Enola Holmes Books In Order

Publication Order of Enola Holmes Books

The Enola Holmes book series is a popular series of young adult, mystery, historical fiction, and adult fiction novels. It is written by a renowned American writer named Nancy Springer. The series is comprised of a total of 6 books released between 2006 and 2010. Every novel of this series features the chief protagonist in the role of Enola Holmes. Nancy has described Enola as the 14-year-old sister of the famous English detective Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is shown twenty years older than Enola. Nancy Springer has written this series in pastiche form and has borrowed the settings and characters from the popular Sherlock Holmes novels. However, the character of Enola Holmes is an original creation of the author and is specific to this novel series only. The first and fifth books of this series had received nominations for the Edgar Awards in 2007 & 2010 respectively. The series begins by mentioning that Enola’s mother goes missing on her 14th birth anniversary. When Enola asks the reason behind her mother’s sudden disappearance to her brothers, Sherlock & Mycroft, they tell her that she has voluntarily left them.

Enola becomes devastated after hearing this, but later she comes across several elaborate ciphers that her disappeared mother wrote for her. Enola deciphers all the clues and comes to the conclusion that her mother had left to live the rest of her life among the Romani people. She also learns that her mother took this drastic step to escape the Victorian society’s confines. Her mother’s ciphers lead Enola to the money that she had left to help her escape too. Mycroft asks Enola to join boarding school and complete her academic studies to learn all the traits of being a proper lady. Instead, Enola runs away and takes shelter in London. The series revolves around Enola’s adventures in solving the numerous cases of missing persons while trying to elude the efforts of her brothers in recapturing her. In one of the cases, she even rescues Dr. John Watson from a danger.

The series received great success with its very first novel, which received an Edgar nomination. Many critics praised Enola Holmes as a highly appealing protagonist and lead heroine. Many others have labeled her as an endearing and bright character. Each and every novel featuring Enola Holmes is praised for being suspenseful and fast-paced and for integrating the Victorian culture in an effective manner. The books have also been appreciated for their solid historical mysteries and their surprising and satisfying endings. The popular writer and artist, Serena Blasco, has adapted the first 5 novels of the series into graphic novels that have been published in France by the Jungle! magazine in its Miss Jungle collection. IDW has released the first 2 graphic novels in the US as well. At the start of 2018, Bobby Brown announced that he is going to adapt the Enola Holmes novels into a film series. He also announced to act in the films as well as produce them. A year later, Harry Bradbeer was reported to have been chosen as the film project’s director. Also, Jack Thorne is reported to have been roped in to write the scripts of the film adaptations on Enola Holmes books.

An interesting book of the Enola Holmes series written by author Nancy Springer is entitled ‘The Case of the Left-Handed Lady’. It was released in 2007 by the Penguin Philomel publication. This novel features the primary characters in the roles of John Watson, Enola Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes, and is set in London in the year 1889. The novel opens by mentioning that Enola Holmes is all alone in the darkest, biggest, and dirtiest city in the world. Her brother and renowned detective, Sherlock Holmes, tries to hunt her down and bring her back to her family. But, she keeps eluding him and doesn’t wish to return home. Enola doesn’t know what to do in order to get rid of her loneliness. Later, she comes across several hidden charcoal drawings and feels some sort of connection with the girl, Lady Cecily, who drew the charcoal drawings. When Enola learns that young Cecily has disappeared, it disheartens her. She decides to find her with the help of her sleuthing abilities. Enola works through the clues and braves midnight streets full of murderers in an attempt to unravel the clues. In the end, it comes down to fighting against a powerful villain for saving Lady Cecily. In doing so, Enola Holmes risks revealing much more than she can afford.

Another mind-blowing book penned by Nancy Springer in this series is known as ‘The Case of Bizarre Bouquets’. It was also published by Penguin Philomel in 2008. The central characters featured in this novel include Enola Holmes, Mary Watson, Mycroft Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes. Nancy begins this novel by mentioning that everyone is aware of the fact that Dr. John Watson is the right hand of Sherlock Holmes. He assists him in all his investigations and helps to catch the culprits. But, when he himself goes missing, it comes as a great shock to all those who knew Holmes and Watson. Even Sherlock has no idea or the slightest clue about where Watson could have gone. When Enola learns about Watson’s disappearance, she becomes intrigued and wants to help in finding him. But, she is also weary as she is hiding from her brothers and knows that it could prove disastrous for her if she gets directly involved in finding Watson.

Later, a strange bouquet arrives at Watson’s door that contains convolvulus, white poppies, and hawthorn. Enola realizes that she must act quickly or else it would too late for her to save Watson from possible danger to his life. She dons a disguise and goes tries to locate the sender of the bouquet with the hope that she could get some answers about Watson’s location from him. This novel also achieved critical acclaim and was loved by numerous readers in all parts of the globe. Once again, Nancy has shown that the detection skills of Enola match the level of her brother Sherlock’s, the greatest detective that has ever been. The readers liked the intriguing mystery and subsequent plot to solve it. This novel turned out to be entertaining throughout and became immensely popular. Its success proved beneficial for the overall success of the mystery series as well as for the popularity of Nancy Springer.

One Response to “Enola Holmes”

1. Dan Coomer: 8 months ago

   Nancy Springer has done a superb job in bringing Enola Holmes to life. I have found every story in the series to be very enjoyable including the last one (“The Mark of the Mongoose”).

   Reply