The Case of the Missing Marquess

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan.  This fandom extends to off-shoot and derivative Sherlock Holmes as well.  Things like Sherlock as a teen, Sherlock as a dottering bee-keeper, Sherlock as a dog…you get the idea.  There are a lot of them around to choose from, thankfully, and among the best are the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer.   No, it’s not the adventures of Sherlock as a teenage girl, rather it is the adventures of Sherlock’s heretofore unknown younger sister.  Since the fifth book in the series, The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline,  is on the shelves now I feel it’s a good time to enlighten you about the first installment, The Case of the Missing Marquess.

On her fourteenth birthday, Enola’s mother disappears without a trace.  This prompts a visit from Sherlock and his older brother Mycroft who decide, much against her will, that Enola should go to boarding school.  This rails against Enola’s rather free-spirited upbringing, so she runs off to London to find her mother.  Along the way and quite plausibly but unsurprisingl, Enola  falls into the same profession as her famous older brother.

The stories add much to the characters of Sherlock and Mycroft, but the true heroine is Enola.  Constantly faced with the conventional restrictions that come with Victorian womanhood, she strives to carve an identity (several of them, actually) for herself while still desperately longing for her mother and for acceptance from her brothers.

The books are pretty quick reads and have a Snicket-like predilection toward alliterative titles but it doesn’t seem as annoying here.  I would highly suggest them to any teen or adult who wants a good story with good characters and a clever, spunky heroine to root for.