Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sword Princess
Series: The Great Detective in Love, Book 1
By: Suzette Hollingsworth / Narrated By: Joel Froomkin
Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
Whazzis? All heroine with just a tad of Hero?
Okay so, like, I’ll be the first to admit upfront that I’m WOEfully ignorant when it comes to the doings of Sherlock Holmes… eeeeeven tho’ I’ve managed to grow a rather unwieldy collection of audiobooks in my Library over time. Dunno, just always seem to veer towards whimsical takes on the man… not that I’m PROUD of it!
But even I know when I’m listening to a story that is veering wildly from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original. And such is quiiiiiite the case with Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sword Princess… which I’m rather sheepish to say I enjoyed quite a bit.
Yes, we have the great detective himself, and yes, we have his faithful sidekick Watson, but truly. This is the story of Mirabelle Hudson—the detective’s landlady's intrepid niece. She’s hired to clean jars in Holmes’s laboratory, to catalogue fingerprint collections and early on she’s worthy of his notice. She neither grovels, nor does she quake when he casts a harsh and jaundiced eye at her, expecting abject respect and quiet solicitude. Nope, Mirabelle is a feisty squabbler, and her grand hope, working for Holmes and saving every penny, is to go to University, be one of the first females to graduate—hopefully with a Bachelor of Science even tho’ women are juuuuust being allowed in to earn Bachelor of Arts degrees. Mirabelle has a keen intellect, and she’s DYING to study and be enlightened, and she’s DYING to learn from the great detective himself.
Soon, tho’ Holmes is a master of disguise, a new case involving the Princess Elena from Montenegro has him desperately needing a young woman (A disguise he certainly canNOT carry off himself) to be ensconced in a finishing school for young soon-to-be debutantes. Mirabelle is FEARless, is fine with all the defensive arts, the fact that there’s grave danger involved (Prior kidnapping attempts of the Princess and shots fired have placed her life in jeopardy), but a FINISHING school? EGAD! She knows she’ll never fit in and will be cast out as a fraud posthaste.
Naturally, her feistiness and goodhearted nature have her fitting in, kinda sorta, just a bit, and she soon has the young debs doing embroidery for Christmas gifts for young orphans. Plus, yessss, there’s another attempt on Princess Elena’s life, and the terrified Mirabelle finds the courage and steadiness to do what is necessary. That she’s blasted a possible murderer to kingdom come has her earning the slightest bit of approbation from the hard to please detective.
Don’t for a second expect a traditional Sherlock Holmes tale here. Nah, we have Mirabelle coming into her vociferous own. And don’t expect the Baker Street Irregulars as her work teaching science to orphan girls has them loyal to her and pretty danged sharp and courageous themselves.
This is the set up for future listening in a series, and as it has just a touch of romance (Don’t worry, not toooo much, it’s just that Holmes is depicted as being kiiiiinda attractive in a brooding drug-addicted sort of way… I know!) with Holmes realizing that this cunning and obstreperous young lady has just his kinda sharpness of mind, and danged if she doesn’t “clean-up” nicely when she’s cast off her workaday clothes and has donned the attire of a proper young lady. Plus, it’s awfully nice that Watson isn’t portrayed as a bumbling git, the comic foil—rather, he’s smooth and handsome, urbane, getting over his wounds and PTSD from war in Afghanistan. And it ticks Holmes off when Mirabelle casts longing glances at the man. Why, Watson is 29! That’s older than the ancient Holmes at 27!
At first I was worried about Joel Froomkin doing the narration honors—he sorta seemed like an American putting on a British accent… So I looked him up—a transplant to Great Britain, and raised by American parents, which has GOTTA explain some of the weird faltering. But really? The man did an AWEsome job once I got past my snobbish it-ain’t-good-unless-a-total-Brit-is-doing-it thing and settled down to enjoy it all. That our main protagonist is a woman? No problem with Froomkin’s performance. That the Irregulars are actually a group of wily and daring young orphan girls? No problem as well. Truly a magnificent rendition of the story, tho’ I did question his accent for Princess Elena. But I’ll hush up and not quibble about the small stuff, shall I?
As this book is entered as free with Kindle Unlimited with a purchase price of cheaper than a credit for the audiobook had me dashing to Book 2 in the series. I liked that the romance was limited (But there!), and I did soooo like Mirabelle as our gutsy heroine. Nope, you’ll not find much of Sherlock here, tho’ of COURSE his sleuthing and observational skills save the day, and he’s quite hilarious when he’s in a disguise and is manipulating the HECK outta people. But there was enough of him and of Watson to satisfy my hankering for a Not Quite Sherlock Holmes Next Listen.
Thanks, y’all, for voting this one in.
And I PROMISE to get to Sir Arthur’s originals… uhm… soon…?
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