Marshmallow reviews Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

Today Marshmallow reviews the first book in Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes series: The Case of the Missing Marquess, first published in 2006. Sprinkles, who loves detective stories, is asking questions and taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, I am really eager to hear your thoughts about this book. I know that there is a TV movie made about Enola Holmes, the main character of this book series, who is supposed to be the teenage sister of the famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes created by Arthur Conan Doyle. I have always enjoyed Sherlock Holmes and his many incarnations, especially a recent version depicted by Benedict Cumberbatch. So I really want to know what you thought of this book.

Marshmallow: I thought it was quite good!

S: Well, that’s a good start. Tell us what the book is about.

M: I saw the movie version first but reading the book, they are really very different.

S: Okay, I saw the trailer but did not see the movie myself. So let us start with the book then. What is it like? What is the story basically?

M: The story is about Enola, who is the younger sister of the famed detective Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft Holmes. Enola has been raised by her mother, who often leaves her alone, in a giant estate called Ferndell Hall. But one day, on her birthday actually, Enola wakes up to find that her mother is gone. She tries to get the older brothers to help her find their mother, but they instead dismiss her and say that she has “a limited cranial capacity”.

S: Ouch, so they are really saying she is stupid.

M: Yes, they are quite sexist. I mean, I guess it was the Victorian era and such, and women were not really thought to have been very smart back then, but these two brothers should have known better. But the book is pretty cool. She basically outsmarts them all!

S: I like that! Okay, so is the book basically about Enola’s search for her mom?

M: Well, it starts there, but along the way Enola gets involved with the kidnapping of the Marquess of Basilwether, who is a twelve-year-old boy. (In the movie, the marquess is a lot older and seems to even become a love interest, almost.) And of course she will solve the mystery, but she also has to keep evading her brothers who want to put her up in a boarding school for young ladies, which sounds like torture to her. Like they have to wear corsets which they progressively tighten so the ladies will have really tiny waists. And it is quite like physical torture. Enola hears that one girl even died from these!

S: Okay, so the plot sounds quite captivating even though the story is supposed to be historical fiction. How is the language used?

M: I think the author wants Enola to sound like a real teenager from that era, and as she is the narrator, the language of the book is not really modern. But it works well and it is still perfectly understandable.

S: I understand that Enola is pretty smart. Is she also funny?

M: Not specifically. The book is really entertaining but the narrator does not try to be funny exactly.

S: Is it a good detective story? You are a fan of Nancy Drew and have read a lot of Agatha Christie.

M: Yes. I think it really is a neat detective novel too. I am quite intrigued and I want to read more from this series.

S: That sounds great! Maybe you can move on to the second book and I can read this one.

M: Sounds like a good plan to me!

S: Okay, so let us wrap up this review then. How would you rate the book overall?

M: I’d rate it 100%. It is fun and empowering and clever, too.

S: Great! I really want to read it now. So what would you like to tell our readers as we end this post?

M: Stay tuned for more amazing reviews from the book bunnies!