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The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency #2
The Case of the Girl in Grey
This history-mystery series continues with another fine display of brains and bravery from the Wollstonecraft Girls Ada Bryon Lovelace and Mary Shelley. Inspired fun for middle grade readers and fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society and Lemony Snicket! The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency was supposed to be a secret constabulary, but after the success of their first case, all of London knows that Lady Ada and Mary are the girls to go to if you have a problem. Their new case is a puzzle indeed. It involves a horrible hospital, a missing will, a hasty engagement, and a suspiciously slippery servant. But Mary s stumbled onto a mystery of her own. She spotted a ghostly girl in a grey gown dashing through the park. A girl who is the spitting image of their new client. The two cases must be linked . . . or else there s a perfectly supernatural explanation.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
41 people are currently reading
1202 people want to read
About the author
Jordan Stratford
10 books149 followersJordan Stratford has been pronounced clinically dead, and was briefly mistakenly wanted by INTERPOL for international industrial espionage. He is an ordained priest, has won numerous sword fights, jaywalked across the streets of Paris, San Franciso, and Sao Paolo, and was once shot by a stray rubber bullet in a London riot. He lives on a tiny windswept Pacific island populated predominantly by realtors and carnivorous gulls.
Represented by Heather Schroder of ICM Partners, New York.
Represented by Heather Schroder of ICM Partners, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
February 1, 2021
Was für eine großartige Idee, Ada Byron (Tochter von Lord Byron und spätere Mathematikerin) und Mary Godwin (Autorin von "Frankenstein") als Kinder eine Detektivagentur gründen zu lassen! Die Altersangaben im Buch stimmen nicht ganz, denn Ada ist hier 11 Jahre alt und Mary 14, wobei im realen Leben ein Altersunterschied von 18 Jahren bestand. Darüber kann man aber hinwegsehen, denn die Idee zu dieser Buchreihe ist einfach großartig. Auch der junge Charles Dickens spielt eine Rolle.
Ich hatte sehr viel Vergnügen beim Lesen dieses Buches! Die Geschichte spielt 1826, und der Schreibstil bzw. die Redeweise der Protagonisten versprüht ihren ganz eigenen Charme dieser Zeit! Ich habe mich in die Zeit zurückversetzt gefühlt und konnte mit den Kindern mitfühlen.
Die Geschichte ist spannend, dabei auch humorvoll und einfach nur schön. Diese Reihe möchte ich unbedingt weiterlesen!
Ich hatte sehr viel Vergnügen beim Lesen dieses Buches! Die Geschichte spielt 1826, und der Schreibstil bzw. die Redeweise der Protagonisten versprüht ihren ganz eigenen Charme dieser Zeit! Ich habe mich in die Zeit zurückversetzt gefühlt und konnte mit den Kindern mitfühlen.
Die Geschichte ist spannend, dabei auch humorvoll und einfach nur schön. Diese Reihe möchte ich unbedingt weiterlesen!
November 16, 2020
This is the second book in the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, best read in order. It tinkers with historical fact to bring together Mary Godwin and Ada Byron as children bent on solving mysteries. Doing more violence to fact, the series makes them friends of young Charles Dickens and draws Percy Bysshe Shelley in to serve as their tutor.
Mary and Ada are surprisingly happy girls—surprising on account of the losses of parents they both suffered early in life—but these books are not intended to be deep psychological studies, they are entertaining romps through late-Georgian London that celebrate eccentricity and girl power. Personally, I find the use of real names in what are essentially fantasy stories very distracting; I keep wanting to reconcile the historical record with the action on the page. Fully invented characters would have paradoxically seemed more real to me. Still, the ad hoc adventures of these energetic kids cam be very entertaining.
In this story, the cast expands to include two half-sisters and a few more friendly adults (as well as some who are distinctly unfriendly if not menacing). The young detectives are drawn into danger by an adult who ought to know better, and who then leaves them to find their own way out of trouble while she allows herself to be drawn away by an obvious ruse. There are perhaps more characters and more details to the mystery than so slight a tale can handle, leaving the reader a bit breathless and, ultimately, suspicious. The hands of the plot puppeteer are too often visible.
Nevertheless, I enjoy the bold, unconventional young girls and their friendships, tested by difference and holding strong. I wouldn’t recommend these books to a child as a way of teaching history, but they work to provide can-do role models of girls who aren’t too oppressed by societal expectations.
Mary and Ada are surprisingly happy girls—surprising on account of the losses of parents they both suffered early in life—but these books are not intended to be deep psychological studies, they are entertaining romps through late-Georgian London that celebrate eccentricity and girl power. Personally, I find the use of real names in what are essentially fantasy stories very distracting; I keep wanting to reconcile the historical record with the action on the page. Fully invented characters would have paradoxically seemed more real to me. Still, the ad hoc adventures of these energetic kids cam be very entertaining.
In this story, the cast expands to include two half-sisters and a few more friendly adults (as well as some who are distinctly unfriendly if not menacing). The young detectives are drawn into danger by an adult who ought to know better, and who then leaves them to find their own way out of trouble while she allows herself to be drawn away by an obvious ruse. There are perhaps more characters and more details to the mystery than so slight a tale can handle, leaving the reader a bit breathless and, ultimately, suspicious. The hands of the plot puppeteer are too often visible.
Nevertheless, I enjoy the bold, unconventional young girls and their friendships, tested by difference and holding strong. I wouldn’t recommend these books to a child as a way of teaching history, but they work to provide can-do role models of girls who aren’t too oppressed by societal expectations.
July 18, 2016
3.5 STARS!
Though a little better than the first book, this still was just as predictable as the first. I enjoyed the whole "Is it supernatural or not?" vibe that was going on but it still left me going "Okay, that was alright." I wanted to be WOW'd like I was with Wild Boy and this didn't do that for me. I am however planning on picking up the third book in this series when it's available at the library, I like the characters enough to carry on but this isn't the best Middle-Grade Victorian era mystery series out there.
- Richard
Though a little better than the first book, this still was just as predictable as the first. I enjoyed the whole "Is it supernatural or not?" vibe that was going on but it still left me going "Okay, that was alright." I wanted to be WOW'd like I was with Wild Boy and this didn't do that for me. I am however planning on picking up the third book in this series when it's available at the library, I like the characters enough to carry on but this isn't the best Middle-Grade Victorian era mystery series out there.
- Richard
February 25, 2016
I've been thinking about what makes a five-star book for me, and I finally hit on it while reading this one. All of my five-star books, from Anna Karenina to The Countess Conspiracy, have one thing in common: they all just make my heart sing.
I don't know who looks at the Shelley circle and thinks "MIDDLE GRADE MYSTERY SERIES!" but Jordan Stratford somehow makes it work. If you can't abide historical inaccuracies, this is not the series for you. Our heroines, Ada Byron and Mary Godwin (later Shelley), never knew each other in real life and were a generation apart -- but Stratford has cast them as contemporaries and best friends, only three years apart. Percy Bysshe Shelley becomes Ada and Mary's tutor "Peebs," his disastrous first marriage to Harriet Westbrook conveniently erased. In this volume, the sleuths are joined by Mary's stepsister Jane Clairmont and Ada's half-sister Allegra (who were actually mother and daughter in real life -- not to mention the fact that Allegra died in a convent at age five, effectively abandoned by her father). Stratford also borrows a young Charles Dickens as a secondary character, because why not!
Normally, these liberties might have driven me crazy -- but there's just something magical about Stratford's alternate version of history. If there's one thing the Shelley-Byron folks were brilliant at (besides writing fiction and poetry and causing scandals, of course), it was hurting each other, and the romantic in me loves reading this sweeter, kinder version of events. The characters are funny, adventurous, and entirely lovable. In a fun literary nod, the mystery shares many elements with The Woman in White, and various place and character names tip the hat to the works of Dickens and the Brontes.
This book is also enchanting for more personal reasons -- I can easily imagine reading this as a kid and conning my younger sister into being Lady Ada to my Mary for endless hours of pretend adventures. (In fact, I'm pretty bummed that these books didn't exist twenty-five years ago.) And now that I'm a parent myself, I read this and think "I can't wait to read this with my daughter...I wonder whether she'll want to be Mary or Ada?"
In short, a delight, and I can't wait for the next one. Fingers crossed for a Keats or Fanny Brawne cameo!
I don't know who looks at the Shelley circle and thinks "MIDDLE GRADE MYSTERY SERIES!" but Jordan Stratford somehow makes it work. If you can't abide historical inaccuracies, this is not the series for you. Our heroines, Ada Byron and Mary Godwin (later Shelley), never knew each other in real life and were a generation apart -- but Stratford has cast them as contemporaries and best friends, only three years apart. Percy Bysshe Shelley becomes Ada and Mary's tutor "Peebs," his disastrous first marriage to Harriet Westbrook conveniently erased. In this volume, the sleuths are joined by Mary's stepsister Jane Clairmont and Ada's half-sister Allegra (who were actually mother and daughter in real life -- not to mention the fact that Allegra died in a convent at age five, effectively abandoned by her father). Stratford also borrows a young Charles Dickens as a secondary character, because why not!
Normally, these liberties might have driven me crazy -- but there's just something magical about Stratford's alternate version of history. If there's one thing the Shelley-Byron folks were brilliant at (besides writing fiction and poetry and causing scandals, of course), it was hurting each other, and the romantic in me loves reading this sweeter, kinder version of events. The characters are funny, adventurous, and entirely lovable. In a fun literary nod, the mystery shares many elements with The Woman in White, and various place and character names tip the hat to the works of Dickens and the Brontes.
This book is also enchanting for more personal reasons -- I can easily imagine reading this as a kid and conning my younger sister into being Lady Ada to my Mary for endless hours of pretend adventures. (In fact, I'm pretty bummed that these books didn't exist twenty-five years ago.) And now that I'm a parent myself, I read this and think "I can't wait to read this with my daughter...I wonder whether she'll want to be Mary or Ada?"
In short, a delight, and I can't wait for the next one. Fingers crossed for a Keats or Fanny Brawne cameo!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2016
I thoroughly fell in love with the first book in The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series, The Case of the Missing Moonstone, and The Case of the Girl in Grey is a delightful sequel. Again Jordan Stratford brings together the mother of modern science fiction, Mary Shelley, and the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, as girls (14 and 11, respectively) who solve mysteries. This particular mystery is inspired by the Gothic classic The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Once more, Percy B. Shelley and Charles Dickens play key roles in the tale, and this time Mary's stepsister Jane and Ada's half-sister Allegra also join the adventure.
The book ends with a discussion of the real history behind Ada, Mary, Jane, Allegra, Wollstonecraft, The Woman in White, and the other ingredients of the story, and Stratford makes it clear when and why he's taken liberties with the past. I said it before and I'll say it again: this is the perfect storm of inspiration, entertainment, and education. Buy it for the young readers you know, but read it for your own pleasure, too.
The book ends with a discussion of the real history behind Ada, Mary, Jane, Allegra, Wollstonecraft, The Woman in White, and the other ingredients of the story, and Stratford makes it clear when and why he's taken liberties with the past. I said it before and I'll say it again: this is the perfect storm of inspiration, entertainment, and education. Buy it for the young readers you know, but read it for your own pleasure, too.
June 20, 2017
This series is a pure joy. I can nerd out about victorian ladies! And victorian mysteries! And neuroatypical victorian characters!
August 26, 2025
Five stars simply for all the superb homages and allusions to Victorian literature!
September 28, 2018
Ada Byron and Mary Godwin are gaining notoriety for their detective agency even though it is supposed to be a secret. Their respective sisters, Allegra and Jane, want in on the fun too. Jane wants to be able to meet people in Society and Allegra wishes to get to know her half-sister before running away to join the circus. The girls are presented by a mystery by mathematician and scientist Mrs. Mary Sommerville, one of Ada's idols. Mrs. Sommerville has a young relative, Lizzie, whose father has recently passed away after announcing he had some good news. This in itself is not so fishy but Lizzie is now engaged to marry a baronet and friend of the estate manager. Mrs. Sommerville senses something is not quite right and since Lizzie is a teenage girl close in age to Mary, Mrs. Sommerville hopes the girls can befriend Lizzie and determine whether she will truly be happy in her marriage. Meanwhile, Mary has spotted another girl she believes to be a ghost! Their new client just so happens to look exactly like Mary's ghost! Whatever does that mean and could the two mysteries be related?
I didn't like this story as much as the first one. It requires way more suspension of disbelief. I did not enjoy the introduction of Allegra and Jane. The timeline gets WAY too condensed for my liking. Allega died at the age of 5 before the story takes place and Jane (Claire Clairmont) was actually Allega's mother! I wouldn't have made the decision to make them contemporaries. That's too mind bending for me. Then there are some possible historical errors and further suspension of disbelief. First of all, Mary is reading Mansfield Park yet she doesn't make the connection Fanny Price does about fortunes made in Jamaica = sugar = slaves. I would have expected someone so intelligent and well read to bring it up. I really don't like West Indian fortunes.
The other historical error I picked up on was the issue of adoption and WHO adopted a child. While there were orphanages in England at this time, adoption was rare. The WHO seemed far fetched at best and the baronet wanting to marry x was even more far fetched because of who her parents were. I also took exception to Allega's idiomatic phrasing, her expressions are too modern for the time. Looking them up, they date to the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th.
The world of this novel is very much a typical middle grades fantasy world where adults are all but useless and are outwitted by children. I was willing to accept that in the prison but not at a madhouse. Most definitely not. I'm not even sure inmates were allowed visitors let alone children.
The characters, however, are fantastically appealing. I wish I could be there to meet Ada Lovelace and her brilliant mind. The two of us would make an amazing team because I'm insanely verbal and she has a stronger right sided brain with mathematics being her strong suit. I can relate to Ada's fiery temperament and how she feels at a loss when she can't research something in a book to solve a problem. She's still antisocial but getting better thanks to Mary. Mary is also intelligent in a quieter sort of way. She reads a lot and she feels her family's lack of wealth keenly. Both of these things make her empathetic. I did not like her sister Jane who is a typical snooty conformist sister obsessed with etiquette and Burke's Peerage. I also did not like Allegra who is just as fiery tempered as her sister but more social. Allega is younger and acts it. She wants to be the center of attention and her extroverted nature annoys Ada (and me). I'm not sure big top circuses were around in 1826 and I question where she learned her special skills in a convent. Charles plays a larger role here but he's still somewhat mysterious and a secondary figure. Peebs also has a stronger role and takes his responsibility towards Ada very seriously. Mary Somerville was unknown to me but I simply must look her up. I very much admire 19th-century women who went against convention and actually made use of their brains. I wish someone could have translated Algebra into plain English for me! Byron's friend Dr. Polidori makes a cameo here. It's funny because he was dead in real life by 1826 yet he wrote the first vampire story so it's fitting that he is still living in this fictional version of 1826.
Fictional characters include Lizzie, an intelligent teenage girl who allows herself to be bartered in marriage to a Jamaican planter. Lizzie is too smart to follow conventions and like her new friends, I was somewhat disappointed she is fine with marrying a man she didn't know before he showed up and was introduced to her. Her uncle Mr. Thorpe is one of the worst guardians in literature but for different reasons than normal. He seems very Dickensenian. In the "you've got to be kidding me" category you have a bumbling suitor, Sir Caleb Gulpidge who is not very bright and completely wrong for Lizzie. I don't know how a baronet can be friends with an estate manager but somehow Mr. Brocklehurst became friends with Sir Caleb. I think Brocklehurst is more clever and cunning. Just what are they up to? Read the book to find out.
There are more literary allusions in this story. The author used The Woman in White as a jumping off point and characters are given names from Dickens and the Brontes. Shame on the author not to know that EMILY had characters named Earnshaw! I picked up on that one right away. Adults will enjoy the cute little Easter Eggs like that and kids will later discover where those names came from- hopefully.
I look forward to reading the third book when Mary Anning shows up! Be still my heart! I would geek out meeting all of those strong 19th-century young women.
I didn't like this story as much as the first one. It requires way more suspension of disbelief. I did not enjoy the introduction of Allegra and Jane. The timeline gets WAY too condensed for my liking. Allega died at the age of 5 before the story takes place and Jane (Claire Clairmont) was actually Allega's mother! I wouldn't have made the decision to make them contemporaries. That's too mind bending for me. Then there are some possible historical errors and further suspension of disbelief. First of all, Mary is reading Mansfield Park yet she doesn't make the connection Fanny Price does about fortunes made in Jamaica = sugar = slaves. I would have expected someone so intelligent and well read to bring it up. I really don't like West Indian fortunes.
The other historical error I picked up on was the issue of adoption and WHO adopted a child. While there were orphanages in England at this time, adoption was rare. The WHO seemed far fetched at best and the baronet wanting to marry x was even more far fetched because of who her parents were. I also took exception to Allega's idiomatic phrasing, her expressions are too modern for the time. Looking them up, they date to the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th.
The world of this novel is very much a typical middle grades fantasy world where adults are all but useless and are outwitted by children. I was willing to accept that in the prison but not at a madhouse. Most definitely not. I'm not even sure inmates were allowed visitors let alone children.
The characters, however, are fantastically appealing. I wish I could be there to meet Ada Lovelace and her brilliant mind. The two of us would make an amazing team because I'm insanely verbal and she has a stronger right sided brain with mathematics being her strong suit. I can relate to Ada's fiery temperament and how she feels at a loss when she can't research something in a book to solve a problem. She's still antisocial but getting better thanks to Mary. Mary is also intelligent in a quieter sort of way. She reads a lot and she feels her family's lack of wealth keenly. Both of these things make her empathetic. I did not like her sister Jane who is a typical snooty conformist sister obsessed with etiquette and Burke's Peerage. I also did not like Allegra who is just as fiery tempered as her sister but more social. Allega is younger and acts it. She wants to be the center of attention and her extroverted nature annoys Ada (and me). I'm not sure big top circuses were around in 1826 and I question where she learned her special skills in a convent. Charles plays a larger role here but he's still somewhat mysterious and a secondary figure. Peebs also has a stronger role and takes his responsibility towards Ada very seriously. Mary Somerville was unknown to me but I simply must look her up. I very much admire 19th-century women who went against convention and actually made use of their brains. I wish someone could have translated Algebra into plain English for me! Byron's friend Dr. Polidori makes a cameo here. It's funny because he was dead in real life by 1826 yet he wrote the first vampire story so it's fitting that he is still living in this fictional version of 1826.
Fictional characters include Lizzie, an intelligent teenage girl who allows herself to be bartered in marriage to a Jamaican planter. Lizzie is too smart to follow conventions and like her new friends, I was somewhat disappointed she is fine with marrying a man she didn't know before he showed up and was introduced to her. Her uncle Mr. Thorpe is one of the worst guardians in literature but for different reasons than normal. He seems very Dickensenian. In the "you've got to be kidding me" category you have a bumbling suitor, Sir Caleb Gulpidge who is not very bright and completely wrong for Lizzie. I don't know how a baronet can be friends with an estate manager but somehow Mr. Brocklehurst became friends with Sir Caleb. I think Brocklehurst is more clever and cunning. Just what are they up to? Read the book to find out.
There are more literary allusions in this story. The author used The Woman in White as a jumping off point and characters are given names from Dickens and the Brontes. Shame on the author not to know that EMILY had characters named Earnshaw! I picked up on that one right away. Adults will enjoy the cute little Easter Eggs like that and kids will later discover where those names came from- hopefully.
I look forward to reading the third book when Mary Anning shows up! Be still my heart! I would geek out meeting all of those strong 19th-century young women.
September 4, 2018
My 11 year old said 5 stars, I say 3, so I'll go with 4.
February 1, 2023
I enjoyed this book but not as much as the first one. Probably because there were numerous characters and I had to stop and think of who was who. Plus there were two characters named Mary.
The mystery itself was OK though I'm wondering if it might go over the heads of the intended age group.
Most likely will pick up the next in the series after a little break.
The mystery itself was OK though I'm wondering if it might go over the heads of the intended age group.
Most likely will pick up the next in the series after a little break.
January 18, 2023
I love that these books are based on real life awesome women. Mary and Ada are smart, resourceful, and brave. They stick together and can outmaneuver sinister adults and it's so much fun to watch. This mystery was interesting and fast paced, so it was easy to jump in and listen in one sitting. I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this series.
January 28, 2018
This series is utterly adorable!
You might also enjoy:
✱ Flavia de Luce series
✱ Book Scavenger series
✱ The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
✱ Under the Egg
You might also enjoy:
✱ Flavia de Luce series
✱ Book Scavenger series
✱ The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
✱ Under the Egg
January 17, 2018
I am really enjoying this series. I still like the characters introduced in the first book. The addition of the sisters, for me, was a plus; the new characters Allegra and Jane seem to round out the cast and support interesting interactions and dialogue between the group.
I will definitely read book #3.
I will definitely read book #3.
October 7, 2022
I'm really enjoying this reimagined life of Aida Byron Lovelace and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as their paths cross in this historical fiction tale. The story picks up shortly after the events of the first book and this time Aidan and Mary are each living with their younger sisters. The author places across their paths real-life historical figures, such as Charles Dickens, Percy Shelley, and many others. She has changed their relationships with our main characters to suit her tale, but that doesn't matter. It's really fun imagining that this all happened with our characters. She has taken liberties and extended the lives of some of them (like Shelley) and I love that she follows the book (and I assume each of the subsequent books) with a little blurb about each of the real characters. If you like smart, resilient, and capable female characters set in an era where all of those things were frowned upon, and you enjoy a little bit of mystery, you should definitely check out this series. In some ways, this series reminds me of Enola Holmes, although Enola is older, but I suspect fans of Enola Holmes would also enjoy this lesser-known series. It's definitely worth checking out! I'm already looking forward to the next one.
September 7, 2025
This second outing with Ada and Mary, based on the real life Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley, was delightful.
The Wollstonecraft detective agency now has two additional members in the form of Jane and Allegra, the sisters of the two girls. They are also joined by the young Charles Dickens in investigating a baronet who is about to marry an heiress with a fortune but seems fishy.
Mary is the one who is more in focus in this one as it involves more interaction and questioning which aren't Ada's forte but Ada's reactions and comments provide the humour nevertheless.
Based on another classic book, the mystery has been adapted well. I love the throwback to the classics in these books. Given the age level they are meant for, this is also a great way to introduce the classics to its readers.
The Wollstonecraft detective agency now has two additional members in the form of Jane and Allegra, the sisters of the two girls. They are also joined by the young Charles Dickens in investigating a baronet who is about to marry an heiress with a fortune but seems fishy.
Mary is the one who is more in focus in this one as it involves more interaction and questioning which aren't Ada's forte but Ada's reactions and comments provide the humour nevertheless.
Based on another classic book, the mystery has been adapted well. I love the throwback to the classics in these books. Given the age level they are meant for, this is also a great way to introduce the classics to its readers.
September 16, 2019
I needed to listen to a book under four hours for a challenge and I wanted to scout this out for my nieces -- I'm glad I did. It's a period piece mystery where the time is a very important character in the story. I love that although the author took liberties with the timelines of some of the very real characters in the story, there is an excellent Author's Note at the beginning to address this as well as Notes for historical significance at the end. As a historian and a librarian I thoroughly appreciated it. Also for someone who hates mysteries it was no where near as cheesy as I usually find mystery stories to be.
March 20, 2020
I love this series! I enjoyed this book more than book the first book in the series. Both are loosely based on 2 Wilke Collins novels. Although the characters are historical figures, they are taken out of context for the purposes of the story.The authors include the accurate historical facts at the end of each book.
February 1, 2021
This was just as cute as the first one. Not at all complex but since this is not at all for my age but for children way younger than I then that is probably for the best. Reminds me of a blend of Enola Holmes and, at least I hope, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. I am very interested in what characters they bring in throughout the next couple of books.
June 2, 2024
Yes, I read this one in a matter of a couple of hours. After all, it is designed for children. However, I really liked the characters in the first book and so I felt I needed to continue the series. Again, the author does let us know she takes Liberty with some of the history in this book. It is a cute read and does help encourage young girls to explore more traditionally male roles.
August 24, 2017
This was a fun Middle Grade read with whispers of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White woven in! First #boutofbooks title finished! Kids will love this middle grade mystery.
November 12, 2019
Not as gripping of a story as the first, but I love seeing these historic figures in this fictional world together. This installment was weaker with a few places of incongruence.
March 25, 2020
I X C
May 25, 2017
These are great books! I love this historical twist.
September 25, 2016
Another fun mystery!
December 23, 2016
An excellent book on the continuing adventures of a young Ada Byron (later to be Countess of Lovelace) and young Mary Shelly who, breaking all kinds of Victorian rules, set up a detective agency together and proceed to solve crimes. In this story, Lady Mary Sommerville asks them to investigate the pending marriage of a young girl to a peer who seems very anxious to get his hands on her family's fortune. Also involved is a mysterious girl in grey seen running in the streets that may be related to the case. If you pay attention to the story, you may be able to figure out the solution one step ahead of the girls, but not by much.
This is the second book in the series that plays a what-if with Ada and Mary, born years apart in reality, were about the same age, met and set up a detective agency with the help of young Charles Dickens and, in this book, their sisters. It's a fascinating scenario and quite well done. You also see young girls who, acting against Victorian norms, set out to do something instead of acting like 'damsels in distress'.
I look forward to reading the next book in the series, with hints dropped by the author in this book, of even bigger events to happen in the universe of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.
This is the second book in the series that plays a what-if with Ada and Mary, born years apart in reality, were about the same age, met and set up a detective agency with the help of young Charles Dickens and, in this book, their sisters. It's a fascinating scenario and quite well done. You also see young girls who, acting against Victorian norms, set out to do something instead of acting like 'damsels in distress'.
I look forward to reading the next book in the series, with hints dropped by the author in this book, of even bigger events to happen in the universe of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency.
April 5, 2021
Oh dear, there is adapting timeline and then there is messing it up completely. This book does latter. Mary Wollstonecraft and Ada Lovelace are here only three years apart. They are friends and founders of secret constabulary aka The Wollstonecraft Detective agency. Their half-sisters Jane (known later as Claire) and Allegra get themselves involved too. Not to forget their young friend Charles Dickens and Ada’s tutor Percy Bysshe Shelley. You see, messy. And the plot is borrowed from Wilkie Collins. But if we forgive all this (We don’t) this is relatively competent middle grade mystery with daring and smart girl characters.
July 15, 2016
Another fun romp through alt history! 4.5 stars (1/2 star taken off for a few mistakes in the notes at the end, which made me wonder about the accuracy of the other historical notes - the name Earnshaw is borrowed from Emily Bronte, not Charlotte, and one of the plot points mentioned as borrowed from The Woman in White is inaccurate (I won't say which one because spoilers).
June 28, 2016
An enjoyable sequel, and I like how it's setting up the next book! I really like this series - it's really nice to read about a neuroatypical young girl who doesn't feel mocked by the text or other characters. Cute illustrations and a good mystery!
December 17, 2016
this series is TOO CUTE. i'm hooked
July 30, 2025
I enjoyed the first book in the series a little more - possibly due to novelty. But this one had a couple of particularly exciting scenes, a particularly cozy description of Mary's home and father, one LOL and a new amazing character: Mary Somerville.
Mary Somerville was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She is the historical reason why the word "scientist" exists (couldn't call her a man of science, so a fellow polymath coined the term in an anonymous review of one of her books). She also has a moon crater and an asteroid named after her.
As I was reading it, it occurred to me that the story could easily have had adult detectives - and indeed it did! It was inspired by history's first novel with a female detective - Wilkie Collins' "Woman in White" (1859). Sometime the characters behave like the children they are, but it's not a book that PANDERS to young readers and is perfectly enjoyable for adults. The only nod to current day youth culture was referring to cartoon tropes like audible blinking and crickets.
But we do learn a bit about 1826 culture, for example the game of Snapdragons where you quickly grab raisins and plums from a brandy flambée (which you can do without burning yourself). It dates as far back as Shakespeare's times!
There are also nods to Charlotte Bronte characters.
Looking forward to reading more from the series, but two in a row is enough for now.
Mary Somerville was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She is the historical reason why the word "scientist" exists (couldn't call her a man of science, so a fellow polymath coined the term in an anonymous review of one of her books). She also has a moon crater and an asteroid named after her.
As I was reading it, it occurred to me that the story could easily have had adult detectives - and indeed it did! It was inspired by history's first novel with a female detective - Wilkie Collins' "Woman in White" (1859). Sometime the characters behave like the children they are, but it's not a book that PANDERS to young readers and is perfectly enjoyable for adults. The only nod to current day youth culture was referring to cartoon tropes like audible blinking and crickets.
But we do learn a bit about 1826 culture, for example the game of Snapdragons where you quickly grab raisins and plums from a brandy flambée (which you can do without burning yourself). It dates as far back as Shakespeare's times!
There are also nods to Charlotte Bronte characters.
Looking forward to reading more from the series, but two in a row is enough for now.
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