Only a handful of fictional characters have had the longevity and affection with readers that Sherlock Holmes has enjoyed. And while Arthur Conan Doyle churned out a hefty body of work, far more has been written about Holmes, and his continuing adventures, by others than any other character. It is, in fact, a cottage industry with Holmes-Watson parodies and earnest pastiches that began even while Conan Doyle was writing new tales for his devoted fans. Frank Froest, for example, was a Scotland Yard detective who, upon retirement in 1912 began to write crackingly good crime stories including
The Grell Mystery in which the detective pooh-poohs Holmes celebrated methods in which he uncovers a stray hair at the scene of a crime by crawling on his knees with a magnifying glass. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, debuting a decade later, made similar disdaining remarks.
So when Laurie R King decided to write "Sherlock Holmes stories", she chose to turn the tales upside down, making Holmes a secondary character and invent a new Watson ... in the guise of Mary Russell. In the first installment,
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (published in 1994), Sherlock Holmes has retired to farm in Sussex, to raise bees, read, perform experiments in his lab, write monographs on obscure topics, and continue to enjoy the coddling of Mrs Hudson. It's the spring of 1915, and a mid-50s Holmes is nearly tripped over by 15 year old Mary Russell, as she strolls across the hills and fields of Sussex, her nose glued to to the book she is devouring while reading. It is a meeting to two deep intelligences ... and very quickly Mary becomes a fixture in the Holmes household and a new favourite of Mrs Hudson.
In this first story, which ranges over three years -- enough time for Mary to attend Oxford (places having become available because so few male students are available due to the war raging across the channel) -- Mary tries her hand at solving simple cases but is soon dragged into serious ones: the kidnapping of an American tycoons' six year old daughter, and bomb threats on Holmes which forces him back to London ... and a reuniting with Watson and Holmes' older brother, Mycroft. A deep intelligence is the only fingerprint they find in the bombings -- an ideal case for Holmes and his apprentice.
It's quite remarkable how well crafted the story is and how easily it entices the reader to accept this premise as a likely extension of the accept Holmes cannon. I did find it dragged in places -- but then I started with the eight novel in the series,
Locked Rooms, which is a much tighter tale with a single focussed narrative (and which ties up a number of loose ends laid out in this first novel). However, it was a great read and I strongly recommend it for anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes (even if you only know the character through films and television) ... and for anyone else who just enjoys period mysteries.
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