ENOLA HOLMES

In this YA graphic-novel sequel to a 2020 Netflix film, a bright, resourceful amateur sleuth scours London for her abducted brother.

Enola Holmes has happily gained her independence from her brother Mycroft as well as boarding school. One quiet night, she crawls into Mycroft’s lodging house room to retrieve a book her beloved mother left for her. Shockingly, Enola witnesses strangers breaking in and kidnapping Mycroft. Even if she’s not on the best of terms with him, he’s still her brother, whom she vows to rescue. All she has to go on is that Alarm, an anarchist group, seized Mycroft for information he knows or may learn. Adults are no help—not her mother, who’s in hiding, or her famous brother, Sherlock, at 221B Baker St. Luckily, she has allies, from a street-smart urchin to young Lord Tewkesbury. The kidnappers may be no match for Enola, who has the brains to crack coded messages, the skills to hold her own in fights, and the willingness to search and slink through muck to find her sibling. She even uncovers someone’s diabolical plan—something potentially more devastating than an abduction. George—adapting a story by Nancy Springer, who wrote the original literary series that the film Enola Holmes is based on—crafts a riveting mystery. Enola can charm details out of anyone but also excels at stealthily following people and piecing together clues. Her tendency to steer clear of the upper class is sometimes comical. Enola dons a dress to disguise herself as a “flighty, harmless girl.” Getting her clothes muddy doesn’t faze her, which is a great display of her doggedness in solving crimes. Sposito and Angiolini’s artwork captures the likenesses of actors from the film (for example, Millie Bobby Brown). But the setting is even more impressively rendered—London’s beautiful streets, alleys, and buildings.

This entertaining mystery will delight readers, especially Enola Holmes fans.