Just Finished Reading ... Lock & Mori by Heather Petty

Lock & Mori
by Heather Petty

To be published on September 15, 2015
by Simon & Schuster

Source: eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss

Synopsis from Goodreads: In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students, one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James "Mori" Moriarty, meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart. Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more. FACT: Someone has been murdered in London's Regent's Park. The police have no leads. FACT: Miss James "Mori"Moriarty and Sherlock "Lock" Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene. FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted. FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock's one rule--they must share every clue with each other--Mori is keeping secrets. OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can't trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again. 

My take: Most Sherlock inspired spin-offs I'm familiar with, from TV shows like House or Sherlock to YA books like Every Breath, focus on the Holmes-Watson relationship, the wonderful pairing of the quirky, brilliant Holmes and the underappreciated, long-suffering Watson. But this diabolical book focuses on Holmes and Moriarty (a criminal mastermind and Holmes' mortal enemy, if you're not familiar with the guy). In fact, this book is told from the point of view of James Moriarty (who in this book happens to be a teenage girl) and Holmes is relegated to the role of love interest and sidekick. The game is afoot!

Much of Lock & Mori serves to set up what makes young Mori tick: a crappy homelife and abusive father (while child abuse is a terrible thing, I found its depiction in this the story a bit heavy-handed and found it hard to believe that Mori and her siblings could limp around with bruises and not one person would intervene). But there's more: a surprising family secret and a tragic death for which Mori feels deeply responsible.  Clearly, this girl is headed to the dark side in future installments.

While all this made for interesting reading and I do love a good headed-to-the-darkside-plot, I began to realize that, going forward, the Holmes-Moriarty pairing may present a huge problem where the story's romance is concerned. In this installment, we see Holmes fall in love with Mori.  But by the end, this ship (Molmes? Tori?) seems headed for the rocks. Either this series will become an epic love-to-hate-to-love story, or we will get to see Holmes' complete heartbreak. I'm hoping for #1.

If you're a diehard romantic, you might want to tread carefully. But if you're a true Sherlockophile, you should check this interesting Sherlock inspired book out. I'm really intrigued as to where this story is headed...