ARC Review: The Dark Lady (Sherlock, Lupin, and Me) by Irene Adler
16January 29, 2014 by Alice in Readerland
While on summer vacation, little Irene Adler meets a young William Sherlock Holmes. The two share stories of pirates and have battles of wit while running wild on the sunny streets and rooftops. When Sherlock’s friend, Lupin, joins in on the fun, they all become fast friends. But the good times end abruptly when a dead body floats ashore on the nearby beach. The young detective trio will have to put all three of their heads together to solve this mystery.
Special thanks to the publisher, Capstone Young Readers, and Netgalley for giving me this title in exchange for an honest review. The Dark Lady (Sherlock, Lupin, and Me) by Irene Adler will arrive in stores February 1st, 2014.
A Scandal in Bohemia has always been my favorite Sherlock Holmes story ever since I read the books when I was ten. I was fascinated by the character of Irene Adler and I thought it was so cool that the one person to outsmart Sherlock Holmes was a woman. So when I saw that this book had a young Irene as the main character, I knew that I just had to read it! Seeing this book basically made me go like this:
Here’s what I enjoyed
* Obviously, I enjoyed reading about young Irene and seeing some foreshadowing/references to A Scandal in Bohemia, like how well Irene sings, mentions of Bohemia, etc.
* There were also neat sketches every couple pages and I thought that that was cool.
* The town where the book was set was very cute, so I thought it was a great setting.
Cynical Cindy Says
I don’t think many young readers will understand the literary character/reference that Lupin is (Arsene Lupin Vs. Herlock Sholmes from 1908, anyone?) and at times, Irene Adler’s character seemed too perfect, but other than that, it was a cute read.
All in all, this was a cute, fun book I’d recommend to young readers just starting to get interested in Sherlock Holmes, or for fans of Irene Adler who want to get their hands on whatever reading material there is about her. I’d also be curious to see how the series develops!
3 out of 5 teacups
Alice in Readerland 
Oh this sounds like an awesome read! At first when I saw the title I thought is Remus Lupin in this too?? But that would have been too much and also impossible. :D I love the premise and I might have to try this even though I don’t normally read MG. Great review with excellent gif usage! :)
Thanks, I had fun going through Sherlock gifs! :)
This sounds so cute! Despite loving both Elementary and the BBC Sherlock, I have only read one Sherlock story. I might check a few of them and this book out! :)
I hope you enjoy them if you do! :)
This sounds really fun. I’m happy to see the child-detective stories coming back! As far as the literary references go, I remember loving A Series of Unfortunate Events when I was in elementary and middle school, even though I didn’t get a great many of the references. The mysterious circumstances of the series made me desperate to find out more about Baudelaire, Swinburne, Poe, Isadora Duncan, etc. If this series is anywhere near as good, I bet young readers will be inquisitive instead of put-off. If it means new youngsters running around borrowing Doyle’s original adventures I say huzzah to that!
Definitely, I don’t think that any kid would be put off. But I’m sure they’ll have fun looking back at it later and realizing who Lupin was…and that they ended up learning about authors Maurice LeBlanc and Arthur Conan Doyle. :)
I also really like Irene Adler! She’s such a fascinating character. This sounds like a very interesting re-telling, although I definitely wouldn’t get the Lupin reference.
Glad to meet someone else who likes Irene Adler! :D
I recently started in the Sherlock TV show and now I’m a bit obsessed with it, haha, so this book might be fun to read :D
I’ve been enjoying watching Sherlock too! :)
I’m going to read this book just for its beautiful cover. Seriously, why do Middle Grade books have the most lovely covers? Us YA readers get kissy-faces, floating heads, girls in dresses, while MG readers get gorgeous, creative art and quirkiness… I do admit that the spacing between “the” and “dark” in the title bothers me a bit. It’s not even!
Anyways. I’m not really into Sherlock Holmes, but I have always found the stories to be really interesting, and I do read from my dad’s Sherlock books sometimes. This one sounds like a fun, cute read for a day when I just want to stay in bed. Plus, I’m a sucker for illustrations in books. Great review, Alice!
I definitely agree with your cover comment!!! I see so many MG books with great and whimsical artwork, I wish we had some of that on YA books instead of making out/only heads/no heads/etc.
Thanks for commenting! :)
I have to say, that cover is absolutely cute. I find myself actually wanting to read more MG titles, as even though are for a younger demographic, the writing can be better than most YA stuff we have today (yikes, is this blasphemy? haha!). Not sure if I’ll give this one a try though… a 3 stars usually means mediocre for me.
Faye @ The Social Potato
LOL, I agree though! I’ve been finding that some of the MG titles seem a lot more quirky/cuter instead of having some of the tired YA tropes there are so many of. It wasn’t bad and I enjoyed it, but it got 3 stars because it felt slightly younger than MG (it might have been, but I thought it had been MG).
I just read this recently, and I thought it was great even though I haven’t read any Sherlock Holmes stories yet. (And I had to look up Arsène Lupin).
Glad you enjoyed it! :)