Title: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (Enola Holmes #2)

Author: Nancy Springer

Genre: Crime/Mystery, Historical Fiction

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 26th September 2018

Format: Paperback

Pages: 256

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: Enola Holmes might be the much younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, but she manages to outsmart him at every turn, solving thrilling mysteries in her very own way…

Sherlock Holmes’s sister, Enola, is back on another case! Enola Holmes is being hunted by the world’s most famous detective – her own brother, Sherlock Holmes. But while she is on the run in the world’s biggest, darkest, dirtiest city, she discovers a hidden cache of charcoal drawings and feels as if she is a soul mate to the girl who drew them. But that girl, Lady Cecily, has disappeared without a trace. Braving the midnight streets, Enola must unravel the clues to find this left-handed lady, but in order to save her, Enola risks revealing more than she should. Will she be able to keep her identity a secret and find Lady Cecily, or will the one thing she is trying to save – her freedom – be lost forever?

Author bio:

Nancy Springer has published forty novels for adults, young adults and children. In a career beginning shortly after she graduated from Gettysburg College in 1970, Springer wrote for ten years in the imaginary realms of mythological fantasy, then ventured on to contemporary fantasy, magical realism, and women’s fiction and suspense before turning her attention to children’s literature. Her novels and stories for middle-grade and young adults range from contemporary realism, mystery/crime, and fantasy to her critically acclaimed novels based on the Arthurian mythos, I Am Mordred: A Tale of Camelot and I Am Morgan Le Fay. Springer’s children’s books have won her two Edgar Allan Poe awards, a Carolyn W. Field award, various Children’s Choice honours and numerous ALA Best Book listings. Her most recent series include the Tales of Rowan Hood, featuring Robin Hood’s daughter, and the Enola Holmes mysteries, starring the much younger sister of Sherlock Holmes.

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The Case of the Left-Handed Lady is the second in the Enola Holmes series, picking up shortly after the end of the first novel, where Enola has managed to evade Sherlock and Mycroft, and the boarding school they wish to send her to. During her escapades as Ivy Meshle, and under other identities she has crafted for herself using the ciphers her mother left her, Enola, along with her new friend, Joddy, as she hides in London, quite under the nose of Sherlock, and uses tricks he knows against him.

Whilst hiding, she discovers a cache of charcoal drawings, that lead her to a new case – a missing girl named Lady Cecily whom she feels a connection with – but what is that connection? Is it merely the art that connects them, or is there more? As Enola investigates Lady Cecily’s disappearance, clues as to who Lady Cecily is are beginning to fall into place, and Enola discovers that Lady Cecily is left-handed – and begins to ponder the lady’s mysterious disappearance as she wanders the streets in disguise. To find the missing Lady Cecily though, Enola risks revealing who she is, and where she is to her brothers.

In the second instalment of this series, the mystery is just as intriguing, and engaging as the first. I enjoyed that the thread of Enola evading her brothers was continued through, and it would be very fun and interesting to see Enola and Sherlock working together. For now, their mental sparring will have to suffice, with ciphers and codes and games to draw each other out and into the open as Enola works to solve cases on her own, in a world where it is not expected that she should, would or even could do so.  Enola is smart, determined and sneaky – everything you’d expect a sister of Sherlock Holmes to be, in a world where other things were expected of her, yet she flouted them.

These books are exciting because they reveal insight into the Victorian world, and its class and gender divisions specifically, with the backdrop of the dark streets of London traversed by Jack the Ripper, and other nefarious people. They explore the expectations of gender and through Enola, turn these around and become a heroine that girls can aspire to be and look up to. She is a remarkable character with guts and a willingness to do whatever it takes to solve the cases.

I look forward to the next books in the series.