Charlotte Holmes and an assortment of her friends are aboard a ship bound for various international locales when a man is killed. This is desperately inconvenient because Charlotte, in disguise, is on the hunt for a valuable repository of information that will hopefully insure her against further provocations by Moriarty. As with any well-crafted long-running series, it is a pleasure to visit with characters who each have their own established characters and relationships and to see them grow as individuals as and in their pairings.

If there are two historical mystery series that I cannot get enough of it is The Lady Sherlock Series and the Veronica Speedwell Mysteries. Just like Raybourn, Thomas continues to dazzle with mystery after mystery. A TEMPEST AT THE SEA is the seventh book and now we have Charlotte Holmes at sea. The twists, turns, and deductions are exemplary. I cannot get enough of the characters or the investigations I get to unravel with our leading lady. Love these books!

Sherry Thomas has done it again! I loved how book so much! the mystery was great, the setting was fantastic and I loved seeing Holmes soften a little. I can't wait for the next one!

Thomas is a master story teller. She weaves a story so well and make you feel as if you're in the story and know the characters. A murder takes place on a ship where she was trying to secretly retrieve a dossier for the crown. She must stay in disguise through the remaining voyage and try not to get tangled up in the investigation, especially since she's supposed to be dead. Of course she can't stay out of it fully and must rely on her nearest and dearest to solve the murder before thy dock.

This series has become an automatic read because every book in the series is well crafted and intricately plotted. This seventh book is no exception. I wasn't sure where the series would go after the last book, "Miss Moriarity I Presume" had Charlotte fake her own death. I am happy to report Charlotte/Sherlock is back and what a come back it is.

I want to give particular attention to two aspect of this book. Although this is most definitely a murder mystery, the glimpses into Lord Ingram Ashburton and Charlotte's growing love affair are pure gold and even humorous. Also of note, Charlotte's sister, Olivia, takes a stand for herself so that readers will be cheering out loud as I did.

The murder mystery is a winding and twisting road, a trademark of this series that takes the reader on a cleaver journey of intrigue. Most of the regular supporting cast are present.

I know there will be comparisons to Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile due to the similarities of murder on board a ship and the cloistered investigation while on board. Sherry Thomas gives a tip-of-the-hat to Christie but puts her own flare and signature on this story as only she can, while finding the dossier and solving the murder.

If you haven't read the prior books, this is a safe point to jump into the series. Although much will be gained by starting at book one, A Study in Scarlet Women (check out my review).

Rating: Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.

The world of the canonical Sherlock Holmes is so ripe for adaptation, and this is just the best series out there. The "locked room" type story of this one as the characters are all aboard a ship makes for a fascinating story, and of course Charlotte and her friends and family remain some of the greatest being written.

A Tempest at Sea is the Seventh installment in author Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock series. Key Characters: Charlotte Holmes who has been solving mysteries under the name of Sherlock Holmes and has been extremely successful to the point of earning her very own nemesis. Lord Ingram Ashburton who has become Charlotte's secret lover after divorcing. Mrs Watson is Charlotte's trusty sidekick and the woman who has risked everything to help Charlotte become the person she is now. Livia Holmes is Charlotte's older sister, and the woman who is slowly becoming a force of her own.

After feigning her own death in Cornwall *(See Miss Moriarty, I Presume) to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes has gone into hiding for fear that Moriarty's people will find her and end any hope of Charlotte finding a way to defeat him. After receiving a tempting offer from Lord Remington Ashburton, who is an agent of the British government and Lord Ingram's older brother, Charlotte has an option to stop hiding. Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking and she and Mrs Watson can expect a measure of safety from Moriarty.

Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence a ship that appears to be heading for Australia. Charlotte disguises herself as an elderly lady and boards a ship along with her partner, Mrs. Watson. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship. Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

So, the mystery falls on Lord Ash, who is onboard with his children and their governess to work with Inspector Brighton, who first appeared in Murder on Cold Street and tried to ruin the life of a friend of Ash and Charlotte's, to solve the mystery. But this mystery has many suspects. Suspects who may or may not be working for Moriarty. Suspects like the Shrewsbury's who tried to ruin Charlotte's life way back in the beginning of this series. To top things off and to make things even more crazier, Charlotte and Livia's mother Mrs Holmes as well as Norbert, her ladies maid, also show up for the trip! And Mrs Holmes may be a murder suspect!!

The ending of this story leaves your imagination to run wild. Is this the final book in the series? Is this the final time that Charlotte will have to deal with Moriarty? Can Charlotte trust that nobody onboard found out who she was, and that she's still alive? Many, many questions still remain, and it appears that Livia is well on her way to her own adventure and maybe a reunion with a man who she fell in love with not that long ago.

I have fallen more and more in love with the Charlotte Holmes series and this latest installment is not an exception. It finds Charlotte at sea, incognito, trying to solve a murder. Witty dialogue, twists and turns do not slow Charlotte’s sleuthing skills. I can’t wait for the next one!

Charlotte and the gang are all back together aboard a ship, tasked with recovering an important object for the government. But does Moriarty guess that Charlotte is still alive? Does he have his own agents in place, either to go after the same information...or for more nefarious purposes? Then, of course, someone has to go and get murdered, and make things REALLY complicated... The ship-board atmosphere is perfect for a murder mystery (and for an added level of difficulty in trying to avoid those you don't want to see/be seen by), and the ending sets up another big advance in the fight to end Moriarty's influence once and for all.

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas is in the June 2023 issue of GumshoeReview.com and is exclusive to them until July 1, 2023. here's the link to the review:
<https://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=7052>

These are starting to not be quite as fun. I enjoyed this one but it wasn’t a page-turner fir me like previous installments. Will purchase for the library.

I thoroughly enjoyed this installment of the Lady Sherlock series, which is not surprising since I love spending time with its cast of characters. The beginning was a bit slow to draw me in, but the mystery kept me guessing. I loved seeing the relationship between Charlotte and Lady Ingram progressed and the character development of another character who I will not name so as to avoid any spoilers.

I really enjoyed this latest installment of Lady Sherlock! So much fun watching her work on a ship!! I can't wait to see what Charlotte gets up to next!

Stevie‘s review of A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock, Book 7) by Sherry Thomas
Historical Mystery published by Berkley 14 Mar 23

Having faked her own death to avoid the murderous attention of her arch-enemy Moriarty, Charlotte Holmes needs to keep a low profile. However, a new case is hard to resist, particularly one involving matters of national security and documents hidden in plain sight. Her investigation leads her and Mrs Watson, both heavily disguised, to embark on a cruise to the Mediterranean, on board a ship whose passengers include various members of Charlotte’s estranged family, as well as her lover, Ash, Lord Ingram Ashburton. Even less welcome than Charlotte’s mother (a last-minute addition to the passenger list) are Roger Shrewsbury and his wife, the pair responsible for Charlotte’s original expulsion from polite society.

Even before the ship leaves England, Shrewsbury is causing trouble amongst the passengers, claiming that the sister of a newly wealthy man had previously indulged in most unbecoming behaviours. Then, while Charlotte and Ash are creeping about the ship, using a raging storm as cover for their retrieval of the missing documents, the man is killed and Shrewsbury is one of the main suspects, as is Charlotte’s mother. Even more unfortunately for our heroes, the one person from amongst the passengers who is authorised to investigate the crime is a police officer they believe to be in league with Moriarty. Ash finds himself in the middle of the new investigation, taking notes for the seasick detective, while Charlotte and Mrs Watson have to be ever more vigilant in their assumed personas and not allow their disguises to slip for a minute.

The new case turns out to be overpopulated with red herrings, some of which seem to implicate Charlotte’s mother, if not in the murder then certainly in harbouring vindictive feelings towards the dead man, which all leaves Charlotte and her allies treading a difficult path between keeping those close to them safe from wrongful accusations and keeping Charlotte’s true identity carefully hidden from all of Moriarty’s associates.

I really enjoyed this book. It brought the full shipboard experience to life and made every member of the extensive cast into a recognisable individual. The solution to the larger mystery came as a surprise initially, but once I knew who the culprit was, the way that the clues had led up to the big reveal became obvious. The way all the characters have developed and gained further depth throughout the series is a delight, and I’m still anticipating more of that from future books, along with ever more enticingly twisty mysteries that riff superbly off the original Sherlock Holmes novels.

Grade: A

A Tempest at Sea is the 7th book in Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock series. You do need to read the series in order, especially in the lead up to this book! In this series, Charlotte Holmes, after being cast out of society, takes on the persona of Sherlock Holmes, a sickly man who solves crimes.

**Series spoilers ahead** Don't read on unless you have already read up through book 6.



In A Tempest at Sea, Charlotte has been in hiding after the big Moriarty confrontation in book 6 where she faked her death. She finds herself doing some work for the crown through Lord Ingram's brother. This leads the whole gang aboard a ship, searching for a mysterious packet believed to be with a governess who is also travelling. Charlotte is in disguise, and she is surprised to see many familiar faces on the ship-- including Shrewsbury and his wife (responsible for her fallen woman status). Pretty soon, a murder happens on board, and our favorite detective and crew are there for all of the clues.

I highly recommend this series for those who like historical detective novels, feminist retellings, and fun hi-jinx. Fans of Enola Holmes and Veronica Speedwell will fall right into this series!

4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it.

I enjoyed the intrigue of this book and I was honestly surprised by the twists at the end. Not only was the murder mystery solved, but there was an extra little twist at the end.

I liked getting to see how the identity of Charlotte and Mrs Watson would be kept secret while also still digging for the truth. Having more people they had to keep their identity from, including Charlotte's own family members, was an extra wrinkle in the disguise game.

Thomas charms in this seventh outing of her “Lady Sherlock” series.
​Charlotte Holmes, better known as her alter ego “Sherlock Holmes,” London’s greatest detective, is supposed to be dead. After a supposedly fatal incident in Cornwall, Charlotte has been in hiding, trying to evade her nemesis, Moriarty. But then she receives an offer she can’t resist: Find a missing dossier for the crown in exchange for protection from Moriarty. Her search takes her aboard the RMS Provence, upon which her dear friend and lover, Lord Ingram Ashburton, and her sister, Livia, are sailing. When a fellow passenger is found shot to death in his cabin after a stormy night at sea, Charlotte, assisted by her dear friend and colleague, Mrs. Watson, must spring into action to solve the case without revealing her identity.
​Tempest at Sea is a terrific adventure featuring all the great Holmesian traits: brilliant deduction, inconvenient police inspectors, long-kept secrets, and, of course, disguises. Charlotte is capable and intelligent without being a Mary Sue, and the supporting cast of characters, particularly Lord Ingram, adds color and a biting dose of wit. Fans of classic whodunnits will love the setup: a ship full of passengers, anyone of whom could be a murderer still on the loose; and fans of Arthur Conan Doyle will love the homages to the source material. Allusions to previous books are not fully explained, so newcomers to the series would do well to start with book one, but series fans will be pleased.

This series is just so delightful and this was another excellent addition to it. I just love these characters and the mysteries are always interesting - especially this one which felt like a nod to Death on the Nile and was certainly a bit of a locked room mystery with everyone stuck on a ship together. I did not see the ending coming! It was interesting to have a vast cast of characters on the ship including Charlotte Holmes' mother & Lord Ingram with his family. Here for all the books in this series still to come :)

I am absolutely in awe of the clever, intricate, mind-blowing plots author Sherry Thomas weaves. How does she do it?! I truly did not see so many of the twists coming in this latest Charlotte Holmes mystery. I didn't even know one of the characters was actually Charlotte til well after we were introduced! That's how good she is. Fans of the series will delight in this installment. The mystery at hand isn't directly related to Moriarty...or is it?? I am so happy with the state of affairs (pun intended) between Charlotte and Lord Ingram, as well as the new developments with Livia. Lady Holmes is very present in this story and boy does she take up a lot of space! I love how Charlotte handles her.

So much to love in this series. It just keeps getting better and better. I hope there's no end in sight!

Playing dead, pursuing a political intrigue, relaxing on a voyage at sea, and then a murder has to go and complicate it all. One of my most anticipated books and the latest installment of a highly acclaimed Victorian era mystery series was a smash hit for me.



A Tempest at Sea is the seventh installment of a series that has built to this point with several ongoing threads so that this does not make a good standalone though there is a standalone murder mystery in each book.



Charlotte Holmes is in hiding from the threat of brilliant villain, Moriarty, but she is not idle. She’s building slowly bit by bit a relationship with Lord Ingram, working on a ticklish political espionage case with Ingram’s older brother in exchange for protection against Moriarty, caring for the needs of her dysfunctional family, and trying to keep her love of food from causing her to reach maximum double chins.

Combining business with pleasure, Charlotte and Mrs. Watson are settling sail on the passenger steamer RMS Provence where they will look for a secret German dossier that is hopefully hidden among the goods of a certain German governess aboard while enjoying a holiday trip with Lord Ingram and his party consisting of his children, Charlotte’s sister, Livia, and her companion.

But, their plans get three added complications- Charlotte and Livia’s mother shows up unexpectedly, a temperamental wealthy businessman gets murdered, and Inspector Brighton who knows them from a previous case is there to spot Charlotte even in disguise if she is noticed solving the murder. But, the murder must be solved so the voyage doesn’t draw Moriarty’s notice or Brighton’s suspicions.



I had such a good time with this one. I love murder mysteries set on a ship which heightens the suspense because they all know they are stuck with a murderer. And, I loved that there were lots of moving parts so that more than one mystery is being investigated and Charlotte and the gang have several suspicious characters who have secrets and maybe have something to do with their cases.



But, an added layer of deliciousness is seeing Charlotte and Ash’s relationship progress and the intriguing family complication of Lady Holmes stirring up trouble. Charlotte’s disguise as Mrs. Ramsay was a hoot.



A splendiferous outing with this latest installment and the disappointment of needing to wait another year for the next release in the series. Aside from the delight of a gender-bender Sherlock Holmes set up, historical mystery fans would enjoy a rousing good mystery with each book so I most emphatically recommend these.