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

The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Author: Laurie R. King
Narrator: Jennie Sterlin
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 1)
Publication: Macmillan Audio (January 10, 2014)
Length: 13 hours and 26 minutes

Description: An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee Named One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association

In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto 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. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past. Full of brilliant deduction, disguises, and danger, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the first book of the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mysteries, is "remarkably beguiling" (The Boston Globe).

This program includes a Preface read by the author.

My Thoughts: This is the first book in what is currently a 19-book series. It introduces 15-year-old Mary Russell who becomes a protégée of a seemingly retired Sherlock Holmes. She literally stumbles over him while walking and reading. 

Mary is a wonderfully complex character. She's very bright and somewhat arrogant about it. She's an orphan under the care of a despised and uncaring aunt. She's determined to become a scholar at Oxford where she plans to study theology. She's almost crippled by grief at the deaths of her parents and brother in a car accident which gravely injured her but which she survived. 

Sherlock sees a mind he admires. He is determined to tutor her to become a detective. 

The story takes place over about four years. It is told in sections aligning to Mary's journey to become Sherlock's partner. From her earliest investigations into the theft of some hams to the kidnapping of an American Senator's daughter to a complex plot designed to bring Sherlock Holmes down hatched by an enemy out of Sherlock's past, Mary grows from apprentice to partner. 

The story is filled with rich, historical detail. 1915 was a sort of watershed year which changed society and attitudes. Mary is a modern young 20th-century woman. Holmes is a Victorian gentleman. The way they changed each other is a focus of the story even beyond the various mysteries.  

This audiobook was produced at the twentieth anniversary of the book's first publication and includes a preface read by the author. The rest of the story is ably read by Jenny Sterlin. I have read this book a number of times and found something new each time. 

I bought this one April 8, 2021. You can buy your copy here.