The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan: An Enola Holmes Mystery [Hardcover]

Nancy Springer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2008 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Enola Holmes Mystery

When Enola Holmes encounters her friend Lady Cecily hiding behind a pink fan, she finds it peculiar. In fact, she realizes Cecily is in danger! But what, exactly, is the matter? And how can Enola help? After examining the clues, Enola discovers Lady Cecily is being held hostage in an abysmal orphanage, and if she isn?t rescued, she?ll be forced into a miserable marriage!

This complicated case has Sherlock and Enola (literally) running into each other all over London. If Enola joins forces with the brother she has fought desperately to elude, she risks her freedom?yet, if she doesn?t, Lady Cecily could be doomed!

Edgar Award?winning Nancy Springer offers the riskiest case yet for our well-loved, critically acclaimed heroine.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes's 14-year-old sister takes on a new case, this one involving Lady Cecily Alistair, the champion of the poor and working classes of London. The Holmes brothers continue to be concerned about Enola's lack of a "proper" upbringing and she continues to evade them by disguising herself as Ivy Meshle, secretary to the nonexistent Dr. Leslie Ragostin. Enola finds that Lady Cecily is being held against her will, at her father's behest, by her two dragon-lady aunts to be married off to her foppish cousin. The girl employs numerous clever disguises, is found detecting by Sherlock, and narrowly escapes with her life. Springer's knowledge of the restraints placed on Victorian women, especially those of the upper classes, is used both for humorous entertainments (a pink tea) and to give authenticity to Enola's determination to remain an independent young lady. Her fans will welcome this latest adventure.—Kathryn Kosiorek, formerly at Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH
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From Booklist

Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, returns in her fourth mystery. Enola is shocked when she spies a friend, Lady Cecily, in the first ladies’ lavatory in London. With the help of a pink fan, Enola deduces that Cecily is in the clutches of a noble family, who is forcing her into an arranged marriage. Can she save her? As in the previous books, this features a strong mystery, intriguing family relationships, and the continuing thread of a daughter and mother lost to each other, forcing Enola to evade the clutches of brothers Sherlock and Mycroft. A rousing read with plenty of terrific Victorian detail. Grades 6-9. --Ilene Cooper

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (September 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399247807
• ISBN-13: 978-0399247804
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #849,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Conform, go crazy, or become an artist." I have a rubber stamp declaring those words, and they pretty much delineate my life. Conforming was the thing to do when I was raised, in the fifties. Even my mother, who spent her days painting animal portraits at an easel in the corner of the kitchen, tried to conform via housecleaning, bridge parties, and a new outfit every spring. My father, who was born into a British-mannered Protestant family in southern Ireland, emigrated to America as a young man and idolized the "melting pot" because at last he fit in. Once in a rare while he recited "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" or told a tale of a leprechaun, but most of the time he was an earnest naturalized American who expected exemplary behavior of his children. My mother was a charming Pollyanna who would not entertain negative sentiments in herself or anyone around her. As their only girl and the baby of the family, I was coddled, yet hardly ever got a chance to be other than excruciatingly good.

My "conform" phase lasted right into adulthood. When I was thirteen, my parents bought a small motel near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and I spent most of my teen years helping them make beds and clean rooms. I did not date until I went to college -- Gettysburg College, all of seven miles from home. it was the height of the sixties, and I grew my hair long, but eschewed pot, protests, and "happenings." Instead, I married a preacher's son who was himself conforming by studying for the ministry. Within a few years I was Rev. Springer's wife, complete with offspringers, living in a country parsonage in southern York County, PA.

Here beginneth the "go crazy" phase.

Because I had never been allowed any negative emotions, I began to hear "voices" in my head. First they whispered "divorce" (not permissible), and later they hissed "suicide". They scared me silly. I couldn't sleep; images of knives and torture floated in front of my eyes even during the daytime; something roared like an animal inside my ears; my wrists hurt; I saw blood seeping out of the walls; panic jolted me like a cattle goad out of nowhere. Is it necessary to add that I was clinically depressed? The doctor gave me Valium and sent me to a shrink. The shrink took me off the Valium and told me I had a problem with anger. (No duh.) The next doctor zombied me on the numbing antidepressants which were available at that time. The next shrink said I had an adjustment problem. And so on, for several years, during which I somehow managed to stay alive, take care of my kids, handle the vagaries of my husband, sew clothing and grow vegetables to get by financially, cook, can preserves, show up at church, do mounds of laundry and publish "The White Hart" and "The Silver Sun"--yet not one of the doctors of shrinks ever suggested that I might be a strong person, let alone a writer. All of them were intent on "helping" poor little me "adjust" to being a housewife, mother, and pastor's wife.

Eventually I became resigned to the fact (as I perceived it) that I was an evil, sinful person with horrible things going on inside my head, and I stopped trying to fix me. I stopped going to doctors or therapists. Somehow I found courage--or desperation--to stop trying to conform or adjust or live a role.

"I am going to start taking an hour or two first thing in the morning to do my writing," I said to my husband.

"Fine," he said. He had reached the point where he would agree with whatever to humor the neurotic wife; to him it was just another of my brain farts. But to me it was the most important sentence I ever spoke. With that statement I stopped being a housewife who sometimes stole time to write, and I started being a writer.

Conform, go crazy--or become an artist.

By becoming a writer--by becoming who I truly was--I became well.

It was so simple. Although it did take years, of course; it takes a long time for good things to grow. Trees. Books. Me. Odd thing about books; they not only nourish growth but show it happening. In "The Black Beast, The Golden Swan" and many other of my early novels, you can see me dealing with the yang/yin nature of good and evil, struggling to accept my own shadow. In "Chains of Gold" and "The Hex Witch of Seldom" I start writing as a woman, no longer identifying only with male main characters. In a number of children's books I come to terms with my own childhood. And in "Apocalypse"--whoa, what a fierce, dark fantasy novel, the first thing I wrote after my income from writing enabled my husband to leave the ministry. I hadn't thought of myself as repressed when I was a pastor's wife, but obviously something broke loose when I shed that role. "Larque on the Wing"--whoa again, another breakthrough book that spiraled straight out of my muddled middle-aged psyche and took me places I'd never dreamed were in me.

It's been a long time since those days when I thought I was an evil person. I know better now, and I love and trust me even to the extent of writing "Fair Peril"--a more perilous novel than I knew at the time, interfacing all too closely with my life. Written two years before the fact, it foresees my husband's infidelity and my divorce. The most painful irony I've ever faced is that once I gained my selfhood, I lost my lifelong partner. He had supported me through episodes that would have sent most men screaming and running, but once I became well and strong, he transferred his loyalty to a skinny, neurotic waif all to similar to the young woman I once was. After supporting him through twenty-seven years of stinky socks, automotive yearnings, miscellaneous foibles, and the career change that put him where she could cry on his shoulder, I found this a bit hard to take. But I wouldn't go back to being Ms. Pitiful. Not for anything.

Now married to a rather remarkable second husband, after living 46 years in Pennsylvania I moved in 2007 to the Florida panhandle, where I spent a year living in a small apartment above the aforementioned husband's hangar in an exceedingly rural (swamps, egrets, snakes and alligators) airport. Now we have a real house about a mile from the airport on higher ground featuring tremendously tall longleaf pine trees with rattlesnakes and scorpions underneath them. Life is an adventure and I mean that sincerely.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enola continues to elude her brothers' relentless pursuit!, July 25, 2010

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan: An Enola Holmes Mystery (Enola Holmes Mystery (Quality)) (Paperback)

Nancy Springer is finding her stride. Far from being derivative, Springer has effectively used the fame and atmosphere of the much-loved Holmes canon as a springboard to develop her Enola Holmes character, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes' younger sister, and to create a series that is exciting, entirely innovative, appealing and quite capable of standing on its own literary merit ... thank you very much!

Beginning with the very first mystery in the series, THE CASE OF THE MISSING MARQUESS, we have seen Enola Holmes' character develop, blossom and ultimately flourish as she pursues her career as a "perditorian" - a finder of lost things. She is forced to keep one eye constantly looking over shoulder as she deftly eludes the dogged pursuit of her elder brothers who seek to find her and place her in the stultifying environment of a school for proper young ladies - an ongoing problem she'll face until she reaches the age of majority and can legally live on her own. But, as her mother, who is also in hiding, was so fond of saying, Enola Holmes is doing very well on her own!

In THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN, Lady Cecily Alistair, the missing marquess from Enola's very first case, is in trouble again. This time she's been kidnapped by her own family. Her two dowager aunts, both full-fledged, entirely insufferable battle-axes are holding her against her will and, with the full permission and collusion of her estate minded father, are forcing her into an arranged marriage against her will with a foppish but financially well-situated cousin.

Instead of watching an established series author sit back and bask in the warmth of previous successes, I'm thrilled to witness this charming young adult series continue to grow in quality - deep characterization, effective dialogue, high quality plotting and, of course, wonderful attention to Victorian atmosphere and details that rivals Conan Doyle's original series.

As the title character and the leading lady in the series, Enola is exceptionally well developed. While she is neither female chauvinist or militaristic suffragette, her independence and self-assuredness continue to grow as she lives on her own and approaches the age of majority at which point she will be free of her brothers' relentless pursuit. But she also exemplifies that baffling and ultimately paradoxical teenage blend of cock-sure bravado and angst and uncertainty; incipient adulthood contrasted against an occasional reversion to childhood fear; and, of course, self-direction and self-confidence versus the obvious desire for occasional adult guidance and assistance. Enola's budding femininity is also charmingly and endearingly presented in wonderfully good taste with all due regard to Victorian sensibilities.

Sherlock and Mycroft are portrayed as typical 19th century men in their attitude toward women and whatever intellect they may possess. That is to say, they are at least patronizing and chauvinist and perhaps, in Mycroft's case, downright misogynist. That said, the very special relationship between Enola and Sherlock seems to have turned a corner in this, Enola's fourth outing, as Sherlock develops a grudging respect for Enola's abilities and a tentative belief that, as their mother said so often, she just might be able to make it on her own.

Highly recommended for mystery lovers of all ages. I'm willing to bet that twenty years from now there will be a host of adult female readers who will look back on this series with the same fondness that many of today's adult women remember their love of the Nancy Drew series.

Paul Weiss

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best one!, December 25, 2008

By 

Laura D. Studenroth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan: An Enola Holmes Mystery (Hardcover)

I've read all the Enola Holmes books and loved them all, but The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fans is definitely my favorite one. They just keep getting better! I would reccomend these books for girls who are probably twelve and up. I'm fifteen myself and I know that I wouldn't have really enjoyed this series when I was younger. Of course, if differs for everyone, but that's what I would reccomend.

Enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These books are delightful studies in Victorian times and a clever girl who marches to her own beat., November 19, 2008

By 

KidsReads (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan: An Enola Holmes Mystery (Hardcover)

When is a fan not really a fan but a way of speaking? Enola Holmes does not get herself involved in the ways of Victorian ladies, but she does know a few things about the language of fans. This comes in very handy for her one day when she encounters her old acquaintance, the Honorable Cecily Alistair, under most unusual circumstances. While resting in a ladies' lavatory (actually hiding from her pesky brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft), she sees Lady Cecily come in with two overpowering escorts. It doesn't take her long to figure out that something is terribly amiss. Sitting quietly, disguised as a lady scholar, she observes that Cecily seems to be under stress as the two matrons with her boss her around. When Cecily's eyes, peeking over her pink fan, meet Enola's, they begin an interesting communication.

Cecily opened the pink fan and began to ply it as if to cool her face. I noticed that she used her left hand --- significant: she chose to be her true self rather than obeying the demands of propriety. I noticed also that she positioned the fan as a frail sort of barrier between herself and her guardian. Behind its brief concealment her gaze caught mine, and in that moment the fan almost as if by accident tapped her on the forehead.

I understood her signal at once: Caution. We are being watched.

Before they part, Cecily manages to cleverly drop her fan near Enola. Her friend definitely seems to be in need of rescuing (yet again, because in another adventure she actually saved Cecily). Enola no sooner leaves the lavatory attempting to follow the trio than she literally bumps into Mycroft. While she manages to run from him, it has set her next adventure off rather badly. Those brothers of hers are always trying to reign her in and make her into a respectable "lady." Though she does adore them (especially Sherlock), she cannot risk getting under their powers and losing her freedom. Despite the fact that Sherlock has proven himself to be a magnificent detective, Enola continues to flee and do her own detective work in various clever disguises. It is just her way of being herself, which, if she lived with them, could never happen. But more pressing to her than anything at the moment is to figure out if there might be more information coming from the little pink fan.

Before this wonderful adventure is over, 14-year-old Enola will have encountered any number of odd, eccentric and colorful characters, such as her elderly landlady, Mrs. Tupper, "deaf as a cast-iron gatepost"; the fierce mastiff who protects a baron's wealthy estate; and Dawson, the overprotective maid who talks too much. Her propensity to find trouble, and her ability to know how to handle it, places her in one dangerous situation after another. This time she ends up at an orphanage --- up to her old tricks, outwitting the wealthy but sleazy baron of Merganser and his son, who are plotting to acquire Cecily's fortune. Even Sherlock gets involved in the mayhem.

Through all of this, Enola continues to search for the meaning behind her missing Suffragist mother's messages and, through veiled messages in the daily Pall Mall Gazette, tries to distantly stay in touch with her brothers. From one disguise after another, she dashes through a whirlwind of adventure.

THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN is Nancy Springer's fourth Enola Holmes mystery. These books, which can be read as stand-alones, are delightful studies in Victorian times and a clever girl who marches to her own beat.

--- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts