Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marques

 I seriously love a good retelling. Let alone a Sherlock Holmes retelling (I'm seriously obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and his many adaptations--despite with Arthur Conan Doyle would think of what his "little stories" became (spoiler alert: he's rolling in his grave)).

And this books series (middle grade novels made for the modern feminist detective) is more than just a simple retelling. Nancy Springer created the character (and thus the series) Enola Holmes, the younger sister to Sherlock and Mycroft. Raised by their mother after their father's death alone in the wiles of the English countryside (at their familial estate of course). Their mother, a highly independent and intelligent woman far more advanced than the time period (a suffragette--our feminist fore-mothers) raises Enola not in the manner of a young lady who balances books on her head and sticks her pinky out at tea time. But one who wears knickerbockers instead of dresses, one who rides bikes and climbs trees and solves encoded messages. 

All of the books can be read alone but they do connect and move quickly from one story to the next. Each book has it's own individual mystery while maintaining an overall plot (and secondary--primary?--mystery) from one book to another.

The first book in the Enola Holmes series is The Case of the Missing Marques:

["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!"]

Enola spent the first book realizing who she is as well as her serious potential, all the while everyone in her life (excluding her missing mother) tells her that she is a simple child with a simple mind who will amount to nothing because she's a girl (lots of female bashing from the patriarchy in this series--which only flips on its own head to bash the patriarchy itself when Enola (and other women) succeed/excell).

A serious must read. Seriously. (I'm off to read the second one now--The Case of the Left-Handed Lady).

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