Book Rec - Enola Holmes Mystery Stories by Nancy Springer

[karadinart]

I picked up the first of this series by Nancy Springer due to good reviews and it's great fun. The prose style is a perfect match between a modern novel in its pacing and the Holmes canon for it's particular word choices. While stories give nods to Holmes canon (that long time fans might spy) the mysteries are NEW, not pastiches of previous work.

What I like about these books, the main character Enola, younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock is always her own person, and while she's inherited the brilliant mind of a Holmes, she's still only fourteen, and along with that comes some personal insecurities - not least that her mother abandons her, and while she adores her older brother Sherlock, (whom she's only met twice as a young girl) she doesn't know him as a person, and is torn between trusting him and fearing him.

She does know that she won't be sent away to boarding school and be molded into Victorian ideals of what a genteel young woman should be, so she strikes out on her own to a)discover what has happened to her mother and b) discover how she can use her talents to become the independent woman she wants to be.

And its all quite plausible, the mysteries, the way Enola solves them (not without taking wrong turns - she never acquires superpowers) the tone and content of the books never preach as they give excellent period detail of what Victorian life in London at the time was, from the lives of the gentry, down to the poorest wretches of the slums. Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson and Mycroft Holmes all appear in perfect character, which won't disappoint canon fans (the writer is herself a fan)

Enola never reads as a dreaded Mary Sue, I admire her desire to not disguise herself as a boy (not only because that is what Sherlock and Mycroft expect) but to be both a woman and a detective, she takes both misery and pride in that her name spelled backwards means 'Alone'

So give these books a try, you won't regret it.
(aside, I'm not a Mary Russell fan - these are better.)

Comments

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[rubynye.livejournal.com]

*makes a definite note of these*

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip, sounds like just my cup of tea! : )
(not a Russell fan either). Like the cover art here too!

[frodobaggins252.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check it out. I really enjoyed Springers "The Book of Isles" series -- we actually own the original art by Carl Lundgren for the first cover of "The Sable Moon"

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I've not read any of her other work, but am picking up the Rowan Hood series now.

[frodobaggins252.livejournal.com]

Here's a photo of the book cover, though you only see part of it -- it's a wrap around cover with wolves on the back -- fabulous art which illustrates the "dangers" of saying "Ohhh! I *love* it but can't afford it right now" at a convention, not knowing the artist is behind the hanging and is willing to take payments LOL -- 31 years ago!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LBvkJMFpL.jpg

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Oh for some reason the cover of that book reminds me of something, maybe I did read it ... but it would have been about 31 years ago!

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I read the bio and I don't recall a thing about the book.

I think I read one of these...

[kcstp.livejournal.com]

I think I read one o these last summer it was not bad. Didn't look for any more in the series though.

Re: I think I read one of these...

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I can read one in about an hour, not a bad way to spend time.

[hideincarnate.livejournal.com]

Remind me to give them a read!