Ellie's books 18, 28 and 31: Three Mary Russell books

I'm skipping around a bit here with the chronology of my reviews, because I wanted to get all of my gushing out in one spot. These three books are all part of the same series. (Also, side note, aren't those covers just gorgeous? I love both styles so much.)

Have I mentioned Mary Russell here before? If I haven't, I apologize, as if you know me in real life and I've spoken to you at all in the past two years there's a 90% chance I've recommended the Mary Russell books to you in terms so strong that you probably backed away slowly, smiling and nodding and looking for something to defend yourself with in case my not-so-latent maniacal tendencies started manifesting themselves in a more sinister way than book recommendations.

Ahem. Mary Russell is one of my current favorite literary characters. Laurie R. King has created an absolutely fantastic series about this British-American Jewish feminist Oxford scholar in the 1910's and 1920's who, at the age of 15, meets up with a retired Sherlock Holmes and becomes his protegee and partner. The books are meticulously researched and just sparkle with wit and intelligence. King's Holmes is his own character but still true to the original vision of Conan Doyle (although this Holmes is rather testy about any references to Conan Doyle; he dislikes the way the latter man sullied his name by association, especially once Conan Doyle turned more to mysticism and fairy stories).

But Mary Russell, from whose viewpoint the stories are told, more than holds her own with Sherlock Holmes without becoming unrealistically superior to him. He still is able to teach and mentor her without making her appear weak. She is a worthy partner for him in every way, and challenges his mind and opinions more than he has been used to.

I've read three of these books this year. The Game is book 7. Later on in the year my book club read book 1, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and I also read book 8, Locked Rooms.

18. The Game, by Laurie R. King

****

In The Game, Holmes and Russell make their way to India at the request of Mycroft Holmes in order to investigate the disappearance of an intelligence officer by the name of Kimball O'Hara, better known as the titular character of Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. (One of the delightful things about the Holmes/Russell universe is that many purportedly fictional characters, such as Holmes himself, are actually real and pop up at interesting times.) I loved the atmosphere of this book, which felt simultaneously menacing and full of color and spices. There were a few unexpected but satisfying twists, along with a few threads of a mystery to be picked up in the next book. All in all a solid book and great fun to read, but not quite equal to the top books in the canon (books 5 and 6, O Jerusalem and Justice Hall, were two sides of the same coin and absolute masterpieces. They were two of the top three best books I read in 2011). Four stars.

28. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie R. King

*****

It was delightful to re-read The Beekeeper's Apprentice a few weeks later with the benefit of hindsight (or is it foresight when you know what's coming in the next few books? Anyway, I enjoyed it, whatever it was) and seeing how later events in the series were foreshadowed as well as seeing the clues to the answer to the mystery as they popped up in the book. It re-confirmed my conviction that Laurie R. King is a master of storytelling, whose writing style is like weaving a huge epic tapestry: everything is connected, somehow, and all the disparate threads come together to make an astonishing whole. (Yes, I have a serious author crush going on here.) Five stars.

31. Locked Rooms, by Laurie R. King

*****

I went into Locked Rooms not expecting too much, as I'd heard that it was four shorter stories rather than one complete novel. I was delighted to find that I was mistaken. The book is divided into four parts, yes, but that's because two of the parts are actually told using third-person narration with Holmes himself serving as the viewpoint character for the first time in the series, with the other two parts in the accustomed first-person narration of Mary Russell. This may sound like it shouldn't work, but oh, believe me, it does, and is done for very good and sufficient reasons. Far from being disappointed in this book, the ultimate result took my breath away. It stands solidly with books 5 and 6 at the top of the series. This book sees Russell and Holmes arriving in San Francisco to tie up the affairs of Mary's parents' estate, and a mystery from her childhood rises up to confront them. I can't think of anything else to say that won't give away spoilers or just devolve into garbled author-crush gushing. But seriously. Wow. Five stars and mad applause for Laurie R. King. (And yes, this book is a serious contender for the final six-star best book of the year award.)

Seriously, if you haven't started reading this series, do yourself a favor and pick up The Beekeeper's Apprentice. You should read all of them in order so you can properly appreciate the sequence and build of events and facts, and all of them, even the weakest (looking at you, book 3), are solidly on the Books You'll Be Glad You Read list.

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