Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes

My journey to find a good British mystery series has led me to the stories of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell, his student and wife, by Laurie R. King. I will not hide the fact that I was extremely sceptical at first. I mean, Sherlock having a wife other than The Woman a.k.a. Irene Adler? Preposterous! How could that have happened? I am not the most open-minded person when it comes to retellings of any kind. Especially when we're talking about Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, I adore the BBC Sherlock, but it took me two seasons to be convinced. Dont't start me on Elementary though, because the rant button will be triggered to no end. So, taking all these prejudices of mine into consideration, I took my time and read as many reviews as I could about the series. Just to be on the safe side...

I had a great difficulty in finding the previous installments, so I started with the only one that was available at the time, The Game. I enjoyed it very much, plain and simple. I will not bore you with plot details. However, I must stress that the setting of the story - India during the turbulent period of the 1920's- was a major plus. It made for an exotic read. The descriptions were vivid and rich. In fact, they were so detailed that they ended up becoming seriously tedious after a point, especially when I wanted the story to move forward. I don't need to know every single detail of decoration or dresses or plants. This was a major fault, in my opinion. A fault that continued all through the book. It was too wordy, too descriptive, and even the dialogue itself was tiring at times, although faithful to the era depicted.

Mary Russell is a very interesting character. She is clever and kind, but not obnoxious, and patient enough to deal with her genius of a husband. She is a worthy companion to Sherlock who - I am glad to say- retains his familiar characteristics. Laurie R. King created a version of Sherlock Holmes that the lifelong reader of Arthur Conan Doyle can connect with. She didn't try to make Mary appear ''smarter'' than him, nor did she make a dogmatic, all-knowing Holmes. She created a worthy couple, equal in intelligence and respect, and that was refreshing. The mystery itself was innovative, although a bit predictable, blending Kipling's Kim in the narration, and finding an equal balance between a world full of superstitions and concepts written in stone and the people who desire their freedom.

The Mary Russell series is nothing earth-shuttering or Booker Prize-worthy, but it is a quality light read with two superb characters. Thankfully, I've found the other books since I bought this one, and I intend to follow the couple's adventures.

P.S. Hey, Elementary ''writers'', pay attention! This is how you create a female companion without making Sherlock appear an idiot!

Apart from the inaugural title, the best of an excellent series so far.

light mystery.

I really like Conan Doyle. I really like Kipling. So, when King writes a novel where a Conan Doyle character goes looking for a Kipling character...I'm really loving the Mary Russell series. My favorite is still probably O Jerusalem but this one was a lot of fun, too.I'm listening to these as audio books when I walk and Jenny Sterlin does a bang up job on them.

.... and an extra half a star. A good romp and a comfortable 'Kim' tribute.

Good, but not as good as I had hoped it would be. I'd have liked to see a little more of Kimball O'Hara, and a little less of some other parts of the story. There were also several plot strands which didn't seem to go anywhere. Oh, well, still better fun than most.

An excellent afternoon's diversion for a long train ride, this installment finds Holmes and Russell undercover (at least much of the time) in India, working on behalf of Mycroft and the realm and searching for Kimball O'Hara, the inspiration for Kipling's Kim. Fast-moving with a good range of characters, from a sociopathic maharaja to a plucky street urchin and a family of rambunctious American social-climbers. Another fun read in a great series.

I'm grateful I waited to read this book until this summer because it expects the reader to have a certain knowledge of Kim by Rudyard Kipling. It also helps to have read Peter Hopkirk's Quest for Kim to learn the history and geography of India when it was still part of the British Empire.If Sherlock Holmes can be a real person and alive and well years after Conan Doyle published his death, then so can so can Kim O'Hara. There's just one problem, Kim O'Hara has been missing for three years just as the Game is hotting up again. Holmes and Russell must don their disguises again and head to India to affect a rescue.King manages to take a preposterous sounding scenario and make it come to life in a way that is both entertaining and oddly plausible. While the scenes with Jimmy drag a bit, the book was otherwise captivating. One doesn't need to read the previous six in the series (although I recommend them too) to enjoy The Game but one should certainly read Kim first.

Apart from the inaugural title, the best of an excellent series so far.

A fine installment in the series. I was impressed with King's handling of the details of 1920s India, and found the maharaja to be one of her more intriguing characters. Seemed very hastily concluded, but with no loose ends dangling, that's not a terrible complaint.

This is the seventh book in the Mary Russell series, which involve partnering Sherlock Holmes, professionally and romantically, with an unlikely female counterpart: and I love them--ever since I discovered one of the middle books in the series, A Letter of Mary. Well, this particular book is a twofer. As King states in her Author's Thanks, "The Game may be read as a humble and profoundly felt homage to Rudyard Kipling's Kim, one of the great novels of the English language. If you, the reader, do not know the book, please do not delay that acquaintance." I hadn't read the book, and it's probably not necessary, but once I realized that The Game was based on that novel, I put this book down for a little detour to read Kim. I'm glad I did, not only because it was a great read in its own right, but I think doing so made this only more fun. And it seems a natural combination--Kipling's Kimball O'Hara and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes--two immortal characters of the British Empire, both with links to the "Great Game" of espionage.A friend who also loves the Russell series says one thing she appreciates is how each book is so different, in theme and setting, so the books don't get stale. The last one, Justice Hall, was set in England, this one certainly developed a very rich and different setting--that of India during the British Raj. I didn't perhaps love this quite as much as Justice Hall, but then so far that's my favorite of the lot. This one was certainly entertaining from beginning to end--a gripping and suspenseful read. And as my friend also pointed out in her own review, I think the Holmes/Russell relationship is even more to the fore here than usual--I love the chemistry between them--and yet Holmes never seemed to me out of the bounds of the character Conan Doyle created. Now the only thing I have to decide is whether or not to go on to the next in this series immediately or begin to space them out. At this rate I'll run out of the books soon, and sadly go into withdrawal until King writes the next one.

This was a perfect mystery to pick up after reading Rudyard Kipling's Kim earlier this year. This book takes Holmes and Mary to India when Mycroft gives them a lead that may lead to the famous British spy, Kimball O'Hara. This series is always fun. It has some of the excitement and suspense, but without the blood and gore of other mysteries. And I love the wit and repartee between Mary and Holmes. Such a fun series.

Whenever I read one of Ms. King's Russell-Holmes' detective novels, I am utterly convinced of the allegedly-fictitious Holmes' and Russell's reality, as well as of their immortality, which I hope will allow many additions to this series.oThis book takes us into the world of India and Kipling's Kim. The incorporation of another literary classic into King's already rich re-vision is smooth and natural and adds a new layer of interest to the series. Mycroft Holmes sends his brother and sister-in-law to India and involves them in the world of British espionage. When Russell must rescue Holmes, the retrieval of her partner ends up requiring a sacrifice of O.-Henrician magnitude.

This is absolutely my most favorite Holmes series ever! Every book in the series is fantastic-5 star! If you like Sherlock Holmes, you have to read this pastiche. It's the best one I've read yet.

On the one hand, the plot is entertaining and the story is well-written. On the other hand, the Evil and Corrupt Colonized Indian vs. the Essentially Good and Well-Meaning British Colonizers is a tired racist trope.

A little simple and a little flat, plot and believability-wise. The main 'character conflict' was the threat of Kim running rogue from British Intelligence, and the enemies of British Intelligence were simply not given enough air time or realism to make the threat of his defection convincing. If Kim were really going to abandon the British cause for that of India, there would have been a lot more information about Indian politics beyond a few gratuitous mentions of Gandhi. I also felt that the hair-cutting episode of Russell's was really clumsily telegraphed. I may be over-sensitive, but when Holmes the nondemonstrative and Russell the close-mouthed and private writer start conspiring to give us little episodes of Holmes stroking Russell's hair, well... they stand out in a terribly awkward way as deeply uncharacteristic inclusions into the narrative, and when we got to the haircut, all I could do was roll my eyes. It could have been so thrilling if we had gotten anything like, say, the Husband-Wife interactions of even Justice Hall, but there was such a rush Holmes had barely enough time to toss off a quip.

I'm not even going to mention Bindra. Please, O Author. Less Cute Local Color Sidekick with Mysterious Ties to the Plot and more PLOT. My own personal thought, perhaps based on a superficial reading of the book, was that had the maharaja not been dangerously violent and insane, his plan to lure the Russians into his territory and then close them off for the Brits to massacre was a GOOD plan, for the British, and it's bloody unlikely even in those days that the law would have acted so quickly. Why not sensibly wait until the plot to help Britain has been accomplished and then catch the man being nutters? While I don't deny that I'm jaded when it comes to today's politicians, the mahajara's end plot seemed a terribly flimsy premise to hang a novel on. And why does he keep Kim? Because Kim is Kim. And what does he do with Kim? Oh, nothing much, just keeps him in a cell.

The novel needed about 200 more pages of plot and plausibility. I know King loves to set up lovingly detailed, vibrantly described, thoroughly researched set pieces of the places Russell and Holmes visit, but I could have sacrificed some of that in this particular novel. I was disappointed. And Mycroft's illness? Barely mentioned. Not even necessary for the plot. I wanted more character development, as per the other Russell novels, and less gratuitous lesbian couples et. al. I may not buy this one, and I own all the others.

It felt sometimes like Russell's authorial voice was so dense it was getting in the way of my seeing what was really happening- like she was so focused on her own thoughts that I couldn't see, say, Holmes' real expression at her hair or Mycroft's actual state of health. The believability was just slipping. I hope this all means King is setting us up for a real killer of a next book, in which Mycroft's health matters and Holmes gets to do more than 'not react' to whatever wild stunt Russell has set up next.

I would now like to note a few common features to ALL the Russell books:

A) Russell will, at some point, be required to Prove She is Not Just a Gurl by performing some astonishing and unexpected violent action against the Male Who Questions Her Fitness, usually involving throwing a knife which strategically grazes the man's hair/beard/moustache/whatever. Russell is now 24, and while I found this behavior acceptable in, say, O Jerusalem, when she is young and in an unfamiliar, highly tense situation where a lot is hanging on her abilty to successfully impersonate a man and protect her companions, now it just seems immature. I know a long discussion of feminism would be a bit dull in the middle of the action, but there must be a better way. "Smart enough to know when only violence is the answer" charms the first few times (okay, so it always charms when Holmes does it, but Holmes just charms) but it begins, now, to pall.

B) No matter where she is, Russell will acquire Perfectly Tailored clothing perfectly suited to her needs, always including at least one evening dress which is unsual/striking enough to arouse comment in other female onlookers. I wish I had Russell's ability to conjure couture from thin air. I admit I enjoy this feature, as I love clothing and can deal with it being lovingly described for pages, but it does begin to strike me as silly when she ends up with a perfect set of outfits AND fitting shoes in the middle of India, secret intelligence agency connections or no.

C) There was a C. At one point, there was a C. I no longer remember it.

I do have a question RE: Sexuality in King's Russell novels. It seems to me that Mary Russell is with increasing frequency being drawn into situations where she is in close contact with a powerful man of remarkable physical features to whom she is attracted, or at least whose attractiveness she mentions frequently enough that one could easily assume she is attracted to him. In The Game, especially, Russell at one point towards the end specifically mentions that she looked into (Intelligence Head Guy- I forget his name's) "beautiful" face and thought only of her husband. This seems, after many mentions of the man's intelligence, to be almost a victory for Russell over a sort of temptation, or at least a subconscious attempt to reassure herself that she is, in fact, able to overcome the charms of men. Could she be tempted towards dalliance despite her almost aggressively stated "sex and sexual attraction are minor points" stance of Monstrous Regiment (which is quite similar to Holmes' own)?

She is married to a much older man. Holmes' own reactions to other men who show their interest in Russell, even when she is in the guise of a single woman, therefore removing any moral or ethical mark from the mens' characters, are strongly negative and almost violent- uncharacteristically so, I should say, if the man is confident of his wife. Russell also often comments on Holmes' reticence and undemonstrativeness, generally when he is in fact being demonstrative- perhaps there is some kind of tension there, she feels neglected at times, or he fears she does? Their blissful home-scenes belie this sort of reading- the marriage seems stablest when she and Holmes are home together being domestic, or both working on separate projects in the same house- but perhaps that's the point- investigations put quite a strain on the marriage relationship. However, if they are both under so great an amount of strain, it isn't being conveyed well in the latest novel, to the point that Russell's incredible anxiety about leaving Holmes in the hands of his captors, a throwback to events in O Jerusalem, seems inappropriately emotional for the moment. I just wonder about Russell's instances of attraction to other men and her frequent mentions of this attraction. What is the author trying to convey here, if anything?

In the last installment of the Mary Russell series, King included real life character, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (who dies early in The Game). This time King takes a well-known character from a fictional story and gives him a larger than life persona. From Rudyard Kipling's Kim Kimball O'Hara comes alive as a player in the Great Game of espionage in India as a spy for the Crown. After three years of being missing Holmes's brother Mycroft announces it is up to Holmes and Russell to find him. What follows is a wild adventure through India. Holmes goes undercover as a magician while Mary bends the roles of gender...all for the sake of the Game.One of the best elements of The Game is Mary's connection to Holmes. Her keen sense of observation coupled with her intimate familiarity with his personality extends to his habits so that she is able to discern mood and energy levels. Never is this more apparent than in The Game.Another added bonus of The Game is the education on India's extensive caste system and colorful history.

enough with this series.........

I am not complaining about this book, as Laurie R. King has managed to realistically draw a fictional picture of 'The Game' in India. What is the Game? This expression is used in the Mary Russell books as a metaphor for spying. Like a John Le Carré novel featuring George Smiley, there is a jargon to be followed, but not quite to his extent. Here we follow the Holmeses to India, where social unrest and internal wars are rife. The mad maharadja's background and psychological blackmail is well rendered, using the guests as virtual prisoners to heighten narrative tension. However, using Kim (fictional character) as the mysterious character who needs rescuing is a bit too much - it could have been someone else with a much more clear importance to justify rescuing. The reasosn for rescuing him were, if anything, fuzzy and this messed up his characterisation. The latter was nearly a caricature, turning Kim from a very clever (gone native) spy into a silly born-again buddhist convert. This character seemed too far-fetched in an otherwise flawless adventure. Nonetheless, this is a good book in the Holmeses adventures. This book is good to read, if only with a pinch of salt in places.

Another Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Russell and
Holmes are off to India to find a missing spy/agent. The book
took me about two months to get into, but once I got past the
10th chapter or so, the pace picked up. Russell and Holmes
are up to their usual tricks and disguises. The setting is interesting, but I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others in the series. I found that the books are greatly enriched by knowing what happened in previous books, which is why I was determined to get through this book, but it was a bit of a trial.

This is a nice addition to King's outstanding pseudo-Sherlock Holmes series. Based roughly on Rudyard Kipling's character Gunga Din, Mary Russell and Holmes trek through India in search of a missing British spy. King's tale borrows from another documented trip and from her own experiences in India. It takes some time and patience to reach the ending, but it's a page turner to the finish.

Again, a brilliant idea, beautifully executed. To repeat myself yet again, I am generally disapproving when a writer plucks up another writer's characters and makes use of them. But that's largely because it's usually done so horribly badly, and is so rarely done with any respect for the original author, the characters, or the reader. Laurie R. King can do whatever she wants, take whatever characters or historical figures she likes, and bring them into her books in whatever manner she likes, because she has earned my trust. She does her homework, she knows what she's doing, and she has complete respect for the original material or real person, as the case may be. If anyone from Tom Sawyer to Bilbo Baggins to Harrison Ford appears in a Holmes/Russell novel, I will have faith that she has her reasons and can pull it off. (Maybe Indiana Jones, when Russell is in her 40's …that would be awesome.) The idea behind The Game was to me at first as wild as bringing Bilbo Baggins into the storyline, but only because I don't know the Kipling novel. (Note to self …) In any event, it's wonderful. Kimball O’Hara here is a legend among those in the know (which Holmes, of course, is, and Mycroft moreseo), and it is to find out what has become of him that Holmes and Russell make their way to India. There they face danger and adventure of quantity and quality to please even Doyle – tigers, and madmen, and those who are not what they seem, spies and daredevil pilots and a rajah who collects the unusual, be it an artifact or a human being (and Holmes is unusual). A new story arc begins with The Game, wherein a new enemy is introduced – perhaps – and Homes and Russell become aware of a new threat trailing them. Meanwhile, the story takes them in and out of various deep disguises and personas, and separates and reunites them, and causes Mary to make a change which will cause untold anguish in Holmes … It's a great yarn, and, more than that, an excellent book.

Another fun Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes team in India in 1924. Interesting description of British colonial period and maharaja in context of light mystery. Enough references to Kipling's 'Kim' to inspire re-reading it for another view of locale.

A rip-snorting yarn! It has some peaceful moments, wonderful detail and terrific writing. Dont read it when you need to go to sleep in ten minutes!

Substance: A well-researched adventure blending the Holmes legend with Kipling's Kim in 1924. Politics and history appear to be accurate, as are the depictions of mid-war India and England, but I am not an expert on the period or locale. As an adventure with a "feisty female" lead, it works well, including several twists on the usual cliches of the genre. As a mystery, not so well; the answers to the core questions are stumbled on or revealed in the narrative by events, rather than being deduced and disclosed by the protagonist. As is typical of these derivative Ro-mance productions, Holmes and Kim are reduced to supporting roles, almost window-dressing, but would be memorable as "new" characters.Style: Straight-forward and clear; the descriptions are occasionally lyrical and the dialogue sometimes witty.

Russell and Holmes are at their home in Sussex, enjoying a much-needed rest. But Holmes’ brother Mycroft is seriously ill, and the pair travel to London for a visit. Sick or well, Myrcroft is always looking after British Intelligence interests; when he asks Sherlock rather casually if he has been following the news our of Russia, Russell immediately suspects that the end result of the inquiry is that she and Holmes will be off on some sort of foreign adventure.She’s right. Into Mycroft’s hands has recently come a travel-stained packet containing documents that pertain to one Kimball O’Hara--the Kim of Kipling’s book. One of the better lines in this book occurs when Russell asks Holmes:“He’s real, then? Kipling’s boy?” to which Holmes replies:“As real as I am.”No longer a boy, Kim has been an British Intelligence agent in the Northwest Provinces, where such clandestine information-gathering is known as The Great Game. The Russian Bear has awakened and is looking menacingly at India’s Northwest Provinces, which bordered on Russia. In the India of 1924, many of the provinces were still under the nominal rule of rajas, some of whom were less than well-disposed towards the British. After some years of playing The Game in the area, suddenly Kim has dropped out of sight. Mycroft worries that there may be hostile forces, possibly Russian, behind the disappearances. The situation is so urgent that the pair take off without even a chance to pack their bags. Naturally, in an intelligence investigation, the information must be gathered clandestinely, requiring disguises--and the ones adopted by Holmes and Russell are among the best in the series yet. The “international spy thriller”, if that is what this book can be called, has an excellent plot that reveals a good deal of what conditions--and politics--were like in post World War I India. There is a marvelous journey from Calcutta to the Northwest Provinces, some truly funny but endearing Americans, including a classic flapper, and intriguing descriptions of what life was like for the Indian rulers of some fairly large states; essentially powerless but still extremely wealthy, they indulged in all sorts of pastimes, such as pig-sticking (hunting wild boar), and others, decadent to the point of perversion.Holmes and Russell are at their best; the denouement is one of the most exciting in the series, a well-written page turner. The descriptions of India and ports of call along the way are fascinating, and contribute enormous interest to the storyline. One of the best in the series. Highly recommended.

Perhaps it's because I recently have been on a Kipling kick, but this simultaneous tribute to Kim and Sherlock Holmes had me engaged to the very last page. A delicious romp through India under English rule - although if you are troubled by the idea that a book set at this time period mightn't be an indictment of imperial rule, be forewarned: this book hardly touches on such issues. Written from the perspective of happy colonialists, it doesn't embrace racism, but nevertheless is the story of a mad maharaja being brought down by the heroic efforts of a British man (and therefore may be unsettling and not enjoyable to some sensibilities). I have no way to judge the quality of the descriptions of India, except to say that it was quite in Kipling's mode.

this one in india, disguising herself as a man. holmes almost faints!