Charlotte Holmes #4

A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro

Publication Date: March 5, 2019

Summary from Goodreads:

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson think they’re finally in the clear. They’ve left Sherringford School—and the Moriartys—behind for a pre-college summer program at Oxford University. A chance to start from scratch and explore dating for the first time, while exploring a new city with all the freedom their program provides. But when they arrive, Charlotte is immediately drawn into a new case: a series of accidents have been befalling the members of the community theater troupe in Oxford, and now, on the eve of their production of Hamlet, they’re starting all over again. What once seemed like a comedy of errors is now a race to prevent the next tragedy—before Charlotte or Jamie is the next victim.

Confession:

I decided not to do a full series review,  as I did one last year when I thought the series was ending.  You can read that review here. 

I have so many confused feelings about this book!  It is so very different from the other books in the series, for many reasons.  I missed many elements from the first books, that just weren’t here in this one.  But this was a very important book as far as Charlotte’s character development.  

So let me explain.  This book is so subdued compared to the others.  At times it felt as if it wasn’t even part of the series.  There is no Moriarty chasing them across Europe, or trying to kill them, in fact there was very little in the plot that endangered them at all.  The mystery in the story was really not the important part of the plot.  Charlotte’s journey is what turns out to be this book’s focus.  Which ended up being okay for me.

The story is told totally from Charlotte’s perspective.  Which took me awhile to get used to, and I so missed Jamie’s commentary.  In fact, even though Jamie is in this book, it almost felt like he wasn’t.  There are some very sweet scenes between them, like when they attempt dating, but Charlotte does what she needs to in order to solve the case and this sometimes meant leaving Jamie out of it. 

But like I said, this is Charlotte’s journey and the case is not the dominant story line.  We listen in as Charlotte works out her feelings for Jamie, her family, and her life and what she wants out of it.  It is a hard and somewhat slow journey, and yes this made some parts of the book tedious but never boring.  

The case was not anything amazing or spectacular, it was somewhat reminiscent of some of the original stories in the tone and simplicity.  I pretty much had it figured out long before Charlotte did, although I lacked some of the details.  But is was interesting to hear how Charlotte approaches cases and eventually solves them. 

So, because the publisher is saying this is the fourth book and not the final one, I really am hoping for more in this series.  Although if this is the end, it is a good one.  The epilogue is told from Jamie’s point of view and how things work out for them is just how I would imagine it to go.  This is still one of my favorite re-imaginings of the Holmes and Watson relationship and it has been fun watching that relationship grow and come to a satisfying end.