What a clever, thoroughly delightful book!
At the outset, though, I wasn't so enthusiastic; set in Victorian England, with language and customs to match, I realized I wouldn't be able to breeze through this one as I'm accustomed to doing with other mysteries and thrillers. But a couple of chapters into it, I realized I didn't want to.
This is, for the record, the third in the author's "Lady Sherlock" series (and the first, but definitely not the last, for me). The star of the show, Charlotte Holmes, is a consulting detective in Sherlock Holmes fashion - operating a business at 18 Baker Street - with a Mrs. Watson as a helper when needed. Lacking the standard social graces of the times, she and her sister, Olivia, are estranged from the parents they "disgraced" and on their own (a third sister, Bernadine, is disabled and still lives at home but plays a role in this story as well). The Sherlock nemesis, Moriarty, gets frequent mention as an archenemy.
When a home construction disaster forces participants at a party there (Charlotte included) to relocate to the mansion of her friend and love interest, the handsome Lord Ingram, things don't quite go as planned. Early on, a young servant who's sent to fetch ice from the ice house makes a gruesome discovery: The body of Ingram's estranged wife, who's been missing for a time but thought to have run away of her own accord. Scotland Yard comes running, and the subsequent investigation points to Lord Ingram as the perpetrator. Charlotte, of course, is certain that he's innocent and, mostly disguised as "Sherrinford" Holmes, Sherlock's brother, puts her powers of deduction to work to unearth the real killer (even as she loses her usual "power" to chow down, especially sweets).
Along the way, there are too many twists, turns and sleights of hand and mind to mention, and everything is resolved in the end including Charlotte's appetite (well, almost everything; this is, after all, a series). Thus, I'm already yearning to read the next installment. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this one and introduce me to a wonderful series.
The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas (Berkley, October 2018); 335 pp.
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