strange and random happenstance: Perditorian

Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose by Nancy Springer
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: September 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Enola Holmes has never been one to take no for an answer or to back down from a mystery. Although these days she's spending more time with her own studies and enjoying a peaceful life not having to hide from her bothers than working as a perditorian. That doesn't mean she isn't occasionally to be found at the offices of one Dr. Lesley T. Ragostin PhD, her clever ruse to hide her own identity and sex. She's at the office one day when a rather rude man bursts in. He demands to see Dr. Ragostin. His best friend, Wolcott Balestier, hasn't returned home and both he and Wolcott's sister Caroline are mad with worry. Wanting to help contain the man's hysteria she offers to take down all the details and embark on the case herself. This angers the man. A young girl could not possibly do the work of a man and he departs in a huff. Most likely off to hire Sherlock thinks Enola darkly. And even though this mystery man didn't bother to introduce himself she was able to get enough information to search out Wolcott's sister, Caroline. Yes, at first it's outrage that drove her to seek out Caroline, but the poor woman is standing on the street corner asking if anyone has seen her brother and Enola's heart breaks. Enola feels for the woman and decides that she will bring Wolcott back to his sister no matter that the angry man thought that she wasn't up to the case. It really is just about helping Caroline. Being able to gloat a little at the end of the day won't hurt though. But the deeper she gets in the case the more dire things seem for Wolcott Balestier. The neighborhood he was last seen in is known for a gang that doesn't take kindly to strangers. What's more there are rumors that a man matching Balestier's description was attracted by a rabid dog. If this is true perhaps Balestier took himself off to die somewhere away from his family and friends. The disease has no cure and the death is a painful one. But as Enola dons various disguises, helped out by her fellow lodgers at the Professional Woman's Club, to get into Caroline's house, to find out more about rabies, and to attend a literary soiree, she worries if they will just not find Balestier, or, if they do and he's been bitten, not find some way to save him. With her brother's help and the hindrance of the angry man, who turns out to be author Ruyard Kipling, they might just crack the case. Ruyard Kipling might be rude and underestimates women, but he sure can write and seems to care about the Balestiers. Plus, it would really piss him off if Enola saved the day. And she does like to thwart people's expectations.

I had planned for my review to start out by talking about how much delight I take in this series and hoped to enjoy it for years to come. Especially the way that Enola messes with the masculine establishment and in this volume in particular takes great glee in messing with Rudyard Kipling, which Nancy Springer took great glee in as well. It has become a birthday week tradition for me the last three years to read the latest adventures of Enola and then I learned that tradition would be no more. Nancy Springer, rather causally stated on Twitter leading up to the release of Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose that "the next, and last, Enola Holmes novel will be published in a few days." I couldn't believe it's the last. It appears to be because she's not writing at all anymore due to age, but I mean age is really just a number? I'd be willing to take one book every two to three years if that would be a satisfactory arrangement. I just can't not have Enola in my life. She entered it when I really needed someone who, despite all the windmills tilting against them, just got on with it. She knows what is right and she always fights for it. Plus, Nancy Springer builds her books around obscure yet fascinating history. In this instance it's rabies. I find it interesting that a lot of people in this day and age don't know about the dangers of rabies. I remember in one of the Amelia Peabody books she has a close call with rabies and it's literally as if she's been diagnosed with an incurable disease. Because for so long that's what it was. You got rabies and you died. Horribly. And while the number of shots needed to survive rabies has declined since Wolcott Balestier underwent his treatment, when I was a child the treatment was identical to that undergone by Balestier. How do I know this you might ask? Well, thankfully it's not from direct personal experience, but still, personal experience nonetheless. And made me learn at a young age not to mess with rabies or racoons. In second grade one of my classmates was involved in an altercation with a rabid racoon. Given his history I'd lay the blame firmly on him and not the trash panda. Anyway, he had to undergo weeks and weeks of painful shots. I envisioned it as that wall of needles coming towards Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. And it gave me joy. He really was a little shit. But reading this book I was fascinated to learn the origins of the vaccine and also blown away that in almost a hundred years the vaccine remained relatively unchanged. I will miss these insights into history. I will miss Enola. I know, you might comfort me that there could be more movies. You know what? It's not the same. That's not my Enola. This is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Caroline Balestier Kipling, Enola Holmes, Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose, Murder Most Foul, Perditorian, Rabies, Racoon, Rudyard Kipling, Sherlock Holmes, The Empire Strikes Back, Wolcott Balestier

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer
Published by: Puffin Books
Publication Date: January 1st, 2007
Format: Kindle, 252 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Enola goes by the name Miss Ivy Meshle now and works for Dr. Ragostin, the world's first perditorian, one who divines that which is lost. Of course there's the little fact that Dr. Ragostin doesn't actually exist and that Enola doesn't limit her disguises to just Miss Meshle. Enola wanted to hang out her shingle in competition to her famous brother Sherlock, he had found his life's work and now she had found hers. Only she had to make sure Sherlock and her other brother Mycroft wouldn't find her, hence the alias and the fictitious boss. That and the wholly sexist notion that no one would believe a woman capable of running what amounts to a detective agency. Thanks to her mother Enola was actually able to buy the building Dr. Ragostin's offices are in, running the other rooms as a boarding house, thus providing her with a tidy income. She'd show the world what a woman could do, even if she couldn't take the credit. And as luck would have it she has discovered her first case. Lady Cecily Alistair is the daughter of a wealthy baronet and she has gone missing. The family doesn't want this known because it would reflect badly on them and ruin their daughter's chances of making a good match. Enola therefore knows she must tread carefully and arrives at the Alistair's London home as the young wife of Dr. Ragostin. She is admitted into the inner sanctum of the house and soon has access to Lady Cecily's rooms. It is odd indeed. Things appear as if Lady Cecily just got out of bed and climbed down the ladder pushed up against her window and simply left her family behind. But a young woman of breeding would never do that would she? What's more, Lady Cecily had secrets. Most interestingly, she was left-handed, a fact her family didn't want known and she kept hidden, often forced to use her right hand. Her true feelings and talents only emerge when she secretly uses her left hand. Her worries about the London poor, her drawings of their plight, and her letters to a Alexander Finch. What could it all mean? All Enola knows is that Lady Cecily seems like the type of girl Enola would be proud to call her first friend and therefore she must rescue her from whatever situation she has gotten herself into. No matter how dangerous.

I know I can't be the only one who was tickled that Enola's solution to setting up her own business is basically the plot to Remington Steele. She is the Victorian era's Laura Holt! Though if anyone suggests setting up Viscount Tewkesbury as Steele I will be forced to slap them. This series keeps surprising me again and again with just how relevant it is. Which in a way makes me sad that it's been over a hundred years and the problems Enola was dealing with are still being dealt with. Yeah yeah, I know these were written only a few years back and not in the Victorian era, but Nancy Springer does her research and captures the time period perfectly in a way to which we can relate. What shocked me though was how eerily relevant the anti-vaxxer mob was. Did she know something we didn't know about how dumb people are and what could happen if another pandemic happened? At least in the Victorian era it was a little more understandable because of the lack of education and the high illiteracy rate, which makes it even more shocking to me that educated people will latch onto the lie in this day and age. WE SHOULD KNOW BETTER. And we really should know better than the uneducated poor of the Victorian slums. Which is why I love this series, it's so socially aware. Enola doesn't live in a bubble. She understands excatly where she stands in society, the rights she doesn't have, the power her brothers do, and she works to subvert that all while helping those who need it. The fact that she dresses up as a nun and walks the streets at night offering them food or a warm blanket shows that she gets that even the smallest kindness can help. What's more it offers a nice balance to her brothers. They both live in this rarefied world. Sherlock only really views the poor and destitute as good disguises to blend in. But does he ever think to help these people? No! Just look at how he treats his irregulars! They are conveniently of a low enough station to be of use to him. If he helped them more, elevated them out of the slums, they would be of no use to him and so he doesn't help. And in the final contrast to her brother, Enola's purpose in life as a perditorian isn't about making a name for herself, it's about finding what was lost, a cause close to her as she has lost her mother. To find one's purpose at so young an age must be a wonderful feeling.