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.

ARC Review: The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan

The Witch's Orchard
Author: Archer Sullivan
Publication: Minotaur (August 12, 2025)

Description: A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch’s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old―it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed THE WITCH'S ORCHARD. Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore became a private investigator after leaving the service. She is just holding on to that career. When a young man from rural North Carolina comes to her with a case, she wants to help him out (and get his fee so that she can get her watch out of hock.)

Returning to the sort of rural life she joined the Air Force to get out of brings up memories of her own past as she investigates the disappearance of three young girls from one small mountain town. Ten years earlier, three girls disappeared over the course of a couple of months. One, an autistic child, was returned after being gone a couple of weeks. The other two were never found. 

Annie describes her job as asking questions until she stirs things up. That's what she does as she reinterviews those who were around at the time of the disappearances. Circling through her investigation is an old mountain story about a witch and her apple garden. She asks most of the people she interviews to tell her their version of the story which helps Annie understand them.

This was an engaging story with a great main character. I liked the way Annie engaged with her suspects and ferreted out long buried secrets. 

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

Book Review: The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

The Daughter of Time
Author: Josephine Tey
Series: Inspector Alan Grant Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Evergreen Publishers (January 28, 2023)

Description: Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world’s most heinous villains – a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother’s children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England’s throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower.

My Thoughts: I'm still trying to figure out why a mystery with a man confined to a bed in hospital with a broken leg and concussed spine was so engaging. I couldn't put the book down!

The story opens with Inspector Alan Grant staring at the ceiling in his hospital room. A friend brings a variety of historical pictures to try to get him interested in solving historical mysteries while he is convalescing. The portrait of Richard III intrigues him and sets him on a quest to find out more about the man and his supposed evil deeds. 

He's assisted by a young American researcher who followed a girlfriend to London and is now studying in order to keep his father off his back. Brent Carradine acts as Grant's legs and soon comes to share his fascination with the mystery of Richard III.

I loved the historical detail and the way Grant uses his investigative skills to piece together the puzzle. 

I bought this one May 24. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Them Bones by David Housewright

Them Bones
Author: David Housewright
Series: Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie Novels, Book 22)
Publication: Minotaur Books (June 24, 2025)

Description: A stolen dinosaur skull is at the center of a complex mystery laid at the feet of unofficial P.I. Rushmore McKenzie.

There are two things that Rushmore McKenzie hates to turn down―a request from a friend and a challenge. Both of them show up in his wife's nightclub in the person of Angela Bjork, who has come to request McKenzie's help. McKenzie, once a homicide detective, now through a series of unlikely events, is a retired millionaire. But occasionally, for friends, he will do some unofficial private detective work. Over the years, he's hunted down a stolen Stradivarius, the hoard of 1930's gangster, and recovered a stolen, apparently cursed, artifact but McKenzie never imagined a case like this. An exceedingly rare dinosaur skull has been stolen.

Angela, a doctoral candidate, was out on a dig site in Southeastern Montana, when she found a skeleton of an Ankylosaurus. And no sooner than when the skull was removed and placed on a truck then they were attacked, the truck and skull stolen. Worried that nothing is being done to find the stolen skull, she turns to McKenzie. Worth millions on the black market, the chance to recover it becomes fainter by the day. And the people behind the theft are likely willing to do anything, to anyone, to hold onto it.

My Thoughts: This is the 22nd book in the Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie Novels. It is the first of the series that I've read. I was attracted to the Twin Cities setting but quickly came to enjoy McKenzie's personality.

McKenzie is a former cop turned millionaire to unofficial private investigator. When a young woman shows up at his wife's nightclub asking for help, he is willing and intrigued. It seems Angela Bjork is a paleontologist who has come to McKenzie to ask him to help him recover the skull of an Ankylosaurus that she and some others from the University of Minnesota, Macalester, and the Science Museum of Minnesota discovered in Montana. 

The local police don't seem to be doing anything useful, and the FBI isn't interested because the skull was found on private land. The land is owned by a Twin Cities millionaire who wants the skull recovered and donated to the museum before he dies. McKenzie finds himself working for the millionaire and trying to find out who took the skull and where it might be. 

I enjoyed the setting. I liked McKenzie's circle of friends. I liked the references to earlier cases which made me very curious about them. Fans of the series will enjoy this episode. This newbie found the story engaging and hard to put down. 

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

ARC Review: Doggone Bones by Carolyn Haines

Doggone Bones
Author: Carolyn Haines
Series: Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries (Book 29)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 27, 2025)

Description: The latest novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as "Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney.

After a dog belonging to local pet activist Tilly Lawson is snatched right out of her backyard in Sunflower County, MS, Sarah Booth and the Delaney Detective Agency are up to their ears in concerned pet owners. Could Tilly's work liberating abused animals have come back to bite her, or was this a random act of dognapping?

Delaney Detective Agency has their work cut out for them, especially as a troublesome online pet detective agency tries nosing their way into the investigation. But as Sarah Booth and Tinkie start to sink their teeth into the mystery, they discover there's much more at play than they thought: neighborhood rivalries, questionable dog breeders, and an illegal dogfighting operation.

As their digging churns up dangerous attention—and with their own beloved dogs, Sweetie Pie and Chablis, possibly next in line to be dognapped—Sarah Booth and Tinkie are in a race against time to track down the thieves and return the missing pets home.

My Thoughts: The Delaney Detective Agency takes on a case of dognapping when the beloved pet of a pet activist is stolen from her yard. Both Sarah Booth and Tinkie are pet lovers too and are going to do their best to get Jezebel back. Then another pet is stolen from another older lady.

The detective duo has lots of suspects including a shady police chief, the mayor, the second lady's ne'er-do-well grandson, and a villain who has plagued Sarah Booth for some time and is on the lam from various law enforcement agencies in Mississippi. Then there is the local boy who made it good in pro wrestling and might be dipping into dog fighting and drugs with maybe a side of gambling. 

Things get even more tense when Sarah Booth's and Tinkie's dogs are dognapped too. 

This was a fun story filled with all sorts of Southern sayings. It also features "assistance" from Sarah Booth's ghost Jitty who makes appearances as famous historical dog lovers. And her boyfriend Coleman has a large role to play too. 

This is the 29th book in this series. I've only read one other, but will be putting the series on my TBR stack. 

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