Before I get started, I want to make it clear to potential readers that this book has trigger warnings for a few short discussions of a rape that happBefore I get started, I want to make it clear to potential readers that this book has trigger warnings for a few short discussions of a rape that happen throughout the book.
Now, on to the review.
I love Sherlock Holmes, and I'm always ready to take on a new twist on characters I love. If done right, I get to fall in love with my favorite characters all over again. This book got a lot right.
Charlotte and Jamie are very similar to their ancestors, but they are their own people. Charlotte is less skilled than Sherlock, but she's also a teenager, so it's not a problem for me. At times, she felt a bit flat as a character, but mostly I enjoyed her and I understand this is to be a series, so hopefully she will develop as the series continues. (view spoiler)[ I also appreciate that towards the end, Charlotte is set up as potentially somewhere on the ace spectrum, (though she definitely experiences romantic attraction) and Jamie accepts this as a totally normal thing and is basically like "I'm happy with whatever form our relationship takes, the important thing is that I'm with you." I'm hopeful for how this will play out. (hide spoiler)]Jamie has all the characteristics of a great Watson, good in a brawl, intelligent in his own right, and devotion to Holmes'.
We got a glimpse of two members of the Moriarty family, August and Lucien. (view spoiler)[ Lucien seems to be set up at the end to be the overarching villain, and the one phone call from Lucien didn't have, to me, the proper Moriarty voice to be "the" Moriarty. His dialogue seemed almost cartoonishly evil, which can work *coughAndrewScottcough* but only if there's the underlying sense that he is dangerously intelligent. This Moriarty was just dangerously well connected. There's one thing I demand of Moriarty. If you're going to use him in your story, he has to be intellectually equal to Holmes. That's why he's the most interesting of all the Holmes villains. The sense that Holmes is one misstep from being beaten. Tbh, even though we were told Byrony was the dumb(er) henchman, she felt more like a Moriarty than Lucien did. Here's hoping that he's not "the" Moriarty, and that this is the setup for a twist. (hide spoiler)] In fact, I'm going to predict based only on that, that (view spoiler)[ Byrony is the mastermind, and she will escape Milo's custody and return in the last book. Teenage girl Holmes vs. 20-something girl Moriarty. I am here for this. (Especially if the whole August thing stops being motivation.) (hide spoiler)]
All told, it had some rough spots and a lot of potential for the future installments I will definitely be picking up book 2. ...more
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