The Beekeeper's Apprentice, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King

[lightreads]

Well now. These are the first three in the Mary Russell series of period mysteries. We begin when fifteen-year-old Russell – a very bright young lady – literally stumbles across one Mr. Sherlock Holmes out in the fields observing bees. This is an older Holmes, years after much of the Doyle canon, semi-retired to the country with his experiments and cocaine. He and Russell strike up a friendship, a teaching relationship, and then a partnership (yeah, that kind too, eventually). The mysteries are very Holmesian – the first involves a twisted plot of revenge, the second a cluster of suspicious murders around a feminist temple, and the third an explosive archaeological find and a troubling death.

King has the language down beautifully, the rhythms of Holmes’s quick mind and quicker tongue. And the mysteries are truly delightful artifacts of the style. The stories are also packaged appropriately – not Doyle recounting Watson’s tales, but King publishing Mary Russell’s manuscripts. It’s beautifully constructed derivative fiction, but King is also unafraid of exercising the powerful and alternative lens she has in Mary, a feminist, a scholar of theology though not a believer, a mind to match Holmes’s in a way Watson never did.

Holmes and I were a match from the beginning. He towered over me in experience, but never did his abilities at observation and analysis awe me as they did
Watson. My own eyes and mind functioned in precisely the same way. It was familiar territory.

So, yes, I freely admit that my Holmes is not the Holmes of Watson. To continue with the analogy, my perspective, my brush technique, my use of colour and shade, are all entirely different from his. The subject is essentially the same; it is the eyes and the hands of the
artist that change.

All around well done, sly, sometimes funny stories. And I should mention that I literally squealed aloud in the middle of the train when who but Lord Peter Wimsey should make a fabulous, chatty cameo in A Letter of Mary -- let’s hear it for expired copyright!

I have reservations, of course. Holmes’s rougher edges are smoothed a bit too much for my taste, both his wild moods and his substance abuse. And the romance, though both beautifully and hilariously written, didn’t do much for me emotionally. Still, a good time all around, and I just admire this sort of enterprise on principle.

Comments

[fuzzyboo03.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy these books. The series dips in the middle, particularly with The Game, but it picks back up with Locked Rooms, which just might be my favorite.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Good to know, thanks.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

They are indeed exceedingly fun stories. Beekeeper's remains my favorite, though I have a great love for Justice Hall in spite of finding it a little too pat in places. And Locked Rooms is one of the rare books that I had trouble putting down; it has one aspect really doesn't work for me, but it's a great read.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Their initial meeting and attendant dialogue really yanked me in. Man, but there are a couple great scenes like that that could sell me pretty much anything.

[readerjane]

Thanks very much for the rec! Will have to add them to my TBR list.

I'm interested in all the permutations of derivative fiction; from fanfic to authorized tie-in novels to stories like this based on public domain works. Have been trying to decide whether a valid generalization can be made between derivative work which is specifically un-authorized, work for which the original author never had the chance to authorize or not, and work the original author endorses.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Have been trying to decide whether a valid generalization can be made between derivative work which is specifically un-authorized, work for which the original
author never had the chance to authorize or not, and work the original author endorses.


I think there is a difference between author-endorsed work and internet fanfiction -- not in quality, but in . . . intent? flat-out authorial control, anyway. Fanfiction is often about pushing boundaries; tie-ins are by definition about staying very carefully inside them. Unless your John Ford's hilarious and sly Star Trek novel, How Much for Just the Planet.

[josanpq.livejournal.com]

I got hooked on these and then began to lose interest with the Jerusalem one (can't remember titles).

The one scene that I still love I think came from Justice, where SH and some elderly man who lives on the Moors discuss 'eccentrics' and Mary has to leave the room, laughing 'cause the two most eccentric men she knows are in it.

Yes, the romance is a little much at times, and Mary comes across as MarySue-ish more than I like, but they are a great read.

Will have to pick up Locked Rooms, since it seems that King got back into grove with it.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's a quite inoffensive Mary-Sue, the vast majority of the time. Reminds one why Mary-Sues are so appealing in the first place.