In today's Blog Tour post, the featured review is Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer. However, this younger sibling of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes gave me such joy that I went ahead and read the six previous books in this series, and those reviews are here for your perusal.
Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 216
Date of Publication: November 7, 2007
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
When Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared—on her 14th birthday nonetheless—she knows she alone can find her. Disguising herself as a grieving widow, Enola sets out to the heart of London to uncover her mother’s whereabouts—but not even the last name Holmes can prepare her for what awaits. Suddenly involved in the kidnapping of the young Marquess of Basilwether, Enola must escape murderous villains, free the spoiled Marquess, and perhaps hardest of all, elude her shrewd older brother—all while collecting clues to her mother’s disappearance!
MY THOUGHTS:
Fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes is forced to get in touch with her two estranged brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, after their mother has disappeared. Enola is a very deliberate and intelligent girl and is seemingly gifted with the powers of deduction that her older brothers have. Has her mother simply walked away or has something happened to her? Enola is determined to discover what is happened.
After it seems evident that her mother is not about to return, the brothers arrange for a Enola to attend a boarding school. She has very different ideas. Perhaps because her name itself is an anagram for the word alone, this delightful young lady enjoys word association, cyphers, drawing and list making, and it is these very things that start her on a very different path in life. Enola dons a disguise - apparently one of many for the undoubtedly many adventures she will soon experience.
Having made her way to London, Enola soon finds herself involved in her first ”case” which is coupled with danger. The Marquess of Basilwether has been kidnapped, and Enola finds herself devided between searching for the lady all while keeping hidden from her brothers.
I so thoroughly enjoyed the newest book, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, that I binge read all six previous titles. I had not heard of Enola Holmes until I received the print ARC which I actually read before starting this first book of the series. I also watched the Netflix adaptation, which by the way, raised Enola's age to sixteen. I look forward to any future installments in this series, and also am excited for the 2nd Enola Holmes movie on Netflix.
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Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 234
Date of Publication: February 1, 2007
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Enola's name backwards spells "alone," and alone she is, in the world's biggest, darkest, dirtiest city. She is being hunted down by the world's most famous detective - her own brother, Sherlock Holmes. For the sake of freedom she must elude him, but what can she do to ease her loneliness?
When she discovers a hidden cache of brilliant charcoal drawings, she feels as if she's a soul mate to the girl who drew them - but that girl, young Lady Cecily, has disappeared without a trace. Braving midnight streets where murderers roam, Enola must unravel the clues - a leaning ladder, a shifty-eyed sales clerk, political pamphlets - to find the left-handed lady, but in order to save Lady Cecily from a powerful villain, Enola risks revealing more than she should. Will her own lonely heart betray her?
In this second installment of the acclaimed Enola Holmes Mysteries, two-time Edgar Award winner Nancy Springer brings us all the danger and intrigue of Victorian London as she continues the adventures of one of the wittiest and most exciting new heroines in today's literature.
MY THOUGHTS:
As this second book in the Enola Holmes’ mystery series, older brothers Sherlock and Mycroft are at odds when they realize that the boarding school that they had arranged to take Enola has not seen hide nor hair of her. Enola may still be a young girl, but she proves to have the same clever deductive skills that her older brothers have. Now living alone in London, even at her age, she is not afraid to take on any situation that presents itself.
Not so long ago Enola‘s mother went missing. Enola has a special gift when it comes to cyphers and this is the means she uses to communicate with her missing mother. Elona has donned another one of her creative costumes and uses her cyphering skills to create a new personna, Ivy Meshle, saying that she is working for Dr. Ragostin, a famous Perditorian, a seeker of lost items. In truth, Dr. Ragostin is fictional, but this creates more opportunities for Elona.
Lady Cecily has gone missing, and Enola is certain she will be the one to locate her. With her wit and ingenuity, Enola proves more than capable for the task. Meanwhile, the cat-and-mouse game with her brothers continues.
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Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 170
Date of Publication: January 31, 2008
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Everyone knows Dr. Watson is Sherlock Holmes' right-hand man—so when he goes missing, it's a shock. Even Sherlock hasn't, well, the slightest clue as to where he could be. Enola is intrigued, but wary; she's still hiding from her older brothers—and getting involved could be disastrous.
But when a bizarre bouquet shows up at the Watson residence, full of convolvulus, hawthorn, and white poppies, Enola must act. She dons her most discerning disguise yet to find the sender—and quickly, for Enola knows the blossoms symbolize death!
Hold your breath, because Enola's about to take it away. The stakes are higher and the mystery deeper than ever before in this third installment of this Edgar Award-nominated, critically acclaimed series.
MY THOUGHTS:
Enola Holmes has decided to become a Perditorian, seeker of lost things. Thus far, she found two missing persons. She is proving quite excellent, despite being of tender age. At this point she is trying to decide on a new name (with cyphers, a hobby she is quite good at) and a new costume. Who will she be this time? After some consideration, she decides on Miss Viola Everso. How she comes upon these names is hilarious. The transformation is complete.
Dr. Watson is often works with her famous brother Sherlock Holmes. After he is discovered missing, Enola goes to visit his wife. While there she notices a peculiar bouquet among the many that Mrs. Watson has received from well-wishers. One of the many things Enola was taught by her mother was the language of flowers. Without saying too much, especially because Sherlock plans on spearheading the search for Dr. Watson, Enola doesn't share the fact that the strange bouquet holds a clue as to Watson's disappearance.
Despite constantly trying to elude Sherlock at all costs, they do end up working together for a time. This is especially good for Enola because she really looks up to Sherlock and knows that there is so much that she can learn from him. She is already ever crafty as one of the things Enola does is to enhance costumes with places to hide weapons. I am really enjoying these books and love everything about Enola, including her wit, sensitivity, ingenuity and goals.
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Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 183
Date of Publication: September 18, 2008
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
When Enola Holmes encounters her friend Lady Cecily hiding behind a pink fan, she finds it peculiar. Cecily is being held hostage in an abysmal orphanage, forced into a miserable marriage. Enola joins forces with the much older famous brother Sherlock who she has fought desperately to elude, and risks her own freedom to rescue her friend.
MY THOUGHTS:
Fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes has been missing for eight months and even the worlds greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes has not been able to find her long enough for him and his brother Mycroft to send her to finishing school. With plans of her own, she has successfully located three missing people, including Dr. Watson.
She has already saved Lady Cecily, but she needs to locate her again. Cecily has gone missing as she is being fored to marry her cousin. By now Enola has befriended Cecily, so she is very determined to help her again. Worried about Cecily, Enola expertly dons another of her expert disguises. Lady Cecily had been treated poorly in part due was left-handed, which was something very much frowned upon during that period of time in history.
As this series is progressing, Sherlock and Mycroft are more and more at odds. Sherlock can see how well Enola is managing, and with Mycroft as her ward, he still insists that he must control her life. However, Enola has her own mind and very resourceful when it comes to her disguises and alter egos. Loving this series!
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Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 160
Date of Publication: May 14, 2009
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Enola Holmes--younger sister to Sherlock Holmes--is back on another case!
Enola Holmes's landlady, Mrs. Tupper, is the closest thing Enola has to family these days, besides her occasional run-ins with her brother Sherlock. Even though Mrs. Tupper is nearly deaf and can barely cook, she's an endearing presence as Enola longs for her absent mother. So imagine her horror when Enola comes home to find Mrs. Tupper kidnapped! Who would take her, and why? And what does Florence Nightingale have to do with it? From the master of mystery Nancy Springer, here's another absorbing adventure for our award-winning, unstoppable heroine, Enola Holmes.
Don't miss Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess! Now a Netflix original movie starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter! (
MY THOUGHTS:
Jack the Ripper has been mentioned briefly in more than one of these Enola Holmes mysteries. In this book, Florence Nightingale has a starring role. Enola's landlady, Mrs. Tupper has gone missing. As the book opened, we see when a young Mrs. Tupper became a widow. Thirty-four years have passed and after receiving a strange letter, Mrs. Tupper disappears.
Through powers of deduction, Enola realizes that Mrs. Tupper and Florence Nightingale made an acquaintance all of those years ago. Could Ms. Nightingale have anything to do with Mrs. Tupper's disappearance. As Enola starts searching for answers, she often has very sad feelings that her mother disappeared several months previously. Now another woman she cares for is gone.
As a reader I feel like I am championing Enola, especially since Mycroft is getting more and more determined to find her and send her away. I love the fact that someone else stood up for her and that was indeed Ms. Nightingale.
Enola is led to Ms. Nightingale based on clues she found when searching through Mrs. Tupper's wardrobe. I love this young mystery series, and bringing in real historical characters. I also love the cat-and-mouse game Enola is playing with Sherlock and Mycroft, although Sherlock is slowly coming around.
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Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 166
Date of Publication: May 13, 2010
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
In the series conclusion, Enola searches for missing Lady Blanchefleur while her brother Sherlock seeks her, with a message from their long-lost mother that only Enola can decipher. Sherlock and brother Mycroft follow Enola into London's dark underbelly to solve a triple mystery. Where is their mother, Lady Blanchefleur, and their connection?
MY THOUGHTS:
*please note - the series did resume with book 7*
Enola is worried because she hadn’t heard from her brother Sherlock after they finally came to terms that she did not need to go to finishing school. Sherlock has a message from their missing mother. It is penned in a cypher that only Enola can understands.
As this story gets going, Sherlock receives a missive that is directed to Enola. Sherlock got wind of the code that Enola and their mother had been using to communicate. However, this is an actual letter, and he wants to Enola to read it.
The news is not good. Not at all. However, with her last case leading her to take on new lodgings, a new name and a new disguise, Enola soon finds herself distracted when a Spanish Duke's wife goes missing. She was last seen on Baker Street, near Dorcet Square, which is very close to where Sherlock lives. Will this search for the missing Duchess bring her closer to finding her mother once and for all?
Elona is second to none, not even the greatest detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes, when it comes to figuring out clues, no matter how small. It does not take her long to realize that the missing duchess is wife #2. So, this information is where she starts. This story is a mix of working with Sherlock, dealing with a nagging Mycroft, and facing dreadful news. If the series had indeed ended, this was a good place. However, now eleven years later, there is a new release. Also there is a Neflix movie and that brings both old and new fans of the young deductress together.
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***Featured Blog Tour Review***
ENOLA HOLMES AND THE BLACK BAROUCHE
by Nancy Springer; On-sale: August 31st, 2021
Jacket Copy: "A young girl who is empowered, capable, and smart...the Enola Holmes book series convey an impactful message that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, and it does so in an exciting and adventurous way."--Millie Bobby Brown
Enola Holmes is back! Nancy Springer's nationally bestselling series and breakout Netflix sensation returns to beguile readers young and old in Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche.
Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of her more famous brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. But she has all the wits, skills, and sleuthing inclinations of them both. At fifteen, she's an independent young woman--after all, her name spelled backwards reads 'alone'--and living on her own in London. When a young professional woman, Miss Letitia Glover, shows up on Sherlock's doorstep, desperate to learn more about the fate of her twin sister, it is Enola who steps up. It seems her sister, the former Felicity Glover, married the Earl of Dunhench and per a curt note from the Earl, has died. But Letitia Glover is convinced this isn't the truth, that she'd know--she'd feel--if her twin had died.
The Earl's note is suspiciously vague and the death certificate is even more dubious, signed it seems by a John H. Watson, M.D. (who denies any knowledge of such). The only way forward is for Enola to go undercover--or so Enola decides at the vehement objection of her brother. And she soon finds out that this is not the first of the Earl's wives to die suddenly and vaguely--and that the secret to the fate of the missing Felicity is tied to a mysterious black barouche that arrived at the Earl's home in the middle of the night. To uncover the secrets held tightly within the Earl's hall, Enola is going to require help--from Sherlock, from the twin sister of the missing woman, and from an old friend, the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether!
Enola Holmes returns in her first adventure since the hit Netflix movie brought her back on the national bestseller lists, introducing a new generation to this beloved character and series.
Link to a buy-this-book page: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250822963
Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Puffin
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers;
Teens & YA
Format: Print and e-ARC
Narrator: Kathleen Kellgren
No. of Pages: 272
Date of Publication: August 31, 2021
My Rating: 4 Stars
MY THOUGHTS:
Enola Holmes was a name I had not heard of before this ARC (both ebook and print) came to my purview. I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and loved it so much that I got the first six books from my online library and binge read the entire series in less than 24 hours.
Our young heroine, now fifteen years of age, is approached by Miss Leticia (Tish) Clover, who is very worried that her twin sister is missing. Felicity, called Flossie. Tish received a letter from Flossie's husband. The letter was almost a casual announcement of Flossie's passing and cremation, thus no need for a funeral. As they are twins, Tish feels she would know if Flossie had truly passed away.
About the same time, Enola received a concerning note from Dr. Watson informing her that Sherlock was experiencing a case of melancholia. Watson hopes that if she visits with Sherlock that he will snap out of it. But she is not the only one planning to see Sherlock, Tish wants to talk to him about her missing sister.
In the letter from Flossie's husband was an envelope with supposedly her sister‘s ashes,. Despite his mood, Sherlock gets up after listening to this dreadful story and examines the ashes under his microscope and quickly determines that they are not human remains.
This sparks a bit energy in Sherlock and he cleans himself, shaves himself and dresses in his normal formal manner and is intent on helping Tish find her sister.
Enola has definitely come into her own. Her brother Sherlock might be the world’s greatest detective, but she is the world's first Scientific Perditorian, a person who finds those who are missing. Or a professional seeker. Enola soon discovers that Dunhench's first wife died of diphtheria and was also cremated. However, there is another story, one that says that the first Mrs. Dunhench was actually sent away in a black barouche, which is a four wheeled hose-drawn carriage. Which story is true and what does this have to do with Tish's sister's disappearance?
What a fabulous series to have read! Although each book in the series has a prologue to catch the reader up so that they can be read as standalone novels, reading the series in order helps the reader to really get to know Enola and her brothers. Reading the previous books also helps to make sense how a girl of fifteen could live alone and go wherever she wanted in London during that time.
I love Enola, her wit, her ingenuity, her disguises, her cyphering and her charictatures. I also watched the Netflix adaptation, with a couple of changes - Enola's age and Tewkesbury as a possible love interest of Enola's. The second movie is in production.
Many thanks to Wednesday Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Please enjoy the following excerpt:
“Is she fainted?”
Indignant, I wanted to sit up and say I was not so easily killed and I never fainted, but to my surprise my body would not obey me. I merely stirred and murmured.
“She’s moving.”
I saw the clodhopper boots of common men surrounding me and smelled alcohol on the breath of those leaning over me.
“Let’s get ’er inside.”
“Somebody go fer the doctor.”
Strong hands, not ungentle, seized me by the feet and shoulders. I could have kicked and yelled—I felt strong enough now—but my mind had started to function, realizing that I was about to be carried into a pub, for only in a public house, or pub, would workmen be drinking in the daytime. And normally no woman of good repute would enter a pub, or if she did, she would be jeered at until she retreated. But, my avid brain realized, fate in the form of Jezebel had given me opportunity to spend some time inside a pub—no, in the pub, most likely the only pub in Threefinches! So I closed my eyes and pretended to be rather more helpless than I was as the men hauled me inside and laid me down on a high-backed bench by the hearth.
Someone brought something pungent in lieu of smelling salts, but I shook my head, pushed the malodourous hand away, opened my eyes, and sat up, acting as if it were a great effort for me to do so. A burly, bearded man in an apron, undoubtedly the publican who kept the place, came running with a pillow for my back, and I thanked him with a gracious smile.
“Will ye have a nip of brandy, lydy?”
“No, thank you. Water, please.”
“Jack! Water for the lydy!” he bellowed to some underling, and he remained nearby as I managed, with hands that genuinely trembled, to remove my gloves. Their thin kidskin leather was ruined by the mauling it had taken from Jezebel’s reins, and my hands were red and sore; doubtless they would bruise. Grateful for the cool glass, I held it in both hands and sipped, looking around me. Half of the denizens of the place, like the owner, stood in a semicircle staring at me not unpleasantly, while the rest did the same from seats at the rustic tables—all but one. A tall man with beard stubble on his chin and quite a shock of coarse brownish-grey hair hiding his forehead had withdrawn to a table by the wall, where he devoted his attention to his mug of ale, or stout, or whatever noxious brew he might fancy. I said brightly to the tavern-keeper, “I believe I would like to stand up.”
“Now, why not wait for the doctor, lydy—”
But taking hold of his arm, as he stood within my reach, I got to my feet with reasonable steadiness. There were muted cheers from the onlookers. Nodding and simpering at the men all around me, I lilted, “Thank you so much. Do you suppose anyone could go out and fetch my bag, and my hat and parasol? I believe they fell along the—”
Already half a dozen would-be heroes were stampeding towards the door. Yet, if I had walked in here under my own power, any request for help would have been met with deepest suspicion. Such is life: odd.
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