Nancy Springer

I read “The Case of the Left-Handed Lady” to see if Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes series would improve in the second instalment.

When I came upon »Chapter the First«, though, I had an inkling about how this review would read because just like the ridiculous chapter titles, this is The Case of Even More of the Same that Didn’t Work for Me the First Time Either: Springer’s writing style still resembles that of a middle-grade school teacher who wants to provide material for her pupils.

She still taints the legacy of Holmes; here in a discussion with Mycroft who states…

»The only rational way to reform her into some semblance of decent young womanhood!” interrupts the older brother with asperity. “You, of all people, should see the logic – ”«

To which Springer let’s Sherlock Holmes answer: “Logic is not everything.” and Mycroft rightly replies: “Certainly this is the first time I have ever heard you say so!”

I haven’t read Sherlock Holmes state something as untypical as that either.

In Springer’s universe, though, Mycroft is a slobbering idiot anyway:

»“Nonsense!” At once the older brother puts a stop to such balderdash. “Preposterous! She is a female . Her intellect is inferior, she requires protection . . . there can be no comparison.”«

The story itself is somewhat similar as well - this time it’s the daughter (not son) of an aristocratic family who disappeared and Enola bumbling investigates. Neither the investigation nor its outcome were very interesting to read for me and don’t get me started on “mesmerism”...

Nevertheless, not all was bad in either novel so, if you liked the first instalment in this series, you’re likely to enjoy this one just as much. Or, in my case, not that much.

Again, a generous three stars out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam… (mer)

Thankfully, this was almost as short as it was disappointing: In “The Case of the Missing Marquess” we first witness Enola Holmes’ flight from her older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. Yes, it’s another case of a contemporary author trying to make a few bucks from the legacy of another…

This uneventful flight takes up an entire half of the novel and it’s just plain boring. The writing is simplistic, the language is old-fashioned but not in the way of Arthur Conan Doyle’s historic works but reimagined by Springer, whose primary research material was colouring books…

For example, Doyle would never (and indeed never did, I checked!) write about a lady’s “unmentionables” (as in undergarments) like Springer does several times. As a matter of fact, authors of the Victorian era, including Conan Doyle, would often employ various techniques to allude to and mask such sensitive subjects rather than explicitly mentioning them. They would use euphemisms, subtext, or veiled references to address these topics indirectly.

They generally relied on subtlety and insinuation rather than direct discussion. Not so Springer: She naïvely discusses all these subjects very directly which would have scandalised the society she tries to emulate.

»Before he could do so, I hoisted my primitive weapon and brought it down with great decision upon his head.«

Even the structure of the novel is disgraced by a miserable attempt at emulating older style: The chapters aren’t simply numbered or called, let’s say, “Chapter Two” as historical precedent would have it. No, it has to be “Chapter the Second” and so on… At “Chapter the Fifteenth” my patience had run thin.

All this feels forced and just plain wrong.

Especially in the beginning, Springer also doesn’t build naturally upon Doyle’s literary legacy but simply info-dumps a lot of well-established facts onto us, e. g. “[Sherlock] suffered from melancholia” - show us, don’t just tell us! - in order to make this feel less like the tired knock-off it actually is.

»Let my brother Sherlock be The World’s Only Private Consulting Detective all he liked; I would be The World’s Only Private Consulting Perditorian.«

The story about the eponymous marquess itself was so simple, I felt like I was reading a children’s book. The entire travesty around Cutter gave me a strong feeling of second-hand embarrassment…

Last and least, I’m having a hard time when people infringe upon the legacy of the great detective:

»I knew things Sherlock Holmes failed even to imagine.«

No, dear Enola, you simply suffer from the same delusion as your creator: That you manage to know enough to create something that doesn’t pale in comparison to the original.

I cannot believe these novels remain as bland as the first one so I’m going to give the second one a try…

A very generous three stars out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam… (mer)

What a wonderful start to a (new to me) Young Adult series! It was a fun read from beginning to end It was an adventure with boats and trains and disguises and scary villains with names like Cutter and Squeaky. It was laced with humour that always made me smile and sometimes made me laugh out loud. There was also an unglamorous understanding of life in England in the 1880s especially what it meant to be a woman or to be poor or, worst of all, to be both.

When I read the publisher's description for this book, I almost passed over it. It could so easily have been yet another Holmes pastiche, made even less palatable by being simplified and sanitised for a YA audience but the reviews I read suggested that this series was something that readers became passionately attached to. Now that I've read it, I've joined the ranks of those who want to consume the whole series.

Why?

That's simple: Enola Holmes

She's a wonderful creation. She feels real. She's bright and brave and full of energy but she's also vulnerable and isolated and burdened with a sense of having brought shame to her family. Her sheltered background means that she has no firsthand experience of life but her reading means that she's stuffed with knowledge for which she lacks context. I liked that she wasn't a superhero. She is realistically a thirteen-year-old-girl trying not to be overwhelmed by a difficult situation.

One of the reasons that The Case Of The Missing Marquess doesn't feel like a pastiche is that Enola Holmes, by virtue of her sex, her age and her eccentric upbringing by her spirited mother, has a fundamentally different view of England in the 1880s than her older brothers Mycroft and Sherlock ALthough she shares their privileged background, she doesn't have their opportunities or expectations. In the eyes of society and her brothers, her most important attributes are that she is young and female and therefore needs to be taught to behave in the ways a young lady is expected to behave. These ways do not include wearing pantaloons while riding a bicycle, running around like a wild thing while neglecting basic grooming or reading material inappropriate for a woman's mind.

Enola's rage against the chattel status of women and girls in England in the 1880s is fierce and wonderful to behold. The way she calmly qnd comptently plots her way around the constraints that her oldest brother, Mycroft, seeks to impose on her made me want to applaud. I also liked that, despite her spirit and her intelligence, she remained a vulnerable young girl who wants the love of her mother and the approval of her brothers and whose ignorance of the dangers of entering the East End of London alone and at night put her at risk.

I was drawn in by Enola's sense of humour even before the action part of the book began, I love the way her insights are framed by humour rather than anger. For example, the way she classifies the not-very-bright son of one of the servants:

"Her grown son, she meant, who did odd jobs around the estate, while Reginald, the somewhat more intelligent collie dog, supervised"

or this on her awareness that she is seen as failing to dress appropriately in public:

"I knew my mother was criticised for failing properly to drape vulgar surfaces such as coal scuttles, the back of her piano, and me."

The plot is a rollick that is mostly there as a means of Enola winning her freedom and growing in confidence as she overcomes the many obstacles and dangers that confront her. That, along the way, she rescues a Marquess even younger than she is and confounds the wishes of both her brothers by disappearing under their noses just adds to the fun.

Now, I'm keen to find out what Enola does next in The Case Of The Left-Handed Lady.… (mer)