Being shunned by Society gives Charlotte Holmes the time and freedom to put her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. As “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,” aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, she’s had great success helping with all manner of inquiries, but she’s not prepared for the new client who arrives at her Upper Baker Street office.

Lady Ingram, wife of Charlotte’s dear friend and benefactor, wants Sherlock Holmes to find her first love, who failed to show up at their annual rendezvous. Matters of loyalty and discretion aside, the case becomes even more personal for Charlotte as the missing man is none other than Myron Finch, her illegitimate half brother.

In the meanwhile, Charlotte wrestles with a surprising proposal of marriage, a mysterious stranger woos her sister Livia, and an unidentified body that surfaces where least expected. Charlotte’s investigative prowess is challenged as never before: Can she find her brother in time—or will he, too, end up as a nameless corpse somewhere in the belly of London?

This was an interesting book. I’m on the fence about how I feel about it. Overall, I enjoyed it, but there are a few things that niggled at me. One thing is completely my fault — I didn’t realize this was book two in a series. I HIGHLY recommend you start with book one, as it was a bit confusing in places (though I was able to follow along, so props to the author for helping a girl out).

I haven’t read the original Sherlock Holmes but, knowing the time period in which it was written, I assume it was written in omniscient (as was popular then). This book follows that style, but there were a couple of times when I was confused by who was speaking so I had to go back. Overall, though, it worked.

There were a couple of instances when the dialogue/content felt too contemporary, and that pulled me out of the story. I’m not usually a stickler for history, but when two women are casually discussing retiring together to have a lesbian relationship, it jumps out at you — the acceptance of that lifestyle is too modern for characters of that time period to be so open and willing to talk about it. That really pulled me out of the story.

The only other thing that slowed it down for me was all of the explanation. Personally, I didn’t need to see all of the codes and know the details about how to lay them out and solve them. Once would have been enough; it seemed like there were several sections that took the time to explain the whole process. I would have preferred to just see what happened.

Overall, though, it was a fun book. I’m not sure that I’ll read the others in the series, but this was a fun way to kill some time. Get your copy here!