The Ninja Reviews... Death Cloud by Andrew Lane

In the year 1868 and young Sherlock Holmes is in boarding school. While on break, his brother Mycroft informs Sherlock that he will not be coming home but will instead be staying in Farnham with his quirky aunt and uncle. Feeling put out by being dumped on relatives he doesn't know, Sherlock uses his time to explore the neighborhood and learn from his American tutor, Amyus Crowe. When he runs into street urchin Matty and the two become friendly, Matty reveals that he has seen a mysterious death. Though perplexed, Sherlock does not dwell too long upon Matty's tale until he runs across another body bearing markings exactly as Matty had described.

Looking for answers, Sherlock visits a specialist on tropical diseases and confides in Amyus Crowe. The operation he stumbles upon is stranger and more frightening then he thought. Sherlock is captured by the pale and crippled Baron Maupertuis (mow-pah-twee) at a county fair and again with spirited Virginia Crowe, daughter of Amyus. Together, Virginia and Sherlock uncover the Baron's true plot, and plunge forward with Amyus and Matty to halt the Baron's dangerous plan.

This book shows Sherlock Holmes' first mystery and brings together the famous confidence of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes and typical teenage uncertainty and doubt. Sherlock learns to find his footing, though we still see traces of his lack of self-confidence through his reliance on Mycroft and Matty. Sherlock's crush on Virginia is not well explored, but fun to read. Occationally the plot seemed unbelievable, but in the end that was half of the fun of reading this book.

I would highly recommend this to fans of the mystery genre, especially boys who love a dose of adventure with mysteries. This book is also on the 2012 Lone Star list!