CANR
WORK TITLE: A Ruse of Shadows
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.sherrythomas.com
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: LRC October 2021
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1975, in Qingdao, Shandong, China; immigrated to United States, 1988; married; children: two sons.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AWARDS:RITA Award for historical romance, Romance Writers of America, 2010, for Not Quite a Husband, and 2011, for His at Night; Barry Award nomination, 2019, for The Hollow of Fear.
WRITINGS
Novella A Dance in Moonlight included in Midnight Scandals, NLA Digital, 2012.
SIDELIGHTS
A best-selling novelist, Sherry Thomas has more than twenty books to her credit, including romances like Not Quite a Husband and His at Night as well as The Hollow of Fear, part of her “Lady Sherlock” series of historical mysteries. She has also written a number of works for young-adult audiences, such as The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan and the “Elemental” trilogy of fantasy novels.
Thomas was born in Qingdao, Shandong, China, and moved to the United States at age thirteen. Faced with the task of learning English, the author quickly grew bored with simplistic language primers and found that she much preferred historical romances and science fiction. She has frequently said in interviews that, in essence, she learned English from romance novels. Her particular favorites were those set in Victorian or Edwardian England. “I knew what dukes and marquesses were long before I knew what ‘modern’ terms … meant. So it is natural for me to write what I’m most familiar with and what I love to read.”
For her creation of complex characters and of story lines that go beyond the clichés of the romance genre, Thomas has won high praise. “I’ve always been drawn to love stories,” Thomas remarked in an interview for Word Wenches. “But I am not a romantic in the traditional sense. I don’t think romantic love is sufficient at all for happiness, but must be accompanied by wisdom, courage, kindness, generosity, patience, commitment … and the list goes on and on. So my stories aren’t exactly about people falling in love—they are already desperately in love—but about how they acquire the depth and strength of character to handle something as marvelous and difficult as love.”
Thomas’s first book, Private Arrangements, is the story of Camden Saybrook, Marquis of Tremaine, and his wife, Gigi. On the surface, their marriage looks perfect, but Cam and Gigi are deeply unhappy. They parted ten years earlier on the day after their wedding night, after Cam discovered the devious plotting through which Gigi had managed their courtship and nuptials. Since then they have lived on separate continents, conforming to Victorian norms of politeness and decorum. When Gigi asks her husband for a divorce so that she can marry another man, Lord Frederick, Cam consents. But he has one condition: that Gigi first bear him an heir. Gigi accepts this condition, and she and Cam rekindle their sexual relationship. Attracted anew to Cam, Gigi must hide this fact from Frederick, even as her mother, Mrs. Rowland, hatches plans of her own regarding Gigi’s marital future.
In her Word Wenches interview, Thomas explained that she wanted the book to upend certain romance conventions. “I read a lot of Big Misunderstanding story lines growing up,” she said. “So I was rebelling against my romance upbringing by writing a story where there is no misunderstanding, that if the hero thinks the heroine did something awful, it’s because she really did do something awful.”
Reviewers hailed Private Arrangements, the first book in Thomas’s “London” trilogy, as an exceptional debut. A writer for Publishers Weekly admired its “deft plotting and sparkling characters”—particularly Gigi, who despite her social scheming is shown to have intelligence and courage. The novel, said the reviewer, is “steamy and smart.” Kathe Robin, writing on the RT Book Reviews website, praised the book as a “dazzling debut” with a “beautifully written, sizzling, captivating love story.” In a Romance Reader website review, Dede Anderson described Private Arrangements as “intelligent, witty, sexy and peopled with wonderful characters … and sharp clever dialogue,” concluding that the novel offers “everything astute readers want in their historical romances.”
Discussing her choice to write about marital estrangement rather than a more conventionally simple love story, Thomas told Library Journal interviewer Bette-Lee Fox: “I don’t believe in ‘easy’ routes to happiness, at least not for fiction. I write complex situations with no pat solutions because they are what interest me as a reader: hard choices and what people do in the face of such hard choices.”
Equally high praise greeted the publication of Thomas’s second book, Delicious. Described by Romance Reader contributor Mary Benn as “a very clever retelling of the Cinderella story,” the novel recounts the adventures of esteemed cook Verity Durant and her search for true love. Ten years earlier, Verity had engaged in a passionate affair with her aristocratic employer, Bertie Somerset, but it had ended badly. Hurt, Verity secretly sought out Bertie’s estranged half-brother, Stuart, hoping she might entice him into a scheme to get back at Bertie. The two fell in love, and Verity abandoned her plan for revenge. But an abrupt change in circumstances led Verity to return reluctantly to Bertie’s employment, leaving Stuart heartbroken and intent on finding the mysterious woman whose true identity he has not guessed.
For ten years, Stuart has searched in vain for Verity. Now he has decided he must marry, and proposes to Lizzy Bessler. Before the wedding can take place, however, Bertie dies, and Stuart inherits the family estate, where Verity is still employed as its renowned cook. Stuart has no idea who works in the kitchen but is seduced by the sumptuous dishes that are created there for his gustatory pleasure. Lizzy, meanwhile, finds herself increasingly attracted to William Marsden, her fiancé’s secretary.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed Delicious a “scrumptious Victorian confection … [that is] impossible to resist.” Kristin Ramsdell, writing in Library Journal, noted the book’s “seductive magic” and erotic fusion of food and romance.
Not Quite a Husband, set in India, was inspired by the film The Painted Veil, about an English couple in early twentieth-century China. In the film, the wife, unhappy in her marriage, grows to love her physician husband, only to have him die in a cholera epidemic. Thomas reversed the gender roles and set her novel in 1897 India, near the Afghanistan border where a political rebellion is brewing. She also devised a happy ending. Bryony, shy and awkward, is a physician, and Leo is her gregarious husband; from the beginning, their marriage is troubled. After an annulment, Bryony goes to work in India; three years later, Leo comes searching for her in order to bring her back to England.
RT Book Reviews contributor Robin rated the book highly, noting its satisfying plot, fully realized characters, and “depth of emotion.” Cathy Sova, writing on the Romance Reader, appreciated the book’s historical background, deeming it “ultimately a very satisfying, very unusual romance.”
Continuing the “London” trilogy, His at Night tells the story of Elissande Edgerton and her surprising romance with Lord Vere. Elissande will never be able to leave her tedious life as nursemaid to her elderly aunt unless she marries, but she has few prospects. Her opportunity comes when people staying in a neighboring house take refuge at Elissande’s in order to escape an infestation of rats. This enables Elissande to meet Lord Vere, who has successfully fooled everyone else into believing that he is an idiot; this is a cover for his actual life as a secret agent on the trail of dangerous criminals. Elissande and Vere are forced to marry after the young woman is found in his bedroom, and Vere goes on to discover a well of deep secrets.
Finding the book’s plot occasionally forced, a writer for Publishers Weekly nevertheless enjoyed its “perfect period touches” and “genuine wit and sympathy.” Library Journal reviewer Kristin Ramsdell enjoyed the novel’s “lush sensuality, intense emotional, lyrical writing, and exquisitely realized characters.”
The Luckiest Lady in London is a romance centered on Felix Rivendale, the Lord of Wrenworth and one of the county’s most eligible bachelors. Felix is handsome, charming, and rich. Louisa Cantwell needs a rich suitor to rescue her and her mother from impending bankruptcy, and she accidentally reveals that she has a crush on Felix. Embarrassed, she tries to avoid him, but Felix pursues her relentlessly. As Louisa begins to let down her defenses, she wonders if Felix is taking advantage of her feelings for him, or if he is falling for her as badly as she is falling for him.
For the most part, reviewers gave The Luckiest Lady in London applause, noting that Louisa and Felix make a perfect match. A Publishers Weekly contributor advised that “readers will be immersed in the story from the very first page until the breathtaking conclusion.” A Kirkus Reviews critic was equally laudatory, asserting: “Thomas delivers a masterpiece of attraction, seduction, mistrust and masks.” The reviewer went on to conclude that the novel is “a beautifully written, exquisitely seductive, powerfully romantic gem of a romance.”
In another break from more the more conventional expectations of the romance genre, My Beautiful Enemy presents a mix of adventure, sensuality, suspense, emotion, and complex storytelling. The novel’s central characters, Captain Leighton Atwood and Catherine Blade, had met years earlier in China. Leighton had been instantly smitten with this brilliant, beautiful, and mysterious young woman, who is so intent on defying the social rules that have deprived her of the freedom to make her own decisions. But Catherine had disappeared. Now, years later, she has suddenly come back into Leighton’s life, and he does not know how to respond. Longing to be her lover, he is afraid to risk having his heart broken again.
But it is impossible for Leighton to stay away from Catherine, for she desperately needs his help. In the years since their initial meeting, she has dedicated herself to the search for a set of missing jade tablets, and this quest has placed her life in danger. Leighton must join forces with Catherine to safeguard the sacred tablets and to protect her life. Writing online for RT Book Reviews, Kathe Robin hailed My Beautiful Enemy as a “wonderfully original story” with exceptional emotional power.
In The Hidden Blade, the prequel to My Beautiful Enemy, Thomas provides more details about who Catherine and Leighton really are and how they came to meet. The story begins in the 1870s and follows the parallel childhoods of its protagonists. Catherine, born as Ying-ying, is the daughter of the concubine of a high-ranking Chinese official. But the girl does not know the identity of her father, who was not Chinese. As a concubine’s child, Ying-ying has low status and few choices in life, and her rebellious nature make it all the more difficult for her to accept the limitations of her prescribed social role. Luckily, she is accepted as a martial arts pupil, and this training helps her gain important survival skills. Meanwhile, Leighton lives a seemingly easy life in a wealthy family in Sussex. But his parents are unhappy, and the boy senses that adultery and other taboos are among their secrets. An act of violence suddenly places him in his uncle’s custody, and he desperately dreams of running away to join his beloved friend, who has gone to China. As Ying-ying trains herself as an assassin, Leighton flees to China, where their inevitable encounter will lead to the uncovering of the shocking secret that they share.
Thomas has also written the “Fitzhugh” romance series, the main books of which include Beguiling the Beauty, Ravishing the Heiress, and Tempting the Bride. The series is set in the late 1800s, and among its narrative threads is that involving the complex romantic relationship between David Hillsborough (Lord Larkspear) and Helena Fitzhugh, whom David has loved since childhood. Helena, however, considers David an odious rake and cannot stand his company. Instead, she risks her reputation in an affair with another man. As time passes, David’s feelings do not change, and he eventually persuades Helena to marry him. This is what he has always wanted, but for Helena it is merely a means of rescuing her honor after she is ruined by her previous lover.
Two novellas in the series follow the adventures of other members of the Fitzhugh family. In a review of Claiming the Duchess, a prequel to the series, John Hennessy stated on the Write Thought website that Thomas “is a joy to read” and “an utterly brilliant storyteller.”
In addition to romances, Thomas has written a well-received young-adult fantasy series, the “Elemental” trilogy. In the series opener, The Burning Sky, Thomas introduces sixteen-year-old Iolanthe Seabourne, an elemental mage who can control fire. The girl has been training in secret with her drug-addled teacher, but when she accidentally summons a lightning bolt, her anonymity disappears. No mage has been able to control lightning since the ancient reign of Queen Helgira. Iolanthe is soon targeted by the Inquisitor of Atlantis, and her teacher transports her to nineteenth-century London to keep her out of the inspector’s clutches. There, she encounters another mage in hiding, Titus Elberon. The boy poses as a student at Eton College, and he is plotting the downfall of Atlantis. Titus is prophesied to be the one who will destroy the evil kingdom, but he also knows that he will die in the process. Iolanthe is reluctant to risk her life or Titus’s, but he eventually convinces her to join his cause.
The Burning Sky largely fared well with critics, and several reviewers pointed out that the first installment avoids a clichéd unresolved ending. Booklist correspondent Krista Hutley found that the “strong focus on characters and world building make this a fantasy saga to watch.” Anita L. Burkam, writing in Horn Book, was also impressed, noting that the “blend of magic, gender-bending disguise, and self-sacrificial longing will satisfy fantasy lovers.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer declared that the novel is “wonderfully satisfying” and that “Thomas’s romantic touch is sure, but she is just as adept with fantasy world-building.” In another positive review, Eliza Langhans in School Library Journal stated that The Burning Sky “thankfully lacks a cliff-hanger ending, instead promising more adventures in a vividly realized fantasy world.” Echoing this sentiment in Kirkus Reviews, a critic commended the “satisfying happy-for-now resolution that whets delicious anticipation for inevitable sequels.” The critic also felt that “teens and adults in the target audience will devour it.” Stacy Hayman observed in her Voice of Youth Advocates review: “The first page of this novel creates an exciting sense of mystery and mayhem.”
In The Perilous Sea, Prince Titus and Iolanthe are transported to a remote base in the Sahara, where they continue their struggle against the evil Bane. As a writer for Kirkus Reviews pointed out, this novel focuses more on the developing relationship between the teenage protagonists than on plot development. Iolanthe and Titus have complicated feelings toward one another, made even more difficult when they learn that they may have misunderstood the meaning of the prophecy about Titus and Atlantis. Finding the narrative fragmented and abruptly resolved, the Kirkus Reviews contributor nevertheless enjoyed the novel’s wealth of “unexpected twists, spectacular magic, witty banter, hairsbreadth escapes, star-crossed romance, [and] angst-ridden choices.” Eliza Langhans’s School Library Journal assessment of The Perilous Sea was similarly mixed. The reviewer observed that the book’s multiple viewpoints are sometimes distracting, but admired its “clever subversions of traditional fantasy plotlines” as well as its strong and engaging characters.
The “Elemental” trilogy concludes with The Immortal Heights. Iolanthe and Titus have survived the Bane’s attacks and now plan to seek him out at his Atlantis fortress. Their mission will require intelligence, bravery, and the willingness to create new alliances. It will also require the ultimate sacrifice: both Iolanthe and Titus, according to the prophecy, will die in the battle against the Bane. The plot “surges forward relentlessly,” said a writer for Kirkus Reviews, who went on to call the story’s culminating confrontation both “gloriously over-the-top and oddly mundane.” Anita L. Burkam, writing in Horn Book, said that the book’s “heightened magical action and supremely clever ruses are an ongoing delight.” Indeed, Burkam rated The Immortal Heights even more highly than the first books in the series.
In her “Lady Sherlock” series, Thomas offers an inventive take on the “Sherlock Holmes” mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle. The series follows Charlotte Holmes, an aristocratic young woman in Victorian London who solves crimes under the alias Sherlock Holmes. According to Rosalind Faires in the Austin Chronicle, “Charlotte’s adventures are just as rip- roaring [as Doyle’s] and the series’ observations about human nature—especially regarding the intricacies of female friendships—are even more compassionately and keenly drawn.”
A Study in Scarlet Women introduces Charlotte, an intelligent and keenly observant individual who opens a consulting detective business in London after a scandal causes her to be banished from her family’s estate. When her sister becomes the prime suspect in a murder, Charlotte launches her own investigation into the case. “Those looking for a very different Sherlockian lead will be rewarded,” a critic noted in Publishers Weekly, and Booklist reviewer John Charles remarked that Thomas “delivers a plot worthy of the master at his best.”
A Conspiracy in Belgravia revolves around Charlotte’s search for a married woman’s lover, who has mysteriously vanished. Charlotte’s inquiry is complicated by her relationship with the client’s husband, Lord Ingram Ashburton, a longtime friend who develops feelings for the detective. In The Hollow of Fear, Charlotte and her ally, Mrs. Watson, delve into the murder of Ingram’s estranged wife. “Readers of Victorian fiction, romance, and detective stories will each find something to draw them in,” a Kirkus Reviews contributor stated of the former title. A critique of the latter title, also in Kirkus Reviews, applauded “the spell cast by Thomas’ language and clever use of disguise to reveal a devastating understanding of human flaws and desires.”
Set in France, The Art of Theft focuses on Charlotte’s efforts to thwart a blackmailer who has hidden compromising letters behind the canvas of a valuable painting. “Fast- paced storytelling and witty prose add … appeal for those who like their historical mysteries playful,” observed a Publishers Weekly critic. In Murder on Cold Street, Charlotte comes to the aid of her comrade, Inspector Robert Treadles of Scotland Yard, who is charged with the death of two men. “The novel is sure-footed, its puzzle the most tightly structured and enjoyable of the whodunits in Thomas’ series about the gender-swapped sleuth,” a writer noted in Kirkus Reviews.
Charlotte tackles a strange assignment from her arch-nemesis in Miss Moriarty, I Presume? The villainous Moriarty asks the sleuth to locate his daughter, who was last seen among the Hermetists, an occult group. Although wary of Moriarty’s motives, Charlotte and Mrs. Watson journey to Cornwall to extract the girl. A contributor in Kirkus Reviews described the volume as “an enjoyable jigsaw puzzle in the Holmes tradition, with gothic thrills and a dash of romance.”
In The Magnolia Sword, Thomas’s reimagining of an ancient Chinese tale, Mulan—disguised as a boy—spends her life training for a duel that will determine possession of two priceless swords. The showdown is postponed, however, when war erupts and she must join the Emperor’s army under the command of the royal duke’s son, who chooses her for a dangerous covert mission. “Rich cultural references, intricate political machinations, and thrilling Wuxia elements distinguish this deftly woven Mulan retelling,” a reviewer commented in Publishers Weekly. A contributor in Kirkus Reviews stated that the author “brings new dimensions to the iconic character, weaving emotional depth and ethnic political issues into the plot.”
[open new]Thomas resumes her “Lady Sherlock” series with A Tempest at Sea, which largely follows the perspective of Lord Ingram, whose friendship with Charlotte is growing more intimate. Having faked her death to thwart Moriarty, Charlotte is laying low when she accepts an assignment from de facto British intelligence chief Lord Remington to track a missing dossier. Her search takes her to the RMS Provence, where a passenger is shot to death, graffiti offers the slightest of clues, and any one of a chessboard worth of suspects might be working for Moriarty, responsible for the murder, or both. Calling A Tempest at Sea an “entertaining read for its wheels-within-wheels structure and the drips of knowledge we are given,” a Kirkus Reviews writer remarked that “fans of the Victorian lady detective will enjoy her resurrection.”
A Ruse of Shadows finds Charlotte being interrogated by the police under suspicion of murder. A series of flashbacks explain the situation: Lord Bancroft pressured Charlotte to look for a lost man, Underling, by threatening her sister, Livia, before meeting his untimely end. Charlotte has been crisscrossing the English Channel, with disguises, rescues, and a secret tunnel playing into her activities and the circumstances surrounding Bancroft’s murder. A Kirkus Reviews writer observed that the “consistently well-drawn characters serve as an anchor” as the allusive plot unfolds, with extensive reference to the series’ previous books as well as Doyle’s story “The Final Problem.” The reviewer noted that Charlotte’s relations with her family and with flame Lord Ashburton lend a “touch of warmth to the clever but clinical jigsaw structure of the mystery.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2009, Joyce Saricks, review of Private Arrangements, p. 86; May 1, 2012, John Charles, review of Beguiling the Beauty, p. 85; September 15, 2012, John Charles, review of Tempting the Bride, p. 45; November 1, 2013, Krista Hutley, review of The Burning Sky, p. 72; November 1, 2013, John Charles, review of The Luckiest Lady in London, p. 36; October 1, 2016, John Charles, review of A Study in Scarlet Women, p. 32; September 1, 2020, Emily Melton, review of Murder on Cold Street, p. 43.
Horn Book, November-December, 2013, Anita L. Burkam, review of The Burning Sky, p. 107; September-October, 2014, Anita L. Burkam, review of The Perilous Sea, p. 122; September-October, 2015, Anita L. Burkam, review of The Immortal Heights, p. 120; September- October, 2019, Anita L. Burkam, review of The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan, p. 104.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2013, review of The Burning Sky; November 1, 2013, review of The Luckiest Lady in London; July 15, 2014, reviews of The Perilous Sea and My Beautiful Enemy; August 1, 2015, review of The Immortal Heights; September 15, 2017, review of A Conspiracy in Belgravia; August 15, 2018, review of The Hollow of Fear; July 1, 2019, review of The Magnolia Sword; September 1, 2019, review of The Art of Theft; July 1, 2020, review of Murder on Cold Street; September 1, 2021, review of Miss Moriarty, I Presume?; January 15, 2023, review of A Tempest at Sea; May 15, 2024, review of A Ruse of Shadows.
Library Journal, February 15, 2008, Bette-Lee Fox, “Q&A: Sherry Thomas,” p. 88; February 15, 2008, Kristin Ramsdell, review of Private Arrangements, p. 86; August 1, 2008, Kristin Ramsdell, review of Delicious, p. 59; June 15, 2010, Kristin Ramsdell, review of His at Night, p. 48; October 15, 2016, Stacey Hayman, review of A Study in Scarlet Women, p. 81; April, 2024, Laurel Bliss, review of A Ruse of Shadows, p. 76.
Publishers Weekly, January 14, 2008, review of Private Arrangements, p. 45; June 16, 2008, review of Delicious, p. 38; April 26, 2010, review of His at Night, p. 95; May 21, 2012, review of Ravishing the Heiress, p. 42; August 20, 2012, review of Tempting the Bride, p. 47; August 12, 2013, review of The Burning Sky, p. 63; September 30, 2013, review of The Luckiest Lady in London, p. 51; annual issue, 2013, review of The Burning Sky, p. 111; August 22, 2016, review of A Study in Scarlet Women, p. 90; August 27, 2018, review of The Hollow of Fear, p. 90; August 26, 2019, review of The Art of Theft, p. 97; November 27, 2019, review of The Magnolia Sword, p. 69; July 27, 2020, review of Murder on Cold Street, p. 41; January 30, 2023, review of A Tempest at Sea, p. 46.
School Library Journal, September, 2013, Eliza Langhans, review of The Burning Sky, p. 165; September, 2014, Eliza Langhans, review of The Perilous Sea, p. 153; September, 2015, Eliza Langhans, review of The Immortal Heights, p. 173.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2013, Stacey Hayman, review of The Burning Sky, p. 84; October, 2014, Stacey Hayman, review of The Perilous Sea, p. 90; October, 2015, Stacey Hayman, review of The Immortal Heights, p. 80.
ONLINE
All about Romance, http://allaboutromance.com/ (January 26, 2011), Rachel Potter, review of Delicious; (October 9, 2015), Caz Owens, review of The Immortal Heights.
Austin Chronicle, https://www.austinchronicle.com/ (July 13, 2018), Rosalind Faires, “Sherry Thomas Is Our Lady of Crime Solving”; (October 9, 2020), review of Murder on Cold Street.
Bookish, https://bookish.netgalley.com/ (June 17, 2020), Kelly Gallucci, “Four Authors on Writing, Plotting, and Finishing Series” (interview with Thomas).
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (October 6, 2020), G. Robert Frazier, review of Murder on Cold Street.
C.P. Lesley website, http://blog.cplesley.com/ (March 10, 2023), author interview.
Dear Author, http://dearauthor.com/ (June 24, 2010), review of His at Night; (March 21, 2023), review of A Tempest at Sea.
Edwardian Promenade, http://edwardianpromenade.com/ (July 4, 2008), author interview.
Good, the Bad and the Unread, http://goodbadandunread.com/ (January 26, 2011), “Duck Chat: The Real Sherry Thomas.”
Love Saves the World, http://www.lovesavestheworld.com/ (October 2, 2012), review of The Bride of Larkspear.
Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (September 12, 2019), Elise Dumpleton, author Q&A.
Once upon a Chapter, http://www.onceuponachapter.com/ (July 20, 2010), author interview.
Romance Reader, http://theromancereader.com/ (January 26, 2011), Dede Anderson, review of Private Arrangements; Mary Benn, review of Delicious; Cathy Sova, review of Not Quite a Husband.
RT Book Reviews, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (January 26, 2011), Kathe Robin, reviews of Private Arrangements, Delicious, His at Night, and Not Quite a Husband; (June 21, 2016), Kathe Robin, review of My Beautiful Enemy; Jaime A. Geraldi, review of The Perilous Sea; Susannah Balch, review of The Immortal Heights.
Sherry Thomas website, https://www.sherrythomas.com (June 15, 2024).
Word Wenches, http://wordwenches.typepad.com/ (September 30, 2008), author interview.
Write Thought, http://johnhennessybooks.blogspot.com/ (April 29, 2014), John Hennessy, review of Claiming the Duchess; (April 25, 2016), John Hennessy, review of A Dance in Moonlight.
Sherry Thomas
Sherry arrived on American soil at age thirteen. Within a year, with whatever English she'd scraped together and her trusty English-Chinese dictionary by her side, she was already plowing her way through the 600-page behemoth historical romances of the day. The vocabulary she gleaned from those stories of unquenchable ardor propelled her to great successes on the SAT and the GRE and came in very handy when she turned to writing romances herself.
She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two sons. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, playing computer games with her boys, and reading some more.
Genres: Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Young Adult Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Romance
New and upcoming books
June 2024
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A Ruse of Shadows
(Lady Sherlock, book 8)
Series
Marsden Brothers
1. Delicious (2008)
2. Not Quite a Husband (2009)
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London Trilogy
1. The Luckiest Lady in London (2013)
2. Private Arrangements (2008)
3. His at Night (2010)
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Fitzhugh Trilogy
0.5. Claiming the Duchess (2014)
1. Beguiling the Beauty (2012)
2. Ravishing the Heiress (2012)
2.6. The Bride Of Larkspear (2012)
3. Tempting the Bride (2012)
4. A Dance in Moonlight (2013)
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Elemental Trilogy
1. The Burning Sky (2013)
2. The Perilous Sea (2014)
3. The Immortal Heights (2015)
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Heart of Blade
1. The Hidden Blade (2014)
2. My Beautiful Enemy (2014)
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Lady Sherlock
1. A Study In Scarlet Women (2016)
2. A Conspiracy in Belgravia (2017)
3. The Hollow of Fear (2018)
4. The Art of Theft (2019)
5. Murder on Cold Street (2020)
6. Miss Moriarty, I Presume? (2021)
7. A Tempest at Sea (2023)
8. A Ruse of Shadows (2024)
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Novels
The One in My Heart (2015)
The Magnolia Sword (2019)
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Collections
Midnight Scandals (2012) (with Carolyn Jewel and Courtney Milan)
Sight Unseen (2017) (with others)
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Novellas and Short Stories
The Heart Is a Universe (2017)
Sherry Thomas
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sherry Thomas
Thomas at the 2019 Texas Book Festival
Thomas at the 2019 Texas Book Festival
Born 1975 (age 48–49)
Qingdao, Shandong, China
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Alma mater Louisiana State University, University of Texas at Austin
Period 2008–present
Genre Young adult fantasy, Historical romance, Contemporary romance
Notable awards RITA award – Best Historical Romance
2010 Not Quite a Husband
RITA award – Best Historical Romance
2011 His at Night
Signature
Website
sherrythomas.com
Sherry M. Thomas (born 1975) is an American novelist of young adult fantasy, historical romance, and contemporary romance. She has won multiple awards including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for Not Quite a Husband in 2010 and His at Night in 2011.[1]
In an article in The New York Times, romance author Sarah MacLean stated Thomas is known for her "lush style,"[2] and in USA Today romance author Madeline Hunter said she is "critically acclaimed as one of historical romance's best writers."[3]
A native of China, Thomas emigrated to the United States at thirteen and learned English reading romance novels. She published her first novel in 2008, English-set Victorian romances, and in 2013, she branched into young adult fantasy. In 2014, she diverged from her traditional historical settings to publish a series set in Imperial China. Common themes in her work include unrequited love, love betrayal, and fate.
Biography
Early life
Qingdao highlighted in red, with Shandong province in orange
Thomas was born in 1975 in Qingdao, Shandong, China.[4] Thomas recalls that her grandmother did the crossword puzzles in China's official English-language newspaper.[5] In 1984, Thomas's mother went to the United States to study, financed by Thomas's paternal great aunt.[5] Thomas remained in China until her grandmother died in 1988, and she emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen.[5] Her mother was in graduate school at Louisiana State University.[6]
Thomas improved her English by reading science fiction and romance novels, including those by Rosemary Rogers.[6] Thomas reportedly read Rogers' novel Sweet Savage Love using a Chinese-English dictionary.[7] Thomas found English-language romance books interesting due to their departure from Chinese cultural understandings of courtship. "I was quite surprised later to discover that the hero and the heroine in a romance weren’t required to hate each other for 600 pages running."[5]
She received her BS in economics from Louisiana State University and earned her master's degree in accounting at University of Texas at Austin.[8]
Personal life
She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and sons.[9][10]
Writing career
Thomas stated that when she sold her first novel to Bantam in the summer of 2006, she had written five failed manuscripts in seven years. One of those was "Heart of Blade", which she later revamped into The Hidden Blade and My Beautiful Enemy. But in 2006, her first story to sell was "Schemes of Love" which was retitled as Private Arrangements. It took her ten months to write, and she found representation with Kristin Nelson with the Nelson Literary Agency. Nelson sold it in a preempt to Bantam twenty-five days after receiving the query from Thomas.[11][12]
Though scheduled for a Fall 2007 release,[12] Private Arrangements was published March 25, 2008. Publishers Weekly's starred review called it "steamy and smart" and they named it the Best Book of 2008 as well as Best First Historical Romance of 2008. Romantic Times called it a "dazzling debut".[13][14][15][16]
She followed with the release of Delicious that summer. Romantic Times made it a Top Pick and said it placed "her among the very finest of the next generation of authors."[17] She published Not Quite a Husband in May 2009, which won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Historical Romance in 2010, her first RITA. Reviews were generally favorable, and Romantic Times named it as one of the Innovative Historical Romance nominees for 2009 and noted the "musical quality" of its prose.[18]
In May 2010, His at Night was released. While it won the RITA Award, it received mixed reviews. USA Today praised it for its flawed heroine, whereas Publishers Weekly thought aspects felt contrived but that "when hero and heroine actually connect, the humorous, graceful writing transcends a creaky plot." Romantic Times named it a Top Pick with 4 1/2 stars.[19][20][21]
Up until then, she had been releasing stand-alone historical romances with Bantam, but in 2012, she moved to Berkley, who launched her first series, the Fitzhugh trilogy. All three books were released in the same year, Beguiling the Beauty, Ravishing the Heiress, and Tempting the Bride. The latter earned the Romantic Times October Seal of Excellence.[22] Thomas supplemented the trilogy with digital releases. Two were through her agency, The Bride of Larkspear (2012) and A Dance in Moonlight (2013), and the third self-published, Claiming the Duchess (2014).
Berkley published another stand-alone release, The Luckiest Lady in London in November 2013. The New York Times said "The Chinese-born Thomas is known for a lush style that demonstrates her love of her second language, and this novel edges into historical fiction with its transporting prose even as it delivers on heat and emotion and a well-earned happily ever after". It also received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, who named it one of the best romances of 2013, and USA Today felt it was "one of her strongest". Library Journal named it one of the top 10 romances of 2013, calling it "deeply insightful and exquisitely crafted."[2][23][24][25]
In the fall of 2013, Thomas branched into writing young adult fantasy books, and Publishers Weekly said of The Burning Sky: "As expected, Thomas’s romantic touch is sure, but she is just as adept with fantasy world-building, carrying the banners of Anne McCaffrey and Caroline Stevermer, among others, in a wonderfully satisfying magical saga".[26]
Kirkus Reviews said The Burning Sky "bids fair to be the next big epic fantasy success",[27] but said of The Perilous Sea:
Themes of identity and memory, destiny and choice tie together the two stories, told in alternating chapters with ubiquitous cliffhangers. When the storylines finally intersect, the resolution is so abrupt as to be almost anticlimactic; but the dramatic, defiant conclusion will stoke anticipation for the next volume. With all the strengths and failings alike of the first book, only ever-so-much more so, this aims directly at its fans and will not likely pick up new ones.[28]
USA Today felt that The Burning Sky was first and foremost a romance – "the steam, the chemistry and the passion are at the center" – with the fantasy secondary, and for that reason would be enjoyed best by romance fans, not hard-core fantasy fans.[29] Young adult author Jodi Meadows named the main couple in this series as her top three favorite couples in a young adult book.[30]
The release of The Hidden Blade and My Beautiful Enemy in the summer of 2014 marked a departure from her traditionally-set historical romances with these set in imperial China. In an interview on Kirkus, she revealed that she had written My Beautiful Enemy before she was published, intending it to be a series spanning twenty years.[6] "That story stayed under my bed. Like most everything I wrote back then, the core idea was sound, but the execution was a hot mess," she said in an interview in USAToday.[3] In 2013, she revised it into "a more intense romance. However, it was always intended to be an English version of a Chinese wuxia novel, with a heroic female spin."[6]
It received mixed reviews, with NPR calling it "a bold new direction for Thomas, yet maintains the emotional intensity she is celebrated for".[31] Kirkus Reviews felt the villain was its main weakness, but that its complex characters was its strength and called it "[a] thought-provoking exploration of gender roles in the East and West and in the historical romance genre. It's also a darn good read".[32]
Library Journal named it one of the Top 10 romances of 2014, calling it, "a spellbinding, lyrically composed romantic adventure. Flashbacks to Chinese Turkestan add an exotic, mesmerizing touch".[33] In its original starred review, it said
With incisive character development, deft pacing, and lyrical, nearly poetic prose, Thomas transports readers between remote, breathtaking Chinese Turkestan and teeming late Victorian London. A gripping, mesmerizing romance that is one of Thomas’s most unforgettable yet.[9]
2015 marked another departure with her self-published release in April of a contemporary romance, The One in My Heart.
Thomas's views on writing
"I write complex situations with no pat solutions because they are what interest me as a reader: hard choices and what people do in the face of such hard choices. I am a seat-of-the-pants writer, so I’m always uncertain how I’ll bring it together. In the end, the characters themselves must have the strength and maturity to choose the right path."
- Sherry Thomas[5]
Thomas once discussed the challenges of writing in an historical setting other than Regency England:
If I just said the Northwest Frontier of British India or Chinese Turkestan, most people would be drawing a blank. What kind of terrain are we dealing with? What kind of climate? What kind of people would the [hero and heroine] come across? So yes, more work is necessary to world-build, but only so that my readers would be able to visualize and understand the setting.[34]
As far as her writing habits, she revealed that she is not the type who writes every day, and enjoys taking days off when she can. For The Hidden Blade she was on a tight deadline and only slept for two hours a day, several days in a row, so afterward in an interview she said, "not writing for at least a week or so seems like heaven!"[3]
On the appeal of romance, she said it might be attributable to not just the "emotionally fulfilling reading experience" but also the escape to a different time and place. With historical romances particularly, she said, "I will also posit that since marriage was so final and divorce so difficult — and women's lives so much more restricted — the stakes around a romance were higher in Ye Olde Times."[3]
"Some of the most illuminating and profoundly moving moments I’ve lived through have come from reading romances. Because learning to love another person is one of the most deep-reaching, surprising, and sublime of human experiences. And because the genre boasts some of the best writers working today."
- Sherry Thomas[4]
While Rogers's novels acted as her gateway to the romance genre, it was reading Laura Kinsale and Judith Ivory that convinced her to set her historical romances in England:
I fell in love with the turn-of-the-century setting ... I adore that it was a time of tremendous advances in scientific understanding and technological capability—in Private Arrangements, for example, there is an automobile—and yet people still lived under a formality that is exotic and almost incomprehensible to us here in 21st-century America. That formality sets off a wonderful tension for a writer to explore the sexual charge in a look, a word, a hand held a fraction too long.[5]
When it comes to world building for historical romances, she points to several elements that can assist the writer with effectively setting the reader in another time: showing practices and habits we frown upon today; practices we find acceptable today that they frowned upon; showing the similarities; using the correct forms of address; and, showing the cost of living. But she cautions that above all, the story must work or the reader will not care about the details. She studies how authors like Laura Kinsale, Courtney Milan, Judith Ivory, Ariana Franklin, and Laurie R. King integrate historical world-building into their narratives.[35]
Thomas has described herself as being drawn to reading and writing about characters who have more going on beneath the surface than is first apparent—what she calls the "I-didn't-know-that-about-you moment".[36]
Writing style
" 'My brother gave up the love of his life to marry an heiress. His wife, I suspect, has been in unrequited love with him all along. And my sister, God help us all, loves a married man. Compared to them, my loneliness seems terribly tame, something to be borne cheerfully.' She drew little circles on his arm—or were those hearts? 'What of you? Have you ever been lonely? Or have you been too self-sufficient to notice?' "
– The Duke of Lexington in Beguiling the Beauty referring to characters that would feature in Ravishing the Heiress and Tempting the Bride respectively[37]
Thomas's writing is often described as lyrical, lush, musical, graceful, rich, evocative, with unique metaphors and turns of phrase. Author Kiersten Hallie Krum asserted that Thomas, along with Joanna Bourne and Meredith Duran, make up the forefront of a new wave in historical romance fiction strong in lyrical prose.
Her elegant turn of phrase lifts the storytelling to new heights. Her novels are a lexicon of delight. Her unique word choice is that one step to the left that eschews the boring in favor of the unexpected; "unsighted" rather than the mere "blind" or "a high castle wall of a smile," wholly original and yet instantly recognizable. The cadence of her sentences seduce a reader as surely as any romantic hero until you want to lay down on the nearest flat surface and simply succumb as her prose takes you, Calagon-like, away.[2][18][20][38][39]
She also writes heroines who are deeply flawed as well as being unconventional, and will also break some of romance's rules. For instance, in Private Arrangements the hero and hero are estranged and take on other lovers.[38]
Criticisms of her novels typically center on weak or contrived plot points, not on her prose.[20][39][40]
Writing themes
"Perhaps unrequited love was like a specter in the house, a presence that brushed at the edge of senses, a heat in the dark, a shadow under the sun."
― Sherry Thomas, Ravishing the Heiress
One common theme that runs through many of her novels is of a couple whose love has been betrayed somehow in the past, and the novel starts years after that estrangement or betrayal. The events of the novel force them to recognize past faults and rekindle their love.[16] Unrequited love has been a factor Tempting the Bride, Beguiling the Beauty, Not Quite a Husband, and Ravishing the Heiress.[41][42]
Luckiest Lady in London contains strong themes of how women in Victorian England are under immense pressure to meet high ideals that can have disastrous consequences.[43] Some have noted that Thomas can craft a beautiful story using common themes, and in this book it was a poor girl marrying a wealthy man: "Thomas then adds great dialogue and human frailty, and creates entrancing stories that are completely addictive."[44]
In The Elemental Trilogy, the books explore the concept of identity, fate, and free will.[45]
Bibliography
Historical Romance
The Fitzhughs
0.5 Claiming the Duchess. Self-published. April 2014. ISBN 9781631280054.
1 Beguiling the Beauty. Berkley Sensation. May 2012. ISBN 9780425246962.
2 Ravishing the Heiress. Berkley. July 2012. ISBN 9780425250877.
2.5 A Dance in Moonlight. NLA Digital, LLC. March 2013. ISBN 9781620510759.
3 Tempting the Bride. Berkley. October 2012. ISBN 9780425251027.
3.5 The Bride of Larkspear. NLA Digital, LLC. November 2012. ISBN 9781620510551.
Heart of Blade Duology
1. The Hidden Blade. Self-published. July 2014. ISBN 9781631280085.
2. My Beautiful Enemy. Berkley. August 2014. ISBN 9780425268896.
The London Trilogy
1. The Luckiest Lady in London. Berkley. November 2013. ISBN 9780425268889.
2. Private Arrangements. Bantam. March 2008. ISBN 9780440244318.
3. His at Night. Bantam. May 2010. ISBN 9780553592443.
The Marsdens
Delicious. Bantam. August 2008. ISBN 9780440244325.
Not Quite a Husband. Bantam. May 2009. ISBN 9780553592436.
The Lady Sherlock Series
1. A Study in Scarlet Women. Berkley. October 2016. ISBN 9780425281406.
2. A Conspiracy in Belgravia. Berkley. September 2017. ISBN 9780425281413.
3. The Hollow of Fear. Berkley. October 2018. ISBN 9780425281420.
4. The Art of Theft. Berkley. October 2019. ISBN 9780451492470.
5. Murder on Cold Street. Berkley. October 2020. ISBN 9780451492494.
6. Miss Moriarty, I Presume?. Berkley. November 2021. ISBN 9780593200599.
7. A Tempest At Sea. Berkley. March 2023. ISBN 9780593200605.
Standalone Contemporary Romance
The One in My Heart. Self-published. April 2015. ISBN 9781631280139.
Young Adult Fantasy
The Elemental Trilogy
1. The Burning Sky. Balzar + Bray. September 2013. ISBN 9780062207296.
2. The Perilous Sea. Balzar + Bray. September 2014. ISBN 9780062329387.
3. The Immortal Heights. Balzar + Bray. October 2015. ISBN 9780062207357.
Awards and reception
"My keeper is Sherry Thomas' Delicious. This story sticks with me for the beauty of language, Sherry's unique insights into the human heart and, of course, all that decadent 'food porn'!"
— Mia Marlowe[46]
"I used to dread starting a new Judith McNaught novel because I was confident it would rip my heart from my chest but was likewise knew the HEA denouement would be well worth the agony. Ditto Sherry’s novels. Yet this is not reinvention; rather, Sherry Thomas is writing old skool romances with new skool sensibilities in a marriage of no amount of convenience but one guaranteed to bring hours and hours of reading delight. Perversely, you’ll love and thank her for wrecking your heart."
- Kiersten Hallie Krum[38]
2008: Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award First Historical Romance for Private Arrangements[16]
2008: Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2008 for Private Arrangements
2010: Romance Writers of America, RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for Not Quite a Husband[1]
2011: Romance Writers of America, RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for His At Night[1]
2012: Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Innovative Historical Romance for Tempting the Bride
2012: Library Journal Librarian's Best Romance Books of the Year for Tempting the Bride
2013: Library Journal Top 10 Romances of the year for The Luckiest Lady in London
2014: Library Journal Top 10 Romances of the year for My Beautiful Enemy
She has received starred reviews for several titles from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal and as of 2015, has finaled four times in RITA Award contest.[47] Her books are often cited by other romance authors as their top favorites. Says Laura Griffin, "Sherry Thomas is one of my go-to historical romance authors because of her smart characters."[41][46][48][49]
USA Today-bestselling author Sherry Thomas decided that her goal in life is to write every kind of book she enjoys reading. Thus far she has published romance, fantasy, mystery, and a wuxia-inspired duology. Her books regularly receive starred reviews and best-of-the-year honors from trade publications, including such outlets as the New York Times and National Public Radio. She is also a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award.
Sherry immigrated from China at age 13 and English is her second language.
FAQ
What is Sherry currently working on?
June 2020: Sherry will start book 6 of the Lady Sherlock mysteries as soon as she can dig herself out of this BTS hole!
When are Sherry’s new book(s) coming out?
The Lady Sherlock books are typically released in fall.
How can I find autographed copies of Sherry’s books?
Hurry to this page before September 9, 2019. After that, if you cannot come to a signing or a bookstore that has recently hosted a signing, probably your best bet is to send for a signed bookplate. See below.
Can I get bookplates/bookmarks/etc. for Sherry’s books?
Click here for directions.
Who are Sherry’s editors?
Kerry Donovan at Berkley edits the Lady Sherlock books. Cheryl Klein of Lee & Low edited THE MAGNOLIA SWORD. Donna Bray of Balzer+Bray edited the Elemental Trilogy. Wendy McCurdy edited Sherry's five romances published with Berkley. Sherry's first four romances were edited by Caitlin Alexander, formerly of Bantam Books. Caitlin is now a freelance editor and you can find out about her services here.
MIDNIGHT SCANDALS is edited by Robin Harders. THE HEART IS A UNIVERSE is edited by May Peterson. THE LUCKIEST LADY IN LONDON, THE BRIDE OF LARKSPEAR, THE HIDDEN BLADE, and THE ONE IN MY HEART were edited by Tiffany Yates Martin of FoxPrintEditorial.com.
Sherry must also offer her undying gratitude to her critique partner Janine Ballard, without whose valuable input, HIS AT NIGHT, TEMPTING THE BRIDE, MY BEAUTIFUL ENEMY, THE BURNING SKY, THE ONE IN MY HEART, and the Lady Sherlock books would not be the books that they are.
Who is Sherry’s agent?
The brilliant Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency. If you are a writer, you should read her blog. Edited to add: The world of social media changes fast and Kristin isn’t blogging as frequently as she used to. But you can find her insights and updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Who designs and maintains this website?
This website is designed and coded by Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs. Sherry does the upkeep herself. Mistakes and broken links should be brought to her attention.
Friday, March 10, 2023
Interview with Sherry Thomas
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series, despite having encountered them almost by accident. As with Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell, the charm of Charlotte Holmes more than makes up for the fact that I am not in fact nearly so enchanted with the original Conan Doyle stories. Since the moment I picked up A Study in Scarlet Women—even the title is a delightful nod to the series’ light-heartedness—I have embraced this slightly skewed but always entertaining view of the Great Detective.
I talked with Sherry Thomas when the previous book, Miss Moriarty, I Presume?, came out, and you can hear that conversation at the New Books Network. But whether you listen there or not, do read on to find out more about the series as a whole and the latest installment, A Tempest at Sea, in particular. And if you read madly all weekend, you’ll be ready when the book releases next Tuesday, March 14, from Berkley Publishing!
This is your seventh mystery featuring Charlotte Holmes. People who’d like to know more about the series can listen to our podcast interview on the New Books Network, but can you provide a short summary/refresher of who Charlotte is and how she becomes Sherlock Holmes?
Of course! Everybody under the sun has a take on the great consulting detective and the Lady Sherlock series is my entry into the wild, wild world of Sherlock Holmes pastiche.
Believe it or not, I’d originally intended for my gender-bent Holmes to be a teenage girl living in the suburbs of contemporary Austin, TX. But then my YA editor told me that mysteries don’t sell very well in YA, so I decided that I would write my Lady Sherlock for the adult commercial market. In order to capitalize on my historical romance readership, my Lady Sherlock mysteries would be set in the Victorian era, in the 1880s, the time period of the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories.
But that was when women had very limited public roles. What kind of a woman would become a consulting detective? Wouldn’t her family object? And what about the general public? Would they entrust their thorniest problems to a female investigator?
Thus was born Charlotte Holmes’s backstory. In pursuit of some agency over her life, a scandal erupts and she becomes an outcast and has to run away from home in order to avoid being locked up for the rest of her life.
But then her downfall turns into her salvation, as in this new wilderness she finds herself, and she encounters the lovely Mrs. Watson, former demimondaine, who encourages her to monetize her powers of observation and deduction. Who, in fact, puts up her own money so that Charlotte can hang out her shingle as Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective. The nominal Sherlock Holmes is explained away as a bedridden invalid and Charlotte, his “sister” and oracle, then very logically receives clients on “his” behalf and leaves the house for investigations when such is called for.
And why does Charlotte board the Provence?
Professor Moriarty featured very little in the canon stories but has become an iconic character for any modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation. So in the first six Lady Sherlock books, those two potential archenemies orbited ever closer to each other, until things came to a head in book 6, Miss Moriarty, I Presume?
In the wake of those events, Charlotte has been lying low. Until she gets something of an irresistible offer—help the crown retrieve an important dossier of documents, and the crown will tell Moriarty to back off.
But this dossier proves harder to find than she originally anticipates, and her last lead leads her straight to the RMS Provence. She is in disguise, trying to find the dossier while eluding Moriarty’s minions. But during a storm-tossed night in the Bay of Biscay, a murder happens aboard the Provence. So now instead of investigating a murder, she has to try to avoid being swept up in the investigation as well.
One character we didn’t get to talk about during the interview, because we ran out of time, is Charlotte’s sister Olivia (Livia) Holmes. Livia is quite different from Charlotte in personality. How would you characterize her and her role in the novels? And what does she seek from her steamship voyage?
Charlotte is fearless and largely immune to peer pressure—she is Sherlock Holmes, after all. Livia, on the other hand, stands for all the wonderful women I’ve met in my life and career who do not see how wonderful they are and who have lost a portion of their self-belief along the way because they have for one reason or another been criminally undervalued.
Charlotte ran away from the oppressive Holmes household. Livia, however, is the dutiful, browbeaten daughter who has stayed. Their wonderful cousin Mrs. Newell invites Livia to accompany her on this ocean voyage. At the beginning of the trip, all Livia is hoping for is a lovely respite from her parents. But at the end of the books, she will be asking for a great deal more.
Trouble starts even before everyone boards the steamer, and Livia is the one who witnesses it. Who is Roger Shrewsbury, and how does he come into conflict with his future fellow passengers, the Arkwrights?
Roger Shrewsbury is one of the people Livia despises the most, because he unwittingly compromised Charlotte, leading to Charlotte’s exile from polite society. But he isn’t remotely evil, just a complete dumbass, one from a privileged enough background to have never really needed to grow up.
On the day of the Provence’s departure from Southampton, when passengers are gathered in the hotel lobby, waiting to be ferried to the pier, Shrewsbury simply can’t stop staring at Miss Arkwright. And when her brother—Mr. Arkwright, an Australian millionaire—angrily demands why Shrewsbury is so rudely gaping, Shrewsbury blurts out that it’s because he has seen Miss Arkwright before, as the centerpiece at a bachelor party—the naked centerpiece, no less.
Even today, in most places and most circles, this would be a bombshell announcement, let alone in Victorian England, where people covered up piano legs because they were, well, legs.
Needless to say, trouble ensues!
To Charlotte’s and Livia’s dismay, their mother, Lady Holmes, also finds her way onto the boat. What troubles them about her being there?
On a most visceral level, Livia is dismayed because it tries her soul to be around Lady Holmes, especially as the unmarried daughter Lady Holmes deeply disdains.
Charlotte, who is in disguise and does not have to deal with Lady Holmes as a dutiful daughter, is more concerned about how and why Lady Holmes has turned up on the Provence.
Lady Holmes has no use for foreign travel. And she has no money to afford tickets for herself and her maid. Yet here she is, on a steamer bound for Egypt and India. Who put her on the Provence and what is their purpose?
No Lady Sherlock novel would be complete without Lord Ingram Ashburton. He too is traveling by sea, with his children and their nanny. Will you tell us a bit about his contribution to this story?
This is Lord Ingram’s most prominent outing in the entire series. Charlotte, in disguise, has to maintain a low profile. Which leaves Lord Ingram to participate in the murder investigation in an official capacity, and we will be seeing a good bit of how it unfolds from his point of view.
Last but not least, we have Mr. Gregory, who is assigned to help Charlotte whether she needs him or not, and Inspector Brighton, who has been more adversary than assistant in previous books. What can you tell us about them?
Readers first met Inspector Brighton, a ruthless Scotland Yard investigator, in book 5 of the series. In this book he is headed to Malta to train the local constabulary in modern detection methods and the Provence happens to be his ride. So when the murder happens, the captain asks him to take charge of the matter.
Mr. Gregory is referred to at times as The Great Lover in the book. He is a very handsome older gentleman who has had a storied career as a seducer in the crown’s more clandestine services. 😀
I love this entire series, so I hope Charlotte will accept many more cases. Will she, and will you give us a hint of what mystery will occupy her next?
Thank you! I have just recently signed the contract for books 8 and 9 in the series, so there will be two more books at least.
And I wish I could tell you more about what will happen in book 8, but I am still trying to wrap my own head around what seems a very fractured plot at the moment. (No worries, it’s always like that at the beginning of a Lady Sherlock book.) But from what I have written so far it seems like Charlotte herself might be in a bit of trouble, as in she might have to account for her movements and whatnot to the police.
We shall see!
Thank you so much for answering my questions!
It is my very great pleasure. Thank you for having me and thank you for your support of the series!
Sherry Thomas is the author of historical romances, YA fantasy, and the Lady Sherlock series, which begins with A Study in Scarlet Women. Find out more about her at https://sherrythomas.com.
Photograph © Jennifer Sparks Harriman.
Thomas, Sherry A RUSE OF SHADOWS Berkley (Fiction None) $18.00 6, 25 ISBN: 9780593640432
A mystery that unwinds in reverse adds new twists to Thomas' Sherlock Holmes-inspired series.
The new Charlotte Holmes novel continues the tense chess game that the gender-flipped Sherlock is playing with Moriarty and an incarcerated acquaintance turned villain. The events are narrated as a series of flashbacks interspersed with an interrogation in which Charlotte is under suspicion of murder. While her friend Inspector Treadles nervously observes, a senior policeman grills the unflappable detective about her recent movements. Even as she gives him a bland account of why she's crisscrossed the English Channel in recent weeks, readers get drips of information about what she and her family and friends have been up to, all building to a reveal. Two other seemingly unrelated mystery subplots enter the picture, but it's evident that new events and characters are connected to familiar ones from the past. With allusions to previous novels in the Lady Sherlock series and hat tips to Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem" and the Guy Ritchie movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the plot can be hard to follow, especially for new readers. The consistently well-drawn characters serve as an anchor, and the occasional glimpse of Charlotte's love for her family and her lover, Lord Ingram Ashburton, adds a needed touch of warmth to the clever but clinical jigsaw structure of the mystery.
Demands a careful reading and knowledge of the Victorian lady detective's history.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Thomas, Sherry: A RUSE OF SHADOWS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A793537087/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=29129ac7. Accessed 25 May 2024.
Thomas, Sherry. A Ruse of Shadows. Berkley. (Lady Sherlock Series, Bk. 8). Jun. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593640432. pap. $18. M
Thomas's eighth "Lady Sherlock" mystery (following A Tempest at Sea) has heroine Charlotte Holmes looking like the prime suspect in the murder of Lord Bancroft. But the story goes back further, to the disappearance of one of Bancroft's underlings, aptly named Underwood. By threatening Charlotte's sister, Bancroft pressures Charlotte into looking for Underwood. She enlists her usual crew (Mrs. Watson, Lord Ingram, et al.) to investigate Underwood's vanishing. Multiple disguises, a couple of daring rescues, a secret tunnel to a bank vault, plus a touch of romance make for an exciting adventure. Still in the picture is Professor Moriarity, a clear and present danger to the Holmes family and their loved ones. Thomas carefully structures her novel with multiple flashbacks, but there is too much recapping of events and telling (rather than showing) what happens. On the plus side, Thomas's intricate story is populated with complex and engaging secondary characters both new and returning. They are the draw, more so than the plot. VERDICT Understanding this historical mystery requires thorough knowledge of the rest of the series, so it's best for devoted fans.--Laurel Bliss
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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Bliss, Laurel. "A Ruse of Shadows." Library Journal, vol. 149, no. 4, Apr. 2024, p. 76. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788953999/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c8ef5ab2. Accessed 25 May 2024.
A Tempest at Sea
Sherry Thomas. Berkley, $17 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-20060-5
Set in 1887, Thomas's routine seventh Lady Sherlock mystery (after 2021 's Miss Moriarty, I Presume?) finds Charlotte Holmes, who has pretended that there was a Sherlock Holmes whom she assisted while actually conducting the inquiries herself, still faking her death following a confrontation with Professor Moriarty in the previous book. While keeping her survival a secret, Charlotte accepts a request from Lord Remington, the man responsible for most of the British Empire's intelligence-gathering, who wants het to trace a sensitive missing dossier. The trail leads her to the RMS Provence, a vessel traveling from Southampton to Gibraltar On board, her assignment takes a different tack when a passenger is shot to death; the killer left some graffiti on an adjacent wall, including the words common and vulgar. The need to solve the murder complicates the initial mission. The prose can be awkward ("How incompetent must a man be, to turn a simple hymen breaching into one of the biggest Society scandals in years?"), and the characters aren't much more than stock types. Readers interested in a gender-flipped Holmes will be better served by Claire O'Dell's more imaginative Sara Holmes novels. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"A Tempest at Sea." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 5, 30 Jan. 2023, p. 46. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A737039711/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=60a027eb. Accessed 25 May 2024.
Thomas, Sherry A TEMPEST AT SEA Berkley (Fiction None) $16.99 3, 14 ISBN: 9780593200605
Murder on the high seas adds a twist to a bigger game of international intrigue in the new Lady Sherlock novel.
Still in hiding after having faked her own death in Cornwall, secret sleuth Charlotte Holmes is on the RMS Provence, working a shipboard mission whose successful completion will let her return to her life. Lord Ingram Ashburton, her friend and now lover, is onboard, too, as are some other allies and family members. Thomas also adds a new group of characters to the chessboard, any of whom may be in the criminal syndicate run by Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, or have ties to a homicide that occurs on the ship on a stormy night. Told from a third-person perspective that largely stays by Lord Ingram's side as he is drafted into the investigation while trying to keep Charlotte from being discovered, the novel occasionally switches to Charlotte's sister Livia's anxious point of view. Charlotte herself is more of a cipher in this installment, with the reader as ignorant of her thoughts or actions as most of the people onboard. While her personality and behavior remain consistent with the earlier books--though she's more expressive about her feelings for Lord Ingram--the nonlinear plot and the numerous scenes without her keep the reader at a distance. We do not always know what Charlotte has done and learned in the process of looking for clues until the final reveal. Reminiscent of forced-proximity stories like Christie's Death on the Nile or the game and miniseries Clue, the novel is an entertaining read for its wheels-within-wheels structure and the drips of knowledge we are given.
Fans of the Victorian lady detective will enjoy her resurrection.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Thomas, Sherry: A TEMPEST AT SEA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A733021519/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b0525c0f. Accessed 25 May 2024.
March 21, 2023
REVIEW: A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas
JennieB- REVIEWS / BOOK REVIEWSClosed circle mystery / murder mystery / POC author / Series / Sherlock Holmes / Victorian mystery3 Comments
DISCLOSURE: I am Sherry Thomas’s critique partner and critiqued this manuscript but I have not contributed to this review. —Janine.
Dear Sherry Thomas:
This is the seventh book in the Lady Sherlock series, and when I found out it was set on a ship, I was excited. I like closed circle mysteries, though I just discovered that phrase. I knew this wasn’t quite a locked room mystery, so I did some sleuthing (see what I did there?) to discover the term. There’s something elegant about a well-done closed circle mystery. I think I may have also hoped that the mystery here would be easier to follow with a limited number of characters and elements at play. (I am on record as finding the books in this series somewhat hard on my brain; I always need the resolution explained to me at the end, preferably in detail and using simple words.)
I was definitely wrong in assuming that the mystery would be less byzantine than usual.
Charlotte Holmes has boarded the RMS Provence in Southampton with a mission: to retrieve an important dossier for the British government. In the previous book in the series, Miss Moriarty, I Presume , Charlotte faked her own death (with the help of her friends) to escape the deadly attentions of supervillain Moriarty. Now she has been given an opportunity to return to life under the protection of the government, but only if she finds the papers they seek. Her target is a German governess traveling with two young charges.
Due to being supposedly dead, Charlotte is in disguise when she appears publicly aboard the ship. She’s not alone of course; others of her coterie on board include her companion and partner in crime(solving), Mrs. Watson, her lover and friend Lord Ingram Ashburton, and her sister Livia and her distant relative Mrs. Newell.
There are others aboard who are not strangers to Charlotte: Roger Shrewsbury and his wife are traveling aboard the Provence. In book one of the series, Charlotte had Roger deflower her for reasons that are a little fuzzy in my brain but I think had to do with her desire to avoid being married off by her parents. Unfortunately, they were discovered by Mrs. Shrewsbury, and Charlotte was very publicly ruined. Not that she minded much, as it has allowed her to slip into her Sherlock Holmes persona and live independently of her awful parents.
Speaking of which, Charlotte’s awful, terrible mother and her maid, Norbert, show up at the last minute, sailing very unexpectedly eastward. Since the cost of the trip is beyond Lady Holmes’ meager funds, her presence is particularly unsettling. How did she manage to book passage, and why?
Also aboard is Inspector Brighton of Scotland Yard, who served as an antagonist in book five in the series, Murder on Cold Street. He comes to the forefront of the story when a murder occurs during the ship’s first storm-tossed night out of harbor.
But I’m not done with the characters yet! I think I covered previously appearing ones; here are the new characters:
Mr. Arkwright and his sister Miss Arkwright – we first see them in a hotel near the docks before they board the ship. He is a wealthy self-made man traveling back to his home in Australia with his recently rediscovered sister, whom he had left in England years before. Roger Shrewsbury inadvertently and very publicly insults the sister in the hotel lobby and gets a punch in the face from Mr. Arkwright for his trouble.
Mr. Russell, a nasty snobbish man who is traveling with the Shrewsburys; he’s Mrs. Shrewsbury’s cousin.
Mr. Gregory, a dapper middle-aged gentleman who attracts the attention of several women on board.
Frau Schmidt, the aforementioned governess, and her two charges.
Mr. Pratt, about whom I recall nothing except that he was sniffing around Miss Arkwright, likely because of her brother’s wealth.
Various other minor characters: a valet, the ship’s captain, the ship’s doctor, a couple of army officers that appear in a few scenes…I think that’s it.
So, approaching two dozen characters. One of my notes, late in the book when a character is mentioned, was simply, “who?”
As mentioned, a murder occurs on the first night at sea, and fingers start to be pointed everywhere. This both complicates Charlotte’s task (remember the dossier?) and imperils her secret identity. With Inspector Brighton interviewing everyone on board, how long can she avoid being unmasked?
Ash manages to get himself into the interviews as the Inspector’s notetaker, as well as sort of a informal junior detective on the case. I thought that was a little weird, given their antagonistic relationship during Murder on Cold Street, but it does give him the opportunity to brief Holmes on the findings and perform a little misdirection in order to protect her secret.
The story becomes a race against time, as Charlotte and Ash work to solve the murder before her identity is uncovered. The ship is approaching Gibraltar, where police reinforcements will make it even more difficult to continue the disguise.
There is also the question of whether Moriarty has an operative aboard the ship as well, and if so, who?
The resolution of the mystery was clever (they always are!) but also felt a bit random, in part because I wasn’t able to glean any clues that lead me in the right direction ahead of time. That’s not unusual for me with this series, and it may be that I just don’t try enough, but I think the end result is that sense of randomness. There were, however, some other revelations at the end that felt more “earned” and which I found interesting.
The romance between Charlotte and Ash makes some quiet strides: she has become more comfortable with her emotions as they relate to him, a circumstance that Ash thought might never occur.
I’m not quite sure how to grade this one – though I’ve often said that my problems with the complicated plots are just that, my problems (because by this time I know what to expect) – at the same time I feel like A Tempest at Sea had just way more characters than necessary to tell the story. It felt like a good third of them were just there to confuse things. The book took a while for me to get into, and I think the number of characters was part of the problem there, as well.
I’m still looking forward to the next book in the series, especially if we are headed into the home stretch (I believe this was slated to be a 10-book series, at least at one point). I’ll give this book a high B-.
Best,
Jennie