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New version of this one- I’ve recently read a book I didn’t understand a word of and a good couple of ‘extremely sad but in a good way’ books.

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Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade

Title: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade

Author: Nancy Springer

Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery

Length: 4 hours

Summary:

Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of Sherlock, is now living independently in London and working as a scientific perditorian (a finder of persons and things). But that is not the normal lot of young women in Victorian England. They are under the near absolute control of their nearest male relative until adulthood. Such is the case of Enola's friend, Lady Cecily Alastair. Twice before Enola has rescued Lady Cecily from unpleasant designs of her caddish father, Sir Eustace Alastair, Baronet. And when Enola is brusquely turned away at the door of the Alastair home it soon becomes apparent that Lady Cecily once again needs her help.

Affecting a bold escape, Enola takes Lady Cecily to her secret office only to be quickly found by the person hired by Lady Cecily's mother to find the missing girl—Sherlock Holmes himself. But the girl has already disappeared again, now loose on her own in the unforgiving city of London.

Even worse, Lady Cecily has a secret that few know. She has dual personalities—one, which is left-handed, is independent and competent; the other, which is right-handed, is meek and mild. Now Enola must find Lady Cecily again—before one of her personalities gets her into more trouble than she can handle and before Sherlock can find her and return her to her father. Once again, for Enola, the game is afoot.

Review:

I read The Elegant Escapade after DNFing a book with a similar premise that only made me want to read an Enola Holmes book. I’ve slowly been working my way through the second run of Enola Holmes as the audiobooks are available on Libby. Because of this I managed to read 7 and 9, The Black Barouche and The Mark of the Mongoose before I read this one. However, since the Enola Holmes books are somewhat standalones, it did not affect my reading experience too much. That being said, this is one of the only books that requires you to have read previous books in the series. The Lady Cecily mini-series as it were, The Left Handed Lady and The Peculiar Pink Fan. 

I always love Enola Holmes books and this one is no different. I had been worried that the second run/reboot of the series would be worse in some way but they still have the same charm and qualities of the original six. The Elegant Escapade did feel a little shorter and more simple than the other books though. It’s not at all any less good, I just felt that there was definitely room for more details or plotline. I was not giving the audiobook my undivided attention, so I might have missed some moments, but I did wish there was more buildup to finding Lady Cecily. Enola explains later what her thought process was but I think it would have been nice to see in the moment her finding different signs or clues about where she is. Maybe Joddy or Harold could have said something about seeing a left handed woman roaming around the East End. It just felt very abrupt to me that Enola knew (for the most part) exactly where to look for her. Otherwise, I would say that the seeming shortness or simplicity (as compared to other books in the series) is my only complaint. 

I really enjoyed the whole book, as I tend to do when it comes to Nancy Springer’s writing. I had read book 9 before this, so I already knew about the Woman’s Club but it was nice to see it get introduced. I also liked the mention of the Baker Street Irregulars, I would really like someone to write a book about them and only them. I think that would be a really cool idea to explore. Though it’s somewhat controversial, I think it’s interesting that Nancy Spring wrote that Lady Cecily and her mother stayed with Sir Eustace. It's unfortunately a very accurate reality that they had to return to begin with but I appreciated that Nancy Springer highlighted the struggles that were very prevalent due to the laws of the time. Enola, as always, found a work around and managed to flip the power into the hands of Lady Cecily and her mother in a very empowering move full of women supporting other women. I also just love using blackmail to hurt your oppressor. All in all, I loved this book as I knew I would and it was a great divergence from the worse book I DNF’d. 

Divider: @cafekitsune

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