Audiobook Review – A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock, Book 1) by Sherry Thomas, Narrated by Kate Reading (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Mystery
Length: 11 hours (499 pages)
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Release Date: October 18, 2016
ASIN: B01LXR9K71
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Lady Sherlock series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

“With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper-class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.

When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old, but in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.”

This is the first book in the lady Sherlock series and I had been wanting to read it for some time. This was an okay book but a bit uneven. Some parts of the story I enjoyed, others were overly long and boring.

I listened to this on audiobook and Kate Reading always does an amazing job with narration. If you enjoy audiobooks I would definitely recommend picking this up on audiobook.

The story jumps between Charlotte Holmes and the Inspector she occasionally sends clues to. I liked the mystery and the setting and some of the characters were interesting. The transitions between characters were fairly abrupt, I was listening to this on audiobook and would sometimes miss that we had switched POV. It got a bit confusing at points.

The story could have used better pacing as well. Some of the parts with the Inspector questioning people got very long and I would have liked to spend more time with Charlotte. There are also a ton of names thrown at the reader rather quickly which lead to some additional confusion for me.

Overall this was an okay read. I did like the idea behind the story but the execution was just a bit too uneven and inconsistent for me. I don’t plan on continuing the series.