When Enola Holmes, sister to the detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared, she quickly embarks on a journey to London in search of her. But nothing can prepare her for what awaits. Because when she arrives, she finds herself involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess, fleeing murderous villains, and trying to elude her shrewd older brothers-all while attempting to piece together clues to her mother’s strange disappearance. Amid all the mayhem, will Enola be able to decode the necessary clues and find her mother?

What a wonderful start to a (new to me) Young Adult series! It was a fun read from beginning to end It was an adventure with boats and trains and disguises and scary villains with names like Cutter and Squeaky. It was laced with humour that always made me smile and sometimes made me laugh out loud. There was also an unglamorous understanding of life in England in the 1880s especially what it meant to be a woman or to be poor or, worst of all, to be both.

When I read the publisher’s description for this book, I almost passed over it. It could so easily have been yet another Holmes pastiche, made even less palatable by being simplified and sanitised for a YA audience but the reviews I read suggested that this series was something that readers became passionately attached to. Now that I’ve read it, I’ve joined the ranks of those who want to consume the whole series.

Why?

That’s simple: Enola Holmes

She’s a wonderful creation. She feels real. She’s bright and brave and full of energy but she’s also vulnerable and isolated and burdened with a sense of having brought shame to her family. Her sheltered background means that she has no firsthand experience of life but her reading means that she’s stuffed with knowledge for which she lacks context. I liked that she wasn’t a superhero. She is realistically a thirteen-year-old-girl trying not to be overwhelmed by a difficult situation.

One of the reasons that The Case Of The Missing Marquess doesn’t feel like a pastiche is that Enola Holmes, by virtue of her sex, her age and her eccentric upbringing by her spirited mother, has a fundamentally different view of England in the 1880s than her older brothers Mycroft and Sherlock ALthough she shares their privileged background, she doesn’t have their opportunities or expectations. In the eyes of society and her brothers, her most important attributes are that she is young and female and therefore needs to be taught to behave in the ways a young lady is expected to behave. These ways do not include wearing pantaloons while riding a bicycle, running around like a wild thing while neglecting basic grooming or reading material inappropriate for a woman’s mind.

Enola’s rage against the chattel status of women and girls in England in the 1880s is fierce and wonderful to behold. The way she calmly qnd comptently plots her way around the constraints that her oldest brother, Mycroft, seeks to impose on her made me want to applaud. I also liked that, despite her spirit and her intelligence, she remained a vulnerable young girl who wants the love of her mother and the approval of her brothers and whose ignorance of the dangers of entering the East End of London alone and at night put her at risk.

I was drawn in by Enola’s sense of humour even before the action part of the book began, I love the way her insights are framed by humour rather than anger. For example, the way she classifies the not-very-bright son of one of the servants:

“Her grown son, she meant, who did odd jobs around the estate, while Reginald, the somewhat more intelligent collie dog, supervised”

or this on her awareness that she is seen as failing to dress appropriately in public:

“I knew my mother was criticised for failing properly to drape vulgar surfaces such as coal scuttles, the back of her piano, and me.”

The plot is a rollick that is mostly there as a means of Enola winning her freedom and growing in confidence as she overcomes the many obstacles and dangers that confront her. That, along the way, she rescues a Marquess even younger than she is and confounds the wishes of both her brothers by disappearing under their noses just adds to the fun.

Now, I’m keen to find out what Enola does next in The Case Of The Left-Handed Lady.

I love the original paperback covers for the Enola Holmes mysteries

The Kindle edition that I bought has had the cover changed to tie-in with the Paramont + Enola Holmes TV movie. I’ve taken a look at the trailer. The series seems like fun but it deviates from the book quite a bit. I think I will read the books first and then watch the TV series. That way I can keep the ‘real’ Enola in my head and assess how well the TV verion measures up.