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Month in review

Reviews
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift, Part 1 by Gene Luen Yang
Brewster's Millions by George Barr McCutcheon
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fullmetal Alchemist 24 by Hiromu Arakawa
Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie
Golden Girl by Sarah Zettel
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Imprisoned by Martin W. Sandler
Inferno by Dan Brown
Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford
The Lies That Bind by Kate Carlisle
The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The Magic Paintbrush by Laurence Yep
The Magician's Bird by Emily Fairlie
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
1985 by Anthony Burgess
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Ostrich and Lark by Marilyn Nelson
The Radleys by Matt Haig
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
Shatterproof by Roland Smith
1607: A New Look at Jamestown by Karen E. Lange
Trash by Andy Mulligan
$20 Per Gallon by Christopher Steiner

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5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


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Comments for The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline: 06/18/14

cover art

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer is the penultimate of the Enola Holmes series. In this one, Enola meets Florence Nightingale to help solve a decades old mystery.

The clues are in code, sewn into an old horsehair petticoat (the pre-hoop skirt meaning of crinoline). The reason Enola's gotten herself involved is because her landlady has drawn the attention of international thugs. This then is the book where Enola's landlady gets an interesting backstory, just as "His Last Vow" (series 3, episode 2 of Sherlock) does for Mrs. Hudson (because Doyle never really did give her much of a character or story, so she's free game).

I realize it's a rather common and inevitable for a historical fiction series to eventually include some actual historical figures. But these meetings of fictional and factual are often forced.

Here Enola is taken under Nightingale's wing even though she's in self imposed exile. A young woman with Sherlock's abilities who has successfully survived on her own and solved crimes now eagerly learning spying from an ex-nurse who was also apparently a spy stretched my suspension of disbelief a little too thin.

Three stars

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