Young Miss Holmes, Casebook 1-2 by Kaoru Shintani

Together, they fit the various sides of Lady Christie as well as serving as bodyguards.

Nora, on the other hand, is only learning to read, but she’s very street smart and skilled with a whip. Annmarie is concerned with propriety, both for her charge and her fellow maid. Her two housemaids, Nora and Annmarie, are opposite personalities. She is sometimes accompanied by a giant hound named Nelson, sized suitably enough for her to ride him if need be. She can check out a young victim by cooing over a baby, while Holmes and Watson take a more formal investigation path.Ĭhristie’s supporting cast is entertaining as well. He is invited into a case by the police, for instance, but she enters the scene with a call to pay her respects after a death, as the local aristocracy is supposed to, or by serving as an appropriate companion for the daughter of the family. I particularly like it when she comes up with key information through considering the more social aspects, since that’s something she has to know better than he does. She humanizes him, too, as someone who can otherwise seem chilly and remote. She’s fascinated by her uncle’s cases, puzzling out how he makes his deductions and sometimes beating him to the punch through her own devices. She’s the daughter of Holmes’ sister, but her parents have left her in England while they reside in India. Thankfully, Lady Christie Hope is a charming young person with a prodigious intellect.

I was hoping for a mystery manga series, since there aren’t as many of those as I’d like to read, but any time a series is promoted based on its young female lead, there is the potential for all kinds of ookiness. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I ordered Young Miss Holmes blind. It could have gone horribly wrong, but by inserting a cute little prodigy into classic Sherlock Holmes cases, I found the mysteries taking on fresh enjoyment for me.

Young Miss Holmes, Casebook 1-2 by Kaoru Shintani