Tag: Sherlock Holmes

Sharing My Favorite Book Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Book Giveaway> ebook giveaway> Sharing My Favorite Book


Sharing My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop is being hosted by Reading Romances!

I never can pick just one.

As part of the Share My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop, I was supposed to pick my favorite book, and share it.

My one and only? That’s my husband’s place in my life.

When it comes to books, not remotely possible to choose.

Favorites of different types, absolutely!

After all, I love steak and I love chocolate. But is one better than the other? Is one better than the other for what? There is nothing in the universe like chocolate. Maybe sex.

But chocolate does not take the place of an excellent filet mignon. It’s what you have after an excellent filet mignon. Or after a perfectly grilled hamburger. It depends on what I’m in the mood for.

So for flavors of favorites, let’s see what Marlene has in her stacks of books. This blog hop is organized by my friend Nat at Reading Romances, so the requirement was that all the books be romances.

No problem! There are plenty of flavors of romances. I did sneak one in where the opinion varies. I think of it as having a romantic undertone. Your mileage may vary.

(I want a drumroll in here. Consider it understood)

My favorite time-travel romance, of course, is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. If you are looking for the explanation, read my Lovestruck post.

Science fiction romance has always been a favorite, since the first dragon flew over Pern. But when it comes to authors that I recommend to people now for SFR, Two names come to mind. Well, three really, because two of them write together.

Linnea Sinclair’s Games of Command is still one of my favorite single-title SFR books. Either that or her Accidental Goddess. Everything is there, space travel, other worlds, kick-ass heroine, cyborgs, rebel alliance, evil empire. love story, the works.

 

If you like space opera sagas with mercantile empires and yummy love stories, you can’t go wrong with Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe. Start with either Local Custom or Agent of Change. I started with Local Custom, and it really brought the SFR elements to the fore.

And my sneaker. By now, readers have figured out that I’m a sucker for Sherlock Holmes books. If the current number of  Holmes projects is any indication, I’m not the only one. Not only is Robert Downey, Jr. playing the great detective on the big screen (not his best role, I much prefer him as Iron Man), but there are not one, but two 21st century adaptations. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have captured the essentials of Holmes and Watson in the BBC’s Sherlock, and CBS is about to bring out Elementary, with Holmes and Dr. Joan Watson in modern-day Los Angeles.

Laurie R. King re-imagined Sherlock Holmes an entirely different way. In 1915, retired at 54, on the Sussex Downs, keeping bees, bored and suicidal. With Sherlock Holmes, bored and suicidal tended to go hand in hand. Or needle in arm. But in Ms. King’s version, someone tripped over Holmes with her nose in a copy of Virgil. A 15-year-old girl in need of rescuing. A female version of himself, born with the century. Mary Russell becomes his apprentice. She gives him a reason not to be bored. Eventually, very, very eventually, she becomes his wife. The first book, the story of her apprenticeship, is fittingly titled The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

This giveaway hop is all about Sharing Favorite Books, so this is how I’m going to share my favorite books with you. There’s a Rafflecopter below here. In it there’s a question. The question asks you to share your favorite book.

The lucky winner of the giveaway here at Reading Reality will get to choose from my favorite books. Any one of the books listed above, or any title I’ve given an A, A- or A+ Rating (under $10) since I started blogging. I want to share a book or ebook with you, so this is a US/International giveaway, as long as you can receive from Amazon or Book Depository or Baen Ebooks in the case of the Liaden Universe books)

Don’t forget to visit all the other hoppers! Everyone has lots of cool favorites to share and giveaway.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Hop and enter the other giveaways!

 


On My Wishlist-Waiting on Wednesday-Desperately Wanting Wednesday-On the Weekend (2)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | On My Wishlist

It’s still not Wednesday. But it might be when you read this. Or it might be Sunday, which is when I happened to get around to it this weekend.

Or a “round tuit”. I actually used to keep one of those in my desk.

This Sunday I have one each. One book not yet out that I want, and one already out that I just heard about. A little story before, first.

I haven’t read the latest Stephanie Plum book, Explosive Eighteen. I probably will. Or I might listen to it on audio. I’ve discovered that audiobooks make working on Ebook Review Central go faster. And I discovered Stephanie on audio, so that might work better all the way around.

But the Lizzy and Diesel books, the slightly paranormal spin-off series, is only on book 2. It hasn’t yet descended into the endess “Ranger or Morelli” triangle thing Stephanie has been doing for ages. I’m still interested in Lizzy and Diesel’s story. If you’re trying to figure out where Diesel fits in, Diesel appears in the seasonal “Between the Plums” novellas of the regular series, so he’s been around. Wicked Appetite was the first of the Lizzy and Diesel series, if you want to start at the beginning. Here’s the blurb for the second:

Whether it’s monkey business, funny business, or getting down to business, Janet Evanovich’s Lizzy and Diesel series proves that there’s no business like Wicked Business.
 
Lizzy Tucker’s once normal life as a pastry chef in Salem, Massachusetts, turns upside down as she battles both sinister forces and an inconvenient attraction to her unnaturally talented but off-limits partner, Diesel.

When Harvard University English professor and dyed-in-the-wool romantic Gilbert Reedy is mysteriously murdered and thrown off his fourth-floor balcony, Lizzy and Diesel take up his twenty-year quest for the Luxuria Stone, an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust. Following clues contained in a cryptic nineteenth-century book of sonnets, Lizzy and Diesel tear through Boston catacombs, government buildings, and multimillion-dollar residences. On their way they’ll leave behind a trail of robbed graves, public disturbances, and general mayhem.

Diesel’s black sheep cousin, Gerwulf Grimoire, also wants the Stone. His motives are far from pure, and what he plans on doing with the treasure, no one knows . . . but Lizzy Tucker fears she’s in his crosshairs. Never far and always watching, Grimoire has a growing, vested interest in the cupcake-baker-turned-finder-of-lost-things. As does another dangerous and dark opponent in the hunt—a devotee of lawlessness and chaos, known only as Anarchy.

Treasures will be sought, and the power of lust will be unmistakable as Lizzy and Diesel attempt to stay ahead of Anarchy, Grimoire, and his medieval minion, Hatchet, in this ancient game of twisted riddles and high-stakes hide-and-seek.

There’s a book already out that I also want. I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes. (This comes under the heading of “well, duh” for any long-time reader of this blog). Recently, Sir Arthur  Conan Doyle’s home, Undershaw, was under threat of being torn down. Among other efforts, a book of short stories in honor of Sherlock Holmes was written to help fund the campaign to underwrite the Undershaw Preservation Trust.

The book is Sherlock’s Home: The Empty House.

This is one I would want just for the cover, but of course I’m interested in the stories and the cause it supports. Housing developments don’t last. Holmes is forever.

On My Wishlist #4

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | On My Wishlist

This is the first On My Wishlist that’s going to be officially linked to the new site at Cosy Books.

What’s the On My Wishlist meme? A way for bloggers to share the books they really, really want to read, whether it’s stuff that isn’t out yet, or just books they haven’t been able to get around to.

Which books are on my personal wishlist right this minute?

Redshirts by John Scalzi. I want this book, I really, really want this book. Now would be just fine! I put this on my list of most anticipated books for 2012, I want it so bad. What is it? John Scalzi, the author of Old Man’s War, which is fantastic science fiction, writing about a space ship crewed entirely by “Redshirts”. Yes, those redshirts. Exactly what you’re thinking. The ones who always died in the first five minutes (seconds) of any classic Star Trek episode. Except this crew knows what they are, and they all want to live. At PLA I asked the folks at the Tor booth to send me an Advance Reading Copy, and I am so hoping it will be in my mail soon. I’ve also entered a giveaway on Goodreads. I really want this book bad and June 5 seems so far away.

My ongoing thing for Sherlock Holmes also needs a fix. The next Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell book by Laurie R. King, Garment of Shadows, comes out on September 4. I’ve requested it on Edelweiss, and I’m stalking it on NetGalley, hoping it will appear miraculously there. (I have a better chance on NetGalley) I’ve read ALL the Holmes/Russell books. I reviewed The Pirate King and Beekeeping for Beginners. September is much too far away. I listed Beekeeping for Beginners as one of the best ebook romances of 2011 at Library Journal. I’m so up for Garment of Shadows.

So tell me, what’s on your wishlist?

 

On My Wishlist #2

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | On My Wishlist

 

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It’s where I list all the books I desperately want but haven’t actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. If you want to know more click here.

So what’s on my wishlist this week?

Sherlock Holmes is back, and he’s being chased by two assassins. Surely I’m not serious.

I try very hard not to be serious too often, and Shirley is my mother.

Sherlock Holmes and the Swedish Enigma
Barry Grant
April 1, 2012
Severn House
Mystery
Before the BBC brought us a 21st Sherlock Holmes in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch, Barry Grant tried a totally different approach in The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes. He postulated that Holmes fast-froze when he fell over Reichenbach Falls, only to be medically thawed in the 21st century, and brought back to rather astonished and astonishing life in the present day. Strange Return, and the second book in the series, Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Letter, were actually quite good. The latest in the series, Sherlock Holmes and the Swedish Enigma, comes out in April. I’m curious to see if the author can keep this thing going.

I’ve just realized something. This Holmes has a Watson, of course. His name is James Wilson. Just like in the TV series House. And Gregory House is a modern-day Holmes, brilliance, irascibility, addictions and all. The homage is homaged.

The Outcast Blade
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
March 26, 2012
Little, Brown
Alternate History, Fantasy

Last year I read (and recommended) a brilliant sad, mysterious alternate history version of Venice with assassins, vampires, witches and werewolves controlling courtly politics and performing deadly deeds in the dark of night. Serenissima, the city of Venice, was every bit as much of a character in The Fallen Blade as any of the human or supernatural characters who walked her streets. The second act of The Assassini has finally appeared. I want to sink my teeth into The Outcast Blade and savor every page.

Broken Blade
Kelly McCullough
November 1, 2011
Penguin
Dark Fantasy

Speaking of blades, I just read a terrific review of Kelly McCullough’s Broken Blade over at Flames Rising. I loved her WebMage series, but this is her first fantasy noir. Let me say again, I really loved her WebMage series, which mixes cyberpunk with urban fantasy with more than a touch of mythology. If any of that appeals, WebMage is the first book. But Broken Blade with its assassin-hero looks much more like dark fantasy or sword and sorcery. Both of which I like to begin with. And I like McCullough’s style. Sounds like a winning combination to me.

 

The House of Silk

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz is a new/old Sherlock Holmes story. And I’m an absolute sucker for Sherlock Holmes stories.

Why do I call it a new/old Holmes story? On the one hand, it is written in the style of the Conan Doyle canon. Watson is writing up one of Holmes’ cases. On very much the other hand, the case he is writing up is about a subject that proper Victorian gentlemen did not discuss. There are, after all, much worse things than prostitution.

So we come to the case of the House of Silk. This is purported to be a case that Watson is writing up very late in his own life, after Holmes has died in Sussex. It is written in the tone of a man reflecting back, and sometimes you can hear the nostalgia, and of knowledge of later times impinging on the then-present.  In “Watson’s” preface to the story, he states that the case was too shocking to appear in print and too close to the halls of power to appear during wartime. He purportedly left the manuscript with his private papers, with instructions to his solicitors to have the manuscript published in a century.

And so we have the adventures of The Man in the Flat Cap and The House of the Silk.

The story itself takes place in 1890, a year before that infamous affair at Reichenbach Falls. Watson is still married to his first wife, Mary Morstan that was, but she has just left to nurse one of her former charges through a bout of influenza, and Watson has taken up his bachelor quarters with Holmes at 221B Baker Street for the duration.

An art dealer named Edmund Carstairs engages Holmes (and by association, Watson) to investigate the man in the flat cap who is terrorizing him. It should be an open-and-shut case. Carstairs returned from America a year ago. While he was there, he agreed to sell four impressionist masterpieces to a collector in Boston. The sale would have made his gallery a fortune. The paintings arrived in the States, but, the four Turner paintings just happened to be caught in the middle of a train robbery that went horribly wrong, and were burned to ash. Insurance covered the loss, but the buyer in Boston decided to go after the robbers. The gang, known as the Flat Cap Gang, were killed by the Boston police. All except one. Carstairs believes that the one remaining member of the gang, Keelan O’Donaghue, has followed him to London and is now following him around, leaving messages and generally terrorizing him. The question is, “to what purpose?” Not to mention, “why wait a year to follow?”

Holmes is intrigued by those questions. He is on the trail of a case that is, as usual, more than it appears. But in the process of finding the man who is trailing Carstairs, Holmes employs his “Baker Street Irregulars”, the band of street orphans that he hires to watch out when he cannot be everywhere at once. A new boy, Ross, finds not just the man in the flat-cap, but something to his own advantage, or so he thinks. After he collects his guinea from Holmes, he tries a bit of blackmail of his own, and is not just killed for his trouble, but tortured first. And his body left for Holmes to find with a bit of white silk ribbon tied to wrist as a message.

Holmes takes the message to heart and the investigation takes a more personal turn. When Mycroft comes to 221B in person to warn Holmes off, the younger Holmes delves even deeper, because he knows he is on the trail of something that someone does not want him to find. And that’s when the situation becomes truly dangerous, possibly even for Sherlock Holmes.

Escape Rating B+:I enjoyed this visit with Holmes and Watson, but it didn’t quite fit for me. For one, I figured it out before the end. For another, the non-Conan Doyle version of Holmes that now lives in my mind is Laurie R. King’s, so any variant that has Holmes deceased, especially without Mary Russell, just sounds wrong to me. And the only time Watson survives Holmes is after Reichenbach, and we all know how that turned out.

Selecting the best romance ebooks of 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | best book lists

Last week I volunteered to select the best romance ebooks of 2011 for Library Journal. The article that resulted from the endeavor was posted at LJ this morning under the title: Librarian’s Best Books of 2011: Ebook Romance, with my picture and everything. Yes, I’m rather chuffed about the whole thing, as the Brits would say.

How did this come about? I review ebook romances for Library Journal. I am a librarian, and I asked to be a reviewer when they started their ebook romance review program this summer. LJ has, like every book review source, been posting their “best of 2011” lists this month. They’ve also been posting “Librarian’s best” guest posts. Since they have only been reviewing ebooks since August, they didn’t have a full year of ebook romance reviewing to work with. When I volunteered to write one for them, they were happy.

But about the books, and the selecting of them. They had to be ebooks, they had to be romances, and I could only pick five. And they had to be 2011 books. I stretched a couple of those definitions just a tad. There was no requirement that they be books reviewed in LJ. Actually, that was the point. LJ wanted me to go through my archives and find stuff I knew about that they didn’t, because I cover more of the ebook “waterfront” with Ebook Review Central, and I’ve been reviewing ebooks longer.

I chose the books in order by time, earliest to latest, plus the one I snuck in and hoped it would stick, which it did. It’s not generally thought of as a romance, but well, some of us think it is.

1. Goddess with a Blade by Lauren Dane, published by Carina Press. Reviewed on June 20, 2011. Urban Fantasy. Escape Rating A.

Goddess was one of the first books I reviewed for NetGalley. And I remembered it in detail six months later.  Every time my editor at LJ asked me if there would ever be a starred review of an ebook (before Serenity Woods’ White-Hot Christmas finally got one) Goddess with a Blade was always my example. Absolutely terrific kick-ass heroine, and great urban fantasy world-building. I hope there are more.

2. Turn it Up by Inez Kelley, also published by Carina Press. Reviewed on August 10, 2011. Contemporary Romance. Escape Rating A.

I reviewed a similar book for LJ, but Turn it Up was just so much better that I cited Turn it Up in my review as the one people should read instead! This was a marvelous “friends-into-lovers” story. And very, very funny.

3. Queenie’s Brigade by Heather Massey, published by Red Sage Publishing. Reviewed on October 10, 2011. Science Fiction Romance. Escape Rating A.

Queenie’s Brigade is terrific science fiction romance. When I wrote my review, I got sucked into reading it a second time, and I’d just finished it! The last rebel spaceship escapes to the last prison planet to try to turn convicts into soldiers. Sort of like the Dirty Dozen in space. Except nowhere near that easy. If you like science fiction romance, get this book.

4. Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run book 4) by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban, published by Dreamspinner Press. M/M Romance, Mystery/Suspense. Featured on Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner October Books, November 28, 2011. Ratings from 4/5 to 5/5 at 8 reviewers.

I crowdsourced this selection to Ebook Review Central. The reviews weren’t just positive, they were glowing. And not just for this book, but for the whole series. It made me put the first book in the series, Cut & Run, on my TBR list. There are paperbacks available for this series, so I was stretching the ebook-only definition just a bit, but no one minded.

5. Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie R. King, published by Bantam. Mystery. Discussed in the post The Beekeeper and his Apprentice on July 6, 2011.

This was the one that was the sneak. Technically, this isn’t a romance. But the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell concept definitely is. And anyone who can read what he did for her and say he hadn’t already started to love her, even if he didn’t know it himself, doesn’t have a romantic bone in their body.

I loved creating this list for LJ, but because they had to be all ebooks, there were lots of things that I read and loved this year that were ineligible. Why?  Because they were really “p as in print” books. Or they were older books I finally got around to this year (hello, Elantra!) So later this month I’ll do a personal “best of 2011” list.

A Study in Sherlock

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews

A Study in Sherlock is a new collection of stories inspired by the Holmes canon. I purchased a copy because it was edited by Laurie R. King (and Leslie S. Klinger). So far, I have not been disappointed by any work touched by Ms. King, and A Study in Sherlock did not break that tradition.

The authors who contributed to this collection are all well-respected mystery writers. I’m familiar with many of them. A few (Margaret Maron, Dana Stabenow and Charles Todd) are favorites. I even met Dana Stabenow when I lived in Anchorage. Alaska is the biggest small town in the world.

As part of their contribution to the anthology, each author told the story of when they were first introduced to Sherlock Holmes. Naturally, I tried to remember when I first met the world’s first “consulting detective”. When I was a child, my mom was a subscriber to Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. So, when I started reading, she got the Best Loved Books for Young Readers set for me. “Great Cases of Sherlock Holmes” is in book 4. That’s one mystery solved!

But the stories in this particular volume, like the proverbial mileage, vary. Some are actual Holmes pastiches. Some use the Canon as inspiration for detectival flights of fancy that barely relate to Holmes. And, some I liked, some, not so much.

My favorite Holmesian pastiche has to be S.J. Rozan’s The Men with the Twisted Lips. It is virtually a prequel to Dr. Watson’s own tale of The Man with the Twisted Lip, except this version of the story is told from the point of view of the opium dealers in the notorious Limehouse district, as they maneuver the observation of Mr. Neville St. Clair in his rented quarters over the Lascar’s opium den by Mrs. St. Clair, all so that Mrs. St. Clair will involve the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. This new point of view dovetails perfectly with the narrative we know. Excellently done!

The Adventure of the Concert Pianist by Margaret Maron is also very interesting. It’s a case that Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson solve on their own during the “Great Hiatus” between Reichenbach Falls and The Empty House. In fact, the adventure ends with Mrs. Hudson fainting at the sight of Holmes’ return from the “dead” in 1894.

Of the modern stories, the one that impressed me the most was The Shadow Not Cast by Lionel Chetwynd. Sergeant-Major Robert Jackson uses Holmes’ methods, along with the criteria used by an officer in the field observing an enemy position, in order to find the murderer of a rabbi and a financial reporter. The combination of Holmes’ analytical skills and a trained military observer make for one very astute detective. I’m very disappointed that there are no other stories featuring the Sergeant-Major.

There is a Neil Gaiman story in this collection, titled The Case of Death and Honey. All I can say is that I hope it is true. It would explain why Holmes’ obituary has never appeared in the London Times.

Escape Rating B+: The stories I liked, I really, really liked. The Startling Events in the Electrified City by Thomas Perry, and The Case that Holmes Lost by Charles Todd are two other excellent stories. On the other hand, there were a couple I liked but just couldn’t figure out why they were in this collection, and a few that just didn’t float my boat.

But that’s the lovely thing about collections–finish up a few pages, and there’s another story!

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

In anticipation of the new Sherlock Holmes movie (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) being released on December 16, 2011, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes has been reprinted with a new cover that bears the stamp “Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture.”

I decided it would be a good excuse to re-read some of the Holmes Canon. I’ve read them all, some more than once, but not for quite a while. I looked over the new printing to see that it contained the same stories that have usually been included in the Memoirs, and then, I chose a different approach this time.

We have a copy of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and, well, I’ve never indulged. So for this foray, I read the Annotated version.

First, I’d forgotten what a treat it is to read the original stories. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes contains a dozen short stories. They were all written at the height of Conan Doyle’s, or perhaps I should say Dr. Watson’s, literary powers. Each is a gem.

One story in this collection, The Greek Interpreter, is notable for being the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes’ brother, Mycroft — that mysterious accountant somewhere in Whitehall who occasionally was the British Government. The entire government. Mycroft’s tentacles still linger. It is speculated that the mysterious “M” who runs the agency that James Bond works for is a direct bureaucratic descendant, hence the name, “M”.

But it’s the last story in the book that caused it to be republished for the movie. The last story in Memoirs is the most famous,  The Final Problem. In that story, Holmes meets his nemesis Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. At the end of the story, both Holmes and Moriarty are presumed dead.

When the story of Holmes’ death reached the public in 1893, very real people wore mourning for this supposedly fictional character. Subscription cancellations to the Strand Magazine, which published the Holmes stories, were reported to have reached 20,000. The campaign to resurrect Sherlock Holmes may have been the first successful fan campaign in entertainment history because, as we all know, Sherlock Holmes eventually returned from Reichenbach. Conan Doyle published The Hound of the Baskervilles (set before Holmes’ supposed death) in 1901, and the first stories from  The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1903.

Escape rating A: The stories are just as good as I remember. It was a joy to read them again. Reading the annotations was interesting and strange. The ones that define terms we no longer use are fascinating. The minutiae of horse-drawn carriages, for example, or the difference between what we think of as a bus and what the Victorian era called an ‘omnibus’. The various printing histories of particular stories is less interesting. On the other hand, the illustrations are fabulous, since the Annotated version includes the original Paget drawings, the Harper’s Weekly drawings from the US, plus illustrations from advertisements of the time to explain things like what was an ‘antimacassar’ anyway?

If you think you remember these stories–indulge yourself–read them again. If you’ve never had the pleasure, then you are in for a treat. Holmes is timeless.

The Pirate King

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

Investigating possible evildoers while filming a silent movie about a movie about a comic opera. It should have been a farce. But in Laurie R. King’s The Pirate King, it’s Holmes and Russell, so it’s an absolutely marvelous froth instead.

Mary Russell does not particularly want to spend a fortnight (that’s two weeks to us Americans) cooped up in Sussex with her brother-in-law Mycroft. In their last meeting (The God of the Hive) Russell discovered that some of Mycroft’s actions on the part of the government were even shadier than she had thought. And Russell, being Russell, didn’t cavil at letting Mycroft know exactly what she thought. This does not contribute to family harmony, even in the Holmes family.

Inspector Lestrade needs someone to infiltrate a film company that seems to have a run of bad luck. Fflytte Films makes a film about gunrunning, and suddenly there’s a rash of illegal firearms everywhere. Fflytte makes a movie about rum-running, and there’s bathtub gin all over the place (1924–Prohibition, remember?) When the producer’s assistant goes missing, Lestrade wants someone who can type to substitute, so he can get a man on the inside. Russell “volunteers” to get away from the Holmes brothers’ family reunion.

Fflytte Films leaves London for Morocco by way of Lisbon to film a movie about a film company making a movie about the making of a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. Which is in Wales. But Fflytte Films would never do anything so boring as to film in Wales. Or so boring as to use anything like the real story of the opera. Instead of 4 daughters, the Major General of famous song has 13 daughters. And then, there are the pirates. Since there are 13 daughters, there need to be 13 pirates. And because Fflytte Films is famous for its realism, Randolph Fflytte recruits real pirates, along with a real, honest-to-goodness (or badness) Pirate King.

Escape Rating A+: I stayed up until 1 am to finish this book. This was the lighter side of Holmes and Russell, and was a welcome antidote to the darker doings of The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive. The Pirate King is a lark. Some serious events happen, but there is a happily ever after in this one. Even though it turns out that all of the events were manipulated by Mycroft from the beginning, it is worth it just for the image of Holmes playing an actor playing the Major General courting Russell under the eyes of the entire film cast and crew. Priceless!

The Beekeeper and his Apprentice

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Uncategorized

In 1914, Sherlock Holmes participated in his last official case as published by Dr. John Watson. The case, His Last Bow, took place at the eve of the First World War, and detailed the wrapping up of two years of Holmes’ infiltration into German espionage on British soil just before the Great War. At the end of the story, Holmes and Watson say goodbye, and Holmes returns to Sussex to keep bees. Mrs. Hudson even takes part in the case, going undercover as the German official’s housekeeper in order to assist Holmes.

But after the case is over, Holmes is left with nothing to do. And His Majesty’s government comes to the realization that Holmes might have been killed, or even worse, kidnapped, during the course of his work. Ransoming a national treasure like Sherlock Holmes would have been even more embarrassing than a state funeral!

So Holmes is forced into a retirement with no hope of any cases to enliven his days. In the official Canon, this was never good. He descended into black moods, played the violin at all hours of the day and night, and resorted to cocaine. Mental inactivity was always a worse enemy than any criminal mastermind.

In 1994, mystery writer Laurie R. King published the first of the memoirs that she received from Miss Mary Russell. The memoirs were delivered by UPS in an old fashioned steamer trunk wrapped in cardboard. The stories they told were incredible.

According to Miss Russell’s memoirs, in 1915, when she was 15, she quite literally tripped over Sherlock Holmes as she was walking over the Sussex Downs with her nose buried in a copy of Virgil. She was uncertain at first whether he was a tramp or just an Eccentric. During their subsequent conversation, his upper-class accent firmly placed him in the Eccentric category. But it wasn’t until she correctly deduced that he was attempting to find a group of feral bees to re-stock his hive that he realized that she might possibly have a brain. The story of their continued association, and Mary Russell’s training as Sherlock Holmes’ apprentice is told in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

Until now, the entire Mary Russell “Kanon” has been told from Russell’s perspective, and an absorbing one it has been. But in preparation for this fall’s release of the next book in the saga, titled The Pirate King, the story of Holmes’ and Russell’s initial meeting is finally being told from Holmes’ point of view.

Beekeeping for Beginners is Holmes’ story of that fateful meeting. It has always been clear that Holmes rescued Russell, but until now, he has never been willing to admit that she saved him. Her training gave him purpose. Her sharpness of mind sharpened his own back to its laser-like brilliance. We all need to be needed. Even the Great Detective.

I discovered The Beekeeper’s Apprentice on audio when it first came out. The premise intrigued me. I had read a chunk of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but the idea of Holmes taking on an apprentice was, well, implausible, to say the least. But Mary Russell is more than a match for Holmes, and the period is perfect. She arrives in his life after the Conan Doyle Canon is over. I was captivated and enthralled, and each new book is a delight. But with Beekeeping for Beginners, I went back and reread not just the first part of Beekeeper’s Apprentice, but also His Last Bow. to see the whole story fabric knit together. It works. From the high of his last case, to the slough of despond of total ennui that Holmes so often experienced, to the bright, sharp girl who needs training, and becomes…if you haven’t read them yet, I envy your upcoming discovery.