A Study in Garnet: Ladies of Baker Street, Book 1

Rose (the Alchemy Empire series) serves up an intriguing variation on Holmes and Watson in this promising series launch. Dr. Siân Watson, who in 1878 became the first woman to get her medical degree from the University of London, disguised herself as a man to serve with the British Army in Afghanistan. After being wounded in combat, she returns to London, where she takes a room with a stranger named Sherrington Hope—which turns out to be the male alias for female private investigator Sherlyn Holmes. When police inspector Lestrade taps Sherlyn to assist in solving a string of murders, Sîan offers to help. Soon, the two women come to suspect that a decades-old German gang that once prowled the streets of London has reemerged, and that they’re responsible for the killings of three cabbies across the city. The women’s sleuthing puts them in hot water with corrupt officials, and soon they’re fighting for their lives. In the midst of everything, Sîan develops romantic feelings for her brilliant roommate and colleague. That tension (“Holmes was... the sun burning away the foggy gloom my life had become”), plus a truly nerve-shredding mystery, set this apart from standard-issue Holmes retreads. Fans of Laurie R. King’s Marry Russell series should check this out. (Self-published)