Great Book Series

By Melissa J. Oleen Rowan Public Library

                I love a great book series.  The joy of discovering there are already multiple titles in the series.  The angst experienced when halfway through a beloved collection.  The dread that comes with finishing the last installment knowing there is no release date for the next one.  The delight in finding a book in the series that you missed. 

I do not love authors that take series characters from the literary cannon and write new books for them.  The blasphemy!!  I am pointing my finger at you Seth Grahame-Smith and Linda Berdoll.

This love-hate relationship finds a compromise with authors that take a beloved character and incorporate them as a supporting character, muse or write about them at a different age.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is a perfect example.

For elementary age readers, author Nancy Springer has created Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’ much younger sister.  In the first book, The Case of the Missing Marques, Enola is determined to prove she is every bit as capable of detecting as her distant older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft.  She is also determined to avoid them as their plan upon the mysterious disappearance of their mother is to send Enola to boarding school.   Enola’s plan is to find her missing mother.  You will find yourself nodding your head knowingly at her exasperation with Holmes. There are six books in the series to date.  This is a great way to introduce children to Sherlock Holmes.  Children who enjoy this series will soon be ready to read the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Author Shane Peacock introduces Holmes as a young boy.  The first book in this young adult series, The Eye of the Crow, is set in London in the 1860s.  A thirteen year old Holmes struggles to fit in and comply with his parent’s wishes.  His poverty stricken parents are from diverse backgrounds . His father is a struggling Jewish scientist.  His mother, a talented singer, was disowned by her aristocratic parents upon marrying his father.   Holmes would much rather try to solve the gruesome crimes reported in the London papers than attend school.  This interest becomes all too real when he finds himself drawn in as a murder suspect.  Peacock has created a believable back-story that supports the man Holmes matures into in Doyle’s stories.  There are six books in this series and the library has them all, but I must warn you – the final installment was published in 2012.

Author extraordinaire Laurie R. King had me worried at first.  King writes about Mary Russell, Holmes’ wife.?!?!?   This exceptional series is true to Doyle’s vision.  In Mary Russell, King has created a suitable and believable literary partner for a retired Holmes.  The series opens in 1915.   “I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book...”  The first books in the series, Beekeper’s Apprentice, A Monstrous Regiment of Women and Letter of Mary,  have a reluctant Holmes taking on Russell as an apprentice.  It isn’t until seven years after they meet that Russell decides they should marry.   If you could care less about Sherlock Holmes, King’s mysteries are reason enough to try out this series.  As King herself has said “I did not write Sherlock Holmes stories, I wrote Mary Russell stories.”  The library has all the books in this series and the NC Digital Library, which your Rowan County Library card provides you free access to, carries many as eBooks.

So there you have it.  Stories connected to Sherlock Holmes that are true to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character.    And better yet, the next Mary Russell installment is slated to hit shelves February 2015!