Synopsis
Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in the sleuthing duo of Gemma and Jayne in Elementary, She Read, the clever and captivating series debut by nationally bestselling author Vicki Delany.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in the sleuthing duo of Gemma and Jayne in Elementary, She Read, the clever and captivating series debut by nationally bestselling author Vicki Delany.
Publishing Co.: Crooked Lane Books
Release Date: March 14th, 2017
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
I received this book from Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for my honest review. It took me longer to finish this than I thought it would but that was a personal decision. I loved that got an actual murder mystery and not a murder mystery over shadowed by a romance, thank god! I loved how the mystery was built up from the beginning because it wasn't overwhelming but it also wasn't hidden information. I also like how we got a couple chapters to date the characters before we got down to the nitty-gritty. I was actually able to build a relationship with the characters, good or bad, I got the chance to know them. I really enjoyed this murder mystery but Gemma, the main character, started to really aggravate me because she was way too smart to do so many dumb things, constantly putting herself in bad situations. She was just such a frustrating character. Detective Estrada was pissing me off the whole book with her time wasting by looking for things that weren't there, Ryan who was also a detective, and also very realistic, just happened to be a former flame of Gemma's, which in turn I think fueled the dislike that Estrada had for Gemma...but I could be wrong.
I actually really liked how it ended even though I wish it would have ended with some clear romantical direction between Ryan and Gemma but with that being said I see where the next book is going to pick up on that note. Even though Gemma started to annoy me I still enjoyed piecing this mystery together and I would recommend this as a good mystery book for someone starting to venture out into the mystery genre.
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