A young adult mystery series based on the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries, this book is fast paced and with its young characters it is likely to encourage its audience to try some of the adult classic mysteries. I have really enjoyed the book with its interesting array of characters. The authors did an great job bringing Sherlock Holmes back to life.

Those who have read the Holmes stories are, no doubt, familiar with the Baker Street Irregulars, the group of "Street Arabs", as they are called in the Doyle stories, who sometimes provide help to Holmes via spying. No one notices them, you see, so they're free to see and hear many things on the streets.

In the stories, though, they're often mentioned in passing, and never really dwelt on. Well, this book seeks to set that record straight but claiming that Watson was jealous of the kids, which is why he always gave them such short shrift. (Watson, in general, is portrayed in a very negative light in this book. Perhaps understandably so, considering the premise, but I always feel like Watson gets short shrift and don't really like to see another book doing so.)

That aside, the kids are a cool little group, lead by Wiggins and seconded by Osgood, who is, himself, no slacker and a great admirer of Holmes and his method, to the point of emulating it.

The book also does a good job of setting the scene, and discussing some of the more unsavory facets of Victorian life, such as the workhouses, which the boys feared above all.

As is necessary to the story, Holmes is more a background sort of character, while the story follows the kids to the circus as they investigate the deaths of a troupe of tightrope walkers. Instead of just looking and listening, though, they actively investigated, questioning the various members of the circus, and getting themselves into a bit of bother along the way.

At the circus they are joined by Pilar, a headstrong Gypsy girl and fortune-teller, who is bored of the circus and follows the boys back to Baker Street to join in the investigation - much to everyone's chagrin, but proving herself useful (if a bit conveniently so).

Overall, it was definitely an entertaining story, though missing a little something in the telling that could've pushed it to a higher rating. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there's just something missing. I think it might've been one of those ever present telling vs showing things, but I'm not entirely sure.

I'll keep an eye out for the next in the series, though, the next time I'm idly browsing at the library.


***

Oh, also, the story is purported to be told by someone who was there, and we are given clues, in the form of overlarge letters every few pages, to his identity. I guess it pretty early on, but can't say the conceit entirely worked for me. I mean, it was an interesting idea and all, but there are too many logistic questions that would be open for such a thing to be true.

Whew! For a relatively short book, it took me a long time to get through this one--it was my bedside reading at a time where I was hardly ever reading in bed. The length of time it took to get through, though, was not a reflection on how the book was. I really enjoyed it!

The story centers on the Baker Street Irregulars, a band of street boys that help Sherlock Holmes solve his mysteries. Intended for a late-elementary school audience, it delivers in action, fun, and a good mystery (including an in-text hidden message). Holmes hires the gang this time to investigate the murders of a tightrope-walking family in a local circus. Turns out they had connections to the theft of a priceless royal book stolen from the Prince of Wales. But who did it? Is Holmes' nemesis Moriarty involved? The gang, along with a fortune-teller's daughter from the circus, helps gather clues and information for Holmes and are ultimately very personally involved with the resolution.

The authors felt like there hadn't been much traditional mystery for young readers, like Encyclopedia Brown or Nancy Drew, published recently, and I think this was a good start to a new mystery series. I had an ARC from years ago, and I'd like to get a hold of an actual copy to see all the art, which hadn't been finished in my ARC.

From my 9yod:

The main character of this book is a dude named Ozzie. The book takes place mainly in a circus. Some of the other characters are a dude named Stitches, and a girl named Pilar. The conflict of the story is that Sherlock and the Baker Street Irregulars are trying to find out how the Amazing Zalindas died. It doesn't look it was a crime, but that it was an accident because the rope the Zalindas were being supported by snapped.

Then they find out that someone did kill the Zalindas. His name is Mortis. They also find out that Mortis stole the Stewart Chronicle. It's a book. Ozzie is a scrivener's apprentice. Sherlock pretends to be a Swedish bookseller. Then the person who stole it went to the scrivener's office to get it copied. Ozzie began copying it. Then Sherlock and his pals from the BSI got Ozzie out of the scrivener's office because he was in there copying the book. Then they got the Stewart Chronicle. They went to Sherlock's house. Ozzie said it was mainly full of stories and songs and that it was actually a container that contained some emeralds that were the size and shape of eggs. They the gave the book with the stuff inside back to the rightful owner, the Prince of Wales.

If Enola Holmes is the Nancy Drew of Sherlock, this is the Little Rascals of Sherlock.

I don't know which is better, as I haven't been super big on spinoffs in general unless it's the original creator(s) in charge. (Full reboots, it depends.)

(Also, to be clear, I haven't read Enola Holmes, just watched the movie on Netflix and wasn't particularly excited about Superman Holmes.)

I mean, I guess it's a neat idea, but it felt like, "Hey, we want to be part of the action" more than actually accomplishing anything. It's been a minute, though (copying all my thoughts from old records into one place).

The great detective, Sherlock Holmes, is well-known throughout the world. I already knew that. But what surprised me was that he often employed a group of orphans called 'The Baker Street Irregulars' to do his spying. The book revolves around the idea of being an orphan and what it was like to have no parents. It made me sad to think about real people who didn't have mothers or fathers but, in the end. These boys stuck together as a family and always look out for each other. The book is both mysterious and exciting. Every time the book mentions a clue, it leads to think about who was a real culprit.

So… this was available for free at a scholastic book fair, and I thought it was a real Sherlock Holmes book and not a… whatever this is…. a modern(ish) spin off that takes place in the Sherlock Holmes world (I guess?)

Anyway, it seems somewhat interesting but it wasn’t totally grabbing my attention and it definitely wasn’t grabbing my son’s attention, so I decided to take the opportunity to teach my offspring a very important lesson- how to DNF. I asked him if he wanted to DNF this book and he said “what’s DNF?” And I explained.

He said YES without a shred of remorse or guilt, and I felt so proud (and a little in awe) of him at that moment.

TLDR: DNF

Surprisingly, I didn't love this one, even though I love Sherlock Holmes and mysteries in general. Maybe I was reading it too much before sleep, but it felt a bit disjointed. The illustrations are awesome, as is the historical story, but the mystery itself was just ok.

A rewarding, beautifully illustrated tale for the middle school set. The mystery itself is a bit clumsy and not all that mysterious, but the story is rollicking and the characters intriguing. Mack does a good job of evoking the feel of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, even if his mystery is not of the same quality.

#BernardReads

I've read a lot of books about Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars- the rag tag band of homeless boys- and enjoyed them very much. This wasn't one of them. For me the story just dragged. The story starts out with the fall to their death aerial acrobats the Zalindas but very little takes place at the circus after that. And the character that was the most interesting was the gypsy girl Pilar.

Hb, VG, protected jacket