Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Curse by Sam Hearn

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 160 

Publisher: Scholastic Fiction 

Released: 2nd of August 2018 

Welcome to Baker Street Academy, where there's always a mystery to be solved! Luckily Sherlock Holmes is on the case, with his friends John Watson and Martha Hudson. Told through Watson's diary, with energetic comic-strip illustrations, this introduction to Arthur Conan Doyle's classic characters will have every young super-sleuth hooked!

What I Have to Say 

A fantastic introduction to the Sherlock Holmes characters for any young reader. This book was an amazing blend of comic strip type illustrations, prose, emails, and so much more! It showcased so many different ways that there are to tell a story, but still with the classic voice of John Watson threaded through to tell the story in his diary as a nod to the original books. 

This is the second book so I was coming in after not reading the first adventure. There were a lot of references to it, including Moriarty being in Switzerland sending ominous, vaguely threatening postcards, which were wonderful and hilarious. So I do think that reading them in order is a good idea, but it didn't put me off too much, so it's not essential.

The story itself was really clever. I figured it out pretty quickly, but I think that is more about the fact that I'm a grown up who's read a lot of mysteries, including a few of the original Holmes books, so I feel that when I was younger I wouldn't have found the twist so obvious, because it is a good twist! Just a little overdone in Sherlock Holmes re-imaginings.

This is definitely a book for a young budding detective!

My thanks go to Scholastic for providing me with this copy for review. 

Artie Conan Doyle and the Gravediggers' Club by Robert J. Harris

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 192

Publisher: Floris Books 

Released: 1st of June 2017 

One day Arthur Conan Doyle will create the greatest detective of all -- Sherlock Holmes. But right now Artie Conan Doyle is a twelve-year-old Edinburgh schoolboy with a mystery of his own to solve. While sneaking out to explore Greyfriars Kirkyard by night, Artie and his best friend Ham spot a ghostly lady in grey and discover the footprints of a gigantic hound. Could the two mysteries be connected? These strange clues lead them to a series of robberies carried out the sinister Gravediggers' Club and soon they find themselves pitted against the villainous Colonel Braxton Dash. Will Artie survive his encounters with graveyards and ghosts in the foggy streets of nineteenth century Edinburgh -- or will his first case be his last?

What I Have to Say 

This is perhaps my new favourite Middle-Grade mystery series! I was worried it would be overdone or written down too much, but I found it such a great read. Artie is a really great character based on a lot of research that the author has done on Arthur Conan Doyle and his life. I liked the fact that it wasn't all centred around Sherlock Holmes (though there were some great references) but also took into account Conan Doyle's interest in the afterlife as well. 

The mystery was very well written and also brought in components of two Sherlock Holmes stories, though not in a way that was too obvious. Harris built his own mystery around these two stories making a wonderfully original and thrilling mystery. I loved all the historical references as well and the Latin that was brought up from time to time. 

I think this is a great introduction to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes for young readers who have never read the books, but also a really great series for readers who are already fans of the books and the man behind them, young and old. 

I really wasn't sure what this book would be like, but I'm so glad I requested it because it was a really great book. 

My thanks go to Floris Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.