Way back when my daughter was a youngish teen, she and I enjoyed mightily the storied of The Beekeeper's Apprentice and the ongoing story of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. So recently, in my hunt for mystery authors for Bloody Words Stormy Weather in Halifax, I grabbed this book from the library to see what Mary Russell was up to now.
Well, maybe I'm older and more cynical (I read Swedish authors, after all) but this book didn't grab me at all, with it's lengthy and needlessly complex setup. I feel certain that, had I stuck it out, I'd find a nugget of goodness there - King is a fluid writer and often funny and I enjoy that. But after many many pages, I had to toss it into the "return to library" pile.
Perhaps it would have been better to read the series again from the beginning, but I didn't enjoy them that much. I find Holmes a bit annoying at the best of times ("Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do" and all that) and really hate deus ex machina mysteries where the magical detective whips the secret out from under his cloak (it always seems to be a him) at the end.
Still, for fans of Holmes, it's interesting to see him as a non-drug-addicted, married man. For me, something doesn't fit. ( )

As much as I'd like to say this was another great Mary Russell book from Laurie King, I cannot. In fact I was surprised how slow moving it is and that the usual twists and turns in any Russell/Holmes story are completely missing. Having read four others she'd written this was a real disappointment though I'll still continue to work my way through all the Mary Russell books. ( )

My least favorite of the Russell/Holmes series. ( )

In England's budding silent-film industry, megalomaniac Randolph Fflytte is king. At the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities. At Lisbon rehearsals for "Pirate King", based on Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance", thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses meet the real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, troubles escalate. ( )

Inspector Lestrad asks Mary Russell to take a job as an assistant to the director with a musical theater company to discover what happened to the previous assistant. The company is about to film a movie about a company filming The Pirates of Penzance been no overrun by actual pirates. I don’t think this book would appeal to people who aren’t familiar with Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, since it’s got Gilbert & Sullivan plot twists and if you don’t know those you’ll get lost. I forgot about the actual crime Mary was working on because I got so wrapped up in the twists — how did Sherlock get in the boat— but I’ll keep reading them.
The extra story does remind us that Mary was orphaned as a child and her marriage to Sherlock Holmes is a means of allowing her access to the money she inherited. These stories are set in the beginning of the 20th Century and unmarried women could not hold their own bank accounts. Mary may be managing her own money, but she's doing it under the auspices of Sherlock Holmes. This might make the age difference between Sherlock and Mary slightly more palatable to modern readers; at the time the marriage probably wouldn't have been worth commenting on. ( )