I was so excited when I heard about the release of The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason. I grew up watching Peter Cushing in The Horror of Dracula and reading every Sherlock Holmes story I could get my hands on. As much as I admired and loved these stories, they were very male centric and I was interested in reading a story using details and personalities from these very classic stories, but instilling them in female bodies. This story focuses on Mina Holmes, niece to Sherlock and Bram Stoker's younger sister, Evaline. With the help of Irene Adler, the heroines must outwit the androgynous head of the Society of Sekhmet who is luring young women to their deaths.
Off the bat, I'll say that that concept of the mystery is very interesting. It reminds me a lot of the movie Young Sherlock Holmes, especially young women being sacrificed in some sort of Egyptian ceremony. However, my thought when finishing this book was "well shoot, this is a series and I'll have to keep reading it to find out if I'm right about the villain." While the author's original murder mystery scenario is unique her characters are stereotypical, the foreshadowing is bad, and the propriety of her characters is grating.
When did it become alright to make female roll models for teens afraid to show any insecurities? I've been reading a lot of teen fiction recently and I've noticed this trend for characters that are physically or mentally strong to hold their insecurities inside in case they could be used against them as a weapon. Instead they cover up doubts, fears, and flaws under this mask of criticism. Others aren't dressed as nicely as they are, or aren't on the same social level as they are. Female characters become bullies because they don't have an outlet to safely express themselves. Perhaps Gleason will address this in her later novels, but for a good portion of this book Mina and Evaline spend time in their inner monologues complaining about the other girl and not sharing valuable information that could have helped them solve the murder the first time.
I would probably not readily recommend this series. If you are interested in a female Sherlock Holmes then I think the Enola Holmes series is a much better series and includes cyphers that the readers can figure out before the character does. If you like Egyptian mythology, then Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles is an excellently written, funny series in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series. For vampires and vampire hunters, I have a harder time recommending something because Evaline never does any vampire hunting in this story. But lastly, if you are interested in this but haven't read the stories they are based on then you need to read Dracula and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
*This blog is part of a grant Medfield has been awarded through the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Library and Services Technology Act administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
