Ilene Cooper (Booklist, Dec. 1, 2005 (Vol. 102, No. 7))
Springer, author of the popular Tales of Rowen Hood series featuring Robin Hood's daughter, mines the classics once more, and finds Sherlock Holmes' 14-year-old sister, Enola Holmes, who also has keen powers of observation. Enola lives alone with her mother on the family estate. Mrs. Holmes has always been a free spirit, but Enola is shocked when, on her birthday, her mother goes missing. Sherlock and Mycroft, Enola's long-absent, much-older brothers, arrive and assure her that they will look into the disappearance; she will be sent away to boarding school. Determined to avoid that fate, and anxious to find her mother on her own, Enola leaves for London, where she thinks her mother may be--a plan as shaky as the bicycle she sets off on. Along the way, she becomes enmeshed in another disappearance, the case of a young marquess, who seems to have been kidnapped, and in true Holmes fashion, Enola uses her powers of deduction to figure out his fate. This is a terrific package. Springer not only provides two fine mysteries (complete with clues and ciphers to solve), breathtaking adventure, and key-eyed description but she also offers a worthy heroine, who will be the center of a new series (the cover proclaims this "An Enola Holmes Mystery.") Enola is a high-spirited girl, just the right mix of nascent nineteenth-century feminist and awkward teen, with a first-person voice that's fun to hear. Readers can move from this to Phillip Pullman's Victorian thrillers, the Sally Lockhart trilogy, which begins with The Ruby in the Smoke (1987). Category: Books for Middle Readers--Fiction. 2006, Philomel/Sleuth, $10.99. Gr. 5-8. Starred Review

Laura Wadley (Children's Book and Play Review, April 2006)
Enola Holmes' mother disappears on Enola's fourteenth birthday, and although her mother has always behaved in a rather casual and distant manner towards her daughter, Enola loves her still and is desperate to make sure she has come to no harm. Consequently, she contacts her two much older brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, who arrive at Ferndell Hall convinced that their mother has left of her own accord in an excess of flightiness. When Sherlock leaves for London, Mycroft makes plans to ship Enola off to boarding school. She sneaks out of the house and makes her way to London, becomes entangled in a case involving a missing heir; and also unravels the puzzle of her mother's disappearance. Enola is a bright and endearing character, whose growing self-confidence and courage make her the perfect heroine for a young person's mystery. Springer, like Anne Perry, fills her narrative with Victorian customs and lore so integral to the story that the reader learns much without ever feeling lectured. Enola's adventures are fast-paced and suspenseful. The book seems to wrap up a bit briskly, but one still looks forward with much anticipation to Enola's future adventures. Rating: Excellent. Reading Level: Intermediate; Young adult. Category: Detective and mystery stories--Juvenile Fiction; Adventure stories. 2006, Philomel, 216 pp., $10.99. © 2002, Brigham Young University.

Katherine Bowen (Children's Literature)
Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes, is growing up in Victorian England, where women are considered less intelligent and less important than men. After her father's premature death, Enola is raised by her mother, who then mysteriously disappears on Enola's fourteenth birthday. Knowing that she is the only one who has the clues to find her mother, Enola sets off for London in disguise. During her travels, Enola faces cutthroats and villains while happening upon and solving the famous kidnapping mystery of the Marquess of Basilwether. Although Enola's brothers underestimate her, she manages to hide from them while discovering how to keep track of her mother's whereabouts. The intriguing novel is the first in a new mystery series by Nancy Springer. Springer's use of historical facts, British dialect, and vocabulary create a believable work of historical fiction, convincing the reader of the setting and time period. The descriptive imagery also helps to draw the reader into the book. Cliffhangers in every chapter offer the reader continuous suspense and keep the pages turning. The excitement of this novel will surely compel readers to continue with the series. 2006, Philomel Books/Penguin, $10.99. Ages 10 to 12.

Jean Boreen, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
This is a thoroughly delightful book about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister Enola (“alone” backwards). When Enola’s mother disappears on her daughter’s birthday, there is no recourse but to bring Enola’s older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, home to consider the situation. Neither brother has had much of a relationship with his much younger sister, and the eldest, Mycroft, decides to send her off to boarding school. But Enola’s mother had a plan before she left, and as Enola begins to work on the various ciphers her mother has left her as clues, she finds various amounts of money in secret hiding places around the family home. As she works out her mother’s ciphers, Enola also realizes that Lady Holmes left of her own free will. Before her brothers can send her off to school, Enola escapes, disguised as a widow, and finds herself in the midst of the “case of the missing marquess.” Her involvement throws her into danger, too, and sets Enola, and hopefully this book, off onto what should be a number of cases in the future as Enola attempts to make a living for herself while staying one step ahead of her famous mystery-solving brother. A wonderful story for any female reader as both Enola and her mother are strong female characters. I loved this book! From the “Enola Holmes Mystery” series. 2006, Philomel Books/Penguin, $10.99. Ages 10 to 14.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of famous detective Sherlock and his brother Mycroft. When their mother disappears, the brothers reluctantly return to the family estate to help arrange for Enola’s care. They’re in for a surprise, however. Their little sister is a stubborn, determined, clever, young woman with an eye for drawing and meticulous observation skills. She has no desire to learn how to be a refined lady, and every desire to solve the mystery of their mother’s disappearance. Following the trail laid out in the secret codes her mother left behind, Enola stumbles upon a second mystery involving the disappearance of a boy from a wealthy family in a nearby town. Enola soon realizes that he, like she, yearns for a life beyond the bounds permitted by narrow Victorian class and gender norms in a suspenseful, funny, and satisfying mystery that introduce this lively new character and series. CCBC Category: Fiction for Children. 2006, Sleuth / Philomel, 216 pages, $10.99. Ages 9-12.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 24))
With gleeful panache, Springer introduces an innocent but capable young sleuth-the younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, no less-and takes her from wild English countryside to the soupy filth of Victorian London. Having led a free-spirited but cloistered life on the ancestral country estate, 14-year-old Enola Holmes is thrown for a loop by her mother's sudden disappearance-not to mention the subsequent arrival of her long-absent big brothers, both of whom turn out to be overbearing and dismissive of women. Rather than meekly knuckle under, though, Enola makes careful preparation (she thinks) and slips off to track her wayward parent down. On the way, she falls into the furor surrounding an apparent kidnapping (see title)-and then, barely does she arrive in the big city before some authentically scary ruffians snatch her, too. Nanve but a quick study, and more resourceful than even her renowned siblings, Enola resolutely surmounts each challenge that comes her way. By the end, she has rescued the spoiled young aristocrat, eluded her brothers, gotten a lead on her mother thanks to a series of cleverly coded messages and even set herself up as a "Perditorian"-a finder of lost things and people. A tasty appetizer, with every sign of further courses to come. 2006, Sleuth/Philomel, 224p, $10.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 12. Starred Review. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Elizabeth Bush, Reviewer (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 2006 (Vol. 59, No. 6))
Since the great fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes seems to have, at the pen of adult author Laurie King, improbably acquired a wife, it’s not much of a stretch to find that his family now comprises a younger sister as well. Fourteen-year-old Enola, “born indecently late in Mother’s life, a scandal, a burden, you see,” attempts some detecting on her own when her mother goes missing and her elder brothers Sherlock and Mycroft plan to send her off to boarding school and write their mother off as a lost case. Enola begins her investigation with encrypted messages in a book left to her by her mother that lead her to a considerable stash of money, but as soon as she ditches her brothers and takes off on her own for London, she gets sidetracked by another mystery, the disappearance of twelve-year-old Viscount Tewksbury Basilwether (who is also the titular marquess), that puts her life in peril. Although Springer supplies a few messages to decode (and shows how to decode them), she spends far more time discussing Enola’s family affairs and running her through London’s seedier streets and docks than establishing her powers of observation or logic, making this more a tepid Victorian family tale than a mystery. She does, however, slyly explore Sherlock and Mycroft’s chauvinistic side and, accepting Victorian mores on their own terms, demonstrate that Enola may have insight into an entire panoply of feminine concerns that are never openly discussed, giving her an edge over her renowned brothers, who regard women as unfathomable. The novel’s conclusion finds Enola opening her own detective service, and now that Holmes family relationships are established, perhaps subsequent adventures will show her skills to better advantage. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2006, 'Sleuth/Philomel', 224p, $10.99. Grades 4-8.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2006)
After a purple-prosy introduction to the sights, sounds, and smells of Victorian London, readers meet fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes, Sherlock's kid sister. Plucky and insightful, Enola deciphers why her mother disappeared, and she bolts for the same reason: to avoid the strictures of a patriarchal society. While on the run, Enola solves a second mystery, again beating Sherlock to the punch. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2006, Philomel/Sleuth, 216pp, 10.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 4: Recommended, with minor flaws.