Reviewed by Artemis on
A Study in Charlotte has an interesting premise – teenage descendants of Holmes and Watson are accused of murder at their prestigious prep school, and of course must solve the case. As a fan of Doyle’s work and the film Young Sherlock (c. 1985) (and of course the BBC’s Sherlock) I was excited to see a teenage take on this.
Cavallaro really tries to create an interesting atmosphere, but the characters are almost too familiar. Jamie and Charlotte are almost too like their relatives and that makes for some boring development. Watson is first obsessed with getting to know Holmes, which comes off as stalker-like in their first encounter. Holmes is almost too cut off from reality – a personality trait directly from Sherlock himself. While I wanted to see this duo beat the odds and solve crimes, the characters themselves had been too irritated to enjoy the unfolding of the murder plot and the backstory.
Two stars for some inventive plot points, but overall disappointed with the characters. Almost a do not finish but thankfully my ebook copy was only around 270 pages, enough to finish on a train ride into work.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 28 December, 2016: Finished reading
- 28 December, 2016: Reviewed