A Ruse of Shadows - Lady Sherlock #8

 

A Ruse of Shadows is the 8th Lady Sherlock mystery by Sherry Thomas. Released 25th June 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in library binding edition, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

This is a well written historical Holmes homage murder mystery with a strong romance subplot. The book is largely character driven and most of the characters are well rendered and interesting. The pacing was somewhat uneven for though it picked up in the second half of the book. The underlying setup (that the investigative force behind the Holmes name is Charlotte Holmes who's not above some gender prestidigitation to walk unfettered in a man's world)  is well and sensitively written for the most part and the author makes good use of the ensemble cast including Mrs. Hudson and Holmes' sidekick "friend with benefits" Lord Ingram.

The dialogue was pretty well done and at least moderately true to period, there aren't any places readers will be yanked out of their suspension of disbelief (which usually happens because of  egregious modernisms), so that's very nice. The language is clean and there's nothing to dismay anyone's maiden auntie. There is a fair amount of casual sexism which was annoying, but obviously a fact of everyday life for women of the time period regardless of their social class. 

The book does work well enough as a standalone; new readers won't have trouble keeping the story straight, however, these characters do have a history together. There are several plot elements from previous books which are referred to here which would be fairly big spoilers if not read in order. 

Four stars. It's an enjoyable escapist read which is well written. For -strict- fans of the Doyle canon, this book won't convince readers that it's a newly discovered authentic story. For people who love the time period, like their murder mysteries with a dose of romance, and don't mind that Holmes is female, this could be a good fit. The series continues to go from strength to strength, and the author's not resting on her laurels and continues to work to keep her audience. Top shelf historical mystery fiction, and a solid series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.