Customer Reviews

The Case of the Gypsy Goodbye: An Enola Holmes Mystery

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I am a huge fan of this series. Even though it is a children's book, it is intelligently written, and can easily be enjoyed by adults. The characters are marvelous. Holmes is spot on. He is exactly the character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. While he retains all of his arrogance, pomposity, and lack of emotional availability, we also see cracks in his cold veneer when it comes to his upstart younger sister, someone whom he never intended or expected to like, let alone love. The book flap informs the reader that this is the final installment in this series, a fact I find horribly depressing.

In this installment, a true affection and respect has grown between Enola (Holmes' much younger sister) and Sherlock. In addition, they are each starting to trust the other. Now the only difficulty is bringing Mycroft around to their way of thinking. Sherlock and Enola also, once again, end up working on the same case - the disappearance of a wealthy, titled lady. This case actually ends up bringing all three Holmes siblings together to locate the missing woman. By the time the case is over, an understanding between the three has developed. The only mystery left for them to solve is a mysterious communication from their mother.

The ending is satisfying, except that I want more. That sounds contradictory, but I do sincerely hope that Ms. Springer reconsiders and writes more Holmes family tales.

First, to the rumor: I have heard that this is the last Enola Holmes book and it makes my heart sad. I love these books! I love the setting, the characters, the plots, the whole she-bang! The end of the book kind of solidified this rumor for me, but there is always hope that there will be more!

When Dr. Ragostin is enlisted to find the Duque Luis Orlande del Campo's missing wife, she again comes perilously close to being discovered by her brother Sherlock. There are things about the Duquessa's disappearance that don't quite make a whole lot of sense, so Enola sets out to investigate.

That's just one of the mysteries in this story; the other involves what happened to Enola's mother, Lady Eudoria Vernet Holmes. A mysterious letter arrives at her childhood home, and it's up to Sherlock to find his little sister to deliver the letter to her. The letter is mysterious in many ways, the main one being the drawings on the outside of the envelope.

Eventually, Enola will have to decide if she is going to continue living her life on the lamb (so to speak) or if she will be able to trust both Sherlock and Mycroft with knowledge of where she lives. She may be able to have a relationship with them yet, but one never knows with the Holmes' clan!

Notes on the Cover:
Enola in her blue dress with black cape and Toby is a great image for this cover. (Toby appears in the Sherlock mystery, The Sign of the Four I believe). I just love these covers too!

Its a great book. It was very thrilling. One of the best Enola Holmes books yet. If you like Sherlock Holmes youll love his sister Enola. It was in great condition. I could barely tell it was used. The pages weren't ripped or anything like that. It was over all great!!!! :P

I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the Enola Holmes books and have loved the way the author reveals something more in each of the six books. The growing bond between Enola and Sherlock is touching, and the resolutions in this, the sixth and final book, are satisfying.

Excellent mystery with some predictability since it's for young adult audiences, but still fun. Enola is a strong, inspiring female character who encourages intelligence, determination, and courage. A great end to the series, but read the first 5 before diving into this one.

Enola Holmes finds a client in her office - a client that just came from her brother's establishment. Her famous brother Sherlock is out of town at the moment, which gives Enola a head start finding the missing Lady Blanchefleur.

The Lady Blanchefleur helped an elderly ladies down the steps of the subway and disappeared. Enola interviews her two ladies-in-waiting for clues.

She then goes to the subway and discovers an underground society she'd rather not enter. While wondering if the Lady, unhappy with her wealth, took it upon herself to escape from society, she heads for Florence Nightengale's house for inspiration.

There, she meets her brother Sherlock. He's searching for her to hand deliver a package from her mother. Inside the package is a skytale message. Enola will need to find the right cylinder in order to read the message.

As she's chatting with her brother, an idea pops into her head. She leaves him standing on the street as she investigates her hunch. Her hunch proves correct, but know she needs help capturing the suspect. Can she trust Sherlock enough to help her and not force her into a different lifestyle?


This is the end of the series. While I did love the ending, I'm sad that it ended. I adored this series. I loved all the disguises, the relationship between Enola and her brothers, how she bested Sherlock in her ability to read feminine clues, how she bantered with Sherlock, all the codes, and how she discovered her true self.

It's not easy being the baby sister of older, famous brothers. No one knows this better than Enola Holmes, sister of mystery sleuth Sherlock Holmes and the brilliant Mycroft. For several years, Enola has been evading her brothers, mainly because they have disagreed on her future. Their mother has vanished, and the well-meaning brothers want their sister to attend a ladies finishing school for a "proper" education. Enola, however, wants nothing to do with this and manages, under various disguises, to do her own detective work as well as solve plenty of mysteries on her own (see the five previous books). She has become more confident and independent. Though she loves Sherlock and Mycroft, she feels a certain amount of wariness lest she fall into their clutches.

For the time being, she searches for her mother and most recently has become involved with the strange disappearance of the lovely Duquessa Blanchefleur del Campo. The distressed husband of this fine lady, the Duque Luis Orlando del Campo, describes his missing wife as "...renowned for her fragile beauty, a delicate blossom upon a frail filament of womanhood." Most likely she has been kidnapped, but by whom and how she could have so completely disappeared from the Underground is a total puzzlement to all. Certainly her ladies-in-waiting cannot understand, though they had been with her. The Underground, where Blanchefleur disappeared, is known for its dark, steamy depths and a connection to three murders. Why Blanchefleur had gone there is even more of a mystery. This is the kind of thing Enola is most adept at --- finding missing persons.

Busily gathering information through interviews and taking copious notes, Enola is soon able to put some good facts together. Unfortunately, during one of her visits to the Duke's house, she finds Sherlock working the same case. Although she is able to get by him this one time, it is not long before their paths cross again (with the clever introduction of her pet dog, Reginald). All of this seems to be a good occurrence as Sherlock is anxious to share a mysterious communication from their mother, which is addressed to Enola. As usual, the message is written in code, known as a "skytale," and they must figure out how to translate it. Thus, another mystery ensues.

The meeting with Sherlock and then Mycroft leads into an unexpected partnership for the three of them as they investigate the Duquessa's kidnapping. But Enola continues to be wary of her brothers, and the warning words of an old palm-reading gypsy woman haunt her:

...In truth you are alone, you have been alone even in your childhood days, and you are fated to be alone all your life unless you act to defy your fate...Your mother is where your mother is fated to be. You, Enola, must beware of following her. Follow your own stars.

In this sixth Enola Holmes adventure, author Nancy Springer again captures the wit and spirit of a feisty girl, well ahead of the times. She writes knowledgably of life in the 19th century, describing costumes, people and places with words that create pictures:

Beer-wagons and bread-wagons, water-carriers, pony-carts, barouches and broughams passed in constant, necessarily slow procession: an omnibus trundled by, advertising the inevitable "Nestlé's Milk." Many and various people also traversed the cobbles of the square: a fish-porter with a basket of fresh Pollock on his head: a bill-sticker carrying his long brush and a bucket of paste, with a roll of advertisements under his arm; a ginger-cake seller; promenading ladies; businessmen in top-hats; laughing children...swinging from a rope they had tied to the top of a lamppost; and a hokey-pokey vendor who had set up his churn and folding table...

We are invited into a world long-gone, of moralities and manners very foreign to people today. For instance, it would be hard to imagine the pains many women endured trying to create small waists by corseting themselves to fit the styles of the day. Springer uses the character of Blanchefleur to demonstrate some of the consequences of this dress:

Since childhood, dear Blanchefleur has worn a spooned corset. ...A corset extending all the way from the upper limbs to the lower, with a "spoon" of solid steel to minimize any frontal protrusion below the bust...

Not only does the corset, which she wears even during sleep, bind the woman, but it also has contributed to several miscarriages, and she can no longer stand or sit upright without it. These kinds of details, adding to the intriguing story and colorful characters, will please fans of this popular series. Sadly, this is the last installment. We can only hope that Springer will change her mind and bring Enola back for even more great adventures. She is truly coming into her own and is a heroine of our times.


--- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts

This is a fantastic series! I too am saddened by the prospect that this could/will be the last book. I hope she will reconsider and produce several books where Enola and Sherlock work on mysteries together, side by side, without her running from her brothers. I have to admit, I absolutely loved all the scenes of her shock at seeing her brothers and the ensuing flight. My favorite was the cleverness of hiding from her brother by hiding in the one place that he would never think of looking, his own residence. I also loved the flight back up the stairs at Florence Nightengales home and through the bed chamber that Mrs. Nightengale herself was in and Enola's monkey-like jump to the tree outside of the window.

As a children's librarian, I recommend this book to the kids that enjoy mysteries. I absolutely love the mystery genre. I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes books, owning every Sherlock Holmes story. This is my favorite children's mystery series and I love the tie in with Sherlock Holmes.

After they have read this series I encourage them, if they enjoy mysteries, to read Jennifer Allison's Gilda Joyce series. Another good series, but not as gripping. This series is about a young girl of Enola'a age who finds herself solving mysteries as well. As Enola wishes to be called a Scientific Perditorian, Gilda Joyce desires to be called a Psychic Investigator, constantly stumbling upon mysteries that need to be solved. She even allows herself to be placed in a place that is repulsing to both her and Enola, a Catholic boarding school, which luckily is post-corsette. She only allows herself to be sent after discovering on a campus preview day, the mystery of a girl who died on campus the previous school year, but under mysterious circumstances.