strange and random happenstance

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: September 6th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Enola Holmes currently has it all. She no longer has to sklunk about in the shadows as a perditorian hoping that her famous brothers won't catch her and send her off to a finishing school when all she wants to do is make a name for herself as a finder of the lost. She has her place in the world, a safe roof over her head at the Professional Women's Club, and the chance of an education at the London Women's Academy. But she is a rare case. Most women in Victorian London are nothing more than chattel to their male relatives, be they fathers, or as was the case for Enola, brothers. By showing Sherlock and Mycroft what she is capable of she broke out of the cage her contemporaries live in. But a girl whom Enola has viewed as a dear friend from the first moment they met is trapped in this cage. Lady Cecily Alastair hasn't had the best of luck. First she was hypnotized and abducted, then because of her abduction her family, in particular her father, Sir Eustace Alastair, viewed her as spoiled goods and tried to force her into an arranged marriage. Both times Enola saved Cecily. And now Cecily needs saving again. Sir Eustace has locked Cecily in her room making her a literal prisoner. Enola hears about this and rushes to Cecily's aid, breaking her out of her prison cell and secreting her away. The only problem is Cecily's family hires Sherlock to find her. Things have been going so well between Enola and Sherlock and it hurts her to have to lie to him to protect her friend, but he just doesn't know what it's like to be a woman. Thankfully Cecily isn't as helpless as she seems, at least some of the time, fleeing Enola's office before Sherlock discovers her hide-hole. The danger is Cecily's upbringing has split her personality between the left-handed and her right-handed selves. Her right-handed is the woman her father and society wants her to be, her left-handed is her true self, brave, resilient, and capable. The only problem is who knows when she will be which. And when Cecily fled Enola's protection because she worried that Sherlock would discover her will she thrive or will she barely survive? One thing is clear, Cecily needs Enola and now Enola is working against the clock and her own brother. Again.

The world that Nancy Springer has created with Enola Holmes is just a pure delight with her innovative use of language and worldbuilding. I could read a further eight volumes and never grow tired of Enola's adventures, though perhaps poor Cecily is tired... That poor girl deserves a break. And while yes, this book is an escapade from beginning to end I have questions. Now these questions are spoilers, so look away if you haven't read about Enola's elegant escapade yet. OK you have been warned and if you are still reading this I assume that you know what happens or are willing to be spoiled. So the "big reveal" that frees Cecily from the clutches of her father's machinations is that he has made his fortune as a resurrection man. Well a more refined resurrection man in that he's only selling off the corpses of his dead employees. And I have so many questions. Mainly, how does he have so many dead employees? I mean it's heavily implied they have all died of natural causes so he's not doing a Burke and Hare, so how can this be a guaranteed income? At the time this book takes place it was basically a dead end job, pun fully intended. Cecily's father would have actually made more money selling off the hair and teeth separately. But would this have been enough to support a family with eight kids in luxury? I think not! This story, more than any of the others, relies on a heavy suspension of disbelief, at least from my point of view. The crime that Sir Eustace Alastair commits is so horrific that you are meant to recoil at the crime and not question it. Not question the economic logistics. But I did. Burke and Hare made about £8 a corpse in 1828 and that was in Edinburgh where corpses were in high demand because it was the center of medical study and research when they committed their crimes. This book takes place in 1889 and the pounds purchasing power had declined so if the price of a corpse stayed the same he'd only be making £6.77. And it's not mentioned if he had a lucrative side business in articulated skeletons like H.H. Holmes did. To be middle class, which a Baronet definitely is above, he'd have to make more than about £150 per year. So a middle class person would have to sell twenty-two plus corpses a year if that was there job. How the hell could he get that many? What's more that doesn't take into account the Anatomy Act of 1832 which came about as a result of the London Burkers. It made it easier to obtain corpses for medical research due to the strictures of medical cadavers only being criminals being lifted and licensing of teachers. So we're to believe that fifty-seven years later a Baronet is making his fortune doing this? As Conan Doyle himself said; "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." And the truth is that this twist doesn't work.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Burke and Hare, Enola Holmes, Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, H.H. Holmes, Lady Cecily Alistair, Mycroft Holmes, Resurrection Man, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlocked: Enola Edition, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Case of the Gypsy Good-Bye by Nancy Springer
Published by: Philomel Books
Publication Date: May 4th, 2010
Format: Kindle, 177 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Enola has another disappearance to solve, that of Lady Blanchefleur del Campo. She is the wife of a wealthy foreign nobleman, Duque Luis Orlando del Campo. The beloved Duquessa was with her ladies-in-waiting, ironically right near 221B Baker Street, when she disappeared into thin air. There was a woman who approached her at the entrance to the Baker Street Underground stop, but what happened next no one knows. Did the woman lure the lady down onto the busy platform? Was she dragged along the tracks to be dealt with? She had no reason to run away but then why is there no ransom? Enola is approached in her disguise as Miss Ivy Mshle, now Mrs. John Jacobson, Dr. Ragostin's assistant, she gave herself a promotion. The husband says he is desperate and would have called on the great Sherlock Holmes but he is out of town. Curious on so many levels Enola goes to meet the ladies-in-waiting and see the life the Lady Blanchefleur del Campo was living. If there is such a thing as a slave to fashion, the missing Duquessa is the embodiment of that phrase. She has spent her entire life in a constricting spooned corset, even sleeping in it. She has had several confinements but has always lost the children, not a surprise to Enola as the poor woman has the same measurements she did as when she was a child. But Enola has a theory.... The ladies-in-waiting lovingly describe their mistress's clothes when she disappeared and Enola wonders, what if she was taken not for who she was but how she looked and what she was wearing? As Enola herself knows from her first day in London, there are unscrupulous people who will do anything to earn a little money. She quickly flees to check out her hunch which is easy enough to prove, and also to avoid her brother who has arrived on the scene, but what won't be as easy is what Sherlock has in store for her. The problem with installing her ex-landlady, Mrs. Tupper, with Florence Nightingale is that now Sherlock has a place he knows she will return to. But just cutting out Mrs. Tupper wouldn't be right so Enola will have to risk being found out. Which happens in short order, not because Sherlock recognized Enola, but because her faithful pooch did. That's where he was when the Duque searched for him, down at Ferndell getting an accomplice to out Enola! But at least Sherlock views his sister in a different light after all her adventures. He's not going to throw her to the wolves, or as the case here would be, to Mycroft. No, instead he will ask her for her help with something that their mother sent him and in return they will search for the Duquessa together. And she guesses Mycroft can come along for the ride. Maybe they will reach an entente?

The "problem" with this book is the title, The Case of the Gypsy Good-Bye. Oddly enough someone, somewhere, seems to have realized this and in the short story Enola Holmes and the Boy in Buttons which was released as a teaser for the first Enola Holmes book in over a decade it is referred to as The Case of the Disappearing Duchess. Some time later down the internet rabbit hole and it appears that perhaps this was done on British and Australian reissues when the Netflix movie came out. Be that as it may, someone at least realized the title of this book is just one big spoiler. Not that this really takes anything away from the book, it's just that you read the title and you think, oh, her mom's dead. Which is indeed the case. Which is also a good end to the series, or as it now stands, an end to the first arc of the series. Because Enola might have lost her mother but by opening up she realizes that she does have two brothers and if they could just really see her perhaps she doesn't have to spend her whole life alone like her name prophesied. And for me, the way the siblings come together through an interesting case and a long night shows that Enola can be accepted for who she is. What's more, I loved that Mycroft's every assumption was so far off base that he had more than a little egg on his face. While tying up the Holmes family drama Nancy Springer continues to handle topics of women's rights and what is done to them in the name of societal expectations. Lady Blanchefleur del Campo has suffered so severely at the hands of fashion that she literally cannot bear her own weight because her spine is too weak from a waist training corset. What I find interesting is that more recently there has been a push to say that corsets aren't the evil we once viewed them. That only those rare few cinched them tight enough to cause damage to internal organs leading to health issues such as the inability to bear children and constantly fainting. I have worn a corset and I didn't have any deleterious effects. But I wore one for only a few days and reading this book I thought back to one of my friends who in grade school had a scoliosis brace. To have to wear something everyday would be hard, but to do so AND try to use it to "improve" your figure? I don't think any right minded person would ever come to the conclusion that corsets are a good thing. But then again, people have always been choosing fashion over health.... Perhaps that's why there are those trying to rewrite the true history of corsets?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 221B Baker Street, Alone, Corsets, Disappearance, Enola Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Nancy Springer, Netflix, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlocked, The Case of the Disappearing Duchess, The Case of the Gypsy Good-Bye

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan by Nancy Springer
Published by: Puffin Books
Publication Date: September 18th, 2008
Format: Kindle, 204 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Enola Holmes is taking a bit of a respite in one of London's brand new public lavatories for women. Such luxury, such decadence, such convenience! While there she sees someone she's been hoping to run into for quite some time, Lady Cecily Alistair. Ever since Enola rescued her from the clutches of Alexander Finch she has been hoping the two would become the best of friends. But when you're busy evading the grasp of your brothers, socializing isn't really at the top of your priorities. Plus, with her caseload, when would she have the time? But now she must make time, because Lady Cecily looks distraught. When Lady Cecily sees Enola she pulls out a pink fan and signals that she needs help. Before the two gorgons who are guarding Cecily return she drops the fan for Enola to pick up. Enola now has two clues, the gorgons and the fan. She would have more if she had been able to follow the trio, but she literally ran right into her brother Mycroft and that had her a bit shaken. She was hopeful that the gorgons dropped Lady Cecily at home, but that would be too easy. She is no longer in residence. What's more, Lady Cecily's mother has fled to her country estate which means Enola doesn't have a friendly face within the family to help with her inquiries. Back at her lodgings she scours old society columns looking for the gorgons but to no avail. Not only does she realize how much she hates gossip columns, but it has given her an idea. The fan has become the most important clue and this happens to lead her to one of the gorgons, whom flattery and vanity work wonders on. Lady Cecily is engaged to her cousin Bramwell. Judging by how she looked in the ladies lavatory this isn't by choice. Finding out where Lady Cecily is supposedly located Enola learns she isn't the only Holmes on the case. This could be a major problem, especially after her run in with Mycroft. Luckily, for perhaps the only time, she has the upper hand with Sherlock. She will help him and in return he will not use this case as a way to trap her. Because Lady Cecily's safety is, for the moment, more important than Enola's.

Anyone who has ever done a deep dive into historical fiction or British costume dramas has, at some point, learned a little in passing about the language of fans. Using a fan to communicate that which cannot be spoken to members of the opposite sex seems a bit far-fetched and impractical to me. At least with the language of flowers you can sit around admiring them and decoding them as you will, but fan gestures to me seem so fleeting and, dare I say, useless. But I love how this series is always using codes and secrets that are relegated to the female domain and making them useful for purposes other than flirting. Here is the first time I've seen fans used in a logical manner, aka, to call for help when to say so out loud would be dangerous. Genius! No one would, or in this case did, suspect and Lady Cecily was saved due to a pink fan. And while this is brilliant, I think what shines out most in this volume is it's humor. Nancy Springer knew that to balance the darkness of what Lady Cecily was going through there needed to be some truly funny moments to counter the bleak. I literally snorted out loud with mirth when Enola ran into Mycroft, screaming and then injuring him to make her escape. But nothing will EVER compare to how Nancy Springer wrote Enola's internal monologue while she searched the Victorian papers for clues as to the identities of Lady Cecily's captures. "Although I cannot say I particularly enjoyed it. Over the course of the next several hours I learned that croquet was quite passé, tennis and archery still in mode, but the Very Latest Sport for ladies was golf. Lord Jug-ears and Lady Parsnip-face had been seen coaching in Hyde Park; she wore a Worth gown of ciel-bleu French gibberish moire...A most distinguished gathering had attended the christening of Baby So-and-so, firstborn son of Lord Such-a-much Earl of What-does-it-matter. Satin was Out, peau de soie In. An oil-painting exhibition themed around the Progress of the British Empire was viewable at Gallery Ever-so-exclusive. Viscount and Viscountess Ancient-lineage announced the engagement of their daughter Long-name to Great-prospects, the younger son of Earl Blue-blood...I peered at photographs of Duchess Duck-foot’s boating-party, Baron Bulb-nose’s cricket-team’s annual banquet, Debutante Wasp-waist’s coming-out ball, and dozens more without finding either of the two unpleasant faces I sought." Well, I can say I did particularly enjoy it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bramwell, Enola Holmes, Forced Marriage, Gossip, Lady Cecily Alistair, Mycroft Holmes, Newspapers, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlocked, The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, The Language of Fans, The Language of Flowers

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Published by: Scholastic
Publication Date: February 16th, 2006
Format: Paperback, 216 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It is Enola Holmes's fourteenth birthday and it is sure to be a memorable one. Why you might ask? Because her elderly mother has disappeared. Enola was born long after her famous brothers Mycroft and Sherlock. One might even say indecently late. At least that's why she believes her brothers have avoided the family manse Ferndell and their female relatives for nearly her entire life. She and her mother are nothing more than embarrassments. But why would she choose Enola's birthday to disappear? Perhaps it is the prophecy of the name she gave her only daughter, Enola, which backwards spells alone. After spending her entire birthday confirming that her mother is indeed gone Enola contacts her brothers. She is sure they will be proud of the unique woman her mother has raised her to be. Instead they see a girl half feral who will have to be packed off to school to learn what femininity really is. But Enola is far cleverer than they give her credit for, just like her mother. Her mother had been padding the house accounts with fake expenses and squirreling away the money for just such an occasion as Enola now faces. With a beautiful book coded in the language of flowers Enola finds money secreted about the house, making her quite a wealthy young woman. Now she just needs to sneak out of Ferndell and find her mother and the two of them can ride off into the sunset together, never giving the men a backward glance. She successfully makes it to a distant train station disguised as a widow, thus concealing her features and making her appear older than her fourteen years, when she is distracted by the disappearance of Viscount Tewksbury Basilwether. He's only twelve and wouldn't it be just lovely to not only disappear under her brothers's noses, but also to dramatically solve a kidnapping? Sadly her ego exposes her cunning widow disguise as well as the fact that Tewksbury actually ran away. But reaching London she falls into a different trap not of her own making. One that Tewksbury himself has fallen prey to. Will she be able to escape, find her mother, and find her purpose in life, or is she destined to always be alone?

When the Enola Holmes film came out and took the whole world by storm I was going through a real rough patch in my life. I was having problems concentrating on anything that wasn't the gaping hole of pain I was stuck in. In fact I believe the film was the last thing I watched in my home before we had to move. That little television room had been my sanctuary all my life and the thought of never watching anything in it again was a thought I couldn't bear. So I kind of shut down and just got on with moving, and in particular packing up my books. While packing them up I found a copy of the first book in the Enola Homes series, The Case of the Missing Marquess. In a flash I remembered picking it up at the Scholastic Warehouse when I went with my mom years earlier to help her pick books for her school library. The find seemed serendipitous, so instead of consigning it to a box with other "S" authors I put it in my bag as something I wanted to read in the near future. Given my "to be read pile" it's actually surprising that I got to it in under a year. But I think that was due to the fact that I was invited to be on the blog tour for the release of Nancy Springer's newest Enola adventure, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche. But whatever the reason for my finally reading The Case of the Missing Marquess I'm ecstatic that I finally did. This book and then in turn this series brought something that I needed to my life. It brought wit and historical accuracy and fun! It brought female empowerment and puzzles! I wish this series had existed when I was younger because it was the first offshoot of the Holmes canon since Young Sherlock Holmes that made me love Victorian mysteries again like never before. And let me tell you, I was OBSESSED with Young Sherlock Holmes when I was younger. I can see younger me just reading and rereading these books until my teacher would interject that reading the same book over and over again doesn't count for Book It! And aside from it being a different series this IS something I was told. Yet it's wonderful for the adult reader as well because it's so layered with history and mystery that I just want to live in these books. Bring on more Enola!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alone, Birthday, Book It, Enola Holmes, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, Mycroft Holmes, Nancy Springer, Scholastic, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlocked, The Case of the Missing Marquess, Young Sherlock Holmes