"USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down... With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She'll have help from friends new and old--a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society's expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind"--
Review of 'A study in scarlet women' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This gender-bent Sherlock Holmes series is excellent, telling us of the life of a Victorian woman trying to live her life outside of the expectations of the society she was born into. Lovely characters, good mystery, vivid prose.
Review of 'A study in scarlet women' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I enjoyed this quite a bit. I have to admit, I was at first a bit wary, because I've seen quite a few Holmes books on the market recently which seemed like someone's Sherlock fic with the numbers filed off, but this is definitely not that. It not only imagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman, but Sherlock Holmes as a nom de plume, created in part as a collaboration between women, to allow them to participate in the world of men.
Charlotte Holmes is not the tall misanthrope Sherlock Holmes is sometimes conceived as, but a woman whose most important relationships are with other women. She doesn't live in an elevated world of the mind, but scrounges to pay the rent.
I think the book ...sorta wants to hint that Charlotte is on the autism spectrum, but, it seemed pretty shallowly attempted, just a sort of 'bad at artifice, …
I enjoyed this quite a bit. I have to admit, I was at first a bit wary, because I've seen quite a few Holmes books on the market recently which seemed like someone's Sherlock fic with the numbers filed off, but this is definitely not that. It not only imagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman, but Sherlock Holmes as a nom de plume, created in part as a collaboration between women, to allow them to participate in the world of men.
Charlotte Holmes is not the tall misanthrope Sherlock Holmes is sometimes conceived as, but a woman whose most important relationships are with other women. She doesn't live in an elevated world of the mind, but scrounges to pay the rent.
I think the book ...sorta wants to hint that Charlotte is on the autism spectrum, but, it seemed pretty shallowly attempted, just a sort of 'bad at artifice, but then I studied it and now I'm good at it!' which I dunno. I'm not on the spectrum, but it didn't seem great.
(There's a back-story about her True Love, a dude, but honestly I wasn't that into it, so uh. He doesn't seem bad? Cool, I guess?)
I don't know if I would call this book explicitly feminist, I think it's closer to Girl Power, but it's enjoyable.
Review of 'A study in scarlet women' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
mild spoilers
A thoughtfully crafted story which takes something which could be gimmicky and instead makes it thought provoking and fun.
Two plots entertain in this book:
One, the story of Charlotte Holmes, a self-possessed young woman with an intellect of the first water who takes drastic but effective steps to remove herself from marital eligibility and get her family to uphold their promise to let her find a respectable career. Things do not go as planned.
Two, the investigation of a trio of unusual deaths linked only by the fact that no one thought they were murders at all until a mysterious man named Sherlock Holmes wrote to the police and connected them.
A long time Conan Doyle fan, I thought the mystery investigation felt just like a Sherlock story. And the perils/adventures of Charlotte Holmes entertain and gratify in a modern sense without the slightest bump as the …
mild spoilers
A thoughtfully crafted story which takes something which could be gimmicky and instead makes it thought provoking and fun.
Two plots entertain in this book:
One, the story of Charlotte Holmes, a self-possessed young woman with an intellect of the first water who takes drastic but effective steps to remove herself from marital eligibility and get her family to uphold their promise to let her find a respectable career. Things do not go as planned.
Two, the investigation of a trio of unusual deaths linked only by the fact that no one thought they were murders at all until a mysterious man named Sherlock Holmes wrote to the police and connected them.
A long time Conan Doyle fan, I thought the mystery investigation felt just like a Sherlock story. And the perils/adventures of Charlotte Holmes entertain and gratify in a modern sense without the slightest bump as the story transitions from one to the other.
The scenario is sophisticated- there is no one-to-one translation of the well known characters and Holmes has a more realistic personality than the original books. She works with allies to solve the case and does not require an admiring the sidekick to ejaculate excitedly quite as often as Doyle’s hero did.
This is an origin story so a great deal of the book is dedicated to the where and how of Charlotte’s transformation into Sherlock- I am very much looking forward to reading the next installment and seeing the characters grow.