Loved this!!

Flipping through below reviews, sure, it's not for everybody, but nor is any book! My opinions: the prose was descriptive in a lovely old-timey way without being hard to read. I thought the writing of WWI was especially evocative. There are a few parts that made me literally laugh out loud: the dogs reacting to a stern woman, when Holmes was like "probably worse for my reputation if folks think you're my boy-toy," a few other things. I personally didn't get the "Mary Sue" vibe from Mary at all, although in consideration now I can see how one might feel that way. I didn't see any of her abilities as being unreasonable for a lone, brainy woman, raised for some years by liberal parents in the US, at the beginning of dramatic social upheaval in the UK brought on by WWI. As to Holmes' character, I haven't read the Conan Doyle books so I can't speak to that preservation. It seems probable to me that the original Sherlock very well could have mellowed somewhat in partial retirement and would have allowed his barriers to be broken by a young girl who is essentially his intellectual equal. Conversely, it's possible that his asexuality and gynophobia were quite real & internal and never would have relaxed. Some willing suspension of disbelief required, I suppose.

To the plot, there are a few minor mysteries presented in the first half, interspersed with Mary growing up a few years. I'm actually surprised I wasn't bored by this - it speaks, I think, to the quality of the writing that I read the first half with as much commitment as the fourth sixth! Then the big bad appears and there's a considerable amount of time spent figuring out how to defeat them. Add in a pretty impressive (or unlikely) leap of thought by Mary and the story travels to its conclusion.