When Lady Eudoria had not returned by evening, suspicions are aroused when her absence begins to extend one day at a time, the worst is naturally feared. On her fourteenth birthday, Enola, who lives with her mother and two servants in the ramshackle Ferndell Hall, awakens to be told that Lady Eudoria, a.k.a “Mum”, has gone out for the day, leaving gifts for Enola to open with elderly retainer Lane and his wife. Is 2006 so distant that the landscape for juvenile crime fiction has altered this much in the intervening years? I wouldn’t have thought so, but here we are. There’s much in Springer’s creation which is enjoyable and understandably appealing, but at the same time, having it as an ebook, it does feel like half the file was missing given the frank slimness of the endeavour when compared to so much being written for younger readers these days. Having now read series opener The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006) I find myself…conflicted. I think I’ve been dimly aware of Nancy Springer’s series centred on Enola Holmes, much younger sister of the more famous Sherlock and Mycroft, for a number of years, but it was only the recent(ish) filming of the first book which brought the series more firmly into my orbit.
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