The Case of the Missing Marquess

Yes, I have been terrible once more with updates.  Can I just give the excuse that I love reading so much, I would rather do it than write?  However, if you like children's mysteries, historical fiction, and Sherlock Holmes (that would pretty much describe me to a T), then you should enjoy the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer.  Now, Enola is an odd name, to be sure, but if you look at it backwards, you will realize it has meaning.

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The Case of the Missing Marquess
by Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes is a much younger sister to the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.  Her mother had Enola late in life, and so Enola is about to turn 14 as our story begins, while her brothers are much older gentlemen.  Enola has been raised by her somewhat liberal and suffragette mother, though perhaps raised would not be the best term.  The butler and housekeeper have acted more as parents, as her mother, descended of the Vernets, goes out daily to draw and paint watercolors of flowers out in the fields.  Enola, left to her own devices, has become somewhat of a tomboy or hoyden.  She has read every book in the library but has had no governess, can ride a bicycle, and can climb a tree pretty well.

On Enola's 14th birthday, she has a mostly normal day, but her mother is not back for tea, so the butler Lane gives her the gifts her mother left for her.  They include a book of ciphers, which Enola has never enjoyed.  But when her mother fails to return, Enola realizes something is wrong.  Her famous older brothers come at word of their mother's disappearance, full of terrible ideas for Enola of boarding school and becoming a proper young lady.

This is the last thing Enola wants, and she sets about solving the ciphers after her brothers' departures, finding hidden things about the house with the book of flower meanings that Enola also received from her mother.  

For some reason I want to relay the whole book, so I think I will stop there.  Suffice it to say, Enola sets off on her own, determined to escape her brothers and boarding school, and stumbles onto another mystery.  The book is surprisingly adept at creating a real, if tomboy, Victorian girl.  The addition of Victorian meaning of flowers (throughout the series, actually) is quite interesting.  I think anyone with a love of SH, mysteries, and children's literature would love this, though so also would bright school age readers who love delving into other time periods. (I know I did at that age.)  There is some violence in the book, but the most likely readers should not have a problem with it.  Who doesn't like a good adventure story, and if you find SH a bit prissy, keep reading the series.  You will find that his Victorian attitude is much more flexible than Mycroft's.

I give this first book in a series of six: Nine out of Ten Sonic Screwdrivers