Review: The Case of the Missing Marquess

The Enola Holmes mysteries weren't on my radar when I signed up for the Baker Street Challenge, but I'm so glad I decided to give them a shot! Here's an excerpt of my review of the first book in the series, The Case of the Missing Marquess:

Women have always upset Sherlock Holmes’s equilibrium (see Irene Adler from the original short stories or Mary Russell from Laurie R. King’s fantastic mystery series). Holmes’s family background is one aspect of his life that has received scant, if any, attention in the various Holmes pastiches that have appeared over the years. In the first Enola Holmes mystery, Nancy Springer dares to imagine a most unconventional mother and much-younger sister for the famed detective, both highly unconventional women well capable of throwing his order-loving world slightly off-kilter.

You can read the rest of my review here.

The other Ruth at Booktalk & More.

Review: The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Wexler

The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Bruce Wexler
Publisher: Running Press (2008)
Hardcover, 192 pages, $14.95
ISBN-10: 0762432527
ISBN-13: 978-0762432523

Lavishly illustrated, The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes is a companion guide to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Great Detective.

The book includes a biography of Conan Doyle, a history of Sherlock Holmes in print as well as on stage and screen, and an examination of the Holmes phenomenon today. Wexler also briefly touches on Sherlock Holmes' role in the evolution of crime fiction, the class structure of Victorian society, Victorian medicine and Holmes' use of forensic investigative techniques.

Over 150 illustrations are beautifully presented throughout the book. Many of Sidney Padget's iconic images are reproduced as full or half-page illustrations. There are many photographs of Victorian London and weapons that were common to the era. The section picturing some of Holmes' key possessions (such as his deerstalker hat, magnifying glass, pipe, Persian slipper, and violin) was especially interesting to me. When I first read through the Sherlock Holmes stories as a teenager, I had no idea what a Persian slipper looked like. I would have had no such trouble envisioning Holmes' quirky method of tobacco storage if this book had been available then.

Read my full review at Bookish Ruth.

Challenge Completed!

Yep, that's right, I've completed The Baker Street Challenge!

I chose the 7% Solution level so I had to read 7 books. Since I had already gotten interested in Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series I decided to read the 7 remaining books in that series.

Here's a recap of what I read (with links to my reviews) and the major themes/settings of each:

1. Monstrous Regiment of Women - women's movement after World War I
   
2. Letter of Mary - archeology and women
   
3. The Moor- fraud and The Hound of the Baskervilles
   
4. Oh, Jerusalem!- colonial control of Palestine
   
5. Justice Hall - World War I battlefront issues and English inheritance law
   
6. The Game - colonialism and espionage in India
   
7. Locked Rooms - the jazz age in San Fransisco

I recapped the challenge and wrote more of my thoughts on the books over at my blog.

Thank for putting this together Ruth!

- Heather from Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books

Locked Rooms

This is the 8th book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. The 9th book, THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, comes out next month.

In this episode the couple travels to San Fransisco where they attempt to unravel the secrets of Mary's tragic childhood while navigating a city in the throes of the jazz age.

If you'd like to read my complete but very short review, hop on over to my blog.

- Heather from Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books

The Game

Here's a snippet from my review:

In this, the 7th Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes book, the case bring our detectives to India. This is the time of declining British control in India, the time of Gandhi, the time of the Muslim League - a very exciting and turbulent point in India's history. It's also the time of flappers and Bolsheviks ...

In addition to a vividly created setting, King brings in the title character from Rudyard Kipling's novel KIM.

You can read the entire review at my blog.

- Heather J.
Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books

Justice Hall

Here's an excerpt from the review:

This is the 6th book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. This particular book deals with English inheritance law, World War I trench warfare and battlefield (in)justice, and it also brings back two characters from the 5th book, O JERUSALEM.

As with most of the other books in this series, the case doesn't really begin to develop until the 2nd half of the book (but of course, that is how things go in real life - you often don't know exactly what it is your are looking into and then suddenly things begin coming together). The middle of the book is where it got REALLY interesting for me - I couldn't put it down and read until way too late at night.

The rest of the review, along with some interesting links, is posted at my blog.

- Heather J.
Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books

The Bee is Free: Free eBook of The Beekeeper's Apprentice

If you're reading this and haven't read The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King yet, run, do not walk, to TheBeeIsFree.com for a free eBook. Like mysteries? Like Sherlock Holmes? You'll love this. Don't like mysteries and couldn't care less about Sherlock Holmes? (We need to talk...) Give it a try; it's free!

The book will be free to download starting today, April 1st (No, it's not an April Fool's Day joke!) and remain available until April 15th.

If I were to be marooned on a desert island tomorrow, this is one of the books I would want with me.