Where Holmes Needs her Watson

The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was pretty good, but it wasn't what I hoped.

I loved the first book and still liked the second, but this was harder to get through. Because I really enjoyed the last 50 or 100 pages, I'll probably find book four and read it, but before I got to that point I wasn't feeling it. I was about to put the whole series on my "to trade in" pile.

Here's what I want (as if anyone asked me) from this pair: I want to see a Holmes (Charlotte, in this case) being awesome, using knowledge and focus and intuition to solve complex problems; I want to see a Watson (Jamie, in this case) being a loyal friend, supportive and useful, an extra pair of hands; and I want to see them solve an interesting case. Additionally, I think it's fun in this version of Watson and Holmes to see more of their youthful romance. That's not the book we got, though. We do get a little of the romance, especially in the last pages, so check, but there is not much of Holmes being awesome, Watson being useful, or a mystery being solved. It's really more of a spy vs. spy story like the second book, which can be cool, but when they're both super spies (Holmes and Moriarty), they neutralize each other's strengths so much that it's just not as cool.

Most of the book has the two main character separated and out of communication, with almost everything happening inside their heads. Ruminations. Recriminations. Reflections. It was WB-like YA drama slowed to a crawl. (The writing is uniformly fantastic, however; even when I didn't care about Jamie's current girlfriend wanting to argue with him, or Jamie struggling with his classes, I found the writing compelling. It is clever and insightful and often surprising.)

From the point that Jamie's mom wants to have dinner and share unexpected news (avoiding a spoiler here) and Watson and Holmes finally meet up, the novel is super fun. That's just the last 20%, unfortunately. That part's good enough I can almost forgive the novel for the first 80%, even though it took me weeks to push through.

I dunno. I really liked the first book. I loved the dynamic. But I'm not feeling it right now. I will probably get the 4th book and leave it on my shelf for a really long time before I open it.

But that's just me. Other people loved it. You might, too.

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