A Study in Charlotte

In the century after Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, multiple authors have penned variations on the exploits of the “Great Detective.” Many of these have featured female protagonists. The Lady Sherlock series posits the notion that Holmes is the fabrication of a female sleuth who must use a male persona to solve crimes. Other writers have tackled secondary characters and given them adventures of their own. Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson, and Mary Russell are all independent sleuths who solve mysteries in the Sherlockian manner. Even Sherlock’s younger sister and mother are featured in the Enola Holmes series.

Aside from focusing on peripheral characters, some authors have covered Holmes’s teen years. A recent film adaptation depicts both Watson and Holmes meeting as youngsters. In Brittany Cavallarro’s Charlotte Holmes Mysteries series, not only does she cover the teen years of her amateur sleuths, but she changes the central character’s gender, thereby allowing a romance to develop between Holmes and Watson. Another unique feature of her series is its startling premise that Homes and Watson were real people and that Conan Doyle was simply Watson’s literary agent. Consequently, the descendants of the detective and his biographer carry on the family tradition from generation to generation.