Secret Letters by Leah Scheier




 Secret Letters
Author: Leah Scheier
Genre: YA Mystery
Rating: 3


 I picked this one up while I was putting away some library books at work because the premise sounded promising: A young girl wants to be like Sherlock Holmes, who is a real life person in the story, and solve mysteries in old-time London. This wasn't a bad read, it just fell a bit flat. In my opinion, if you're going to involve Sherlock Holmes in the story as a character (or his "children") it better be very well done to be believable. For me there was just something lacking and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. I just didn't buy into the whole child of Sherlock Holmes thing.
Putting that aside it was a pretty good fast-paced (young adult) mystery.

Dora convinces her cousin to take her to London to seek the help of Sherlock Holmes, only to find out that he has died. Dora's cousin is devasted because she is being blackmailed by compromising letters given to an ex-lover and needs Sherlock's help to get the letters back. However, Dora takes the news much worse than her cousin for reasons she doesn't care to share. Despite the devasting news, they decide to enlist the help of two other investigators in London, one of which, Mr. Cartwright, is close to Dora's age and works in ways reminiscent of Mr. Holmes. Together, Mr. Cartwright and Dora work to solve the problem Dora and her cousin came to London to eliminate. However, they have stumbled upon a situation worse than they bargained on, and putting themselves in danger instead.