Plot or Premise

Nancy Drew almost runs over a young girl who darts out on the road, but manages to avoid her. As she meets the girl and the two sisters looking after her, Nancy learns that they are the potential heirs to a promised fortune, but the only will known to exist disinherited them. Nancy searches to see if there is another will.

What I Liked

Nancy meets four or five groups of deserving “heirs” and they all are a bit one-dimensional but good. They each have a small piece of the puzzle to share. The family that currently is set to inherit everything are not very nice, and while equally a bit one-dimensional, they serve their function well-enough. As do the various bad guys running around (a secondary story of thieves robbing houses). Almost a hundred years later, the story still holds up.

What I Didn’t Like

As I said, the characters are a bit one-dimensional. Equally though, it becomes very clear quite quickly where the hidden will might be (clue: it’s in the title!) and so it is more a scavenger hunt than detective work. Similarly for the secondary story of the thieves, which knocks the overall score down a peg.

The Bottom Line

Welcome to the wonderful world of detective Nancy Drew

Plot or Premise

Two women making their way in a man’s world during prohibition in Los Angeles — Letty Hart making wine for the local church, Annabel Forman bucking to be made detective.

What I Liked

I liked that there wasn’t a lot of backstory for either woman. The story starts at the jump with Hart making legal wine for the church during prohibition, until the church decides to go with another distributor and putting her effectively out of business. You also meet Forman who convinces her boss to give her a real case, a theft of high-end jewellery from a wealthy woman. Add in bent cops and a friend on the party circuit, the story is decent. With a bit of action on the side.

What I Didn’t Like

I would have liked to see more interaction between the two women, it is more like parallel stories until the end with a “forced” scene in the middle. As well, there is a somewhat contrived action scene with a fire, and a young man who is the stupidest person on the planet apparently, although some of it is implied by involvement with the church as a slam. But mostly I knocked a star off the rating for the final “twist” at the climax, both seen coming and a shallow payout that drags on way too long. I felt like I was watching two kids argue “Did too! Did not! Did too! Did not!”.

Disclosure

I received a free reader’s copy of this book as part of the Amazon Prime First Reads program. I am not personal friends with the author, nor have I ever interacted with them on social media.

The Bottom Line

Good story, fun read, a bit shallow on the mystery

Plot or Premise

Mary Russell, a young, financially independent woman, chanced upon a strange retired beekeeper in the countryside and became Sherlock Holmes’ apprentice.

What I Liked

I have a long list of To Be Read books, and they sit on my Kindle until fancy strikes me, and I start reading, often having no memory of how why or when I chose that title to join the queue. So it was delightful to get a few pages in and realize it’s a Sherlock Holmes story. I liked that the book reveals a few stories/cases, keeping the mix neither too long (some of Conan Doyle’s novels) nor too short (the enumerable short stories). We get to see some of her training and her adventures at school. It’s interesting to see some of the treatment of WWI, with a looming “baddie” on the horizon, who proves more than capable of taking them both on.

What I Didn’t Like

There are a couple of long lulls in the stories where nothing happens. Since the stories are told from Russell’s perspective, you have no idea what Holmes is doing during those times. This is rather reminiscent of the Hound of the Baskervilles, where Holmes is gently felt but not seen. There are also a couple of significant errors by Holmes, corrected by Russell, and they feel forced. It works well when she thinks of something he didn’t, connecting some dots, but when she thinks of potential impacts on others that he is oblivious to, it doesn’t ring true. It is sort of like chess…while he might miss an opening gambit or a rogue move, he wouldn’t miss obvious moves likely to follow the opening three or four moves.

The Bottom Line

A great addition to the world of Holmes