The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Sherlock Holmes, in retirement, meets a misfit teenage girl, Mary Russell, and takes her on as an apprentice. Before long they have cases to solve and things get complicated. I was skeptical about this, but I actually liked it. Mary is as much of an over the top character as Holmes in her own way, and I read the book as a kind of commentary on the original. The apprenticeship of Mary involves plenty of explanation of methods and convoluted exercises in detection (my favorite: Mary comes to visit Holmes at his cottage and finds a note that says “Find me. –SH”) I didn't like the book's dismissive attitude toward Dr. Watson and I thought Mycroft was portrayed as overly hospitable. The author has a disclaimer at the beginning saying that this is not Conan Doyle's Holmes, but I'd say he has enough in common with the original Holmes to make this a pretty satisfying entertainment.