Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I wasn’t actually planning on reviewing Jordan Stratford’s The Case of the Missing Moonstone; I checked it out for my mystery-loving oldest and just wanted to skim through it on the treadmill for kicks.  (How could you not be curious about the first book in a series called “The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency”?!)  It drew me in so immediately, however, that it definitely turned into far more of a read than a skim.  Ada is a hoot (oh, the Peebs cannon!), and yet her portrayal as definitely ‘spectrum-y’ gives the entire story an interesting depth.  The entire cast of characters is a hoot, really, and the style is fabulous.  If you like mysteries, the tv show “Numbers”, 19th century British settings, or literary jokes, this is a series for you.  (And maybe if you like reading about the early, early years of modern science.  I’d heard of all of the literary characters–I did major in English, after all–but not Ada, while my hubby, the information systems major, knew exactly who she was.)

Briefly, the series imagines Ada Byron, Mary Godwin, and Percy Bysshe Shelley as far closer in age than they actually were; the girls form a clandestine detective agency (their word, mind you), and Percy gets drawn into the adventure.  I’d hate to tell you much more, because you really deserve the joy of discovering it for  yourself.  In the meantime, I’ll just say that while messing with history is not usually my thing, Jordan Stratford rocked it–and I can’t wait for my oldest to read it so that I can check the next one out for both of us.