MISS MORIARTY, I PRESUME?

The world’s most famous detective must outwit her nemesis in Victorian Cornwall.

Thomas' series continues with the life of Charlotte Holmes, the woman detective masquerading as her fictitious brother, Sherlock, shortly after the events of Murder on Cold Street (2020). While Charlotte; her lover, Lord Ingram; her companion, Mrs. Watson; and her sister, Olivia, are hoping they haven’t riled Moriarty, the hope is soon dashed. The feared criminal mastermind, calling himself Mr. Baxter, wants Charlotte to take on a case involving his wayward daughter, who has secreted herself at a religious retreat in Cornwall. But is that all he has in mind? Left no real choice, Charlotte & Co. begin their investigations into Miss Baxter as well as into Olivia’s sweetheart, Mr. Marbleton, whom Moriarty has coerced back into his web. Tense and atmospherically rich, particularly in the Cornwall chapters, the novel is interspersed with brief scenes of Charlotte and Ingram’s new intimacy, including some chuckle-inducing letters. Thomas counts on readers being familiar with the way Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Holmes’ confrontation with Moriarty in "The Final Problem," but she provides a new (female solidarity) twist to get to that point rather than keeping us guessing about how she's going to adapt the famous ending. It’s an interesting application of the romance-genre structure, in which the predictable climax is less important than the journey toward it—something Thomas knows well as a romance author—but the way she sets up the twist and the ending by switching the point of view to a minor character is a bit clunky. Charlotte herself appears less like the neurodiverse character she's been established to be in previous novels, but her love for food and her loose allegiance to social mores and role-playing are still charming.

An enjoyable jigsaw puzzle in the Holmes tradition, with gothic thrills and a dash of romance.