Monday, December 10, 2012

Book Review: Secret Letters

TITLE: Secret Letters
AUTHOR: Leah Scheier
PUBLISHED: June 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Retellingish, historical fiction, mystery
PREMISE: Dora learns that her father is most likely the famous Sherlock Holmes and goes to London to find him just as he's pronounced dead but soon becomes caught up in mysteries of her own.
MY THOUGHTS: So if any of you tend to wander in the fanfiction side of Sherlock Holmes you know that along with tons of Watson/Holmes slash there is also a lot of "Sherlock has a secret daughter!" fic. Not that I've read any of it. Honest. So I have to say this book pretty much reminded me of those fic.
Luckily for the author I've always been tickled by the idea of Sherlock running into his own kid so I don't really mind the premise. I just think this book may have been better if Dora were to have actually met Sherlock (spoiler alert: it never happens). Dora is a okay main character. The mystery was interesting and I got a kick out of the male lead. It was all just very ho hum for me. Once it became clear she and Sherlock weren't meeting any time soon I got bored very quickly and I imagine other readers would as well.
However the book is nicely written and it's a very solid historical mystery so if you're looking for historical mystery and don't mind the lack of Sherlock Holmes this totally fits the bill. I just hope there's a sequel where Dora meets up with Sherlock after it's revealed that he's alive (I'm pretty sure this book takes place after Reichanback Falls but before The Empty House for you confused Sherlockians).
WHO SHOULD READ: Sherlock Holmes fans, who don't mind he isn't in the book, historical mystery fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five magnifying glasses

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