What follows is a tale of twists and surprises from the countryside to the lowest part of the docks and wharfs of London, and a retinue of characters that have authenticity and presence - in fact, the closest to a stereotype and a narrow person in the book is Sherlock's Scotland Yard acquaintance Lestrade, and then only because of the limitations that Conan-Doyle put on him that Springer was quite faithful to follow, although the temptation to breathe a little more life into the ferret-like detective must have been strong. Sherlock and Mycroft come to the estate, and treat Enola with little more consideration than a housepet, being patronizing and condescending, and planning to pack her off to boarding school.Enola, who has a mind of her own that is quite the equal steel of the brothers' (although it takes them a while to grasp this), will have none of that, and is bent on finding her mother. The tale begins with the disappearance of Enola's mother, on Enola's fourteenth birthday. Her two older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, live in London, and are estranged from their mother and young sister since the death of their father about a decade before. She is a late child, born when her mother was thought to be rather beyond child-bearing years. Springer has created a genuinely inspired character of depth, passion, emotion, and isn't afraid to make her fallible and and occasionally unlikeable - in other words, a believable fourteen-year-old girl.Enola is fourteen, the daughter of gentry and living in the country in 1888. The concept of a 'Sherlock Holmes Younger Sister' young adult genre could have been as dull, vapid, and predictable as - sorry - the old 'Nancy Drew' serials.

The case of the missing marquess