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kpeninger 's review for:
Every Breath
by Ellie Marney
While I'm normally not interested in reading pastiches where the characters aren't actually named Holmes and Watson, I decided to go ahead and try this one after reading "A Study in Charlotte" and doing a search for similar stories. I'm glad I did, because it's very enjoyable. I got a kick out of reading this book. While a touch melodramatic at times, I thought it did a nice job of exploring how teenagers would go about investigating a crime (ie, with a lot of trial and error) while also giving many nods to the original Holmes and Watson. While I still wasn't enamoured of the romance in this story, I felt it was handled well, on the whole- although I could have lived without the five page long description of a kiss.
What truly makes this book, for me, though, is the use of its secondary characters. Too often are Holmes and Watson characters entirely isolated from the world around them. But Mycroft and Watts have friends, and families, and make connections out in the world, all of which have an impact on them. Especially pleasing to me was the fact that not everyone around them was WHITE. Usually pastiches are a sea of whiteness, but there was some nice representation of POC in here that's rare. I hope the rest of the series manages to keep this up.
I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series, to see where the author takes it.
What truly makes this book, for me, though, is the use of its secondary characters. Too often are Holmes and Watson characters entirely isolated from the world around them. But Mycroft and Watts have friends, and families, and make connections out in the world, all of which have an impact on them. Especially pleasing to me was the fact that not everyone around them was WHITE. Usually pastiches are a sea of whiteness, but there was some nice representation of POC in here that's rare. I hope the rest of the series manages to keep this up.
I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series, to see where the author takes it.