Book #3: The Game, Book 7 in the Mary Russell series

I also read Miss Pettigrew, but have no need to rehash Ellie's thoughtful review of a lovely little book. Pettigrew was my second book of the year, and I've decided to track how many I read simply because I never have before. It'll be interesting to see the body count after the year's up.

Speaking of Ellie, she also got me turned onto the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. I've been burning through them, and they are delightful.

Truthfully, I don't usually read mystery series because they can become a bit wan and kitschy. (The fact that I read a lot of the Cat Who series when I was younger may have something to do with this jaded view of mystery novels.) I like this series even more as I go along, which is refreshing.

For a bit of background, the character Mary Russell is a half-Brit, half-American, Jewish feminist orphan. Yeah, I know. But it works. It works marvelously. In the first book of the series, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, 15-year-old Mary encounters the semi-retired Sherlock Holmes who keeps bees in Sussex. They become nearly instant friends, and eventually Mary becomes his apprentice (ergo the title). Their adventures together land them in all sorts of troubles both in solving crimes and as instruments of the political machinations of Mycroft, Sherlock's older brother.

The writing is excellent, and entirely told from the first-person perspective of Mary Russell herself. Although the author is the first to emphasize that these are Mary Russell books not Sherlock Holmes books, they are one of the better bits of derivative literature I've chanced to stumble upon over the years. Ms. King is very thorough with her research and is true to the essence of the world established by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, while making the character of Mary her own.

Unfortunately, to delve much more into the background of the books would be to deny potential readers the pleasures of discovering the world of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes themselves.

In The Game, Russell and Holmes find themselves in India of all places. (This is far from the only random exotic locale the pair finds themselves.) It's a lush and lustrous romp, full of interesting characters and part of the plot dependent on characters from Rudyard Kipling's Kim. Disguises, deceit, dangerous beasts, and political intrigue in a time of political unrest in the British-occupied country weave through the novel. I hesitate to give too much away, as this is the next book in the series for Ellie and I don't want to ruin it for her.

I liked it a lot. It's not my favorite of the Mary Russell books I've read so far, but that's largely because of how much I loved the two companion books in the series, O Jerusalem and Justice Hall. My appreciation of the book may have been enhanced if I was at all familiar with the book Kim, though I think Laurie King does an adequate job explaining the connections for someone unacquainted with the book or the character.

A solid offering in the series. I've yet to finish one of the books and not be curious what happens in the next one. And I'm especially glad that there are still quite a few more books to dive into, so expect more reviews from this series as the year progresses.

I'm giving this four stars. It was a fun and pleasurable read as the Mary Russell books always are. Definitely give The Beekeeper's Apprentice a chance if this piqued your interest at all.

Just the facts, ma'am
Author: Laurie R. King
Published: 2005
Rating: 4 stars