Review: A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

A Study in Charlotte (#1)
by Brittany Cavallaro
pub 3/1/16 by Katherine Tegen Books
YA - Contemporary/Mystery
Received via Edelweiss

A Study in Charlotte was both funnier and darker than I expected it to be and more importantly, it was  exactly the kind of book I’ve been needing for weeks. The kind that sucks you immediately and makes you want to finish it in a single sitting. (I did it in a day! Boo to responsibilities like work.) It was thoroughly engaging, grabbing my attention from page one. Plus the idea of a modern day Holmes and Watson, where the former is a teenage girl? I was all about it.

The book is told from Jamie Watson’s point-of-view but I feel like we get to know Charlotte Holmes just as well through his eyes. They’re both sixteen and attending Sherrington, a Connecticut prep school and they are not friends. At least not yet. As you can imagine, their family has a long history together seeing as that he’s the great-great-grandson of John Watson while she’s the great-great granddaughter of the famous and eccentric detective, Sherlock Holmes. It’s clear they’ve both inherited qualities from their ancestors and I immediately recognized them in their personalities. Watson is a good, kind person who’s fiercely protective of Charlotte even before they actually meet. And she’s a genius. She can take one look at a person and gather all these impossible details. She's also temperamental and vulnerable but I find it to be part of her charm (Jamie agrees). They’re like ying and yang and the author does a great job of making them a team you understood and rooted for, even when they were fighting.

The whole book was just really clever. Like I said, they weren’t friends at the start of the book. It isn’t until a fellow student dies exactly like one of the famous Holmes stories that they team up. Because… surprise, surprise — they’re the main suspects. They begin conducting their own investigation, independent of the police, to prove their innocence and from that moment the race to discover the killer is on. The storytelling was fast-paced and smart, the characters made me laugh and ache for them and I’m looking forward to more of this dynamic duo.

Do I recommend?

Yes! I highly recommend it. I didn’t realize it was going to be a trilogy until after I finished and I can’t wait to see where the author take them next.