Shelly's Book Blog

I have been reading books about Sherlock Holmes recently, so I decided to try Tracy Barrett's The 100-Year-Old Secret, which is Book 1 of a series called The Sherlock Files. This is a shorter book than others I have read recently, such as Shane Peacock's Eye of the Crow, or Nancy Springer's The Case of the Missing Marquess, and it is meant for a younger audiece. Whereas Eye of the Crow is about Sherlock Holmes as a young boy, and The Case of the Missing Marquess is about Holmes's younger sister, The 100-Year-Old Secret is about twins Xena and Xander Holmes, who are modern day decendants of Sherlock Holmes. The twins are given their famous relative's unsolved casebook, and they decide to try solving the mystery of a missing painting called Girl in a Purple Hat. The twins are likeable, resourceful sleuths, and they solve the mystery without too much danger to themselves, so I think this is a good mystery series to recommend to 3rd and 4th graders.