I became acquainted with Enola Holmes, precocious younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, through the Enola Holmes movie on Netflix starring Millie Bobby Brown. The film was excellent and, once I realized it was based on a book (the first in a series) by Nancy Springer, I knew eventually I would pick it up and read it. Springer is, of course, a fantastic writer, one with whom I was already familiar.

Book one in the series is The Case of the Missing Marquess, the marquess in this case being the eccentric matriarch of the Holmes family. As I read it, I was pleased to hear quite clearly Brown's dialogue from the film in Springer's prose -- a testament to the care filmmakers took in translating the novel to the screen. (All writers should be so lucky!)

For those who haven't seen the movie, here's a quick look at the plot: Enola Holmes, a young Victorian woman, wakes on the morning of her 14th birthday to find her mother missing from their modest manor home. The staff -- a married butler and housekeeper -- don't know where the mistress has run off to, so Enola summons her brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, from London, for assistance.

As it turns out, the elder Holmes men are not terribly worried about their missing mum but are quite distressed at Enola's lack of a proper upbringing. They resolve to pack her off to a prim boarding school; Enola instead flees to London, disguising herself as an older woman, and ends up involved in the case of the missing Lord Tewksbury (who is, in the book, a bit younger than he is in the film). Danger and hijinks ensue.

The movie develops the plot further than the book's, adding -- among other things -- additional interactions with the missing Lord Tewksbury, scenes at the boarding house where Enola is sent by her brothers, some movie-appropriate fight scenes and some resolution to the mystery of the missing mother. Springer's story doesn't seem sparse in comparison, however; her young-adult novel, at just over 200 pages, is fully formed and feels complete. It's a fun read, from start to end.

The Enola Holmes series carries on for several more books. I'm not sure if I'll read them all, but I bet my daughter will.