Audiobook Review: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Author: Laurie R. King

Narrator: Jenny Sterlin
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Book 1
Publication: Macmillan Audio (January 10, 2014)
Length: 13 hours and 26 minutes

Description: This program includes a preface read by the author.

From New York Times best-selling author Laurie R. King comes the book that introduced us to the ingenious Mary Russell - Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes - and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern 20th-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective.

In their first case together, they must track down a kidnapped American senator's daughter and confront a truly cunning adversary: a bomber who has set trip wires for the sleuths and who will stop at nothing to end their partnership.

Full of brilliant deductions, disguises, and dangers, this first book of the Mary Russell - Sherlock Holmes mysteries is "wonderfully original and entertaining...absorbing from beginning to end." (Booklist). Named "One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

My Thoughts: This story begins when orphaned, fifteen-year-old Mary Russell literally stumbles over Sherlock Holmes while she is out walking and reading. It narrates the growth of their friendship as she becomes his unofficial apprentice and grows into his partner.

Mary is very bright and intending to attend university to study both religion and chemistry. She is the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Christian father from California. She is an heiress currently under the guardianship of an aunt who dislikes her and is indifferent to her care. She finds a home where she is accepted, cared for, and loved with Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Hudson.

This story talks about her early cases from discovering who stole the cashbox and some hams from a pub her farm manager's lady friend owns to the kidnapping of an American Senator's six-year-old daughter to attacks from a secret adversary who uses bombs and bullets to try to murder Sherlock and any of his friends. 

I enjoyed this different view of Sherlock Holmes in his country retirement but who hasn't stopped all investigations. It was intriguing to see him through the eyes of a modern young woman who is his match in intellect though lacking his training and exeperience.

I loved the setting and time period. Mary and Sherlock's adventures take place in the shadow of World War I and see them traveling to the Holy Land to get away from their English villain and also solve a problem for Sherlock's brother Mycroft. The descriptions and Mary's reactions to her times in the Holy Land were very vivid. 

Jenny Sterlin had a great voice for Mary but was somewhat too soprano to handle Sherlock as well despite the textual information that his voice was higher than the average male. However, she manages to do a very good job with the emotions and attitudes of the characters. The pacing was excellent and the mysteries compelling. 

This was an excellent introduction to characters who have appeared in seventeen books now that CASTLE SHADE has been released. It is a wonderful series filled with great historical detail, actual historical figures, and mysteries surrounding them which enable Mary and Sherlock to shine.

Favorite Quote:

His words were placid, but what lay beneath them shook me breathless, for what he was proposing would in another man be sheer recklessness. Holmes the painstaking, Holmes the thoughtful, calculating thinker, Holmes the solitary operator who never so much as consulted another for advice, this Holmes I thought I knew was now proposing to launch himself into the abyss, trusting absolutely in my ability to catch him.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Castle Shade by Laurie R. King

Castle Shade
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 17)
Publication: Bantam (June 8, 2021)

Description: A queen, a castle, a dark and ageless threat—all await Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in this chilling new adventure.

The queen is Marie of Roumania: the doubly royal granddaughter of Victoria, Empress of the British Empire, and Alexander II, Tsar of Russia. A famous beauty who was married at seventeen into Roumania’s young dynasty, Marie had beguiled the Paris Peace Conference into returning her adopted country’s long-lost provinces, singlehandedly transforming Roumania from a backwater into a force.

The castle is Bran: a tall, quirky, ancient structure perched on high rocks overlooking the border between Roumania and its newly regained territory of Transylvania. The castle was a gift to Queen Marie, a thank-you from her people, and she loves it as she loves her own children.

The threat is . . . well, that is less clear. Shadowy figures, vague whispers, the fears of girls, dangers that may be only accidents. But this is a land of long memory and hidden corners, a land that had known Vlad the Impaler, a land from whose churchyards the shades creep.

When Queen Marie calls, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are as dubious as they are reluctant. But a young girl is involved, and a beautiful queen. Surely it won’t take long to shine light on this unlikely case of what would seem to be strigoi.

Or, as they are known in the West . . . vampires.

My Thoughts: Mary and Sherlock's next adventure takes them to Roumania where Marie, Queen of Roumania, has a problem. Mary has caught quite a head cold which she blames on the children of her hosts in Monaco and isn't tracking well as Holmes bundles her onto a train. When she recovers somewhat, she takes charge of their travel plans and gets them to the country sooner.

When they arrive, they learn that someone is trying to ruin Marie's reputation with the people near her castle in Bran. Some of the things they have tried is trying to make it look like Marie is using witchcraft and harassing some of the young women in town with rumors of vampires. Things escalate until Mary is attacked and abducted, drugged and left in a small underground room which was described in great detail along with Mary's fear of small, enclosed spaces and fears of being buried alive. 

When one of castle servants who bears a strong resemblance to Marie's daughter Ileana is also abducted, Holmes and Russell need to discover the villain and save the girl which entails a wild motorcycle ride through the countryside. 

I loved the historical detail about the time and place. I knew nothing about Marie of Roumania before reading this book and was intrigued to learn about her. The descriptions of the people and the castle were both vivid and detailed. They were also intriguing. I liked that both Holmes and Russell had chapters from their viewpoint. It was interesting to see Holmes's viewpoint of the state of his marriage to Mary Russell. 

This is a wonderful historical mystery series and this seventeenth episode was a great entry into the series. 

Favorite Quote:

Roumania was as close as Europe got to wilderness: neither West nor East, not quite feudal yet a fair distance from a functioning democracy, a land beyond the reaches of the Cook's guides. "And granted, it's a place where the maps have 'Here be dragons,' but I can't see why we needed quite such a roundabout route.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King

Riviera Gold
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 16)
Publication: Bantam (June 9, 2020)

Description: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”

It’s summertime on the Riviera, and the Jazz Age has come to France’s once-sleepy beaches. From their music-filled terraces, American expatriates gaze along the coastline at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and sometimes hidden away. When Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive, they find their partnership pulled between youthful pleasures and old sins, hot sun and cool jazz, new affections and enduring loyalties.

Russell falls into easy friendship with an enthralling American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, whose golden life on the Riviera has begun to attract famous writers and artists—and some of the scoundrels linked with Monte Carlo’s underworld. The Murphy set will go on to inspire everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso , but in this summer of 1925, their importance for Russell lies in one of their circle’s recent additions: the Holmeses’ former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, who hasn’t been seen since she fled England under a cloud of false murder accusations.

When a beautiful young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson’s front room, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder. Russell is certain of Mrs. Hudson’s innocence; Holmes is not. But the old woman’s colorful past has been a source of tension between them before, and now the dangerous players who control Monte Carlo’s gilded casinos may stop at nothing to keep the pair away from what Mrs. Hudson’s youthful history could bring to light.

The Riviera is a place where treasure can be false, where love can destroy, and where life, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will discover, can be cheap—even when it is made of solid gold.

My Thoughts: After their adventures in Venice, Sherlock and Mary split up for different destinations. Holmes is off to Romania for something to do with vampires while Mary sails to the South of France with the Honorable Terry and some friends. Mary wants to see if she can locate their former housekeeper Mrs. Hudson who left a clue that Monaco was her destination when she left them.

Clarissa Hudson is in Monaco with some plans for her retirement that means she needs to interact with some of the shady characters who are making Monaco their home base in 1925. From smugglers to arms dealers to White Russians who fled the revolution, Monaco is filled with shady characters.

Monaco is also the home of a growing group of American ex-pats led by Gerald and Sara Murphy who are gathering a group of artists of all kinds from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso.

When the body of a handsome young man is found in Mrs. Hudson's sitting room, Mary and Sherlock get involved in finding out what happened since Mary, at least, is certain that Mrs. Hudson had nothing to do with the murder.

I loved the setting and characters in this story and the way real historical characters are included in the story along with the fictional ones. The historical detail in intriguing. The story moves at a fast pace and was engaging. I can't wait for more adventures starring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes.

Favorite Quote:

Clarissa and Sir Basil had known each other. When they were young, and attractive, and flirtatious. It was all beginning to feel like the day a child realises that her parents--her parents--had once...(had more than once...)

My appalled musings were shattered by Mrs Langtry's delighted laugh. "Yes, dear thing, your Mrs Hudson cut quite a swathe through the blades of Europe."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

Why had I never considered the possibility that an arms dealer might wield actual arms?

Friday 56:

I found him staring at me with a look of outrage. Perhaps Holmes had been right: the dress disguised me, making me into a person who would faint at the photograph of a dead man. I gave the poor fellow an encouraging smile, and turned to the photos. The policeman lit a furious cigarette and began to pace up and down. 

This week I am spotlighting Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King. This is the sixteenth book in the series that stars Sherlock Holmes and his wife and partner Mary Russell. Here is the description from Amazon:

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”

It’s summertime on the Riviera, and the Jazz Age has come to France’s once-sleepy beaches. From their music-filled terraces, American expatriates gaze along the coastline at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and sometimes hidden away. When Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive, they find their partnership pulled between youthful pleasures and old sins, hot sun and cool jazz, new affections and enduring loyalties.

Russell falls into easy friendship with an enthralling American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, whose golden life on the Riviera has begun to attract famous writers and artists—and some of the scoundrels linked with Monte Carlo’s underworld. The Murphy set will go on to inspire everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso , but in this summer of 1925, their importance for Russell lies in one of their circle’s recent additions: the Holmeses’ former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, who hasn’t been seen since she fled England under a cloud of false murder accusations.

When a beautiful young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson’s front room, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder. Russell is certain of Mrs. Hudson’s innocence; Holmes is not. But the old woman’s colorful past has been a source of tension between them before, and now the dangerous players who control Monte Carlo’s gilded casinos may stop at nothing to keep the pair away from what Mrs. Hudson’s youthful history could bring to light.

The Riviera is a place where treasure can be false, where love can destroy, and where life, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will discover, can be cheap—even when it is made of solid gold.

Book Review: Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Dreaming Spies
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 13)
Publication: Bantam; Reprint edition (October 6, 2015)

Description: Laurie R. King’s novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, are critically acclaimed and beloved by readers for the author’s adept interplay of history and adventure. Now the intrepid duo is finally trying to take a little time for themselves—only to be swept up in a baffling case that will lead them from the idyllic panoramas of Japan to the depths of Oxford’s most revered institution.

After a lengthy case that had the couple traipsing all over India, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are on their way to California to deal with some family business that Russell has been neglecting for far too long. Along the way, they plan to break up the long voyage with a sojourn in southern Japan. The cruising steamer Thomas Carlyle is leaving Bombay, bound for Kobe. Though they’re not the vacationing types, Russell is looking forward to a change of focus—not to mention a chance to travel to a location Holmes has not visited before. The idea of the pair being on equal footing is enticing to a woman who often must race to catch up with her older, highly skilled husband.

Aboard the ship, intrigue stirs almost immediately. Holmes recognizes the famous clubman the Earl of Darley, whom he suspects of being an occasional blackmailer: not an unlikely career choice for a man richer in social connections than in pounds sterling. And then there’s the lithe, surprisingly fluent young Japanese woman who befriends Russell and quotes haiku. She agrees to tutor the couple in Japanese language and customs, but Russell can’t shake the feeling that Haruki Sato is not who she claims to be.

Once in Japan, Russell’s suspicions are confirmed in a most surprising way. From the glorious city of Tokyo to the cavernous library at Oxford, Russell and Holmes race to solve a mystery involving international extortion, espionage, and the shocking secrets that, if revealed, could spark revolution—and topple an empire.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this episode in the adventures of Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes. The Preamble has them back home and contemplating a very Japanese rock that has been placed in their garden. It is 1925.

Then we go back to 1924 and discover how the rock ends up in their garden. The story begins with Russell and Holmes boarding a ship in Bombay that will take them to Japan. Also boarding are a man Holmes recognizes as a blackmailer and a mysterious young Japanese woman. While Mary is looking forward to some quiet time to read and relax, Holmes determines to find out what Lord Darley, the blackmailer, is up to.

The young Japanese woman is Haruki Sato who has spent a year in the United States at college and is returning home. At Mary's urging, she agrees to teach both Mary and Holmes some Japanese and also agrees to give some lectures about Japanese culture on the ship. Miss Sato looks young, innocent and naive but has hidden depths.

Holmes and Russell manage to while away the sea voyage investigating Lord Darley, his new wife, and his son and learning about Japanese culture. When they disembark in Kobe, Miss Sato is there to act as tour guide and instructor. She disappears but sets them a puzzle to solve.

This leads to them assuming the roles of Buddhist pilgrims and traveling through Japan to rendezvous with her at a specific time and place. I liked seeing Japan through their eyes as they traveled. At the rendezvous, Sherlock and Mary learn what it is that Miss Sato has been preparing them for. She is a ninja in service to the Emperor, as her family has been for a couple hundred years, and Crown Prince Hirohito has a problem that needs to be solved.

Hirohito has mistakenly given away a book to the King of England that contains some information of vital importance to Japan. Darley is blackmailing him to get it back. Holmes, Russell, and Miss Sato and her family need to find a way to retrieve the book to save Hirohito and Japan from major loss of face.

After a seemingly successful conclusion, Holmes and Russell return home. But, some months later, Miss Sato appears in England because the wrong book was recovered. And the adventures resume...

I love Mary's voice as she tells the story. She is such a strong and engaging character. I enjoyed the information about the Japanese book and the wandering poet. I liked that each chapter began with a haiku. All in all, this was a very enjoyable story. I can't wait for more adventures.

Favorite Quote:

A train appeared, narrower in gauge than English or American trains. At the precise time we had been given, it came to a halt before the platform, stopped in a great hss of brakes, and opened its doors.

What followed was totally unexpected. This most methodical and polite of people were seized by a daemon. As if they were facing the last escape from a raging inferno, they began instantly to shove - those on-board to push out, and those on the platform to be the first in. Grim determination was the rule for the next two minutes, with Holmes and me, the largest objects in the stream, pushed aside by our lack of technique.

I bought and read this one in 2014 but didn't review it. I'm rereading it now. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King

The God of the Hive
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell (Book 10)
Publication: Bantam; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)

Description: In Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mystery, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller of ingenious surprises and unrelenting suspense—as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice.

It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended—or so they’d hoped—with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.

Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them?

From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies—in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.

My Thoughts: After their confrontation with a villain, Holmes and Russell need to split up to confuse their enemy. Holmes takes to the sea with his son Damian who has a gunshot wound and Russell grabs Holmes's three-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter Estelle and heads south. She catches up with the pilot who flew her north and convinces him to take them to a place where they can catch a train heading further south.

However, a sniper shoots their plane and wounds their pilot which convinces them to go even further before landing to get out of the range of the villains who are after them. A plane crash lands them in the realm of Robert Goodman who is living as a hermit. They spend a couple of days there before the villains overtake them and all four are forced to flee.

Russell stashes the pilot and Estelle in a place that should be safe and travels to London with Robert Goodman to search for both Holmes brothers. Then the news comes the Mycroft has been killed outside a house of ill repute and his funeral is to be the next Sunday.

Mycroft has fallen afoul of villains of his own though they are part of the larger conspiracy. Sections from the head villains point of view let us know about a plot to depose Mycroft and take his place in the Intelligence community which he feels is his destiny. And he's more than willing to murder, Mycroft, Sherlock, Mary, and anyone else who might stand in his way.

This story is told from multiple points of view and was filled with action as our heroes new and old have to find out who is behind the massive plot and save their lives and the lives of innocent victims along the way. Holmes and Russell are apart for large parts of this story which adds their worry for each other to the tension of an already tense situation.

This was an excellent story. I loved the action and tension. I really liked Robert Goodman who was an intriguing character. I also want to know more about Damian, Estelle, and the young Scottish doctor that Sherlock kidnaps to take care of Damian's gunshot wound.

Favorite Quote:

"Not a ladder as such, it's rope. A rope ladder. If you feel up to such a thing."

"Is there sufficient anchor up there? I'd not care to get nearly to the top and have it come loose."

"Oh no, no no, that wouldn't do at all. Yes, there's a metal pipe near by, and I have a rope as well. To fasten around the pipe, that is, and tie to the ladder."

"Mr. Sosa, I don't know that I've ever had opportunity to enquire, but -- your knowledge of knots. How comprehensive is it?"

"Quite sufficient, I assure you, sir," he answered earnestly. As a boy, I taught myself a full two dozen styles and their chief purposes. I propose a sheet bend rather than a reef knot. And to fasten it to the pipe, a double half-hitch should be sufficient. No, sir; my knots will hold."

I bought this one in 2010 and am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

A child is a burden, after a mile.

After two miles in the cold sea air, stumbling through the night up the side of a hill and down again, becoming all too aware of previously unnoticed burns and bruises, and having already put on eight miles that night -- half of it carrying a man on a stretcher -- even a small, drowsy three-and-a-half-year-old becomes a strain.

Friday 56:

Then the world exploded in a racket of tearing metal and crackling trees, the screams of three human voices, and an unbelievable confusion of sound and pain and turmoil as we tumbled end over end and fell crying into the dark.

Today I am spotlighting The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King. This is the tenth book in the Mary Russell series and I first read it in 2010. It has been an interesting experience reading these mysteries without having to wait a year between each one. Here is the description from Amazon:

In Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mystery, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller of ingenious surprises and unrelenting suspense—as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice.

It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended—or so they’d hoped—with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.

Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them?

From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies—in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.

Book Review: Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King

Garment of Shadows
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 12)
Publication: Bantam; Reprint edition (August 20, 2013)

Description: Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds.

In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hivelike streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.

Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim—who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman. The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom he’s learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for her self, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.

My Thoughts: Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell find themselves in Fez, Morocco, this time. Mary and Sherlock are separated. Mary wakes up in a strange place, injured, and without her memory. She runs from soldiers and wanders the poorer area trying to remember who she is and learn where she is. She does learn that she has some skills as a pickpocket, acrobat, and thief but doesn't really learn much about herself in her explorations.

Meanwhile, Sherlock who had been off visiting a distant cousin, returns to rejoin Mary only to discover that she is missing. He immediately begins a hunt for her which leads him to Fez. In 1924, things in Morocco are tense. The country is divided between the Spanish and the French and the natives are unhappy with both. The man in charge of the French Protectorate is Holmes' cousin.  The native rebel forces are well-armed because they have had victories over the Spanish and gotten a lot of their arms from the captured armies.

The rebels themselves are not united. The two factions are controlled by Raisuni who is the last of Barbary pirates and who has made substantial funds by kidnapping and ransoming Europeans and the Abd al-Klims who are Western educated and anxious for independence for their country. The land is full of spies and supporters of all political interests. Mary soon learns that her friends Mahmoud and Ali Hzir (from O Jerusalem and Justice Hall) who are British agents controlled by Mycroft Holmes are deep in the mix of spies.

Mary has to recover her memory, rescue her friend Mahmoud, and determine who is pulling the strings, and what strings they are pulling, in this very troubled region. She is battered, shot at, and kidnapped in the course of her investigation.

What I really like about this series of historical mysteries is that I learn so much about pieces of history that I never knew about. I also really like Mary as a main character. She is an intellectual and physical equal to her husband Sherlock Holmes even though she is probably 50 years his junior and only about 24. She is a scholar and a reluctant investigator. She also has a strong moral compass that has been putting her at odds with Mycroft's machinations in these last couple books.

The language, because the stories are told in Mary's voice, is articulate and descriptive without being flowery. Mary has a dry sense of humor.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will enjoy this series and this latest episode of Mary Rusell's and Sherlock Holmes' adventures.

Favorite Quote:

The problem was, everything I took from my pockets had seemed possessed of immense mystery and import, as if the stone, the pipe-length, the grains of sand where whispering a message just beneath my ability to hear. When everything meant nothing, it would appear, even meaningless objects became numinous with Meaning. The date pip I spat into my palm positively throbbed with significance.

It was damned irritating.

I bought and read this one in 2014 but didn't review it. I am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Pirate King by Laurie R. King

Pirate King
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 11)
Publication: Bantam; First Edition edition (September 6, 2011)

Description: In this latest adventure featuring the intrepid Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King takes readers into the frenetic world of silent films—where the pirates are real and the shooting isn’t all done with cameras.

In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, at the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities that swirl around Fflytte’s popular movie studio. So Russell is traveling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, the project will either set the standard for moviemaking for a generation . . . or sink a boatload of careers.

Nothing seems amiss until the enormous company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, where the thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses whom Mary is bemusedly chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell feels a building storm of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with secrets, ominous currents between the pirates, decks awash with budding romance—and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their dangerous outlaw leader. Plus, there’s a spy on board. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

Pirate King is a Laurie King treasure chest—thrilling, intelligent, romantic, a swiftly unreeling masterpiece of suspense.

My Thoughts: This was an engaging episode of the long-running Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series that began with The Beekeeper's Apprentice in 1994 and continues in this eleventh story. This is a lighter episode than the previous one. Mary is asked by Inspector Lestrade to go undercover with a company making a pirate movie to discover the fate of a missing secretary. The film crew also seems to be followed by crimes that mirror the plots of the films - drugs, illegal arms sales, and rum running. Her immediate response is to refuse but then she recalls that Holmes' brother Mycroft is coming to stay at their home for two weeks. Suddenly, pirates and movie crews are much more appealing.

Mary is quickly immersed in all the drama that surrounded the early days of silent film. She must deal with an extremely flamboyant director who is obsessed with realism, a bevy of demanding blonde actresses (and a few stage mothers), and pirates. The plot of the film is that a movie is being made of The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. This leads to a lot of confusion as we have actors playing double roles as a character in The Pirates of Penzance and in the cast making the movie. Determined as he is on realism, Randolph St. John Warminster-Fflytte determines that the film will be shot in Portugal and Morocco. While many of the principal actors have been cast in England, including thirteen young ladies, Fflytte waited until he reached Portugal to cast his pirates. The Portuguese interpreter leads him to La Rocha and his crew of shady figures.

This was a very entertaining story that also gives a glimpse of the early days of film-making. I liked Mary's interaction with the various actresses. I liked that she began investigating one crime but soon found herself involved in something more complex and more dangerous. My only regret was that Sherlock Holmes made a late appearance in the story and we didn't get to see as much of him as in earlier episodes. Those scenes with Sherlock and Mary were still wonderful glimpses of their marriage of equals.

I recommend this book for fans of the series but do recommend that new readers wait to read this one until after they have caught up on the series. This one is for fans of historical, literary mysteries.

Favorite Quote:

Pessoa inclined his head. "I merely suggested that if Senhor Fflytte requires men who look like pirates, he might wish to search among the sea-fold rather than among those who make thier living in the theater."

"It's a great idea," Fflytte repeated.

"An interesting possibility," Hale mused.

I could not imagine that this would end well. 

I bought and read this one in 2011 but didn't review it. I am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

The Language of Bees
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell (Book 9)
Publication: Bantam (April 28, 2009)

Description: For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.

But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the troubled young man is enlisting the Holmeses’ help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

Mary has often observed that there are many kinds of madness, and before this case yields its shattering solution she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Mary will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

My Thoughts: Mary and Sherlock are just home from months abroad when Sherlock's son Damian Adler comes to ask for their help finding his missing wife and child. Sherlock wasn't aware of Damian's existence until 1919 when he and Mary worked to clear him of a murder charge.

Damian was a war hero, a drug addict, and a Bohemian painter. He greatly resented Holmes for his neglect and for his mother's unhappiness. He felt that Holmes should have know of his existence. As soon as he was cleared of the murder charge, he disappeared.

Now it is 1924 and Damian is back with his attitude toward Holmes pretty much unchanged. Adler and Holmes disappear to London to look for his family leaving Mary behind to work on the mystery of the hive of bees that had been abandoned. After a few days of working on that mystery, Mary decides to head to London to begin her own investigation.

Mary learns that Damian's wife Yolanda was fascinated by a wide variety of religions and belief systems. Mary discovers her relationship with the Children of Lights whose theology is a mash-up of many other beliefs including Norse mythology. She becomes convinced that their holy book is the work of a madman and she fears that Damian might be the author.

When Yolanda is found dead - murdered - at an ancient historical site, Mary and Sherlock begin looking at other odd events at historical sites to try to find out if her death was one in a pattern. Meanwhile, Holmes is looking for Damian who left him during their investigation.

This story was filled with great detail about the Bohemian movement and the art scene in London for those who were called Surrealists. I loved the descriptions of Damian's art work though I wouldn't want them in my living room any more than Mary did.

The tension builds as the story progresses until Mary is forced to fly from London to the Orkneys with a military pilot and through massively difficult weather to try to beat the villain to his final sacrificial site and save Damian and his daughter's lives. The descriptions made me feel that I was there along with Mary during that harrowing flight.

The only thing I didn't like about the story was the cliffhanger ending. I am very grateful that the next book is available for me and that I didn't have to wait a year for it.

Favorite Quote:

My own tradition of Judaism believes that there is nothing God loves more than a quick-witted argument; the words Millicent Dunworthy read were an excellent illustration of the need to teach Rabbinic debate in public schools.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

As homecomings go, it was not auspicious.

Friday 56:

He laid the cigarette case down and looked straight at Holmes, for the first time in several minutes. "Once we decided to leave Shanghai, I married Yolanda. Neither of us believes in the concept, but I doubt the government would have permitted her to come otherwise."

This week I am digging into a book from my Keeper shelves that I haven't read for ten years or so. The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King is the ninth in the Mary Russell series of historical mysteries. Here is the description from Amazon:

For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.

But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the troubled young man is enlisting the Holmeses’ help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

Mary has often observed that there are many kinds of madness, and before this case yields its shattering solution she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Mary will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

Book Review: The Game by Laurie R. King

The Game
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell Series (Book 7)
Publication: Bantam; First Edition edition (March 2, 2004)

Description: Laurie R. King’s bestselling mystery series featuring Mary Russell and her husband and partner, Sherlock Holmes, is beloved by readers and acclaimed by critics the world over. Now the illustrious duo returns for their most dangerous exploit yet, in a rich and atmospheric tale that takes them to India to save the life of one of literature’s most fabled heroes.

It’s the second day of the new year, 1924, and Mary Russell is settling in for a much-needed rest with her husband, Sherlock Holmes. But the fragile peace will be fleeting—for a visit with Holmes’s gravely ill brother, Mycroft, brings news of an intrigue that is sure to halt their respite. Mycroft, who has ties to the highest levels of the government, has just received a strange package. The oilskin-wrapped packet contains the papers of a missing English spy named Kimball O’Hara—indeed, the same Kimball who served as the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s famed Kim.

An orphaned English boy turned loose in India, Kim long used his cunning to spy for the Crown. But after inexplicably withdrawing from the “Great Game” of border espionage, he’s gone missing and is feared taken hostage—or even killed.

When Russell learns of Holmes’s own secret friendship with Kim some thirty years before, she knows the die is cast: she will accompany her husband to India to search for the missing operative. But even before they arrive, danger will show its face in everything from a suspicious passenger on board their steamer to an “accident” that very nearly claims their lives. Once in India, Russell and Holmes must travel incognito—no small task for the English lady and her lanky companion. But after a twist of fate forces the couple to part ways, Russell learns that in this faraway place it’s often impossible to tell friend from foe—and that some games must be played out until their deadly end.

Showcasing King’s masterful plotting and skill at making history leap from the page, The Game brings alive an India fraught with unrest and poised for change—and an unpredictable mystery with brilliance and character to match.

My Thoughts: A birthday dinner with Mycroft on Mary's twenty-fourth birthday in January, 1924, sends Holmes and Russell to India to search for Kimball O'Hara who hasn't been seen for three years. Tensions are rising in India. The nationalist uprising under Ghandi is gaining momentum and the rivalry between Russia and the British is also fierce. The change from a Tsar to the Bolsheviks didn't really change the desire to gain control of India. Neither did the newly elected Socialist Party change Britain's.

The story begins with the ocean voyage to India where Mary undergoes a crash course in Hindustani and immersion in the Mahabharata to gain an understanding of the culture. She also meets Sunny Goodheart, her mother who is inspired by an Indian Teacher, and her brother who is a budding Communist. Repeated run-ins with the Goodhearts raise suspicions in both Mary and Sherlock. The suspicions reach their peak when the Goodhearts are found to be visitors to the Maharajah of Khanpur. The Maharajah is supposed to be a staunch ally of Britain but there are some questions since his country is near where O'Hara was last seen.

Holmes and Russell begin their investigation by taking on the personas of traveling magicians. They gather a young donkey boy named Bindra along with his donkey and cart and begin to make their way across India. I loved the descriptions of the land and people as seen through Mary's eyes.

Mary becomes herself again when she meets the Goodhearts and has a chance to enter Khanpur as their guest. However, Holmes and Bindra are keeping their personas and will meet her later in Khanpur. Mary gets a chance to get to know the Maharajah and finds him to be a volatile personality with a secret political agenda. He seems fascinated by Mary especially after she joined him on a hunt for feral hogs and did well. When she wants to leave, he tries to keep her there. Fortunately, she managed to resume her identity as a traveling magician and slip away from him for a while leaving him in a rage.

She and Sherlock are traveling to get out of Khanpur when the Maharajah catches up to them. He captures Sherlock but Mary is able to make her escape out of Khanpur and to a trusted British agent. Then the two of them need to find a way back in to confirm suspicions about the Maharajah's goals and, more importantly to Mary, to rescue Holmes.

This story was filled with adventure and danger and political intrigue. I loved the mystery and Mary's world. I enjoyed the ties to Rudyard Kipling's KIM and the look at India through Mary's eyes.

Favorite Quote:

"This doesn't have anything to do with KIM, does it? The Kipling book?"

"You've read it?" Mycroft asked.

"Of course I've read it."

"Good, that saves some explaining. I believe this to be his amulet case."

"He's real then? Kipling's boy?"

"As real as I am," said Sherlock Holmes.

I bought and read this one before I began blogging. I am rereading it now. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Justice Hall by Laurie R. King

Justice Hall
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell (Book 6)
Publication: Bantam; First Edition edition (March 26, 2002)

Description: Just hours after Holmes and Russell return from solving the murky riddle of The Moor, a bloodied but oddly familiar stranger pounds desperately on their front door, pleads for their help, and then collapses. When he recovers, he lays before them the story of the enigmatic Marsh Hughenfort, younger brother of the Duke of Beauville, returned to England upon his brother’s death.Not until Holmes and Russell arrive in the village of Arley Holt can they fully understand Marsh’s dilemma.

For Justice Hall is a home of dizzying beauty and unearthly perfection, set in a garden modeled on Paradise. Russell longs for what it represents: permanence, history, the kind of roots that reach back for centuries. But Holmes senses the burdens echoed in the family motto, Justitia fortitudo mea est. And as Marsh seeks to live by the words, “Righteousness is my strength,” he is determined to learn the truth about the untimely death of Justice Hall’s expected heir...a puzzle he is convinced only Holmes and Russell can solve.

It’s a mystery that begins during the Great War of 1918, when young Gabriel Hughenfort, the late Duke’s only son, died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. While Holmes heads to London to uncover the truth of Gabriel’s war record, Russell joins an ill-fated shooting party. A missing diary, a purloined bundle of letters, and a trail of ominous clues comprise a mystery that will call for Holmes’s cleverest disguises and Russell’s most daring journeys into the unknown...from an English hamlet to the city of Paris to the wild prairie of the New World. The trap is set, the game is afoot, but can they catch an elusive villain in the act of murder before they become his next victims?

A brilliant blend of traditional Holmesian myth, startling originality, complex plotting, and unforgettable characters set against a fully realized early-twentieth-century world, Justice Hall will delight readers with a mystery as intelligent as it is engagingly devious.

My Thoughts: Holmes and Russell have just returned home after their adventures on Dartmoor and are hoping for some quiet time when a knock at the door brings an old friend with a huge problem. Holmes and Russell met Ali Hazr in Palestine four years earlier. Now they are seeing him in his other identity as Alistair Hughenfort.

Ali has come to beg for their help in rescuing his brother Mahmoud from a future that he doesn't want. As the second son of the Duke of Beauville, he wasn't expected to ever inherit the dukedom and the tremendous responsibility and the weight of family tradition. However, his brother's heir nineteen-year-old Gabriel died during World War I and his brother died soon after.

Ali wants Sherlock and Mary to c.onvince Marsh Hughehfort to abdicate in favor of another heir so that they can resume their lives in Palestine as Mycroft's agents. Marsh is not happy with his new responsibilities. In fact, Mary likens him to a man who is just waiting to die. But his long family history won't let him abandon those who depend on him. He does have questions though. Was his nephew executed for some sort of military crime? And if he was, who engineered his death? And, did his brother Lionel really marry and have a child who could be a new heir?

As Mary and Sherlock investigate Gabriel's death, they discover all sorts of questionable things from missing records to unexplained transfers. As they dig deeper it becomes clear that someone engineered young Gabriel's death. And, after a hunting accident that could have killed Marsh, it is clear that the manipulator isn't finished with his crimes.

This story ranges from Justice Hall to London to Paris and to a small town outside of Toronto as Mary and Sherlock investigate this complex conspiracy. The setting and time period are so well drawn that they feel real. The aristocratic lifestyle of Justice Hall is already showing some cracks as the results of World War I and the loss of so many young men are making for great changes in the culture.

The descriptions were so detailed both for Justice Hall and for Ali's home. The characters were complex. Although we don't ever meet Gabriel we get to know him through the memories of those who did know him and through his diaries and letters. There are many secrets and startling revelations in this story which adds to the excitement and to the mystery. It was a compelling story both as a mystery and as a window into a time long gone.

Favorite Quote:

Five years or fifty, when people have sweated, suffered, and shed blood together, there can be no hesitation: If one calls, the other responds. We had shared salt and bread, those staples of Bedu life; now it appeared that we were about to share our combined strength. My blood family had been dead for nine years; however, in the interim I had acquired a most singular pair of brothers.

I bought and read this one before I started blogging. I am rereading it now. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Locked Rooms by Laurie R. King

Locked Rooms
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell (Book 8)
Publication: Bantam (June 21, 2005)

Description: Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series. And this time the first couple of detection pair up to unlock the buried memory of a shocking crime with the power to kill again–lost somewhere in Russell’s own past.

After departing Bombay by ship, Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are en route to the bustling modern city of San Francisco. There, Mary will settle some legal affairs surrounding the inheritance of her family’s old estate. But the closer they get to port, the more Mary finds herself prey to troubling dreams and irrational behavior–a point not lost on Holmes, much to Russell’s annoyance.

In 1906, when Mary was six, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire that reduced the city to rubble. For years, Mary has denied any memory of the catastrophe that for days turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. But Holmes suspects that some hidden trauma connected with the “unforgettable” catastrophe may be the real culprit responsible for Mary’s memory lapse. And no sooner do they begin to familiarize themselves with the particulars of the Russell estate than it becomes apparent that whatever unpleasantness Mary has forgotten, it hasn’t forgotten her. Why does her father’s will forbid access to the house except in the presence of immediate family? Why did someone break in, then take nothing of any value? And why is Russell herself targeted for assassination?

The more questions they ask of Mary’s past, the more people from that past turn out to have died violent, unexplained deaths. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective and crime writer named Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads them through the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic car “accident” that a fourteen-year-old Mary alone survived–an accident that may not have been an accident at all. What Russell is about to discover is that even a forgotten past never dies…and it can kill again.

My Thoughts: After their adventures in India Holmes and Russell make a long-delayed side trip to San Francisco. Mary hasn't been there since she was fourteen and was the only survivor of the car accident that killed her parents and younger brother. She was gravely injured and traumatized by the accident. She did some work with psychiatrist Dr. Ginzburg before moving to England to live with her aunt.

Now it is time to meet with her lawyers and make some decisions about the businesses and properties left to her when her parents died. But Mary is being troubled by three recurring dreams that are causing insomnia and lack of appetite. Holmes is worried for her.

When they arrive in San Francisco, they are confronted with even more mystery. A strange codicil to her father's will has kept their family home empty since it requires that entry is only permitted with a member of the family. The house is neglected and the grounds are vastly overgrown. But it appears that someone has been inside and searched the place.

Mary has always insisted that she was not in San Francisco during the 1906 quake and fires but she learns that she was which explains the first dream about flying objects. The second dream about a faceless man takes longer to figure out but it also had its origin during 1906. The third dream about secret rooms takes the longest to figure out.

While Mary is meeting with lawyers and meeting old friends that she barely remembers, Holmes is busy looking into the past the Mary has forgotten. Holmes even recruits Dashiell Hammett as his irregular since Mary is unavailable. Holmes comes to the conclusion that the accident that Mary has blamed herself for was really a murder designed to look like an accident.

This story is different than many of the earlier adventures in that there are sections told from Mary's point of view and other sections told from Sherlock's point of view. It was a wonderful adventure that illuminated Mary's past both for the reader and for Mary. I loved the San Francisco setting and the various characters including some residents of Chinatown.

Favorite Quote:

The top of her hat might have tucked under my chin, had I been foolish enough to allow her that close. Its wavering feathers and bristling bits of starched ribbon were ferociously up-to-date, and her well-corseted figure was wrapped in an incongruously youthful dress whose designer would have been outraged at the sight (although it testified well to the tensile strength of the thread), and her hair might at one time have been nearly the intense black it now was. Her fingers sparkled with a miscellany of stones, and the mauve colour of her sealskin coat came from no animal known to Nature. She was making for me with both arms outstretched, and although she looked more likely to devour me than to embrace me, I did the English thing and resisted mightily the impulse to place the outstretched  heel of one hand against her forehead to keep her at arm's length. Instead I allowed her to seize my forearms and smack her painted lips in the general direction of my jaw.

It appeared that I had a dear friend in San Francisco.

I bought this one in 1996 and am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King

O Jerusalem
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell Novels
Publication: Bantam; First Edition edition (June 1, 1999)

Description: At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England's green and pleasant land, Russell and Holmes enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes' enigmatic brother, Mycroft.

"Gentlemen, we are at your service." Thus Holmes greets the two travel-grimed Arab figures who receive them in the orange groves fringing the Holy Land. Whatever role could the volatile Ali and the taciturn Mahmoud play in Mycroft's design for this land the British so recently wrested from the Turks? After passing a series of tests, Holmes and Russell learn their guides are engaged in a mission for His Majesty's Government, and disguise themselves as Bedouins--Russell as the beardless youth "Amir"--to join them in a stealthy reconnaissance through the dusty countryside.

A recent rash of murders seems unrelated to the growing tensions between Jew, Moslem, and Christian, yet Holmes is adamant that he must reconstruct the most recent one in the desert gully where it occurred. His singular findings will lead him and Russell through labyrinthine bazaars, verminous inns, cliff-hung monasteries--and into mortal danger. When her mentor's inquiries jeopardize his life, Russell fearlessly wields a pistol and even assays the arts of seduction to save him. Bruised and bloodied, the pair ascend to the jewellike city of Jerusalem, where they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for savagery and power could reduce the city's most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite this tinderbox of a land....

Classically Holmesian yet enchantingly fresh, sinuously plotted, with colorful characters and a dazzling historic ambiance, O Jerusalem sweeps readers ever onward in the thrill of the chase.

My Thoughts: Needing to leave England for a while and accepting a commission from Sherlock's brother Mycroft, Mary and Sherlock find themselves in Palestine and in the middle of a plot to destabilize an already troubled area in 1919 when Allenby is trying to forge some sort of peace and the Turks aren't quite ready to give up the area.

Mary dons the disguise of an Arab boy named Amir and has a rapid course in Arabic as they join forces with Mahmoud and Ali who are agents for Mycroft and who aren't eager to have two new strangers coming into the area. After a period of testing which tests their stamina and determination and puts a strain on Holmes who is healing from the bomb blast which precipitated their trip to Palestine, Holmes and Mary find themselves trying to find the mastermind who is behind a few murders and a plot to blow up a sacred site in Jerusalem.

The story sees Holmes and Russell traveling through many dusty parts of Palestine including cliff-side monasteries and buried tunnels and aqueducts and tombs. Mary and Sherlock even have a chance to swim in the Dead Sea. Mary is often awestruck seeing the sites she has studied and the places that form an important part of her religion.

I loved the vivid descriptions of the land and people they meet on their journey. The plot was nicely twisty. I liked the growing relationship between Mary and Sherlock as they ease from Mary's apprenticeship to her being a full and equal partner to Holmes.

Favorite Quote:

There are no true mountains in Palestine, not by European standards and certainly not within a day's walk of Jaffa, but I could have sworn that our two guides had imported some for the occasion. We scrambled up and down precipitous if unseen hillsides, obliging me to cling to the pack ropes and let my surefooted animal lead me in the darkness, abandoning all pretense of my being in charge of it. 

I bought and read this one before I began blogging and am rereading it now. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Moor by Laurie R. King

The Moor
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes (Book 4)
Publication: Picador; 1st edition (October 30, 2007)

Description: In the eerie wasteland of Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes summons his devoted wife and partner, Mary Russell, from her studies at Oxford to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. Through the mists of the moor there have been sightings of a spectral coach made of bones carrying a woman long-ago accused of murdering her husband--and of a hound with a single glowing eye. Returning to the scene of one of his most celebrated cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell investigate a mystery darker and more unforgiving than the moors themselves, in Laurie R. King's The Moor.

My Thoughts: Mary is called from her studies in Oxford to join her husband Sherlock Holmes on Dartmoor. At first resentful, Mary soon becomes interested in investigating the death of an itinerant tin miner and rumors of a ghostly carriage and a hound with a single glowing eye. They are staying at the home of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould who is a long-time friend of Sherlock's. Baring-Gould is nearly ninety and dying but he is still a force to be reckoned with on the moor. He is the author of more than 150 books on a wide variety of topics (and Mary reads quite a number of them while in his home). He's most famous for collecting the traditional songs of Dartmoor and trying to preserve the culture that he fears will be lost when communication gets easier.

Dartmoor is the scene of one of Sherlock's most famous cases - The Hound of the Baskervilles -- and Baskerville Hall and its new owner American Richard Ketteridge play an important part in this story. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the land and the people of Dartmoor as Mary came to appreciate the stark beauty of the land. Even without the supernatural creatures who are supposed to inhabit the land, the fogs and marshes provide enough danger for any traveler. Add in the British military using part of the moor to test artillery and test out a new sort of tank and you have a dangerous place to spend time.

This was an excellent episode in this series. I liked seeing how Mary and Holmes are getting along after two years of marriage.

Favorite Quote:

As I struggled in Holmes' wake. barely conscious of the vegetation and the people and the rich odours of dung and grass and rotting leaves, I reflected that I had been wet, bedraggled, and exhausted before -- generally in Holmes' company -- and in two years of marriage to the man I had come to accept this as a sommon state of affairs. I should have been somewhat happier about it if only he, too, might show the same results, but Holmes had always possessed the extraordinary ability to avoid grime. Given two puddles, identical on the surface, Holmes would invariably choose the one with the shallow, neatly gravelled bottom, whereas I, just as invariably, would put my foot into the other and be in muck past the ankle. Or go over a wall fleeing from a herd of horned Scottish cows and land respectively on green turf and churned up mud. 

I bought and read this one sometime before February 2008 and just bought a Kindle copy for rereading. You can buy your copy here.