Audiobook review: The Vanished Sister by Sherry Thomas
The Vanished Sister opens with three years passed since the end of the previous title. The gang is all together, relaxing at Ash’s seaside manor. Everything has been wonderful, without a peep from Moriarty, allowing everyone to spend more time with those dearest to them. Mrs. Watson gets a visit from her estranged sister, whose family has an estate nearby, asking Mrs. Watson to join them for the weekend. While at her sister’s home, the visit is awkward, but not entirely unpleasant, and Mrs. Watson leaves feeling okay. All seems well until the body of a woman washes up on the shore and Mrs. Watson fears it is her sister.
The Vanished Sister provides another complex mystery for Charlotte. I love that the stories are no longer just “Lady Sherlock’s” tales, but rather an ensemble cast of delightful characters. Genuine affection and friendship infuse the story, which allow the characters to work so well together. They often can anticipate what others are thinking which makes them an excellent mystery solving team. They trust one another, never questioning an odd request or directive, confident the other knows what is best in the given situation. I adore the character development, strengthen bonds, and personal relationships that grow with each story.
The mystery is a personal one, impacting Mrs. Watson directly. She uncovers horrors about her own sister, which leaves her in emotional upheaval. Yet, she perseveres to uncover the truth, stronger in the end. The story is very entertaining. However, similar to the previous book, A Ruse of Shadows, The Vanished Sister also falls victim to an overly complex plot, with a few too many coincidences that were manipulated to make the story work as it did. The number of characters and parallel subplots caused confusion, and at times, I had to re-listen to passages to make sure I understood what had transpired. The book opens with a list of characters, which I wish I could have referenced in print from time to time.
Narration: The story is shared from multiple third-person POVs, both male and female. This is the ninth book in the series, and the character voices and overall narrator are very familiar to me. I enjoy Reading’s performance quite a lot. Her narrator has a feminine, British-accented voice. The dialogue is successfully altered based on gender, age, socio-economic background, and nationality – enough to identify each character out of a group. Reading’s male voices are fairly deep and genuine. She does a wonderful job infusing the dialogue with just a hint of emotion, or in Charlotte’s case, her attempts to express the appropriate emotion, making the entire story come to life.
The Lady Sherlock Mysteries remain one of my favorite historical whodunit series, even with the confusion due to an overly complex plot. I cannot help myself, rooting for Charlotte and her found family despite the odds.
My Ratings:
Story: B
Narration: A
Jen
About the Book:
It’s been three years since Charlotte Holmes struck a decisive blow against Moriarty’s operations in Britain, three years of relative calm and benign developments. In a buoyant mood, everyone gathers at Lord Ingram’s seaside cottage in North Devon for what promises to be a perfect summer holiday. Until Mrs. Watson receives an invitation from Mrs. Carstairs, her long-estranged sister, to attend a house party nearby.
Mrs. Carstairs has married spectacularly well. She is the mistress of a great manor, a doyen of all domestic arts, and still an unforgettable beauty. Now she clamors for a reconciliation with her sister. Mrs. Watson does not trust Mrs. Carstairs’s motives. Yet she cannot help but feel tremors of the old admiration for this once-beloved sister.
Then Mrs. Carstairs disappears without a trace. The next day a woman is discovered floating on the waves, her build and coloring matching those of Mrs. Carstairs. But her husband insists that the corpse fished out of the Bristol Channel cannot be his wife. So where is the real Mrs. Carstairs? Would she have purposely dragged Mrs. Watson into a murder investigation? Or was it Sherlock Holmes’s involvement that she needed from the very beginning?
Author: Sherry Thomas
Narrator: Kate Reading
Series: Lady Sherlock #9
Genre: Historical Mystery with romantic elements
Audiobook Release Date: September 29, 2026
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
Length: 13 hours
Source: audiobook publisher
Audio Speed: 1.3x