A sweet and charming mystery brimming with excitement and magic. This book is perfect for fans of Harry Potter. I was hooked from start to finish.

What an excellent series this is turning out to be.

Essentially, it’s Sherlock Holmes meets Harry Potter, yet it feels fresh and original. This is the second installment, and it does a good job of not just continuing but improving on the first book in the series.

I love the setting here, and perhaps more importantly, the way the setting is used. I love a boarding school novel if it’s done right, and this one is a gem in that regard. Standish has also done well with structure in terms of the mysteries (both those self contained within a single book and the greater plot that will span the series).

If you’re a big Sherlock Holmes fan, there are also loads of little Easter eggs and references in the text, and the stories feel in step with Conan Doyle’s original material without just ripping off plots and making a kids’ version of the story. Can’t wait for the next installment.

The Sign of the Five by Ali Standish picks up with Arthur Conan Doyle’s return to Baskerville Hall, a place filled with thrilling secrets and supernatural mysteries. As winter term begins, Arthur is eager to reconnect with friends and favorite teachers, particularly Sherlock Holmes. But his excitement quickly fades as an ominous threat looms over the school, and soon Arthur finds himself facing down an old enemy—the Green Knight—who may be targeting his beloved professor.

The book strikes a nice balance between suspense and adventure, with plenty of action sequences that keep the pace lively. The reappearance of the Green Knight gives the story a menacing edge, and the stakes feel higher with each twist. Arthur’s journey is full of unexpected allies and dangerous foes, making his race to solve the mystery both exhilarating and perilous. The supernatural elements are intriguing, adding depth to the familiar Sherlock Holmes world and making Baskerville Hall feel like a character in its own right.

However, some aspects felt a bit formulaic, especially when it came to the side characters, whose interactions often seemed more like plot devices than genuine connections. Additionally, Arthur’s emotional journey, while compelling, sometimes took a backseat to the mystery, leaving his friendships feeling slightly underdeveloped.

Overall, The Sign of the Five is a solid entry in the Baskerville Hall series, with an exciting plot and plenty of atmosphere. While it could have benefited from deeper character exploration, it remains an enjoyable read for fans of mysteries with a supernatural twist.

Such a fun book. I love that you have the author of Sherlock Holmes getting to go on his own mysteries and interacting with Sherlock Holmes on a personal level. I think that this is a unique idea and one that leads to many fun mysteries that could unfold. I had not read the first book in this series, and it was not truly necessary to read the first book be for the second book. I love it when you can just pick a book up and read it. I do enjoy normally reading books in order, but having the ability to jump right in too is important, especially for the audience who will primarily be reading this book series. The mystery itself is well laid out and fast paced enough to keep the reader engaged. This will be a series I will be recommending to many a reader.
Thank you so much to HaperCollins Children’s Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

"In the second thrilling installment to The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall series, Arthur returns to the elusive Baskerville Hall and must solve the mystery behind a poisoned Sherlock Holmes, facing new threats, harrowing challenges, and ghastly ghouls along the way. It's time for a new adventure, are you ready?

When Arthur Conan Doyle returns to Baskerville Hall, a secretive school for extraordinary students, he's excited to begin winter term with the friends he loves. However, soon after his arrival, a dangerous foe threatens his favorite professor, Sherlock Holmes, and all signs seem to point to a force that Arthur had hoped he'd seen the last of...the Green Knight. But Sherlock isn't the only target; others begin to fall prey as well. The question is: how are they all connected?

In the ultimate race against time, Arthur will have to dodge old enemies, befriend new faces, and brave encounters with spirits to solve the mystery before it's too late. But there are more puzzles to solve than one; it seems a new term at Baskerville Hall may not only test Arthur's wits...but his friendships too."

This is a good antidote to their being no more Enola Holmes books.

Ali Standish's The Sign of the Five is one of those excellent tween novels that can work equally well for adult readers. My experiences with Tween-lit have been rather hit or miss, but The Sign of the Five is definitely at the "hit" end of that spectrum. I've seen it recommended for ages 8 to 12, and I can imagine myself loving this title at that age—but I'm also enjoying now at age 63.

Part of what drew me to this title was the promise of another riff on the Holmes stories and novels. I love them and reread them regularly. I also appreciate writers who provide me with unexpected side doors into that realm. This novel is richly populated with both real-world and fictional characters. The central character here is Arthur Doyle (the Conan isn't used here), who attends Baskerville Hall, an unusual boarding school that prepares clever young people for lives in a variety of areas. The five of the novel's titles are Arthur; Jimmy, son of Holmes' nemesis James Moriarty; Irene, the daughter of a pair of opera singers/spies; Grover, a budding paranormal investigator; and Pocket, a young woman on her way to becoming a remarkable inventor. The teachers at Baskerville Hall include Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson—and others who are variations of characters in the original Holmes stories.

This is the second volume in the series, but the first I've read, so I had to keep an eye out for backstory. I'm glad to say that Standish provided an appropriate amount of that in non-awkward ways. (Entering a series anywhere other than volume one has its risks—of either lacking necessary information or of being subjected to the sort of mandatory asides too often used to fill in such gaps.) There's a lot at play here: echoes of Arthurian legends, strings of unsolved mysteries (poisonings, a suddenly timid pet wolf) that may or may not be connected, and all the wonderful kinds of science and logic one would expect at a school where Holmes teaches.

If you have or know youngsters in the 8 to 12 age range, this book would make a wonderful gift with its appeals to so many of the topics kids find fascinating. (Did I mention there's a baby pterosaur?) And if you're an adult who enjoys Holmes and realizes that good tween-lit can be every bit as engaging as adult-lit, you'll want to have a go at this title yourself.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

This is a great middle grade read for students that love mysteries. I love that the characters are a modern twist on the characters from the Sherlock Holmes novels.

This was an excellent sequel that picked up right where the first one left off. I was excited get back to Baskerville Hall with Arthur and his friends. My science kids at school will eat these up. I love the questions of the supernatural it grapples with, and I believe kids will too. It's an excellent mystery.
The only thing keeping this from being a five star book is the development of the character relationships. We are told that the five friends are very close, but I am not invested in the other four. We see that Arthur is very devoted to Holmes, but it was a jump for me. I still highly recommend this for middle grade readers.