First-place winner of the 2019 CIBA Mystery and Mayhem award. Arthur Conan Doyle provided few details on Holmes’ boyhood. His ancestors were country squires, his grandmother was the sister of the French artist Vernet, and he had a brother named Mycroft – seven years his senior. Recently, a cache of documents has been discovered detailing, in Sherlock’s own hand, his early forays into criminal … criminal investigation.Only weeks into his first year at Eton, Sherlock’s father calls him and his brother back to Underbyrne, the ancestral estate. The village midwife has been found with a pitchfork in her back in the estate’s garden, and Mrs. Holmes has been accused of the murder. Can Sherlock find the true killer in time to save her from the gallows?
more
Having read most Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories I was interested to see how Liese Sherwood-Fabre was going to deal with Sherlock Holmes. Having watched on TV some of the more modern version of which I’m not too fond of, I was hoping she would stick to the original time period. Liese did a great job in bringing to us the feel of the time period for England. We get to know Sherlock as a young teenager. He is no longer a child but not yet a man. Looking for the approval from parents and older brother but you can see the beginnings of Sherlock and the man he will become. His mother is a delightful person and his father is very much on keeping up appearances that are part of his social standing. Mycroft the older brother and a university student wants to become more part of the changes that are about to happen. Through it all you can feel the love between the family members. And of course in order to keep the mother out of prison there are a couple of murders that need to be solved. I’m looking forward to seeing another book in this series.
I’m not the biggest Sherlock Holmes fan in the world, so I can’t precisely judge how Adventure of the Murdered Midwife fits with other works. Even so, I know that any author who dares to use Conan-Doyles’ famed detective must tread lightly. It’s too easy to go astray. Make him too modern and lose authenticity. Keep him too faithful to the original and be, well, completely unoriginal oneself.
But Liese Sherwood-Fabre knows how to walk that tightrope. (I keep wanting to spell her last name SherLOCK-Fabre!) Here, she imagines Sherlock as a young adolescent, not yet fully aware of his own potential. As she does so, she creates a winning, fascinating character who won my respect and sympathy.
Even at 13, Sherlock possesses an analytic mind and a keen eye for details that most people overlook. He’s a detective, even at that young age, and his mother recognizes that he has the ability to snoop around without raising suspicions.
Yet he’s also 13, that awkward age when one is part child and part hormonal teen. When he arrives home from Eton, he often seems lonely when he’s with his seemingly-distant father and intelligent brother. Throw in his first crush on a girl and a prank from Mycroft about human reproduction, and Sherlock begins an awkward sexual awakening that feels innocent and realistic. Throughout the novel, he begins to see the differences in societal gender roles, and his own privilege as a male.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the dynamics of the Holmes family. Sherlock’s relationship with his mother feels genuine; Violette Holmes won my sympathy almost immediately. Mycroft is Mycroft: cunning, intelligent, and ambitious. Sherlock’s eccentric uncle Ernest, who suffers from PTSD, lives on the Holmes property. He’s his nephew’s ally . . . when he isn’t busy refining a new weapon he swears the army can use.
Sherwood-Fabre does an excellent job developing the relationships between these complicated and oh-so-real characters. There is love here, but that love is threatened, not only by the accusations of murder and real possibility of execution, but by each person’s secrets.
The central mystery of the book doesn’t feel as compelling as it could. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because Sherlock doesn’t really know the murdered midwife. His real desire is to clear the Holmes name by finding the real murderer. It is a legitimate motive, but I never felt any urgency about it. Also, the killer’s motive fell flat for me, despite the author’s best efforts to make it compelling. That was a bit disappointing.
The climatic showdown between the killer and the future detective were exciting, though. It was fun to see how young Sherlock outwits the killer.
However, the writing quality is outstanding. Sherwood-Fabre knows how to create vivid scenes. They feel pitch-perfect in the historical details but simultaneously feeling modern.
Overall, this is a solid work to add to the canon of Sherlock Holmes fiction. I recommend it to any Sherlock fans, as well as historical mystery readers.
4 1/2 stars, rounded up to 5.
Thanks to Little Elm Press and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Mother had always taught me a detached mind produced better results”
The Holmes family was in the public eye, even more so now that Sherlock had begun at Eton, a place he loathed. His brother Mycroft was having a great time at Oxford but when told he must come home and bring Sherlock, he reluctantly complied. On the way home by train, both of them found out their Mother had been taken to jail, accused of killing the local midwife.
Mother couldn’t have done it, and young Sherlock sets out to prove it as only he, with reluctant help from Mycroft could. In a turnaround type of story brick walls are hit, dead ends are found and tempers are ignited. No one is left unscathed. But Dr. Liese Sherwood-Fabre sets out to give what I have found is a backstory set at a very young time in the Conan-Doyle character. We see a young Sherlock and his loving mother, his gruff attitudinal father, and his brainiac brother all coming together to solve not just one murder that could be tied to his mother, but others. It’s a fast read by someone highly steeped in Holmes’ history, which fascinates me because, Holmes isn’t a real person, but may be one of the best known characters in history. Recommended 4/5
[disclaimer: I was gifted this book by the author and voluntarily read and reviewed it]
Ever wonder how Sherlock Holmes became Sherlock Holmes? This book features a thirteen-year-old Sherlock setting out to solve his first case when his mother is accused of murder. A wonderful origin story!
The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife by Leise Sherwood-Fabre is the first in the Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes. Let it be said that I love Sherlock Holmes’ spinoffs. The Murder Midwife is about a much younger Sherlock, 12-14 years of age, without a fully developed personality. His mother, according to this author, was instrumental in developing his skills of observation and deduction. We see the inception of his future avocation very clearly in this book, albeit, in part his aversion to boarding school. His mother has been arrested for murder and both he and Mycroft have been called home for their schools. Of course, Mother was not a killer and he, Sherlock, would prove it.
The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife was a mystery but more importantly it was a puzzle and was treated as such by the author. Simply using Sherlock’s name does not make it a Holmes’ story. It was enjoyable to see the familial relationships that caused Holmes to develop into the man he became. His parents were lovers and well as parents and apparently, Sherlock had been too young to notice before, or the circumstances were not right. Mycroft was well on his way to becoming the adult that would influence much of Holmes’ adult life. Interestingly, one does not think of Sherlock Holmes as a youth. This was a terrific book. Filled to the brim with murders, cleverly solved by Sherlock and his mother, always using observation and deduction. Kudos to Sherwood-Fabre for a book well written. I recommend it.
I was invited to preview an ARC of The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #theadventureofthemurderedmidwife
A fun read and page-turner! 4.5 stars
This is the first time that I read a book by this author Liese Sherwood-Fabre. What a beautiful surprise! I really enjoyed ‘The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife’! She nicely blended the character young Sherlock Holmes at the age of 13. Fans of Sherlock Holmes with love it!
The story starts as young Sherlock is recalled home to the family estate Underbyrne for an emergency, where he joins again with his older brother Mycroft, his mother and father. A scandal stirs the Holmes family. When the village midwife is found murdered in their garden and his mother is accused and sent to jail, Sherlock with the aid of his uncle Ernest, will start their own investigation and his first case. Can Sherlock and Ernest find the murdered and free Violette from jail?
I wish to thank Little Elm Press and NetGalley for providing me an ecopy of this book in exchange for my own honest review.
I loved this book!
Liese Sherwood-Fabre has given us an origin story for Sherlock Holmes – or “Sherry,” as his mother calls him. And what a great story she tells. Sherlock is summoned home from his miserable first year at Eton because his mother has been accused of murdering the village midwife. His mother turns to teenage Sherlock for help in freeing her from gaol. She knows that Mycroft, though brilliant, is too theoretical.
As Sherlock collects evidence and interviews witnesses, we see him develop his deductive reasoning. The motifs of the soon-to-be-great detective come into focus. There’s the explanation for the magnifying glass. There’s the deerstalker cap. There’s the poignant backstory for the violin. There’s the grisly and dramatic inquest, in which someone else – of course – takes the credit for Sherlock’s ingenuity. In very exciting scenes, there are the bees.
Making this even richer are the relationships within the Holmes family, the delicately described social and physical environment, and Sherlock’s first love interest, Constance, a resourceful and admirable village girl and pickpocket. Young Sherlock seems like a real teenager – intelligent, awkward, worried, unsure, sensitive, and brave.
I am looking forward to the next book!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.