A Study in Scarlet Women: First in the Lady Sherlock Series.
Sherry Thomas. Penguin Publishing Group. October 2016. 336 pp. ISBN#: 9780425281406.
Charlotte
Holmes is a very bright woman who is highly observant of minuscule details that
escape the normal person. She’s
determined not to marry and just wants to get some education and become head of
a school. That just doesn’t fit in with her Victorian world but she couldn’t
care less. When her father changes his
mind and denies her the dream of a future, she causes a scandal and runs
away. Surprisingly, she hasn’t realized
her dire situation, even though she thinks about what it means, until she’s
almost out of money and can’t get a job because of her scandalous reputation
that has quickly spread around London.
Meanwhile, three deaths occur close to her home and her sister and family
are blamed, bringing complete ostracism from society. Charlotte is determined to get to the bottom
of the deaths!
Eventually
Charlotte, her friend Lord Ingram and Inspector Robert Treadles, take her
advice, supposedly given by the “real” Sherlock Holmes, a step at a time and
the reader will be shocked at the eventual outcome. Meanwhile, a new friend who has reached out
to Charlotte suggests she advertise her skills of “discernment” and make that
her career to earn the money she needs.
Lo and behold, she is stunned by the number of requests she receives,
and her sharp-mindedness and intuitive sense guide many a riddle or crime into
satisfactory solutions.
What
is quite interesting is that solving the death of the three supposedly
unrelated characters turns out to be not only clever but a bit
anticlimactic. What keeps the story
moving is a budding romance between Charlotte and Lord Ingram, the latter of
whom has a few secrets of his own associated with “watching over”
Charlotte. This very much fits in the
with the noble Victorian mores of never allowing a woman to be left alone in
danger but introduces a few hints of Charlotte missing the boat and thus
introducing a wee lack of credibility on her part.
Charlotte
is an enigmatic character indeed! On the
one hand, she’s definitely got the “Sherlock” clues in hand; yet she can be
incredibly naïve about her own circumstances.
Certainly she has a prodigious appetite which she guides only by
observing whether she’s coming close to a double chin or more. One senses that other appetites will develop
now that she and Lord Ingram may, should fortune favor them so, become closer.
However, that’s a problem that will have to await another novel in the series.
All
in all, A Study in Scarlet Women… is
a good read that will please may fans of mystery fiction.
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