A Study in Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock Series Book 1)

For the first half of this book I really couldn't see the Sherlock connection at all, apart from the pseudonym. I found it an engaging mystery story in its own right, but I felt it had been misrepresented as 'genderbent Sherlock.'But about halfway through things started to come together, and by the end I was squealing with glee at each reveal. Charlotte manages to be her own character, while still retaining some of the qualities of the classic Sherlock (there are also a few sly nods to the original, and their differences). Other characters also seem both familiar and also refreshingly new. I loved that several other characters also received the gender swap treatment, while others are preserved with some slight tweaks.The mystery was engaging, and while I didn't see the twist coming, it made me grin once I realized. It manages to keep the spirit of the original case without being completely predictable.Overall this was a very enjoyable and very quick read. I'm glad it is a series, because I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time with these characters.

I'm a big Sherry Thomas fan and her book  Not Quite a Husband  is one of my all time favorites. In this most recent book, which is apparently the first book in a new detective series, our heroine is totally unique. Any description I could give of her persona wouldn't do her justice. Charlotte Holmes is a genius with a memory and insight into people and situations that are best described as out of this world. She didn't speak a full sentence until she was four years old but her lack of speech was not indicative of a lack of genius.In truth, this book hit me in a personal way that was quite unexpected. I have two grandchildren - stunningly beautiful teen-age girls who were diagnosed with autism when they were ages 3 and 5. Their delayed speech and the eventual unveiling of amazing gifts in certain areas such as memory and music gave me personal insight into Charlotte, even in one area that was so lacking - that being the set of filtering skills that are so necessary to navigate through the levels of Society and relate in what is often considered a "normal" and acceptable manner to others.Leaving aside the personal, Charlotte was simply unlike any type of heroine I've read about in this genre. During the first few pages, we are thrown into a much different scenario and type of behavior than one would expect from a heroine during the Victorian era. I won't give away the happenings in the first few pages, but the end result is that our unique girl winds up leaving home and setting out to try and make a life for herself rather than be banished to the outback of Society in a small cottage. Charlotte does have some friends, including her sister, Olivia, who is her bosom bud. We soon learn that she has another friend - that would be a gentleman who is introduced to us as Lord Ingram Ashburton, however, since he is married, he surely can't be her love interest, can he?If you're looking for a lovely romantic story, it's simply not going to happen in this first book. For the first 62% of the book, few clues are given about Charlotte's and Ingram's relationship. This may not please some readers. They've known one another for years and years, but there's very little about their relationship in this book. I suspect their relationship will be built upon during the next books in the series with parts of their past slowly revealed. Rather, this story deals primarily with Charlotte's amazing gifts that will pave the way for her to be the perfect person to eventually be set up as "Sherlock Holmes" - Sherlock replacing "Charlotte" because in that day and age, the world wasn't ready to accept a female in the role of a detective.Suffice it to say there is a mystery to be solved - one involving three deaths that at first appear to be unrelated. When it becomes obvious that Olivia might be accused of having something to do with one of the murders, Charlotte decides she must communicate certain questions and insights about the deaths of the three people that would appear to indicate the deaths are related on some level. To do this, she writes a letter to the coroner and outlines her thoughts, signing the note as "Sherlock Holmes" resulting in everyone wondering exactly who Mr. Holmes is.The storyline spends a fair amount of time fleshing out the characters that are certain to be prominent in future stories, including the introduction to the woman who will be Holmes' sidekick, Mrs. Watson. The person to whom the clues are sent is an Investigator Treadwell - again, his character is fully fleshed out with details about his marriage, his background, even his clothing to the point, we feel as though we really do know this gentleman and his wife - obviously a saint of a woman who married down, but loves her husband.The underlying story behind the murders is an ugly one that I won't go into in this review. I actually felt as though the main investigation headed up by Treadwell with Holmes providing continuing helpful insight, was a little slow moving for much of the book. Nevertheless, there was a lot of groundwork to build upon if the series is to be successful and indeed, we have a great start in this first book.If you're not a fan of "whodunit" types of stories, this book may not work for you. In fact, although I'm a huge fan of the Sebastian St. Cyr / Captain Lacey / Lady Julia Grey books, this series will add an element none of those series have - that being a female protagonist who has nearly superhuman abilities relative to memory, recall and level of genius.**Spoilerish** I had a couple of difficulties with the storyline for which I will not take away any stars. The premise that the love interest for Charlotte is a married man that she has obviously encouraged in the past and in the present in unacceptable ways, troubled me because I personally believe this type of behavior is dishonest and dishonorable. One other thing that is shocking within the first few pages, is the behavior that Charlotte engaged in that resulted in her having to leave home. Once certain aspects of her character are revealed, her behavior is understood - not condoned by me, but I understood her persona better which allowed me to give her more grace. I know, I know I sound like a prude, but there it is. I dislike my heroine to be involved with a married man, although to Ingram's credit, he refuses to be involved with her in that way at least in this book with one exception. As for Charlotte, well she doesn't look at life through the acceptable filters of Society which in many ways is vastly appealing, but not in matters of honor.I loved the book. I look forward to more.

I wanted to love this book because I'm a huge fan of most things Sherlock Holmes and Sherry Thomas. I liked the main characters but had a very hard time keeping the ancillary characters straight. It was very confusing. It seemed like some of them kept being called by different names. I kept back tracking while thinking...who is this now? It was too much. I will definitely check out the next in the series and hope to be pleasantly surprised and less confused. 🙂

Normally, I don't read different imaginings of Sherlock Holmes, but this book was recommended to me, so I got the Kindle sample and purchased the book immediately after I read it. You can read it in one sitting like I did, but you might want to deliberately spread it out because this mystery is something you can really sink your teeth into. It's one where Sherlock is actually Charlotte, a young woman from an upper-crust home who doesn't want a terrible marriage like her parents... or any marriage, seeing as how they are so restrictive for many women at this time. She's described as being beautiful and bosomy, and marriage offers are made to her during her Season, but she refuses them all. Her gifts and talents would be wasted in a marriage of that time in the social sphere her family inhabits. It's clever how she deals with this situation, and she's provided with a family who provides the fuel for the lift-off of the plot. Mismatched parents with four daughters, only one of whom follows convention. One sister doesn't communicate with the world, and the other is Charlotte's best friend . Other characters are introduced; Lord Ingram, Mr Shrewsbury, Mrs Watson (widow of one Dr John Watson), and Treadle of Scotland Yard. Clues to three possible related deaths aren't exactly thick on the ground, but it was interesting to see the mystery unfold. The root cause of the deaths is sordid and ugly; I liked that the deaths were meant to redress serious crimes. The pacing is slow at the beginning, but gathers steam as it goes along and I never found it boring. Looking forward to the next book.Possible spoilers, read at your own risk: unmarried Charlotte escapes her home situation by engineering a complete scandal--being caught having sex with a married man by his wife, mother, and a whole flotilla of other women. She deliberately selected a married man so she couldn't be forced to marry him. Additionally, her love interest is married. Some readers may have a problem with this. I don't; the actions make sense for the character, who has her share of flaws that make her more interesting. Then she leaves home to make her own way in the world, only to find that this is much more difficult than she'd anticipated.I love the character of Livia, the sister Charlotte is closest to; she's very relatable and I hope that the next book lets us see more of her.

The Sherlock Holmes Derivative Work genre, like that of Jane Austen, is perhaps a trifle overstuffed by this point. However, genderflips are always worth a look, and in this case Thomas does a sterling job of creating a genuinely fresh spin on Holmes and Watson, and weaving her own worldbuilding and clever plotting around Conan Doyle’s texts.I was initially a trifle dubious, but Thomas absolutely won me over with her characterisation of Charlotte and her sister Livia, as well as the excellent Mrs Watson. For Charlotte, her exceptional brilliance and neurodivergence are a mixed blessing, given the limitations of what society will allow an unmarried woman of good family to do - but she navigates her own path with some success, and she learns from her mistakes. (I’m particularly charmed by Charlotte’s weakness for baked goods - which are, alas, quite as addictive as any other drug, and her ruthless self control evokes both Sherlock AND Mycroft, while resonating with all those of ipus who love a good aft rnoon tea.)It’s not easy to write this kind of fanfic reboot in such a way that the reader continues to be surprised, even as they enjoy the ways in which the source text is being explored, but Thomas has done a cracking job here. She’s made the characters her own, while still evoking the originals, and she weaves a rattling good plot with an intriguing streak of sexual tension on a back burner and a thoroughly enjoyable ensemble cast.

I review this book has one of those hard to please Holmesian purists, where everything must be as Conan Doyle intended, rejecting anything with a faint whiff of martians, werewolves. Holmes married, Holmes raised from the dead etc, etc. Therefore I was dubious when seeing this, and my Holmesian snobbery rejected it, several times. But eventually I relented.At first I thought I was in the world of Jane Austen, and again nearly rejected the book as another 'also ran', but kept going, and slowly the characters and the plot began evolving and surprising in turn. The result is an original and brilliant remaking of the world of Sherlock Holmes along with an ingenious plot.If you are a Conan Dole purist, have no worries this female character is superb, and the author pays homage to the original stories on the way.If you have never read Sherlock Holmes (reallyI), you will enjoy this particular Holmes.It does not matter if you have never read the originals, but I feel that it does help , in that wry humour and surprises are better appreciated, but having said that, the characters and plot stand on their own merits.Yes Sherry Thomas has really acheived the impossible with a brilliant work that stands out supreme in the world of Sherlock Holmes.A crusty old purist has been proven wrong !

I had such high expectations of this book that I was almost scared to pick it up in case it would let me know. It's a historical mystery novel with a female Sherlock and a dash of romance - such an exciting premise! And I'm so glad I braved it, because this book did not let me down, in fact it was almost better than I could have expected!What I loved about this book:+ The characters. This book is all about amazing women (and some men who are also pretty cool, but the ladies really steal the show). We have our main character Charlotte, who is not especially emotional, wants to make her own living and has the ability to read people like books (in the true Sherlockian fashion), which does put some people off. She doesn't want to marry but to work, but her father and mother don't accept this, so this book is all about her journey to find her place in the world that doesn't allow a lot of freedom for unmarried women. She's such an amazing, strong character. I also really loved her misanthropic sister who's afraid of ending up miserable and alone forever (but who's also not that interested in marrying) and Mrs Watson, who's an eccentric widower who takes Charlotte in. All of these characters are so complex and flawed, but also resourceful and fierce and loyal and I fell in love with them.+ The mystery. It was a bit slow, but I love a good whodunit and enjoy a bit of police procedural, so this hit the spot. And who doesn't love it when Sherlock points out some clever little detail that everyone else missed?+ set up for some romance - which seems very loaded with emotion and interesting to see where it goes.This was a brilliant stsrt to a series which mostly set a lot of things up. We got to see glimpses of Sherlocks brilliance and some potential romance, we got to know all these amazing characters, and we got an interesting mystery to top it off. I'm really looking forward to reading the next one. If you think the premise sounds good, you should definitely give this a go!

My first Sherry Thomas and certainly not my last, I thoroughly enjoyed this.One of those books that everyone raves about, and so you can't help worrying that it's not going to live up to the hype. This one did. Even though I've never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories (and I'm willing to bet that having done so would add to the enjoyment) I could see that this was a very, very clever take on the man and the myth and his cases. I loved Charlotte and Livia, I totally loved Charlotte's unconventional and extreme escape mechanism, and the relationship between the sisters was one of the big pluses for me. But there were loads more. Unconventional characters to say the least, and a very, very unconventional romantic interest that will undoubtedly make some readers uncomfortable.My only gripe was that it was quite difficult to follow the ins and outs of the central case itself because a lot of the names were so similar. Maybe this was me, I'm likely to have paid a bit less attention than I should have in places because I was rushing forward to find out what Charlotte was going to do next, but really, it's a small grip. I loved the secondary characters and the pathos of poor Inspector Treadles at the end. Can't wait for the next book, which isn't out in the UK until September

I very much enjoy Sherry Thomas' writing and have repeat read several of her historical novels. However, when this novel was published in the UK on Kindle it was priced way too high for my budget - it seems to be self-published so this may be why. I was pleased to find it offered at a terrific reduction, bought it and I enjoyed reading it; I was amused by the gender switches of characters and the anagrams and the homages to the original but it's unlikely to get a second reading and I'm not convinced this nor any others are going to contribute much to the Holmes 'verse that already exists. The price of the next and any others will determine whether or not I buy them