, she telegrams her brothers, and they arrive. Shocked by Enola's appearance (she looks a bit like a wild child) they quickly realize all the money Mycroft has been sending for years for clothes, dance lessons, horses and gardeners has been squirreled away by their mother. Enola is in need of a boarding school and proper clothes for a proper young lady STAT. 

Enola isn't having any of that, of course. On the day she is sent away to boarding school, she runs away, having planned to reach London to look for her mother. She's   no slouch in planning and observing, and using codes to figure things out. But, she is only fourteen, and some things go awry in her plan. Can she save herself, or will she be forced to contact Sherlock for help?

I know the movie on Netflix will have a bigger story than the first novel, but I watched the movie clip and it certainly looks like Millie Bobby Brown embodies all the best of Enola Holmes. I can't wait to watch it. And who can say no to Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes?! I certainly can't, nor do I want to. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from this first novel, and I am happy to say it was a delightful read. Not at all what I expected plot wise, so I am eager to read the rest in the series and see where Enola's adventures take her.  This series says middle school, and I would say any child who loves mysteries and is a good reader would enjoy these. Very well written; full of adventure, observation, and putting clues together.

Rating: 4/6 for a great start to a mystery series for kids that was first published in 2011. The series is still in print, and will find new readers as the Netflix movie comes out in the U.S. September 23rd. On my way to buy the rest of the series! 

Available in paperback and audio. 

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Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

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

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

I have no idea where I first saw this book, but I knew it was something I just had to read.  It looked quirky, inventive, and a good way to stick my toe back into science fiction/fantasy.

Theodora Goss started her writing journey during her dissertation.  Her interest in monsters lead her to wonder why, in 19th century literature, the female creatures were always destroyed by their creators?  What if they survived?  

This is their story.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I ended up liking this story, even though there wasn't a lot of action.  I liked it so much that when the second novel comes out (which just has to happen!) I will pick it up and dive right into the story of Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

Yes, each of these young ladies is the result of monsters.  For Mary and Diana, they both have the same father, but one was the scientist, the other the madman.  Beatrice is a walking vision, but so poisonous she can't touch or breath on anyone or she'll kill them.  Catherine is the result of Dr. Moreau's attempt to change a puma into a woman; Justine is the original "Bride of Frankenstein".  

The story starts out with Mary Jekyll burying her mother, and facing the inevitable:  she's broke, her father is dead, and she is alone in the world.  Her mother's lawyer leads Mary to find out she has a sister: Diana, who has been raised in a poorly run and not very holy convent.  Diana is fourteen, fiesty, and able to climb up buildings with ease.  The two reluctantly become housemates, and for an extra kicker, they are pulled into the mysterious Whitechapel killings.  Young women are being murdered, and parts of them are being taken away:  arms, legs, hands, and even brains.  Who would do this madness?  In steps...Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  Yes!  What a great addition to this tale.  Holmes & Watson help anchor the storyline and provide some good guidance and stability to the ladies.  

As time goes on, each young lady is introduced in the story line, their tale is told, and the web gets more and more tangled.  Each has a connection to a secret society through their creators, but they can't figure out what exactly goes on in this society, and who exactly belongs to it.  

The only thing I didn't like about this novel were the interruptions in the tale by the characters. Catherine was writing it all down, to be turned into a publication (which would provide some income)--most likely a penny dreadful.  Yes, these interruptions helped shape the present relationships between the ladies, but I found it a bit annoying.  And anyway, I knew they'd all get along, so I didn't need this extra bit to explain things.  My thought as I read this was that it would make a great movie in the same vein as the Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies.   

This is an adult book, but I certainly could see teens reading it.  At times I felt like I was reading a teen novel, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a teenager who likes a bit of Victorian England fantasy.  It stops short of steampunk, but with a few little adjustments, it could certainly be steampunk.  

Rating:  3/6 for a twist on the usual monster/creator story.  This was full of young women who lived on their own, were smart, capable, and unafraid to search for answers to their mysterious beginnings.  I will definitely read the second novel when (not if!) it comes out.  Also, I just adored the cover art.  That made me pick it up in the first place.  

Available in hardcover and ebook.  Paperback will be out in February, 2018.
 

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The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

Top Ten Teen Reads of 2012: Some Pretty Good Stuff Here!

I don't know what it is about Christmas, but it seems to suck all the time out of my life and leave me ragged and only wanting some quiet time.  I've put together my list of my ten favorite teen reads of 2012.  They run the gamut--which says a lot about the quality of the novels I'm finding in the teen section of our bookstore.  They are amazing!  And so many that I just didn't get to read in 2012.  Add 'em to the 2013 list....it's already impossibly long.  

Without further ado.....here's my top ten:

10.  

Prudence sets out to help find the source of a deadly typhoid outbreak in New York City, and sets the course for a showdown between emerging modern medicine and old beliefs.  Loved this! 

9.  Oh, this was good!  Young Victor Frankenstein suffers an horrible loss, and decides to travel down a dark path to achieve the impossible.  Fantastic, well written, and oh so good.

8.  Young Sherlock Holmes is 14 in 1868 when he's sent to his Uncle's home for the summer and gets tangled up in a mystery that threatens the security of England.  Clever and fun mystery. 

7.  Set in White Cemetery near Chicago, this novel is told chapter by chapter by  different teen ghosts that remain trapped near their graves. They've all died odd deaths from the 1860's to present day.   Smart, interesting, and great for late night reading.

6.  Oh, a very smartly written novel about a young girl's race against time to save her town from a horrible horrible fate--courtesy of the medicine show that decides to stop for a visit.  

5.  A novel that lingers with you and keeps you unsettled long after you've finished it.  Young Charlie climbs out a window late one night to help Jasper, and gets entangled in a mystery that will rock his small town.  Brilliant writing.

4.  Young Lina finds herself, her mother, and brother on a train bound for Siberia during World War 2.  Lithuania is not a safe place, after all.  Great historical fiction that will leave you haunted and in tears.  

3.  Laini Taylor can imagine worlds that take your breath away.  Join Karou in Prague as she learns about her past--and the dangers it represents.  Simply amazing!

2.  Sherman Alexie can write one hell of  story.  Add in art by Ellen Forney, and Junior's story about leaving the Indian reservation school to attend the white kids' school miles away will make you laugh, cry, and never forget Junior.  One of the best teen books I've ever read.  Twice.  

1.  Seraphina, you pulled me in, and I knew I was reading something special within a few pages.  Dragons, secrets, learning who you are, unlimited love, and devious people are all mixed up in this magical, musical novel.  A must read for anyone who loves to read about dragons.  Rachel Hartman has created a world you won't want to leave. 


So there you have it!  I can't wait to dig into my reads for 2013.  What were your favorite teen novels of 2012?  What are you looking forward to reading the most?  

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Top Ten Teen Reads of 2012: Some Pretty Good Stuff Here!