I don't like reading series books out of order, but when your book group reads a book further along in the series than you've gotten, you either read through them all in advance to catch up (nope) or you learn things you shouldn't know yet.
It's actually ok, since I read the first book, A Study In Scarlet Women quite awhile ago now, and I did not recall much from that story when reading the newer one.
So book five in the series, Charlotte Holmes continues the ruse of acting on behalf of her "brother" Sherlock Holmes as an assistant to him solving cases. I don't think many would be fooled by the incredibly ill master detective who can't talk to clients himself, but he hears and sees them from an adjoining room when they come to consult with him.
Inspector Treadles, who knows the secret, was found in a locked room in an abandoned house with two dead men on the floor. Police had to break down the door to get to him, and he's under arrest for their murder, and will almost certainly hang for the crime.
He will say nothing to anyone, but will allow Charlotte to do what she can to free him without giving her anything to go on either.
Assisted by her old friend Lord Ingram, Mrs. Watson, and the Inspector's wife, Charlotte attempts to solve a complex case with time running out and little to go on.
Charlotte is an interesting character, rather eccentric in her dress and her sense of mores. She is very hands on and examines every crime scene, interrogating suspects with a bit of a heavy hand sometimes, knowing that others such as Lord Ingram and Mrs. Watson will smooth the way later.
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