Title: The Dark Lady (Sherlock, Lupin and Me #1)
Author: Irene Adler, Iacopo Bruno (illustrator) and Chris Turner
(translator)
Genre: Middle Grade.
Historical. Mystery.
Publication Date: February 1st 2014
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Format: E-Book
Pages: 240
Rating: 5/5
While on summer vacation,
little Irene Adler meets a young William Sherlock Holmes. The two share stories
of pirates and have battles of wit while running wild on the sunny streets and
rooftops. When Sherlock’s friend, Lupin, joins in on the fun, they all become
fast friends. But the good times end abruptly when a dead body floats ashore on
the nearby beach. The young detective trio will have to put all three of their
heads together to solve this mystery.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m
an absolutely massive fan of anything related to Sherlock Holmes even in the
slightest, so when I saw this on NetGalley, I really had no choice but to
request it. I’m so glad that I did.
Techanically,
this book was already been released back in 2011 but it has just been
translated into English by Chris Turner. Due to this, sometimes the word
choices can be a little strange or not quite fit- personally, I didn’t find
this to be too much of an issue- I think it added to that sort of Victorian
feel.
As
for the actual book, I loved the premise of it. A little child version of Sherlock,
with Irene Adler too? It just sounds so unbelievably cute, and it was! I
absolutely adored how Sherlock was written- he was this cute little child, a
bit mischievous but as intelligent as in the original books. Irene was just
wonderful too- she’s one of my favourite characters from the original, and I
just love how she was written here. Lupin (though, admittedly I kept picturing
him as a young Remus Lupin) was amazing too. I thought he was very charming and
mischievous, but in a different way to Sherlock. I loved how the three
characters interacted- I honestly cannot choose a favourite character now, I
just love them all!
The
plot was really interesting too. I liked seeing everything from Irene’s point
of view because it gave off that slightly more girly feeling that you don’t
find in the original. It wasn’t overpowering though, the story was still about
the mystery and the murder rather than dresses or something. I felt like I
could just connect with Irene better. The actual mystery didn’t work out how I
expect at all- I had my suspicions on what might have happened/who did it, but
I was completely wrong. I love it when that happens because I think it shows
how good the writing is.
I
don’t usually read Middle Grade, though I have been diving into it more and
more lately. I like how this one doesn’t dumb it down for you- it doesn’t make
you feel like a kid who might not understand the story. I think that if I’d
read this as a child that I would enjoy it as much as I did now.
I
hope that the rest of the series gets translated into English and released
because I love to see the rest of the story. I’m also looking forward to buy
myself a hardcopy once it’s released so that it can look all pretty on my
shelves, because it’s a very cute book. I would definitely recommend this book
to any Sherlock Holmes lovers out there!
