Florence Nightingale features in this installment and Enola has to figure out the hidden message and then how to get it to the famous recluse. I quite enjoyed the way the various women in this book worked together. ( )

This is the 5th Enola Holmes book, but the first one that I have read.

I am not in favor of "fan fiction" so the premise of a (much) younger sister of Sherlock Holmes isn't one I am drawn to. However, if I ignore that part, the mystery itself was OK. I liked the use of Florence Nightingale and the coded ribbons.

The narration of my audiobook edition (by Katherine Kellgren) was excellent and that turned a 2½ star story into 3 stars. ( )

The cryptogram was interesting, elderly Florence Nightingale putting Sherlock Holmes in his place was cool, and Enola and her landlady are cute as adoptive mom and daughter. The only kind of pointless thing was the actual kidnapping, which I clearly didn't pay enough attention to actually understand the reasons for it. But that's OK, it did a good job of setting up suspense for the final book anyway. ( )

This story has Enola risking her alternate aliases to help find her landlady, Mrs Tupper. She has come to find her as a maternal figure in the absence of her mother. When Mrs Tupper is kidnapped Enola is on the case. During her complex journey to find her landlady Enola finds herself needing the assistance of Florence Nightingale. Again, Sherlock witnesses the very clever Enola solve the mystery. He also takes into consideration the advice from Florence Nightingale who is very much an independent and influential unmarried woman.
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Loved this! It was a lot of fun, especially given the interaction with real historical figures. The story is a bit predictable for an adult who has read hundreds or thousands of murder mysteries, but I didn’t mind. It would be a lot of fun for a mystery-loving young person. Weirdly, although Henry Cavill plays Sherlock in the Netflix adaptation of Enola Holmes, I keep picturing Jonny Lee Miller (from Elementary) instead. ( )