For the main character's name, she researched romantic names of the era, and set on the one of a town near where she resided at the time. The age discrepancy between Enola and Sherlock is explained as Enola being a 'mistake child'.

When creating the character of Enola, Springer decided to have her as Holmes' sister, as she did not see it fitting for Holmes to be her father. She did not have too much difficulty in using the language of the time period since she was well versed with Victorian literature. She referred to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William Baring-Gould. To write the series, Springer researched about Victorian era England, both from historical research and through coloring books, which, according to her, it helps 'visualize the details' when writing. Springer rejected the idea of giving Holmes a daughter but thought the idea of a younger sister could work. Green initially asked her to explore 'deepest, darkest London at the time of Jack the Ripper.' After some research, she realized that Sherlock Holmes was based in the same time period as Jack the Ripper. Springer developed the idea for Enola Holmes alongside her editor, Michael Green. In 2020, the literary series was adapted into a film with Millie Bobby Brown in the title role and Henry Cavill playing Sherlock Holmes, and in 2022 the duo reprised their roles for a sequel.īefore writing The Enola Holmes Mysteries, Nancy Springer had already published books that reimagined Mordred and Robin Hood. The first book, The Case of the Missing Marquess, and the fifth, The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline, were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery in 20, respectively. This pastiche series borrows characters and settings from the established canon of Sherlock Holmes, but the Enola character is Springer's creation and specific to this series.

Furthermore, Enola must keep ahead of her brothers who are determined to capture and force her to conform to their expectations. Instead, with the aid of her mother, who had provided hidden funds and an elaborate cipher for her daughter to communicate with her, Enola runs away to London, where she establishes a clandestine private detective career specializing in missing persons investigations. When their mother disappears, Enola's much-older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, decide to send her to a finishing school against her will. There are seven books in the series, and one short story all written from 2006–2021. The Enola Holmes Mysteries is a young adult fiction series of detective novels by American author Nancy Springer, starring Enola Holmes as the 14-year-old sister of an already famous Sherlock Holmes, twenty years her senior.

The missing marquess