This is a smart, fast paced and thrilling reimagining of the Sherlock and Watson characters and their relationship. There were many times that I was holding my breath, not sure that everything was going to turn out alright, which made these books very hard to put down.
Every Breath:
Rachel Watts has just moved to Melbourne from the country, but the city is the last place she wants to be.
James Mycroft is her neighbour, an intriguingly troubled seventeen-year-old who’s also a genius with a passion for forensics.
Despite her misgivings, Rachel finds herself unable to resist Mycroft when he wants her help investigating a murder. He’s even harder to resist when he’s up close and personal – and on the hunt for a cold-blooded killer.
When Rachel and Mycroft follows the murderer’s trail, they find themselves in the lion’s den – literally. A trip to the zoo will never have quite the same meaning again…
Every Word:
Sparks fly when Watts follows Mycroft to London in this second steamy thriller about the teen crime-fighting duo.
James Mycroft has just left for London to investigate a car accident similar to the one that killed his parents without saying good-bye to his partner in crime, Rachel Watts.
Rachel is furious and worried about his strange behavior—not that Mycroft’s ever exactly normal, but London is the scene of so many of his nightmares. Unable to resist, Rachel jumps on a plane to follow him and lands straight in a whole storm of trouble.
The theft of a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the possible murder of a rare books conservator and the deaths of Mycroft’s parents…Can Watts help Mycroft make sense of the three events—or will she lose him forever?
Every Move:
Rachel Watts is suffering from recurring nightmares about her near-death experience in London. She just wants to forget the whole ordeal, but her boyfriend, James Mycroft, is obsessed with piecing the puzzle together and anticipating the next move of the mysterious Mr Wild – his own personal Moriarty.
So when Rachel’s brother, Mike, suggests a trip back to their old home in Five Mile, Rachel can’t wait to get away. Unfortunately it’s not the quiet weekend she was hoping for with the unexpected company of Mike’s old school buddy, the wildly unreliable Harris Derwent.
Things get worse for Rachel when Harris returns to Melbourne with them – but could Harris be the only person who can help her move forward? Then a series of murders suggests that Mr Wild is still hot on their tails and that Mycroft has something Wild wants – something Wild is prepared to kill for.
Can Watts and Mycroft stay one step ahead of the smartest of all criminal masterminds? The stage is set for a showdown of legendary proportions…
Confession:
I ended up really loving this series, even though we had a rocky start. At first I couldn’t understand why everyone was saying it was a retelling of Sherlock. Except for the names there really wasn’t any other parts that I would consider a retelling. But as I got to know the characters, I could see it. These two teen really were a modern version of Holmes and Watson. While I would argue that it was not a retelling it is a worthy reimagining of the characters and their personalities.
We only get the story from Rachel’s perspective, which was fitting with the originals. There were times when I would have liked to see things through Mycroft’s eyes, but it was okay in the end. I ended up really liking Rachel, although there were a few times I wondered why she put up with Mycroft’s moods. A saner person would have not gotten involved, but love makes you do funny things. Rachel goes through a lot in the three books, and it is rather surprising that she comes out sane at the end. She does suffer from PTSD in the third book, and I think the author does a good job of writing what that is like. Rachel’s family also struggles with her relationship with Mycroft, but they are pretty supportive of her although she and her mother go through a rough spot, She has a great relationship with her brother and Mike was also a likable guy.
Mycroft was perfect. He was moody and at time self destructive, just like Sherlock. He often did things with out thinking, which got him and Rachel into loads of trouble. His past was so troubling and you could really tell that it helped to shape his character. He really cares for Rachel, although he has trouble articulating it and showing her his feelings. He does try to protect her, which she often pushed him away for and denies that she needs it. The romance was a nice slow build up, even though they both had feeling for each other from the get go, they had trouble articulating it or even admitting it to themselves. There are some rather steamy scenes between them that always get interrupted in some way, which was sometime funny.
There are some great secondary characters in these books. Mai and Gus are friends that help Rachel and Mycroft often. They are in the first book the most, and I really liked Mai and missed her in the other two. Harris shows up in the last book and I just loved him. I was glad to see that he got a spin off book of his own. I’m hoping to get to that one soon.
The stories of all three books were excellent. Heart pounding adventures that leave you rather breathless and scared for the characters. The second book in particular was rather hard to read, but also hard to put down. I just couldn’t leave the characters and not know what happened to them. The Australian settings were also wonderful. In the third book when they are out in the country was especially well done, Rachel’s relationship with the country was a nice touch.
You can definitely enjoy these books with out being a Sherlock fan. They stand on their own as a binge worthy series.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 