Art can be dangerous, but people are even more so. After a brush with death, it might be easier to just play is safe -- but that might not be possible, especially for a pair who only gets along when a murder case stands between them. Cavallaro paints these scenarios in her second book of the Charlotte Holmes series, in a masterful and poignant way. Our understanding of these two things, however, are not easy. After all, relationships and people are the most confusing thing on the planet. Welcome to another case: complicated relationships abound in Europe, where forgery rings are busted, old contacts are approached, and feelings can lead to disaster. Welcome to the striking, fascinating, and well-written mystery that is Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes.Brittany Cavallaro is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes novels. With Emily Henry, she is the author of Hello Girls. She is also the author of the poetry collections Girl-King and Unhistorical. A recipient of a National Endowment in the Arts fellowship, Cavallaro received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her PhD in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Currently, she teaches creative writing at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Cavallaro's work, you can find them all here.
Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes are looking for a winter-break reprieve after a fall semester that almost got them killed. But Charlotte isn't the only Holmes with secrets, and the mood at her family's Sussex estate is palpably tense. On top of everything else, Holmes and Watson could be becoming more than friends -- but still, the darkness in Charlotte's past is a wall between them. A distraction arises soon enough, because Charlotte's beloved uncle Leander goes missing from the estate -- after being oddly private about his latest assignment in a German art forgery ring. The game is afoot once again, and Charlotte is single-minded in her pursuit. Their first stop? Berlin. Their first contact? August Moriarty (formerly Charlotte's obsession, currently believed by most to be dead), whose powerful family has been ripping off famous paintings for the last hundred years. But as they follow the gritty underground scene in Berlin to glittering art houses in Prague, Holmes and Watson begin to realize that this is a much more complicated case than a disappearance. Much more dangerous, too. What they learn might change everything they know about their families, themselves, and each other.
Jamie's narration continues to be epic, detail-oriented, and poignant. With a mystery storyline as twisted and convoluted as this one, Jamie grounds the story in the details and the romanticism of the mystery itself. Jamie focuses a lot on Charlotte, and how he orients himself around it. I enjoy how in this novel, we finally understand Jamie and Charlotte a bit more, and can dive deeper into the complexities of their relationship. Jamie never leaves a detail out, which is why the endings and plot twists can be so shocking -- the lack of obvious foreshadowing highlights how Jamie can feel betrayed and yet inspired by the Holmes family. Cavallaro balances Jamie's focus really well, between the mystery at hand, the relationships, and how they both tie in to tell the same story. This sequel is much different than its predecessor, in a pleasing way, because it's a whole new mystery that hones in on the new dynamics between Charlotte and Jamie, Holmeses and Moriartys. These relationships are complicated, but Cavallaro's Jamie breaks them all down in a poignant way, and also in a way to where it's impossible to take sides. You want everyone to win, the same way we want everyone to live (sort of). It's these complicated feelings Cavallaro is able to create in readers by continuing with Jamie's narration, and his ability to try and see the best in everyone, even as they're constantly proving him wrong or different.
That being said, I truly enjoyed Charlotte's chapters in this sequel. I thought the structural break was fun, because Jamie was quite literally incapacitated and unable to tell the story. Charlotte's spin was interesting, because it is not so often we get to see inside the head of another main character in the first person, especially a character as dynamic and aching as Charlotte Holmes. Quite possibly my favorite part of Charlotte's character is her inability to completely fall for Jamie. It's a striking portrayal of a girl still struggling with her survival after a rape, and a girl who's always struggled with feelings (which is explained by her atypical upbringing). Her struggles are raw and clear, especially when we get the two chapters inside her head. Sometimes, Charlotte is so achingly frustrating from Jamie's point of view; but in Charlotte's point of view, we finally get a clear picture of how she's struggling, and why her experiences are so heartbreaking and terrifying. I've never personally dealt with anything that traumatic, so I can only speculate on the accuracy of this part of Charlotte's experience, but I think it helped me better understand the women who have gone through this trauma. It's not something to be taken lightly, and Cavallaro doesn't gloss over Charlotte's past just because it would make for an easy romance for her series. This is my favorite part of the whole series, because it keeps Cavallaro's characters dynamic and real for me, in a way that some young adult portrayals rarely show.
I've read this book multiple times, and yet I can still get kind of lost within its plot and subplots. There is a family tree at the beginning (!!) which always comes in handy, but around the middle of the book, I start to get lost. I've always wondered if this was something that only I struggled with, which I think it really is. I like the drama between the characters: August, Charlotte, Jamie, Milo, Leander, Jamie's father, all the Holmeses, all the Moriartys. It's easy to get caught up in those dynamics and forget what the actual point of the plot is: to find Leader, and how that causes the character to get pulled into this art forgery ring. Maybe it's also because I've never understood the forgery rings these characters are trying to infiltrate. Nonetheless, I still enjoy the book despite being lost from the plot. Why? It all comes back down to character. Cavallaro's characters are so strong and well-drawn, it's possible to not really care what the plot is as long as you care how the characters find their endings. Because I truly wanted Jamie and Charlotte to make up, because I wanted to see if August would redeem himself, I was able to read through the parts I couldn't 100% understand. In fact, I found that to be even better, because then I could truly analyze how well the characters were drawn, why it works that Jamie narrates, and why it's important that not everybody makes it out alive.
While I might not fully follow the plot at all times, I can understand the perfection of the pacing. The reveals are wonderfully timed -- where, maybe you could have predicted what happened, but also to where you're surprised if what you thought turned out to be true. And if you didn't have any predictions at all, it can take you completely by surprise, but not in a way that's unbelievable. I think mystery must be so hard to write, because you're working towards these big reveals, but Cavallaro makes it look effortless. Combined with all the plot work and dynamics of the characters, I imagine it must also feel overwhelming, but there's a perfect balance between reveals of the mystery and reveals of how the characters feel and interact with one another. There's never a dull moment in this book, because something is always happening. In some books, the plot slows down and there's a lull, or everything can feel overwhelming -- no case of that here, where everything is paced out well and planned in what must be a meticulous way. Cavallaro's pacing is another part of this novel that supports her insane ending, because while it felt unexpected, it also felt inevitable and still surprising. Only because the novel was paced in this way can readers be surprised and yet resigned to this shocking ending.
After a shocking and heart-breaking ending, how will Holmes and Watson get out of the disaster they created for themselves, if that's even possible? Find out in The Case for Jamie, and find my review here!
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