'The Case Of The Left-Handed Lady', the second Enola Holmes book, was as much fun as the first book, 'The Case Of The Missing Marquess' and had a few surprises along the way.

The mystery at the heart of the story was improbable in a very Sherlock Holmes sort of way. It made full use of the threatening streets of London's East End, was driven by an evil genius, required more than one party to wear a disguise and drew some of its menace from popular 'dark' topics of the time: anarchism and mesmerism. I enjoyed the imagery and was carried through the plot by Enola's passion for finding out what was going on.

As in the first book, Enola is the main source of energy in the book. I like her drive, her independence and her bravery but it's her loneliness and her anxieties and her anger that make her more than a plot device.

The main surprise in the book was in the way Nancy Springer presented Victorian England. In many books, particularly cosy mysteries written by American authors, Victorian London is sanitised. Yes, it's a dark and dangerous place but in a theme park, soft focus sort of way that doesn't match the social and economic realities of the time. Nancy Springer doesn't do that. She confronts Enola Holmes with the reality of the repressive nature of the class system, the consequences of dire poverty, the suppression of protest and the ubiquity of misogyny. 

I liked the way that these themes were filtered through Enola's eyes. She has no difficulty seeing the misogyny. She was raised by a mother who was a committed suffragist and strongly independent. She's also willing to play a spooky version of Lady Bountiful, walking through the nighttime streets of the East End in winter, doing what she can to prevent people from dying of cold or hunger. Yet, when she listens to a talented orator rousing the workers to anger about their inability to control the hours that they work or what they get paid and use of the police to bludgeon them into submission when they march in protest, she remains true to her class and dismisses the complaints as nonsense.

I'm hooked on this series now, so I went looking for the rest of the books and found that Audible has included a number of them in my membership, which means I could download them for free. They're narrated by Katherine Kellgren, who narrated the 'Her Royal Spyness' series. ( )

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 ( )

Enola Holmes series:

When I found out the movie was based on a book series, of course I had to read them as soon as possible!

It’s an absolutely delightful series in which Enola Holmes runs away to London in search of her mother, finds her life’s calling as a Scientific Perditorian (finder of lost things/people), criss-crosses the city in a variety of disguises, and always tries to stay one step ahead of Sherlock and Mycroft — which often involves walking right under their noses!

There were, of course, some significant changes made for the movie adaptation: Enola is only 14 in the books, not 16; and Tewkesbury is 12 and definitely not a love interest; a lot of plot points were added to the Missing Marquess storyline for the movie; Enola’s mother plays a much smaller role in the books; and Sherlock’s acceptance of Enola as a skilled detective in her own right is a much more gradual process that spans the whole series.

But the vibes are the same, and so is Enola’s character. I loved the books just as much as I loved the movie and I do hope they continue adapting the series! ( )

Enjoyed this one as much as the first. It's a fun series. ( )

Edgar Allan Poe award
Carolyn W. Field award
Children's Choice honors
ALA Best Book