3.5
The sixth edition to the Lady Sherlock canon should have worked much better as a mystery, but the puzzles to sort through fell strangely flat for me. I greatly enjoyed the personal relationships in the book: Charlotte & Ash's romantic developments, Mrs. Watson & Charlotte's friendship, and the overall teamwork among Livia, Charlotte, Ash, and Mrs. Watson all made the story worth reading. Having said that, I do read this series as much for the skillful mystery and puzzles to sort out, and I hate to say it, but I was bored for much of this book. And almost unforgivably, boredom runs concurrent to Moriarty in the starring role. As a longtime Sherlock Holmes reader, I love stories featuring Moriarty. This should have been to my mind among the best book in this series, but I would be surprised if any reader felt it was.
This book is built around the presumption that Moriarty is on to Charlotte, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. She's been surreptitiously foiling his plans for quite a while. Now he's ready to strike back, and so when he requests a meeting, she knows it is going to take her sharpest skills to be a worthy opponent. Maybe their encounter was overly hyped, but I felt disappointed. If I had to pinpoint one reason, it would probably be that Thomas explains to us ad nauseam that Moriarty is menacing, and I wanted to feel it more for myself. In any case, Charlotte feels coerced into setting off to help the fiendish Moriarty find his wayward daughter, who is apparently hiding out with a religious cult of sorts at a compound called the Garden of Hermopolis. The book's setting shifts dramatically to the isolated drizzly, foggy grounds on the coast to find the elusive Miss Moriarty, if she even exists and regardless of whether Moriarty himself even cares to find her. There is a mystery to be solved here, but the tedious details that lead to some answers left me feeling like I was watching paint dry. To make matters worse, there is a side plot involving Stephen Marbleton, who last we saw was forced to return to consort closely with Moriarty, leaving his beloved Livia behind. Marbleton keeps popping up in London though, leaving the most ridiculously elaborate clues everywhere he goes. I think the book is too clever for its own good at times in creating such obscure puzzles to solve, or I'm just really prone to laughing at things I should take more seriously. So yes, I found, alas, the Marbleton scenes laughable more than anything else, except boredom - I was still bored with these scenes too.
Just when I thought that the book was all talk and no action, action galore occurs in the final 25% percent. It was a relief and fun, though over the top and ridiculous too in its own way. And are we supposed to believe that Moriarty was fooled by any of it? It ends on a seemingly straight note with Charlotte convinced she's pulled a fast one, but come on!
Anyway, thankful for the personal relationship developments. They have always been Sherry Thomas's strong suit and they are here as well.