A young adult retelling of Sherlock Holmes, by Brittany Cavallaro, following the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson's great-great-great-grandchildren, Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson.
The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that's not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective's great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock's genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar. From the moment they meet, there's a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.
A Study in Charlotte was published in 2016, followed by The Last of August in 2017, The Case for Jamie in 2018, and A Question of Holmes in 2019.Not to be confused with Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock series, which also has a main character named Charlotte Holmes who uses the alias Sherlock Holmes.
A Study in Charlotte and its sequels contain examples of:
- Accent Interest: Jamie is homesick for London and surrounded by Americans. When he hears Charlotte's English accent, it reminds him of home.
- Addiction Displacement: Charlotte begins to smoke cigarettes to try to stop from using drugs. Jamie hates the smell of cigarette smoke, but she reminds him that it's better than the alternative.
- Asshole Victim: The murder victim in the first book, Lee Dobson, was an utterly horrible person. Unfortunately, that leads to two of his most frequent victims being suspected of the crime.
- Back from the Dead: August Moriarty fakes his own death. Twice.
- Beta Couple: Lena and Tom, Charlotte and Jamie's roommates at Sherringford have a relationship that works much better than Charlotte and Jamie's, which serves as something as a model to them.
- Big Applesauce: A lot of the action in The Case for Jamie takes place in New York City.
- Big Bad: Lucien Moriarty is the main villain.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Holmeses and the Moriartys both qualify as utterly messed up families.
- Bland-Name Product: The email addresses are @dmail.com, an obvious stand-in for Google Mail.
- Blatant Lies: Sherlock Holmes claimed that Dr. Watson was the mother of his child.
- Boarding School: Charlotte and Jamie meet at Sherringford, a boarding school in Connecticut.
- Born Detective: Charlotte was educated from birth on how to be a detective. After spending her childhood years as a Kid Detective, she headed toward becoming a Private Detective.
- Disappeared Dad: At the start of the series, Jamie hasn't seen or spoken to his father in years due to his anger over his parents' divorce.
- Drama Club: The mystery in A Question of Holmes involves the Oxford University precollege Dramatics Society.
- Everyone Can See It: Charlotte and Jamie are obviously going to become a couple, and everyone can tell (except them).
- Expy: They're not carbon copies, but Charlotte and Jamie are quite similar to their ancestors. In Charlotte's case, it's largely because the Holmeses train their children from birth in the deductive arts.
- Famous Ancestor: Jamie and Charlotte are descended from the famous Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. August Moriarty is descended from the infamous Professor Moriarty.
- Feuding Families: The Moriarty family and the Holmes family have been fighting since Sherlock Holmes pushed Professor Moriarty off a cliff. August has attempted to try to reconcile them, but it hasn't been successful so far.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Charlotte tastes some protein powder that may contain arsenic, much to Jamie's horror.
- Friend on the Force: Detective Shepherd, DI Green, and DI Sadiq are all friends of Charlotte on the police force who help her out occasionally. She pointed out in A Study in Charlotte that working in America was inconvenient for her because she didn't have her friends at Scotland Yard or her reputation helping her.
- FrameUp: The murderer in A Study in Charlotte tries to make it look like Charlotte and Jamie are guilty.
- Gender Flip: To a certain extent. The in-universe Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson both remained male, but Charlotte fills the "Sherlock" role here.
- Good Is Not Nice: Charlotte, as stated nearly verbatim in The Case for Jamie.Charlotte: I want to be good without being nice. Can I do that?
Jamie: I like you best when you aren't nice.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: In The Last of August, while bailing Jamie out of a difficult situation, Charlotte asks for wine because she's had a long day.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Implied in The Last of August. Charlotte tells Jamie that she "persuaded" the auctioneer to speak, and Jamie notes that he doesn't want to know "what sort of persuasion she meant," implying that persuasion may be a euphemism for torture.
- Last-Name Basis: Charlotte and Jamie mostly call each other "Holmes" and "Watson," despite everyone else they know using their first names. Like The X-Files
(which receives a Shout-Out in the first book's epilogue), the series zig-zags a bit on whether this or the main characters' occasional use of each other's first names is more of an indication of closeness/intimacy, though seems to eventually come down on the side of Last-Name Basis. Unlike The X-Files and other examples, however, this is mostly in-universe; the author and many fans typically refer to them as Charlotte and Jamie, likely to avoid confusion with the original Holmes and Watson. - Leaving You to Find Myself: At the end of A Question of Holmes, Charlotte breaks up with her boyfriend because she needs more time to figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life before committing to a serious relationship. In the epilogue two years later, they seem to be heading toward a reunion.
- Master of Disguise: Charlotte has many, many disguises. In The Last of August, Jamie briefly poses as prospective art student "Simon."
- Maybe Ever After: After their Relationship Upgrade at the start of book four and subsequent breakup, the series ends with Jamie and Charlotte not currently together, but probably heading in that direction.
- Mundane Utility: Emma Holmes uses her chemistry skills to make great cocktails.
- Only Friend: Jamie and Charlotte often call each other their only friend, though that disregards their friendships with their roommates Tom and Lena.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Justified. Jamie is initially surprised that the password to Charlotte's mobile is his birthday, rather than a string of random numbers, but she points out that if someone can get their hands on her phone, she's probably sufficiently incapacitated that it doesn't matter anymore, so she chose something he would remember.
- Precocious Crush: Charlotte had a crush on her tutor, August Moriarty, when she was fourteen. It didn't end well.
- Rape as Drama: It's revealed that the Asshole Victim in A Study In Charlotte had raped Charlotte shortly before the start of the book.
- Relationship Chart: Beginning with The Last of August, genealogical charts showing the family trees descending from Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty respectively appear at the front of the books, with minor annotations presented as by Charlotte Holmes ("for Jamie, because he insisted").
- Sherlock Scan: Charlotte tells people their life stories from tiny details many times over the course of the series. With Jamie, it's often to distract him when he's feeling down.
- Shipper on Deck: Charlotte's Uncle Leander lets her and Jamie know that he approves of their relationship before they're even together.
- The Watson: Jamie, though he's less bumbling than some examples, despite being the narrator, is there to watch Charlotte be the heroine, not himself be the hero.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: In The Last of August, when Jamie is trying not to be aroused by Charlotte, he runs through a list of unsexy things.I ran through a familiar list in my head, the least erotic things I could think of: Grandma, my seventh birthday party, The Lion King....
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Invoked: When pretending to be Simon the art student, Jamie says his art is "experimental", but he's actually just awful at drawing.
- A True Story in My Universe: Dr. Watson was the author of the Sherlock Holmes books, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was his agent.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Particularly in the first two books, Charlotte and Jamie bicker as much as they get along. Often doubles as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
