The Enola Holmes Mysteries Novel Series Novels & Stories

Yeah, Netflix has a whole film series! The first one came out in 2020 and the second in 2022, both starring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola and Henry Cavill as Sherlock, which is a pretty huge deal for the books' visibility. Honestly, the movies take the core idea—Sherlock's much younger sister solving her own cases—and run with it in a more action-adventure, stylized direction. The books have a different, quieter charm for me. The films amp up the fourth-wall-breaking and the fistfights, which is fun but not quite the same tone.

I'm actually hoping they adapt more of the later books. The movies so far have drawn from the first couple, but there's a whole long series with some fantastic later mysteries involving suffragettes and deeper character work. The adaptations are definitely their own thing, a bit more blockbuster, but they got my kid sister to pick up the first book, so I can't complain. They're solid gateway entertainment.

Finished the last book a couple weeks back, and my reaction was mostly relief? The final mystery ties up neatly enough, the villain gets what’s coming, and Enola’s professional status is secured. It wraps the ongoing threads from the later books. But satisfying... that’s trickier. It feels very ‘case closed’ in a procedural sense, yet the emotional resolution with Sherlock and Mycroft felt abrupt to me. After all that tension and independence, the familial reconciliation happens almost off-page. I wanted a longer, messier conversation, maybe a real fight. The ending serves the plot but left me a bit cold on the character front, which was what I was really there for.

That said, seeing Enola fully established as a detective in her own right, no longer living in her brothers' shadow, was gratifying. The author makes it clear her journey was about achieving that recognition. If you read the series for Enola’s triumphs over Victorian society’s constraints, you’ll probably close the book happy. I just craved a deeper peek into the personal cost of those triumphs.

I picked up the series a bit out of order myself, and I honestly don't think it matters too much if you read them chronologically or by publication. The books are fairly episodic, with each one focusing on Enola solving a new case. That said, the character development for Enola and her relationship with Sherlock and Mycroft does have a gentle arc. If you want that progression, start with 'The Case of the Missing Marquess'—it's her origin story, how she runs away and sets up her detective business. The first six books form a solid core where she's establishing herself.

After that, Nancy Springer took a long break before returning to write more, starting with 'The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline'. The newer books feel a bit more mature in her writing style, but Enola's still the same brilliant, independent protagonist. My personal favorite is 'The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan'—it has some fantastic interplay with Sherlock. Honestly, you could just read them in whatever order your library has them available and still have a great time.