I admit to hesitation when first I saw this. I'm not a Sherlock fan and I'm even less of a fan of updates/re-imaginings to classics such as this. But I'm a Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman fan, thus do I watch the show. While this isn't tied to the show, a friend I trust assured me I'd enjoy the novel the same.

True and false.

True in that Petty obviously understood her Sherlock and Moriarty ( Lock and Mori) needed a different spin and dynamic equally as engaging.

False in that even without the trappings of the Sherlock Holmes mythos this would have intrigued any fan of YA mystery. ( )

I quite enjoyed this. I liked Mori and Sherlock and Mycroft and their relationships with each other. Mori was a treat - I liked how she kept Sherlock on his toes and caught him off-guard. I liked the banter between her and Mycroft as well. I also liked Sadie and would've liked to see how that developed in further books. The mystery was interesting although I got tired of Mori not telling Sherlock her suspicions. Plus for someone so smart some of the stuff she does is well and truly dumb. I would've liked to see her actually succeed with her plan for revenge/justice and use her smarts to her advantage. ( )

I am intrigued by the idea but a bit wary that it will be a Benedict Cumberbatch/Sherlock Holmes wish fulfillment fantasy.

This was really not a very well-written book. From the blatant red herrings to the awkward and forced romance to the pointless nicknames, this really came off like a fairly poor fanfic. ( )

I read most of this sitting in the waiting room of various MVD offices because the state bureaucracy makes it incredibly complicated to register a car from another state. (THANKS, NEW MEXICO.) So I was a bit of a captive audience for this book.

My first thought: This isn't really Sherlock Holmes. Yes, one of the main characters is named that, and shares some of the personality quirks of the classic character. And yes, Mori is named James Moriarty. There's a very minor background character (not even worth calling a secondary character) named John Watson, and there's mention of a Mrs. Hudson, and Sherlock's brother is named Mycroft. But that's about where the similarities end. It's not a modern YA retelling at all. Instead, it's a whole new story which nods every so often to Doyle, but basically does its own thing.

Which isn't a bad thing, per se. But if you're coming into this expecting something like the BBC show with a genderbent Moriarty, you'll be disappointed.

Rather, this is a YA murder mystery that hits very close to home for Mori and her family. Her home life is bad, to put it mildly, and after her mother died, her father became a drunken abusive asshole. After meeting Sherlock, she uses him and his game of trying to catcher the killer as a means to escape from her super shitty life.

The story itself was engaging, though I did figure out the killer very early on in the book. I found the narrative less engaging; I skimmed much of the book to find the next plot point.

Fun, not very deep. I do have book 2, thanks to Lit-Cube, so will probably be reading that at some point. ( )