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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.
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 ...You can read the entire review at my blog.
In addition to a vividly created setting, King brings in the title character from Rudyard Kipling's novel KIM.
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.The rest of the review, along with some interesting links, is posted at my blog.
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.
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!Since this is the 4th in the SH/MR series, I didn’t read the back of the book - I'm already into the story by now. Because of that, I assumed that"The Moor" referred to in the title would be like Morgan Freeman’s character in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. (This makes lots of sense when you consider Russell’s Jewish background and her keen interest in the Middle East.) You can imagine my surprise when the book turned out to be about the actual moor – as in, a place in England –and not a Saracen. Oops.
What I enjoyed about this particular book was the abundance of red herrings. Holmes and Russell have at least three distinctly different suspects for the murder of Ms. Ruskin and they can’t seem to figure out which is the real murderer. Whenever one suspect becomes a more likely candidate, something happens to change things yet again. And what I originally thought would be the focus of the story in the end turned out to be more of a side note. I love being surprised like that.You can read the complete review at my blog if you like.
One of the things I enjoy about the MR/SH books is the way King brings so much of "current events" into the stories. In this particular book, World War I has been over for a few years and there are changes in society as a result: women in the workforce (or who had been during the war), women wanting to do more meaningful work than staying at home, fewer men in general, shell-shocked soldiers, drug abuse, etc. All of these elements make their way into this book - and the case - at various points.If you'd like to read the complete review, click here.
