Title: A Study in Charlotte
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Genre: YA, Mystery, Sherlockian
Summary: The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.
From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.
Favourite Quotes:
“We weren’t Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. I was ok with that, I thought. We had things they didn’t, too. Like electricity, and refrigerators. And Mario Kart.”
“The two of us, we’re the best kind of disaster. Apples and oranges. Well, more like apples and machetes.”
Review:
I bought this book as a vacation read and then proceeded to be so tired on my vacation that I didn’t pick it up. I definitely regret that now.
This book is good. That being said I will read anything remotely to do with Sherlock Holmes. I am that bad. Or good? I can’t tell anymore.
Charlotte and Jamie run the risk of being insufferable, annoying teenagers who think they know everything. But there’s a vulnerability to both of them that keep them from bridging that gap into dangerous territory.
The way the mystery was woven into the plot was quite nice, and there was a slow beginning but a rather speedy middle and end. It was a good romp, an adventure with a new kind of Holmes and Watson.
I will be picking up the next book.
