★★★★☆ Rescuing Lady Cecily again

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade

Nancy Springer

Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade begins with a prolog in which we find Lady Cecily Alistair locked in her room, and bitterly resenting her father who put her there. You remember Lady Cecily, I hope? She was the Left Handed Lady of Book 2 of the Enola Holmes mystery series, The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, in which Enola rescued her from being stabbed. In the prolog Lady Cecily muses that "Enola was her very best friend even though they had only met twice". The second occasion was in book 4, The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, in which Enola rescued Lady Cecily from being forcibly married to her repugnant cousin.

The Prolog is followed by Chapter the First. Enola has temporarily set aside her career as a Scientific Perditorian, in order to "[take] classes at the London Women’s Academy, where I particularly enjoyed the challenges of algebra, geometry, and natural philosophy." Enola further muses that "I wanted only reunion with my very best friend, Lady Cecily Alistair, to complete my happiness." Thus, the two young women regard each other as best friends, both acknowledging the strangeness of a best friend one has met only twice. This feels realistic -- nothing attaches people to each other like helping and being helped.

Enola attempts to call on Lady Cecily, but the butler refuses her -- not only her, but her mother Lady Theodora. This, as any fan of the series knows, is no way to dampen Enola's interest. So, of course we must rescue Lady Cecily a third time.

"The game is afoot", as Enola's brother Sherlock says. Sherlock is indeed very actively involved in this adventure. We also meet a new character, an old friend of Enola and Sherlock's late mother

Like all the Enola Holmes mysteries, Elegant Escapade is a brief, sweet little morsel, the perfect dessert after consuming a heavier work.

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