Can You Solve It? Book 3: A Study in Charlotte

I’ll admit it: I picked up A Study in Charlotte because it had a male narrator and I'm always on the look out for "guy's read" types of books for my classroom library. A modern-day retelling of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson set in a Connecticut boarding school told by Doctor Watson's dependent, James Watson? It had a lot of promise but also had the potential to go sideways quickly. 

Brittany Cavallaro wastes no time making her intentions clear—this is a Sherlock-and-Watson homage, and she owns it. Right there on the cover: “You’ve never seen Watson and Holmes like this before.” Right out there.

As someone who grew up watching Wishbone pay homage to Sherlock but never actually reading Conan Doyle's originals, I was intrigued. 

Charlotte Holmes proved to be absolute chaos. She’s as brilliant, infuriating, and emotionally repressed as her literary ancestor, but also entirely her own person. Jamie Watson, on the other hand, is sweet, lost, and a little rough around the edges, which—if you’ve ever taught high school—makes him painfully relatable.

That said, I struggled a bit through this one. It often felt like the mystery took a back seat to Charlotte and Jamie’s personal dynamic. It was less solve the case! and more survive your soulmate! But the thing is… by the end, it all came together. The clues were there—cleverly and quietly nestled between tense banter. The big reveal had me mentally flipping back through chapters and going, “Ohhhh. That’s what that was.”

This book surprised me. I’m still not totally sold on all the relationship dynamics, but as far as mysteries go? It’s a brainy ride that doesn’t cheat the reader.

Can You Solve It? Book 2: Truly Devious

I picked up Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson with high expectations (thanks, bookernet) and a cozy fall-vibes murder board aesthetic in mind. Boarding school in the mountains? Cold case from the 1930s? A true crime–obsessed teen sleuth with a questionable relationship to social cues? Sounds like just my jam.

And it really was everything I hoped for—clever, well-paced, full of rich atmosphere and that delightful dark-academia-meets-YA energy. Stevie Bell is a fun, flawed narrator with a sharp mind and a singular focus on solving the infamous Ellingham Academy case. The setting is extravagant, the stakes feel real, and the cold case is layered and twisty in all the right ways.

But somewhere around chapter thirty… I started to get suspicious. Not about the crime—about the structure.

A quick Google search later, and there it was: the mystery only seems to wrap up in book one. In fact, it spans the entire trilogy.

Whoops.

And while I’d love to say that didn't change things, the truth is… knowing that did change the way I viewed the end of the book. Instead of marveling at the conclusion, I found myself side-eyeing the resolution. Was this actually a solved case? Or just a very elaborate red herring disguised as closure?

Still, Truly Devious was a blast to read. The writing is sharp, the characters are memorable, and I’m excited to dive into the next two books. Johnson clearly had a plan—and I, for one, want to see where it leads.