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withfeathers 's review for:
A Study in Scarlet Women
by Sherry Thomas
Sherlock Holmes has obviously adapted hundreds of times over, but I still found something new in this gender-switched version set in the original Holmes' times. The mystery plot is excellent (and actually really caught me by surprise in its conclusion) but most compelling are the characters, which are all interesting and flawed. I particularly loved that Charlotte is ultra-feminine and the book therefore avoids the reductive idea that a smart woman cannot be interested in her looks. Also, Mrs. Watson is a total delight and a really really smart take on the character. Sherry Thomas does an excellent job writing about the trappings a female detective in the Victorian age would encounter without making this the entire plot of the book and you can also tell she's an experienced romance writer because the threads of the romance between Charlotte and Lord Ingram are excellent, but here allow for a lot more muddiness than a romance-novel setting would, given that he is married and Charlotte sleeps with one of his friends to start the novel with the express purpose of getting rid of her virginity to make her ineligible for marriage, which she has no interest in (btw this is ploy is ultra-Holmesian in is outrageousness). Overall, very enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next one.