The Spiritglass Charade (Stoker and Holmes Series #2)

by Colleen Gleason

Overview

Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business. But when you're the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood, so to speak.

After the Affair of the Clockwork Scarab, Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes are eager to help Princess Alix with a new case. Seventeen-year-old Willa Aston is obsessed with spiritual mediums, convinced she is speaking with her mother from beyond the grave. What seems like a case of spiritualist fraud quickly devolves into something far more menacing: someone is trying to make Willa appear lunatic using an innocent-looking spiritglass to control her. The list of clues piles up: an unexpected murder, a gang of pickpockets, and the return of vampires to London. But are these events connected?

As Uncle Sherlock would say, there are no coincidences. It will take all of Mina's wit and Evaline's muscle to keep London's sinister underground at bay.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452128856
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	09/08/2015
Series:	Stoker and Holmes Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	961,697
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Colleen Gleason is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen novels. She lives in the Midwest.

Editorial Reviews

"There's lots of fun to be had from this odd-couple investigative team's snarky banter, the well-imagined setting's steampunk details, and Gleason's flashes of satiric humor."—The Horn Book Magazine

"There's lots of fun to be had from this odd-couple investigative team's snarky banter, the well-imagined setting's steampunk details, and Gleason's flashes of satiric humor."—The Horn Book Magazine

"There's lots of fun to be had from this odd-couple investigative team's snarky banter, the well-imagined setting's steampunk details, and Gleason's flashes of satiric humor."—The Horn Book Magazine

"Gleason's novel is a well-oiled machine... the authentic historical framework, the adeptly integrated steampunk devices, the compelling personalities and backgrounds of the outwardly tough but inwardly vulnerable heroines."—School Library Journal

"Gleason's novel is a well-oiled machine... the authentic historical framework, the adeptly integrated steampunk devices, the compelling personalities and backgrounds of the outwardly tough but inwardly vulnerable heroines."—School Library Journal

"Gleason's novel is a well-oiled machine... the authentic historical framework, the adeptly integrated steampunk devices, the compelling personalities and backgrounds of the outwardly tough but inwardly vulnerable heroines."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

09/01/2014
Gr 8 Up—Little more than a month has passed since teens Evaline Stoker (sister of Bram) and Mina Holmes (niece of Sherlock) wound down their first collaborative effort at fighting crime and solving mysteries in The Clockwork Scarab (Chronicle, 2013). When the young women are summoned by Princess Alexandra, daughter of Queen Victoria, their skills are tested once again. The royal enlists the girls' help in a case involving her dear friend who has fallen prey to a manipulative spiritualist. Then there is the issue of vampires—thought to be long extinct—skulking through the streets of London. Told in Evaline's and Mina's alternating first-person points of view, the story gives readers an illuminating and fascinating peek into late-Victorian London life. Evaline, a bold and vivacious aspiring vampire slayer, craves adventure and risk. Mina prefers work that requires the methodical application of her inestimable sleuthing skills. Problems are compounded when Dylan, the time-traveler from modern-day London, tries to help. His assistance—performing the Heimlich maneuver on an aged, grumpy Queen Victoria, for instance—might very well alter the course of history. Gleason's novel is a well-oiled machine. Every literary cog and wheel has its distinct function—the authentic historical framework, the adeptly integrated steampunk devices, the compelling personalities and backgrounds of the outwardly tough but inwardly vulnerable heroines—yet all work together in easy synchronization.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

School Library Journal

2014-08-27
A second steampunk adventure of the great detective and the vampire slayer, proper young ladies (The Clockwork Scarab, 2013). Evaline Stoker (sister of Bram) and Mina Holmes (niece of Sherlock) are a crabby crime-solving duo in an 1889 London where electricity is illegal and steam-powered technology is the order of the day. The great Irene Adler has another royal commission for them: to assist Miss Willa Ashton, who is being taking advantage of by spiritualists. Mina applies her powers of observation to the task, while Evaline, who wants nothing more than an enemy she can punch, is relieved to find vampires are involved. The girls must solve the mystery with only the oddest clues—"Crickets. Pickpockets. UnDead"—while preserving Miss Ashton's life and sanity. Both girls have romances that seem to prioritize schoolyard sniping over affection. Mina primarily has feelings for clever Inspector Grayling, while Evaline flirts with Pix, an underworld figure whose cockney thieves' cant, like that of all the lower classes here, is inaccurate, distracting and unpronounceable. An oversupply of characters leaves some so underused as to be clutter. Dylan the time traveler, for example, seems to exist only to provide a third point in Mina's love triangle while uttering 21st-century pop-culture references. The girls' mismatched partnership could be a pleasure, if only Evaline could stake the excruciating dialect as easily as she skewers vampires. (Steampunk/mystery. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews