A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: March 1st 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Retellings, Fiction, Romance, Thriller
Rate: 4 out of 5 stars
Equal parts tender, thrilling, and hilarious, A Study in Charlotte is the first in a trilogy brimming with wit and edge-of-the-seat suspense.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Sherlock Holmes is something in popular culture that, although I haven’t read the original books, I have ended up getting to know quite well through movies and television shows. So the concept of having descendents of the original Holmes and Watson meeting and teaming up was a really intriguing idea.
I did find James to be a really interesting character. It was good to see how he viewed Charlotte and the fact that the two of them worked together, mirroring the original Sherlock and Holmes… even though there were a lot of differences, particularly in how James viewed things. It was interesting to see the cheat sheet his father provided for working with a Holmes, though.
I liked the opportunity to learn more of Charlotte’s past as the book went on… and how she was raised differently to James. I did, however, feel that there wasn’t much shown of James’ relationship with his mother. It was easy to see how he viewed his father and the relationship his father had with his new wife… but I would have liked to see more details of how he was with his mother and sister, apart from what Charlotte deduced.
I did feel it was interesting to see how the murder was committed in a way that mirrored one of the books, but I did think it was good to see the notations James made about the original Watson… especially his thoughts about his great-great-grandfather’s reaction to Holmes showing up.
While it was good to see the differences in the way James and Charlotte were raised, I did feel that there were too many elements of Sherlock Holmes in Charlotte’s character… at least for a lot of the book. It was, however, good to see the way she could change character at the drop of a hat… and I enjoyed seeing the friendship that formed between her and James, even though I was less thrilled with the romantic aspects.
I probably would be interested in reading more book/s by this author… and it would be good to see more of Charlotte and James; and especially to see if Charlotte is able to make any headway with battling her demons.
Read the excerpt here
Brittany Cavallaro is a poet, fiction writer, and old school Sherlockian. She is the author of the poetry collection Girl-King (University of Akron) and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, she’s a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches creative writing, detective fiction, and lots of other things. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, cat, and collection of deerstalker caps. Find her at her website, brittanycavallaro.com, or on Twitter @skippingstones.
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