This series is so fun. I think this is my favorite one so far, because it did two things.
First, the plot hinges on Charlotte/Sherlock saving her dear friend and would-be paramour Lord Ingram from murder charges when his wife turns up dead on his estate in a gruesome fashion. And second, we finally get to see Charlotte in action at crime scenes and investigating herself. She does this by inventing another Holmes brother and dressing up as a man, saying she is both there to emotionally support Lord Ingram and to help her brother Sherlock (all three being her) solve the murder. Oh, and it also takes place during a house party! Sort of. Lord Ingram is hosting guests from a nearby manor after a utility failure of some sort (I forget, I read this in September).
It was incredibly entertaining to see Charlotte acting as a man, the way the various characters reacted to her (knowing it was her or not), and the mystery was clever and twisty while having good emotional stakes (because it was tied to our feelings about Lord Ingram and his dead wife who hated him).
The thing that is still keeping me from giving any book in this series five stars is all the elaborate and sort of confusing stuff with Moriarty. Every time that plotline is brought in, my head starts swimming. Even while I’m reading it’s confusing, and you couldn’t pay me to explain it to anyone this far from reading the book.
Currently trying to fit book four into my 2023 TBR, although it is nice to read these a couple of months apart because they’re like little treats for my brain.