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Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes are the great-great-great-grandchildren of the John Watson and Sherlock Holmes, the chronicler and his infamous detective. Both of them attend Sherringford, an elite boarding school in Connecticut, and they have inherited certain characteristics and habits of their ancestors. When a fellow classmate both of them have history with gets murdered, it appears as if the murderer is trying to recreate "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" from the classic Holmes stories published by John Watson's literary agent, Arthur Conan Doyle. As the danger increases, Jamie and Charlotte realize they can only trust each other.
If you've been paying attention, you'll know that Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are a couple of my all-time favorite characters, so of course I was interested by this concept of this YA reworking featuring their present day teenage descendants. It was a fine story, but I found myself underwhelmed by this story. Don't get me wrong though, the mystery kept me guessing and the pacing is decent. Jamie and Charlotte are, for the most part, fleshed out characters - Jamie, who vaguely resembles a hipster James Dean, wants to write stories like his ancestor and Charlotte has been trained to live up to the family name yet can't escape the (apparently genetic) drug habit. However, I was still underwhelmed by this novel. It took me longer than I would have liked to get invested in these most recent incarnations of my favorite characters. I think that's because neither Charlotte nor Jamie are all that unique compared to other takes on Holmes and Watson.
By the way, I also listened to this on audiobook, which took me a little while to get used to when hearing the "voices" of both characters. That's primarily because Jamie's accent is all over the place - he normally speaks with an American accent, but when he gets worked up he starts to slide into a London accent which made it difficult to differentiate between Jamie and Charlotte at times. There just isn't enough vocal difference between the characters to easily keep in mind who happens to speaking.
Overall, A Study in Charlotte offers a decent mystery and features familiar if not a unique take on classic characters. If you're a fan of the adventures of Holmes and Watson and are just itching for your next fix (see what I did there) before the premiere of the fourth series of Sherlock, you may want to look into Cavallaro's brand new series. Me though? I think I'll stick with Cumberbatch and Freeman to bring Holmes and Watson into the twenty-first century.
I listened to this audiobook from July 17 - 21, 2016 and my review is also on Goodreads.
Sounds interesting. I've always wanted to try this one, although I do generally hear that people say it's not as good as they hoped. But it's Sherlock Holmes! So I'll have to at least try it. XD Great review! Love the gif. :)
ReplyDeleteI know, I couldn't resist Holmes!
DeleteI hate it when audiobooks don't deliver the punch they should and actually detract from the book. I have read another "meh" review on this book so I am wary to read it myself.
ReplyDeleteThe Sherlock retelling is what got me, but it just wasn't my favorite. I don't know how much more I would have liked it if I read it rather than listened, though.
DeleteI kinda want to read every Sherlock retelling ever, so this one makes the list.
ReplyDeleteThat me too, really. :)
DeleteI hope you'll enjoy it.
I've had this on my TBR for a while, though I am tentative in picking it up solely because nothing tops the Cumberbatch-Freeman duo of Sherlock and Watson. Though...if it's an audiobook, I might be able to read it sooner than later, hmm...
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
I'm going to say Jeremy Brett's turn as Sherlock Holmes is just as good - although it's set in the Victorian era. :)
DeleteI checked this one out from the library, but ended up having to return it before getting a chance to pick it up. I still want to read it even though it isn't my typical genre. Enjoyed the review!
ReplyDeleteThat stinks! I hope you can get it out soon again!
DeleteThanks Alicia!
I'm glad to see we agree on this!
ReplyDeleteRight!
DeleteSorry to hear you didn't love this! Do you think your reading experience might have been better if you didn't listen to the audiobook but read it physically instead? I'm not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so I think it won't fall flat when I eventually read the book. At least the mystery kept you guessing!
ReplyDeleteIt might have been easier to keep the characters separate if I had...
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