A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas

  

 My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong language, off page sex

 

After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking to recover, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.

Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence, sailing from Southampton for the eastern hemisphere. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder also takes place on the ship.

Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

 

This was another good entry in the series. It has been compared to Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, and I could see why. The whole book is spent on a boat, and the murder takes place on a boat. The murder weapon is even the same. There are other similarities, but I won't list them, so I don't end up spoiling Death on the Nile or this book for anyone.

I enjoyed the disguises that Charlotte wore in this book, and the subterfuge, although I suspect in real life people would have been able to tell it was makeup and prosthetics. Still it was fun and I got in a few giggles while reading as well. I also liked that there seemed to be some advancement in the relationship between Charlotte and Ash. I'm not a big fan of the way their relationship has played out so far. I expected more by this point, I guess.

I thought the mystery was very well done. It kept me guessing and I loved that. I kept thinking I knew what was going on, but in the end, I missed something that changed everything. After reading hundreds of mysteries, it can be hard to surprise me, but the author managed to do that, so bravo to her.

At this point I'm wondering how long this series is going to be. I'm enjoying it, but I'm hoping it will have a good ending to wrap things up within two or three more books, and not turn into a series with no end in sight. I know some people would probably love for it to never end, and I admit that there are a couple of series I feel the same way about, but most of the time I enjoy being able to get to the end of a series and feel satisfied with it. I guess we'll see what happens.