A Study in Scarlet Women
Lady Sherlock #1
By Sherry Thomas
IBSN: 9780425281406
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Una
Description: 
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.
When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.
Review:
I must say I started this book with a bit of bias. I loved Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock and have read all of his adventures. The thought of a female Sherlock was to me absurd. That is until I began to read A Study in Scarlet Women.
Charlotte Holmes has a brilliant mind and doesn’t really want to be caught in the marriage and household expectations that are expected of her. Women however, of this era were expected to do just that so Charlotte does the unexpected and runs away. Fending for herself becomes a full time job, however when her family are suspected in a murder case she knows as a female she would have no clout with the police, thus, she births the character of a brother Sherlock who is a mastermind problem solver and it is up to him to solve the mystery. Her sister Livia becomes Watson and is told to write the stories .The only others that know her true identity are Lord Ingram ( who has always loved Charlotte), and Inspector Treadles. Charlotte challenge’s society’s expectation and as Sherlock matches wit against an unseen mastermind.
The characters are well developed and I found myself intrigued with the side characters as well as the main. The story was full of just the right amount of wit, humor and of course mystery which is intertwined from beginning to end.. I found this book to be a nice addition to the historical fiction I usually read. I for one will be on the lookout for more of Charlotte’s adventures.
