Thank you to NetGalley, Nancy Springer, and the entire team at St. Martin’s Press & Wednesday Books for an Advanced Copy of this book, as well as for letting me partake in this book tour. All opinions in this review are my own.
This book is number 7 in the Enola Holmes series, yes – that Enola Holmes – and while I haven’t read any of the other books yet, this book needs no outside knowledge for its grand adventure. I hadn’t even watched the movie before reading this book, but now I can say I have watched the movie which is based on the first book in the series, and I so look forward to reading all of the other 6 books in this set. Black Barouche stands alone in its storyline, but if you are familiar with the characters from classic Sherlock Holmes, or the Enola Holmes movie from Netflix, you will recognize many of the characters as well. Nancy Springer does a wonderful job writing in the dialect appropriate for the time period (late 1800s), while making it easy to understand for modern audiences. This is a young adult book, possibly middle grade reading level, but there is no simplification of the book just for it to be more easily understood by younger audiences, it just is written easily for all ages to comprehend.
This book is the female power Sherlock Holmes I wish I had when I was younger. The mystery is written in such a way that I wasn’t able to solve it much faster than Enola did, which was lovely considering I am usually able to solve these types of books quite quickly. There were no complete leaps in logic where it brought you out of the story, even when Enola talked directly to the reader. I enjoyed the intro/outro by Sherlock as well – it was a nice touch. This book is not overly long, with the physical copy I read coming in under 300 pages, yet it is a complete mystery that has twists and turns, leaving you satisfied with the resolution as well.
I don’t want to delve too far into the mystery of this book, as I found it to be unique to many of the books I have read (at least in recent years) but I did post the back of the book description below so you can see for yourself what this book is about. I have an excerpt from the book as well as a few Q&As with Nancy Springer, just to really help nail home why you should read this book. Overall 5/5, 10/10, gold star, whatever you want to do in order to rate this book highly. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I look forward to recommending it to the younger audiences I know who also gobble up mysteries.
Available now wherever books are sold!
Official Book Description: Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of her more famous brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. But she has all the wits, skills, and sleuthing inclinations of them both. At fifteen, she’s an independent young woman–after all, her name spelled backwards reads ‘alone’–and living on her own in London. When a young professional woman, Miss Letitia Glover, shows up on Sherlock’s doorstep, desperate to learn more about the fate of her twin sister, it is Enola who steps up. It seems her sister, the former Felicity Glover, married the Earl of Dunhench and per a curt note from the Earl, has died. But Letitia Glover is convinced this isn’t the truth, that she’d know–she’d feel–if her twin had died.
The Earl’s note is suspiciously vague and the death certificate is even more dubious, signed it seems by a John H. Watson, M.D. (who denies any knowledge of such). The only way forward is for Enola to go undercover–or so Enola decides at the vehement objection of her brother. And she soon finds out that this is not the first of the Earl’s wives to die suddenly and vaguely–and that the secret to the fate of the missing Felicity is tied to a mysterious black barouche that arrived at the Earl’s home in the middle of the night. To uncover the secrets held tightly within the Earl’s hall, Enola is going to require help–from Sherlock, from the twin sister of the missing woman, and from an old friend, the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether!
Enola Holmes returns in her first adventure since the hit Netflix movie brought her back on the national bestseller lists, introducing a new generation to this beloved character and series.
“Is she fainted?”
Indignant, I wanted to sit up and say I was not so easily killed and I never fainted, but to my surprise my body would not obey me. I merely stirred and murmured.
“She’s moving.”
I saw the clodhopper boots of common men surrounding me and smelled alcohol on the breath of those leaning over me.
“Let’s get ’er inside.”
“Somebody go fer the doctor.”
Strong hands, not ungentle, seized me by the feet and shoulders. I could have kicked and yelled—I felt strong enough now—but my mind had started to function, realizing that I was about to be carried into a pub, for only in a public house, or pub, would workmen be drinking in the daytime. And normally no woman of good repute would enter a pub, or if she did, she would be jeered at until she retreated. But, my avid brain realized, fate in the form of Jezebel had given me opportunity to spend some time inside a pub—no, in the pub, most likely the only pub in Threefinches! So I closed my eyes and pretended to be rather more helpless than I was as the men hauled me inside and laid me down on a high-backed bench by the hearth.
Someone brought something pungent in lieu of smelling salts, but I shook my head, pushed the malodourous hand away, opened my eyes, and sat up, acting as if it were a great effort for me to do so. A burly, bearded man in an apron, undoubtedly the publican who kept the place, came running with a pillow for my back, and I thanked him with a gracious smile.
“Will ye have a nip of brandy, lydy?”
“No, thank you. Water, please.”
“Jack! Water for the lydy!” he bellowed to some underling, and he remained nearby as I managed, with hands that genuinely trembled, to remove my gloves. Their thin kidskin leather was ruined by the mauling it had taken from Jezebel’s reins, and my hands were red and sore; doubtless they would bruise. Grateful for the cool glass, I held it in both hands and sipped, looking around me. Half of the denizens of the place, like the owner, stood in a semicircle staring at me not unpleasantly, while the rest did the same from seats at the rustic tables—all but one. A tall man with beard stubble on his chin and quite a shock of coarse brownish-grey hair hiding his forehead had withdrawn to a table by the wall, where he devoted his attention to his mug of ale, or stout, or whatever noxious brew he might fancy. I said brightly to the tavern-keeper, “I believe I would like to stand up.”
“Now, why not wait for the doctor, lydy—”
But taking hold of his arm, as he stood within my reach, I got to my feet with reasonable steadiness. There were muted cheers from the onlookers. Nodding and simpering at the men all around me, I lilted, “Thank you so much. Do you suppose anyone could go out and fetch my bag, and my hat and parasol? I believe they fell along the—”
Already half a dozen would-be heroes were stampeding towards the door. Yet, if I had walked in here under my own power, any request for help would have been met with deepest suspicion. Such is life: odd.
Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer
Q&A:
Q: You have written many Enola Holmes books now, one of which became a very popular Netflix movie! What started you on this particular path of books?
NS: My literary agent suggested writing books with a “classic chassis,” so I did some set in the King Arthur mythos, and some based on legends of Robin Hood, and then moved on to the world of Sherlock Holmes.
Q: Your book catalogue is so long, and it covers both adult and kid literature. Do you have a favorite book/book series you have written up to now?
NS: Yes, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche is book #59! No, I don’t have any favorites. I love all of the novels I’ve written…or almost all of them. Really and truly.
Q: Where do you come up with your cases for Enola to solve?
NS: I have to figure out who wants to go missing next. First it was Mother, then Tewkesbury, then Lady Cecily Alistair, then Dr. Watson, and then nobody seemed to be left except Mrs. Tupper! Until now.
Q: Since you have written so many books that have been published, do you have a dream book that hasn’t been published yet?
NS: I’ve written a lot of books that were not and never will be published. I don’t know how many, exactly, because I never kept track of what went into the trash; I estimate I’ve thrown away maybe twenty or thirty manuscripts? Most of them I don’t remember, not even the titles, but a few of them kind of haunt me. There was this fantasy about feral cats in Florida whose mythology was based on the Great Cats of the old world, and who quest for their panther deity in the swamps…but that book would just not work. It just fell apart once I chose to neuter the main character. No joke.
Q: If you can give one piece of advice to aspiring authors, what would it be?
NS: Please aspire to be a good writer, not just a published author.
Author Bio: NANCY SPRINGER is the author of the nationally bestselling Enola Holmes novels, including The Case of the Missing Marquess, which was made into the hit Netflix movie, Enola Holmes. She is the author of more than 50 other books for children and adults. She has won many awards, including two Edgar Awards, and has been published in more than thirty countries. She lives in Florida.
Links to buy:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250822963
https://bookshop.org/lists/a-mystery-is-afoot – Full disclosure: this is my affiliate link, I do get a commission if you buy any books from my page.