RogerBW's Blog

A Study in Scarlet Women, Sherry Thomas 05 February 2019

2016 mystery story, first of the Lady Sherlock series. Charlotte Holmes has an analytical mind, but feels constrained by the roles expected of her by Victorian society. So she does something Frightful…

Well, that's not at all what I was expecting; I was thinking I'd get something basically frothy, in the vein of Carole Nelson Douglas' books about Irene Adler, but while there's plenty of froth on top this turned out to be something rather more substantial, a slow-burning mystery with a strong and vital feminist core.

Yes, obviously the core is a gender-swapped Holmes (and Watson), and the case is (very loosely) inspired by A Study in Scarlet, but Thomas has taken the basics and gone off in a more interesting direction. This Holmes isn't the "thinking machine" that purists claim to prefer, though there are the obligatory moments of perspicacious observation; she likes food and fripperies, but is entirely at sea when it comes to polite conversation.

Many of the names and usages of language sound just slightly wrong to a British ear (for example, "quid" for a pound is rather informal for the contexts in which it's used here). There are more viewpoints than I'd ideally like. But the characters are solid, and so is the mystery, and that's what I really came for.

Definitely not one to read if you want more of the classic Holmes, but remarkably good in its own right; if anything, the "Holmes" connection does it a disservice. Followed by A Conspiracy in Belgravia.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Series: Lady Sherlock | Next in series: Charlotte Holmes and the Locked Box

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1