I absolutely loved this book! The Adventures of Mary Darling was such a unique take on characters we are all familiar with. Basically, this is the story of Sherlock Holmes investigating the abductions the Darling children, by Peter Pan. But my goodness, there is so much more to it than that! In this story, Peter Pan is not the the boy we all know from the classic story and his history with children and adventure is quite darker than most of us assumed.

I very much enjoyed the back stories that were given to the characters in this novel. There is a lot to keep track of, but it's well worth it in the end. Absolutely fabulous book and the audio narration is perfection.

A wonderful adventure story and mystery for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan, Steampunk, Suffragettes, pirates, sailing, and more! This is an imaginative telling of what Mary Darling does when her three children (Wendy, Michael, and John Darling) have flown away to Neverland with Peter Pan.
Lots of surprises in this story, with a strong undercurrent of female empowerment. It also tries to apologize for some of the insensitive language and customs in the earlier, original stories. The characters are well-voiced in the audiobook.
Can I praise its originality when it used existing (public domain) characters and stories as a jumping off point? Yes. Yes, I can. This is a feat of imagination and research, keeping it mostly true to the era of those stories with a new and exciting perspective. Highly recommended!
My thanks to the author, publisher, @HighBridgeAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #TheAdventuresofMaryDarling for review purposes. Available as of 3 June 2025.

I picked this book up because it looked cute and sleuth-y with a bit of whimsy and mystery which is exactly what I got. I was happily introduced to a world where Mary Darling and Sherlock Holmes come together in a not so harmonious way to solve the case of the missing children. We are certainly merging Peter Pan with a bit of the great detective.

We quickly learn Mary is the niece of Watson, Sherlock Holmes's frequent companion and teller of his exploits. However, in this particular book it seems as though Holmes is on the wrong trail in pursuit of the Darling children because he starts to believe it is Mary, the mother, who has done something with the children after uncovering some secrets buried in her past. I will say, the way Holmes is written in this book is not in a positive way. I know Holmes is frequently the logical force but he seems to have some level of assumption in this book that feels out of character for the way he is written by Doyle.

Mary's husband, George, is a fairly weak man, and when his children go missing, he puts himself in the dog kennel as "penance" while Mary hatches a plan to go to the location she believes the children to be. At one point he consults a doctor for MARY?!? because he thinks she is acting out of sorts and needs to go on bed rest. I am quite livid about this, especially coming from a guy who purposely put himself into a dog kennel to avoid responsibility.

There is a lot of travelling in this book and glimpses into Mary's past, but it comes together very well, for a mystery adventure book.

DNF @ 51%

This seemed like a fun premise, but not particularly well executed. My issue right from the start was the choice of an American narrator. I don't want this to come across as a reflection on the narrator's abilities (I haven't listened to her other work) as much as on the choice of an American narrator for a book set in England and mainly featuring English and Australian characters. The narrator makes a valiant effort, but the accents are not good.

The narration only highlighted the times when the language also felt very American or anachronistic to me. To be fair, I'm not an expert on late Victorian British English, so I can't swear to the anachronisms, but the language didn't feel grounded in the historical context.

The characterisation also felt shallow. I could maybe buy Mary as the underestimated Victorian wife, but none of the men around her felt realistic. George's behaviour was just weird, Holmes was annoying, and Watson... was also there.

The story felt like it lacked forward momentum. By the time I got to the halfway point, I'd already skipped several entire chapters from Mary's past, and I wasn't feeling any real investment in the story, so it didn't feel worth continuing.

This book was amazing. A cross between Peter Pan and Sherlock Holmes but with a strong female lead? Perfect. I am still blown away by how creative and well written this story is. I hope she writes more in this world because I am obsessed.
The narrator was so good, she made each voice sound unique and never pulled me out of the story with weird voices, pauses, edits, etc.