The Clue in the Clock: The Case That Time Forgot by Tracy Barrett

At first Xander Holmes thought that the slip of paper must have fallen out of his own notebook. But even as he stooped to pick it up, he noticed some details that most people wouldn't have seen. This was partly genetic--he was, after all, the great-great-great grandson of the the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. His sister Xena read the few lines on the paper:

"So the bullet missed?" the detective asked.

"Yes, she ducked, so--"

"What, son?"

But he was on his way out the door. "Dad," he called back, "be sure, lock the door on your way out. I'm going to the homes."

Xander grinned. "I think I figured it out. Read it out loud."

In her latest installment of The Sherlock Files, The Case That Time Forgot (Sherlock Files) (Henry Holt, 2010), author Tracy Barrett has young sleuths Xander and Xena Holmes on the trail of an ancient Egyptian amulet believed to be capable of stopping time once every fifty years. Their classmate Karim Farag, the recipient of secret information passed down in his family for over a hundred years, first tests their detective skills and then persuades Xander and Xena, as the possessors of Sherlock Holmes' own Casebook of unsolved cases, to take up the challenge to complete the investigation that their ancestor was forced to drop long ago.

But it seems there are other forces which have clandestine reasons to have Xena and Xander solve the case for them. As they make their way from the British Museum's Egyptian Rosetta Stone, to Cleopatra's Needle, then to Big Ben's clock tower, the Cat and Crown pub, and at last back to the Museum for the unwrapping of a Pharaoh's mummy following Sherlock's century-cold trail, a sinister hooded figure seems to be shadowing them. And when Sherlock's Casebook is stolen right under Xander's nose, the two fear that they may be in danger of more than just failing to solve their ancestor's old case.

A rousing detective story, this one takes full advantage of its London setting as Xena and Xander take the Tube around the sights of the rainy, foggy cityscape seeking to stay ahead of their pursuer in the race to find the mysterious amulet before its time-stopping powers are activated. Real clues mix with fake ones to give both the young detectives and the reader an intriguing mental workout in this latest in the series, which also includes The 100-Year-Old Secret (Sherlock Files) The Beast of Blackslope (Sherlock Files) and The Missing Heir (Sherlock Files).

Another Teen Girl Sleuth--Sherlock's Little Sister: The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer

Nancy Springer, author of the previously reviewed and admirable Rowan Hood series about the adventures of Robin Hood's daughter, has embarked on a new series about a famous fictional character's relative, the Enola Holmes Mysteries. For Springer, a two-time Edgar Award winner, the sister of Sherlock Holmes is a natural subject, a Victorian girl endowed with a drive for intellectual and personal independence who shares her famous brother's powers of observation and reason.

Enola, by her very name, which spelled backward is "alone," is no stranger to her mother's penchant for ciphers and hidden meanings, especially of the botanical sort, but when her mother suddenly disappears on her fourteenth birthday, Enola feels that the birthday gifts left behind for her contain the secret of her mother's whereabouts. Her much-older brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, are, however, clueless about the disappearance until an audit of the manor's accounts shows that their mother has been embezzling funds for years, enough to provide herself with considerable "mad money" far from the restraints of Victorian widowhood.

For Enola the brothers have a safe plan for their little-known young sister--into some good stout corsetry with her and off to a reputable boarding school where she can become a proper young lady suitable for a propitious marriage as soon as possible. Enola deciphers enough of her mother's cryptic gifts to locate a goodly sum of money left behind for her and takes it on the lam as soon as she is out of her brothers' sight.

Traveling by bicycle and railway and disguised in widow's weeds, Enola conceals her money and changes of clothing inside the "bust enhancers," "hip regulators," and "dress improvers" built into Victoria female garb. Almost by accident, Enola becomes involved in the search for a kidnapped twelve-year-old marquess, presumably abducted from his estate, and in a string of chases, narrow escapes, and near death experiences at the hands of several Dickensian villains, Enola keeps the action going as she puts together the clues to the identify of the mendacious kidnappers and, incidentally, the way to trace her mother's path to personal freedom. Escaping the Victorian trap to which her brothers' good intentions will lead, Enola disguises herself again and sets herself up in business as the go-between for her alter ego, Leslie T. Ragostin, Scientific Perditorian, finder of lost objects and lost persons.

Enola Holmes' engaging adventures continue in The Case of the Left-Handed Lady and the forthcoming (January 31, 2008) The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets. With an engaging teen girl sleuth in the best tradition of Nancy Drew, et al, a fresh historical setting, and the proper literary lineage, this series looks like more than a bit of all right.