A clever whodunit with broad appeal.
Teenage sleuth Enola Holmes is back in a follow-up to earlier, middle-grade offerings.
A self-described “Scientific Perditorian,” grandiloquent Enola Holmes arrives at Baker Street to find her brother, Sherlock, nearly catatonic due to a fit of melancholia. However, when Miss Letitia Glover shows up, convinced that news of her twin sister Flossie’s death cannot be true, the puzzle-loving Holmes siblings can’t resist taking on the case. Flossie’s husband Caddie Rudcliff, the Earl of Dunhench, sent word that a fever had quickly overtaken Flossie and that she was immediately cremated without so much as a funeral—the same fate as his first wife, Myzella. As Sherlock and Enola investigate, readers are treated to an altogether delightfully engaging romp about Victorian London through visits to horrifying asylums and sprawling manor houses, the antics of a fractious horse, and lush sartorial descriptions. Women’s agency—or the lack thereof—is brought to the forefront as Enola repeatedly encounters difficulty due to her gender. With nearly a decade having passed since Springer penned a case for Enola (with a graphic novel and a film being released in the interim), this is an excellent entry point for both established fans and newcomers, and it includes a helpful recap in a prologue from Sherlock’s point of view. Enola’s voice is wholly charming, prone to just the right bit of humorous snark and a penchant for lists. All characters are presumed White.
A clever whodunit with broad appeal. (Mystery. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-82295-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Exhilarating, nonstop fun.
A murder on The Escape Game, a popular reality TV show, puts the next round of contestants at risk—can they all get out alive?
The previous season of the show, in which groups of teens race to get through escape rooms, ended in disaster when Sierra Angelos and her team discovered another player lying dead in a coffin—her older sister, Alicia. But the network and ruthless executive producer determine that the show will go on. Prickly, olive-skinned Sierra, whom some suspect of murder, is returning—and she’s determined to find the killer. Her new team includes math whiz Carter Kelly, who’s Black; home-schooled, white-presenting Beck Matheson, who designs his own escape rooms and is trans; and Aditya Parvesh, who’s cued South Asian, has a way with words, and was pushed into auditioning by his movie star mother. At first, Team Helsing struggles to gel, but the teens’ shared desire to prove themselves makes them a formidable powerhouse—even if they’re hiding some of their true goals from one another. As clues to the killer’s identity start appearing, the players must try to make it to the finale before someone else becomes the next victim. This thrilling whodunit moves at a page-turning pace; the occasional reveals for the main mystery are well balanced with the tighter sequences of solving the escape rooms. The narration rotates among the central cast, allowing readers to empathize with each character in turn and be privy to even more intrigue.
Exhilarating, nonstop fun. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217006120
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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