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A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER

Claire M. Andrews

Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper, this historical murder mystery follows the cunning Irene Adler as she teams up with the mysterious Sherlock Holmes to discover who is murdering Oxford's elite students in the All Souls class.
Irene Adler is no ordinary young lady. She's at the top of the ranks in the All Souls cohort, a competitive preparatory class reserved for Oxford's brightest minds. But her peers and professors don't know she's a lady at all. To them, she is Isaac Holland.

Keeping up her disguise gets trickier when All Souls students start dying, one by one. Determined to find out who's responsible for the deaths, Irene as Isaac teams up with fellow classmate and roommate Sherlock Holmes to track down clues. Their mission grows more dangerous by the day as someone tries to frame Isaac for the murders, and Irene's own father, Dean Moriarty, begins to threaten her seat in school.

Readers will love following these classic and beloved characters through the twists and turns in the dark halls of Oxford, and discovering what secret lies behind the glitz and glamor of the elite.

Claire M. Andrews was raised in both Alaska and Scotland, but currently lives in Vermont. When not writing, she can usually be found outside swimming, skiing, or hiking across the state's famous green mountains. She is the author of the Daughter of Sparta series.
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Published 2025-08-05 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Comments

This book truly has it all: dark academia, a murder mystery, and romantic tension all skillfully woven into a historical context. The story is compelling and propulsive, the atmosphere so thick you can feel it. This is a Sherlock Holmes reimagining as you've never seen it before spearheaded by an ambitious, competent young woman ahead of her time.

Irene Adler is a compelling protagonist with a burning secret and on a mission to catch a murderer. A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER is a delightful read that plunges you into a mystery set at a supposedly haunted school full of adversaries and unlikely allies where no one is quite who they seem.

With a fast-paced plot to match its quick-thinking heroine, readers will be racing towards the last page, desperate to solve the mystery first. Claire M. Andrews has reimagined Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's world with a modern mix of romance, intrigue, and a dash of the diabolical. It's a story with more twists and turns than a Victorian London alley, and the most fun I've had reading in a long while!

A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER has all the makings of a YA classic: a beloved literary heroine made anew, a thrilling mystery, a breathtaking romance, and a finale of break-neck twists. I would follow Claire M. Andrews' riveting version of Irene Adler anywhere!