by Nancy Springer
ages: 11+
First sentence: “Mister Sherlock, I’m that glad to see you, I am, and that obliged.”
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I have heard of Enola for a while. I know Kerry at ShelfElf loves her, and has sung her praises often. I have meant to get to Enola before, even checked out previous books in the series once or twice, but I’ve never actually read any.

For the record: starting with the last book in the series is not suggested. That said, I adored Enola. The much younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, she’s as talented and brilliant in her deductive reasoning as they are. She’s 14 (nearly 15) years old, in hiding in London (from her brothers, especially Mycroft, who want to send her to a girls boarding school) since her mother disappeared a year ago. She finds missing persons, she’s brilliant at disguises, and she’s a winning character.

In this book, she takes on the case of the missing Lady Blanchefleur, who has suddenly disappeared. It turns out, however, that Sherlock is also working on this case, and after however long she’s been avoiding them, they actually confront each other. As a subplot, there’s a mysterious message from their mother, which Enola has to decipher. There’s adventure and suspense, humor and mystery , and a fitting ending for what I assume was a good series.

Now to go back and read the rest of them in the right order.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)