Mystery Monday: Mary Russell

Back in August, when I raved about Tommy and Tuppence, Agatha Christie’s young, stylish crime-fighting duo, several of you mentioned the Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. So when our book club needed a September selection, I suggested the first book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. (As I sat reading it in the Dallas airport, the cover caught the eye of a man across the room, who came over and inquired about it. I hope he read it!)

We ended up canceling our book club meeting that month, but we all loved the book so much that we read the sequel, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, and discussed both at our October meeting.

And as you can guess from the photo above (or as you know if you read my frequent book roundups), I am hooked.

The series opens in 1915, when Sherlock Holmes has retired to the downland country of Sussex and taken up beekeeping. Mary Russell – orphaned, Jewish, headstrong, brilliant – literally stumbles into him as she walks across the downs, reading. Their first conversation is an argument (a sign of things to come), but he recognizes her quick mind and takes her on as his apprentice.

By the end of the first book, the duo have traversed the UK and spent several weeks in Palestine on a government mission, and Mary has become Holmes’ full partner in solving crimes. By the end of the second book (spoiler alert), they have realized how they feel about one another and (almost grudgingly) decided to get married.

I am a longtime Anglophile and a mystery lover, but I’d never read any Sherlock Holmes stories before starting this series. It doesn’t matter – Holmes looms so large in our public consciousness that even readers who’ve never visited Baker Street will get most of the jokes. (King slyly lampoons Conan Doyle, taking him and Dr. Watson to task for their “outrageous fabrications” of Holmes’ adventures.) I’ve already picked up The Hound of the Baskervilles, which I loved, and I’m planning to spend more time with Conan Doyle as (or after) I spend time with Holmes and Russell.

The series’ chief strength is the crackling, sparring relationship between its two central characters, both of whom are brilliant, stubborn, reckless and care a great deal for one another. Mary fights tooth and nail to be taken seriously (not so much by Holmes, but by others) as a woman, a detective and a scholar. Her other passion is theology, which she reads at Oxford, and while Holmes scoffs at her, this interest gives her character depth and provides a counterpoint to their mystery-solving.

The love of England runs deep in the soul of the series, but Mary particularly adores Oxford, as do I. She never tires of it, and I never tire of her descriptions of the city. (I also love that the American editions retain the British punctuation and spelling.)

The historical backdrop of World War I and the 1920s is a fascinating period (as we’ve all learned from Downton Abbey and the spate of new or rediscovered books set during that time). The series touches on women’s suffrage, various evils caused by the war, the plight of returned soldiers, the precarious political state of Palestine, and rumblings (still far off, as yet) of another war. In these ways it reminds me of the Maisie Dobbs series, which features a private investigator working in England in the same era.

Holmes and Russell are the twin poles around which this series orbits, but King’s minor characters are equally well drawn. They include Holmes’ brother Mycroft, Dr. Watson (known to Mary as “Uncle John”), Holmes’ housekeeper Mrs. Hudson, and a host of suspects, police inspectors and other acquaintances. I am particularly fond of Mahmoud and Ali, two distant cousins whom Holmes and Russell first encounter in Palestine and meet again in England.

If you love England, Sherlock Holmes, a well-plotted mystery, crime-fighting duos who are both brilliant and entertaining, or love stories with as much wit as passion, I highly recommend spending time with Mary and Holmes.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to The Game…

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