A Study in Scarlet Women

Buddy-read with my partners in crime (I believe I can honestly admit now that we were planning to assassinate this book) Vira (special thanks to you, my book fairy godmother), Simona, Katerina.

Before

I've been waiting for this book with a vigor of a seasoned fan; like a person dying of thirst and as if this book is the only water source for miles; like a chocolate addict who's waiting for her favorite sort of chocolate to be delivered... Okay, now you've got the picture? Add to this the fact I've

Buddy-read with my partners in crime (I believe I can honestly admit now that we were planning to assassinate this book) Vira (special thanks to you, my book fairy godmother), Simona, Katerina.

Before

I've been waiting for this book with a vigor of a seasoned fan; like a person dying of thirst and as if this book is the only water source for miles; like a chocolate addict who's waiting for her favorite sort of chocolate to be delivered... Okay, now you've got the picture? Add to this the fact I've read all of Sherry's books and, though, some of them weren't my thing, I still found them rather curious.

Now

What the heck have I just read? Are you sure it was Sherry Thomas? What do I need to sell to make me forget that book? Not in a million years did I imagine I could dislike it.

The greatest failure of this book, ironically, is its lack of deductive reasoning. When you try to add its part into one, they do not build the whole picture: the nose is where the mouse should to be; ears instead of eyes and so on. In the end we have a peculiar creature that can not give readers an answer why was it created in the first place.

Mc Charlotte Holmes appears in this book like a neighbor unexpectedly stopped by to have a cup of tea and than as unexpectedly disappeared. We know that the neighbor has life but we do not posses details of that life and have little idea what our neighbor is like. We are told that Charlotte can do that and that. But we are shown an entirely different person: she is suppose to be cold and calculating, and don't forget genius as she is Sherlock's prototype. If you read original Sherlock Holmes adventures, you are aware that Sherlock was incapable of love. He liked to study people and could quite well socialize with them, but real feelings weren't for him. Charlotte is not only likes people, she also seems to love them: her sister, mysterious Lord Ingram, poor orphan and her mum, and probably she even loves cats and dogs too. But that does not add with the description we have of her and her own declaration of never falling in love and that it is not something for people like her. I guess ambivalence is your second name, Charlotte. That erratic inconsistency of her character made it impossible for me to connect with her, so I must admit I highly dislike Charlotte Holmes.

Second great failure is the amount of narrators. The story seems to jump from one narrator to anther in absolutely chaotic pattern. First, we had Livia's (Charlotte's sister) POV. I must admit Liv is the only character I liked in this book. She was lively and funny and humane. But after a few chapters from Liv's POV she almost entirely vanished from the story, appearing only in Charlotte's flashbacks and current thoughts. What the hell?

Then we have Lord Ingram's short POVs from time to time. Again, what is there purpose? There's too little of them to seriously consider him as narrator, and what we have could've been easily shown to us from Charlotte's perspective.

And finally, may I present you our main character of the book - Inspector Treadles - the most boring inspector in the history of detective stories. We most of the time follow the investigation from his perspective, and when I say follow, I mean it feels as if we were physically present on every interrogation he ever had during this case. We didn't miss a detail or word from his work. We are invincible audience always present and hanging over his shoulder. Sounds intriguing? If only I could stop yawning, bored to death with those details. For chocolate's sake, I don't need to know EVERYTHING! Give me important details, something that will keep my attention, not make me snore. What a bore! Did you know that too many details make a story insipid? And that leads me to the final great failure - the mystery.

I honestly did not know what it was till the end. I admit there was an element of surprise, but, again, I was struck with the inconsistency of details and facts the mystery provided. Charlotte's investigation was conducted mostly separately from the main mystery, and, moreover, she investigated different cases (more than one), which was really distracting and unnecessary for the story itself. One mystery at a time, please! We don't need a hoard of them. Treadles was mostly the brain behind the mystery, because Charlotte was busy with other things. And when the last piece of mystery was finally placed, it annihilated everything Treadles did for his investigation. A random piece of information solved everything. Yay! Why the heck did we endure hours of boring Treadles to have this in the end? Maybe it would've been better to concentrate on characters and their development instead!

A Study in scarlet women feels underdeveloped almost in every aspect. We don't get the whole story, we don't get logic that would've been most apparent in some cases of the story. I honestly don't understand the purpose of this book and have no desire or even a glimpse of interest to know what's going to happen next. (view spoiler)[We'll probably meet Moriarty in the next book, because of his tiny appearance in this one. But I already have doubts he'll be an interesting character. (hide spoiler)] Go rest on my 'fell short of expectations shelf' book.

Charlotte was his pet – he was vastly amused by her combination of great intelligence, great oddity and great silence

– the Good Lord went to ridiculous lengths to make sure that one of the finest minds in existence was housed in a body least likely to be suspected of it.

Some people never meet the right person in life. They, on the other hand, met when they were too young to realize what they had found in each other. And when they did at last see the light, it was too late.

"Such a tragedy. Such a waste. Such a shame."

"Such a tragedy. Such a waste. Such a shame."

— A Study in Scarlet Women (Женский этюд в багровых тонах) #1/3
— Untitled (Без названия) #2/3
— Untitled (Без названия) #3/3

4.5 stars

4.5 stars

Miss Holmes smiled. She had dimples. Of course she did - the Good Lord went to ridiculous lengths to make sure that one of the finest minds in existence was housed in a body least likely to be suspected of it.

…The deepest feelings of others were always a mystery to her. Not that she didn’t know what sentiments were and how to read them, but she herself didn’t seem to experience life in quite the same emotion-driven manner. Her days were catalogued as facts and factual observation. She sometimes thought of herself as combination of a phonographic cylinder and a motion picture camera - which inventors were still working on - that moved through life recording everything she saw and heard…It was in her adolescence that she discovered most people’s memories worked nothing like her. For them the only indelible elements in the dossiers of a life were the emotions.