Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany

Item: Elementary, She Read
Rating: 5
Author: BaronessMom

Posted July 20, 2022 by BaronessMom in Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

Elementary, She Read

by Vicki Delany

Series: Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery #1
Series Rating:

Published by Crooked Lane Books on March 14, 2017
Genres: Cozy Animal Mystery
Pages: 315
Format: Kindle
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.

Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany is a well-written mystery with a Sherlock Holmes fair set in New London, Massachusetts.

Will Gemma figure out what is happening before she is next on the killer’s list?

Gemma Doyle

Our sleuth is Gemma Doyle. She and her uncle own the Sherlock Holmes Bookstore and Emporium. Gemma is from London but isn’t related to Sir Conan Doyle. I enjoyed the story from Gemma’s point of view. She is an interesting character as she deduces facts similar to the Sherlock Holmes character. The book has many facts about Sir Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.

Gemma is a fabulous character. She has a past and a love interest, although it’s complicated. Jayne is Gemma’s best friend. They do most things together. Although the two are quite the opposite in physical appearance and temperament. One of the things that I like most about her is that she doesn’t sugarcoat things. She also has a fantastic memory, not photographic but still extremely high.

The Mystery

A woman enters the Sherlock Holmes Bookstore, and Emporium doesn’t buy anything but instead leaves what could be a priceless vintage magazine hidden between the books. Gemma figures out where the woman is staying. She and Jayne drop by to find her murdered. Jayne calls the police, and two detectives show up. One is Gemma’s former boyfriend, and the other detective can’t stand Gemma from the moment she meets her. Thus, Gemma sets out to prove that she did not kill the woman she didn’t even know.

Five Stars

I enjoyed the mystery, the characters, the setting, and the premise. I look forward to reading more books from this series. My rating for Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany is five stars. I recommend this book and series to all of you cozy readers out there.

The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany.

Until the next time,

About Vicki Delany

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than thirty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea By The Sea mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series.