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The Language of Bees: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #9)
by
Laurie R. King (Goodreads Author)
For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.
But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met D...more
But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met D...more
Paperback, 464 pages
Published
April 27th 2010
by Bantam
(first published August 1st 2009)
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actually i only read the first two chapters online, since the book only comes out by the end of april!
it promises to be fantastic according to these chapters!
this is a real pageturner! just right, not too bloody, not too cozy, like i said, just right! and so british i simply love it, even made me have toast and orangemarmelade for breakfast!
i loved it, but there are some loose ends, thank god there will be a sequel!
it promises to be fantastic according to these chapters!
this is a real pageturner! just right, not too bloody, not too cozy, like i said, just right! and so british i simply love it, even made me have toast and orangemarmelade for breakfast!
i loved it, but there are some loose ends, thank god there will be a sequel!
The latest (ninth) adventure for Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Mary Russell, begins as they arrive at their home in Sussex after an absence of almost a year. The immediate problem of the missing bees from their farthest beehive means that they don't even get into the house before going to check on the hive.
When they get back to the house and even bigger surprise awaits. Sherlock's son Damian (his mother is Irene Adler!) is waiting on the doorstep with a problem. A big one. It seems his Chinese w...more
When they get back to the house and even bigger surprise awaits. Sherlock's son Damian (his mother is Irene Adler!) is waiting on the doorstep with a problem. A big one. It seems his Chinese w...more
"The Language of Bees" (Mary Russell, #9) by Laurie R. King hopscotches, the peak an exciting aeroplane flight in rough weather. I love flying anywhere anytime; early history turned dramatic chase is ... thrilling. Feeling a part of Holmes, three generations of that cool grey gaze is ... intoxicating. The villain seems trite. Overall is disappointing. That the author can hold suspense through a plot that feels old in summary is an exceptional amazing talent I admire tremendously. The ending is a...more
Fabulous read! One of the best entries in an insanely good series.
3 likes
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I need to re-read the Mary Russell series - many of the references from this entry (#9) back to previous books went over my head. It's been awhile!
But it's still an excellent mystery on its own. Russell and Holmes investigate a man's missing family -- complicated by the identity of the man himself, someone closely related to Holmes. Holmes wants to protect him, so Mary and Mycroft (Sherlock's brother) find themselves leading major portions of the investigation to try and keep him from discoverin...more
But it's still an excellent mystery on its own. Russell and Holmes investigate a man's missing family -- complicated by the identity of the man himself, someone closely related to Holmes. Holmes wants to protect him, so Mary and Mycroft (Sherlock's brother) find themselves leading major portions of the investigation to try and keep him from discoverin...more
2 likes
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Since this comes out just before my birthday, I choose to think of it as a reward for making it through yet another year in fine form. Going to live in the Russell universe for a few hours is a vacation, and it is by far the cheapest one I know of. Better yet, it can be enjoyed over and over, and with all the layers and references and complexities, it is new each time. The characters live in readers' minds, and they hop around in ways we don't see coming, even though the author has played by the...more
The first time I read this, the cliffhanger ending was pure torture, knowing the next book wouldn't be out for ages. Now I'm being tortured again, sitting on a waiting list to read The God of the Hive.
It's awfully nice to read a really GOOD Mary Russell book again. I have to confess that was bored to death by Justice Hall, and left jumbled by The Game. But Locked Rooms was excellent, so hopefully we're on an uphill trend again.
What do I love about this book? The possibility of Holmes putting fa...more
It's awfully nice to read a really GOOD Mary Russell book again. I have to confess that was bored to death by Justice Hall, and left jumbled by The Game. But Locked Rooms was excellent, so hopefully we're on an uphill trend again.
What do I love about this book? The possibility of Holmes putting fa...more
Jan 07, 2013
Elizabeth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mysteries,
historical-mystery
For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.
But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murde...more
But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murde...more
Nov 24, 2012
Riyam
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who is more interested in the plots of the Mary Russell series than the characters
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Part of a series based on the retirement years of Sherlock Holmes and his young wife Mary Russell, this volume is the first of a two volume story that is completed in The God of the Hive.
Holmes and Russell come home from seven months abroad to find one of his bee hives has died out and that he is the father to a grown man. Waiting for them is young Surrealist artist Damian Adler, Holmes' son by Irene Adler, who was his opponent in Arthur Conan Doyle's story "A Scandal In Bohemia." Having outwitt...more
Holmes and Russell come home from seven months abroad to find one of his bee hives has died out and that he is the father to a grown man. Waiting for them is young Surrealist artist Damian Adler, Holmes' son by Irene Adler, who was his opponent in Arthur Conan Doyle's story "A Scandal In Bohemia." Having outwitt...more
Arriving home from San Francisco, Holmes is concerned only with why one of his bee hives has swarmed and is now deserted, however this is about to change when Damian Adler the artist, and Holmes's son by Irene Adler arrives out of the blue to beg the help of the father he'd only met once before in 1919 under less than ideal conditions; Adler's wife Yolanda and young daughter Estelle are missing, and he needs his father and Mary Russell's help to find them. A wild journey for all of them ensues,...more
Actual rating is 4.5 stars.
I do adore this series featuring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes. And it had been way too long since I'd last read a story about them.
This book almost made up for the long wait though, since it lived up to all my expectations. Beautifully written, we plotted and exciting without depending on thrills, this was a fascinating read.
Mary and Holmes return home after a long journey to find Damian Adler waiting for them there. Damian is the son of Holmes and that...more
I do adore this series featuring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes. And it had been way too long since I'd last read a story about them.
This book almost made up for the long wait though, since it lived up to all my expectations. Beautifully written, we plotted and exciting without depending on thrills, this was a fascinating read.
Mary and Holmes return home after a long journey to find Damian Adler waiting for them there. Damian is the son of Holmes and that...more
Weighing in at 432 pages, this is definately the biggest Mary Russell mystery to date. Along with its impressive size, the plot was incredible! I was so happy to receive my copy and sat down to read over half of the book in one sitting (five hours of bliss! - much to the detriment of other things that needed doing...). Amazing is the only possible word to describe this story!
Russell and Holmes have just returned home after almost a year spent abroad solving all manner of crimes (detailed in the...more
Russell and Holmes have just returned home after almost a year spent abroad solving all manner of crimes (detailed in the...more
An excellent read, as are all of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell books. I found myself both wishing to travel to England and Scotland and Wales to SEE these places ("lay eyes and hands on them," as a friend of mine would say), envying those who live there and know them, who feel the weather, smell the land. Toward the end, though, I became tired - it's possible that I genuinely was - and wanted to find some soft edge somewhere. Perhaps find respite with Estelle's evocatively innocent young cheek t...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
1 like
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Jan 28, 2010
Marfita
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
masochists ... who love King's Mary Russell series
Shelves:
mysteries,
period-mystery
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I tried to read this one when it first came out, but because Brant was just a new born and I was severely sleep deprived, I couldn't get into it and I really wanted to save this one till I could really enjoy it. So, now that Brant is FINALLY sleeping a LITTLE better I have started/finished/loved reading this book. One of the things that I love about this series is that it just feels like a Sherlock Holmes book....it's doesn't feel like someone trying to copy or reinvent the fabulous Doyle storie...more
As most of my friends know, I'm extremely interested in books that are set in the post World War I period and this book is no exception. Also, I learned more about the care and raising of honeybees from this book than I ever thought that I would know. But that's only half of it. The two major characters in this series are the retired Sherlock Holmes who is now tending to bees in rural England and his wife, Mary, who is at least 40 years younger than he is. And who knew that Sherlock Holmes did t...more
This will not make me popular with the rabid Russell fans of which I can count myself. It almost feels sacreligious to say I was disappointed with the newest novel by Laurie King "The Language of Bees" but there it is, what a let down. I was anticipating a rousing period mystery with Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell collaborating like old times but what transpires is a complete absence of Holmes right from his abrupt departure in the first chapter. I thought the plot was clever, especially the a...more
This isn't my favorite of the Mary Russell books, but it does add to our knowledge of Sherlock Holmes (was in love with an actress, Irene Adler as a young man; he has a son, Damian, unknown to him until 1919 and whose whereabouts have been unknown since then). When Damian Adler, shows up in Sussex at the Holmes/Russell home on the day that they have returned from a long time away, both Holmes and Russell are surprised that he is there, but relieved that he is alive and apparently well. He has co...more
Aug 08, 2009
Mike
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes Holmes or the author's other works
Although the author took a break from the series, she plopped this book in front of us as if she never stopped. It has all of the care, character development and attention to detail the we naturally expect. Like all of her other books in this series, it clearly has careful research as its backbone. Did I like it? Yes, very much (and that goes for the eight prior novels as well). Would I recommend it? Yes, again.
Although memory and time may be misleading me, it seems that the interactions of the...more
Although memory and time may be misleading me, it seems that the interactions of the...more
How Laurie King integrates bee lore with Sherlockian lore is a wondrous mix. It is not really important to be a lover of bees because Ms. King's research provides plenty of interest. As in three other novels with the secret life of bees integral to their plot, "The Language of Bees" is up there with the best.
How Mary Russell came to be the wife of Sherlock Holmes becomes plausible in the retelling of the story here. Holmes with a son married to a former Chinese prostitute and with a daughter? A...more
How Mary Russell came to be the wife of Sherlock Holmes becomes plausible in the retelling of the story here. Holmes with a son married to a former Chinese prostitute and with a daughter? A...more
This was an excellent addition to the Holmes/Russell series, building on that brief mention of a son in book 2. Holmes' lovely lost son reappears, and leads Holmes and Russell on a painful and deadly chase through occult places in the UK.
I liked the opportunity to see the Bohemian side of 1920's England, and the tour through standing stones and other unusual places. The odd relationship between Holmes, Russell, and Damian was well drawn and sympathetic, and I loved the descriptions of Damian's a...more
I liked the opportunity to see the Bohemian side of 1920's England, and the tour through standing stones and other unusual places. The odd relationship between Holmes, Russell, and Damian was well drawn and sympathetic, and I loved the descriptions of Damian's a...more
I love the title of this the 9th Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novel. In name and spirit, THE LANGUAGE OF BEES brings things back to the beginning once more. Back to the Downs, back to the hives, back to a 15-year-old Mary Russell stumbling over a retired detective tending his bees in peace, thus setting into motion the unlikely formation of a most formidable and engaging partnership. What an adventure it's been, and how fascinating to follow these two dominant personalities meet and clash and me...more
Outside of the Russell series, I have only read one of King's books and I didn't like it nearly as well. There was lots of swearing and sex, and the story didn't do a lot for me. So, I was a bit afraid going in that King's style had changed so much in the past three years that I wouldn't like this newest Russell. It only took a couple of chapters to realize this was the same Russell in the same world that I had grown to love. Quite frankly, I thought it was fabulous.
The initial mystery of "where...more
The initial mystery of "where...more
Well, I like this series of books A LOT, and the three stars from me is an anomaly in my house, but I felt like this book could have gone through one more re-write. Specifically, the link between the bees and the "case" is tenuous at best; and if there isn't supposed to be any link between the two themes, then the bee story should go away. Maybe the loneliness theme will be continued in the next installment? And that's why we got the bee story? I mean, it did seem like Mary was protesting too mu...more
Oct 28, 2012
Melissa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mary-russell-and-sherlock-holmes
As always, I think I will give up several times throughout the book, once I've finished it I really liked the mystery! This was a cliff hanger that leads into the next book in the series-which thankfully I've already got on my night stand to start.
"For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved h...more
"For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved h...more
I really like this series, and this book was pretty good but not life changing. There were some exciting parts, but some that dragged. I like the interplay between Holmes and Russel, but this book took me a really long time to get through for some reason. I'll still probably read the next in the series though!
2 likes
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Jul 10, 2010
Sandy Tjan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Holmes fans who do not insist on their hero being an eternal bachelor; period mystery fans
Starts up with an intriguing premise: a mystery involving Holmes' son with The Woman, a wayward artist whose wife is mixed up with some kooky cult that turns sinister. Yes, we MUST absolutely have cults and human sacrifices in a Holmes story (Guy Ritchie had the exact SAME idea). It is a fun romp for a while, though sometimes the flippant tone jars with the darker elements of the story. Then halfway through, it sort of lost its way among the meandering mystery plot --- which is dealt with a some...more
This installment in the adventures of Russell and Holmes finds the pair back in England after an extended absence, dealing with the unexpected appearance of Damian Adler, an artist with a very close connection to Holmes who needs his help.
Against all my expectations, I've very much enjoyed reading this series. King is an excellent writer. Her prose is great, her characters interesting and she can weave a plot with the best of them. It was disappointing, therefore, to find myself underwhelmed by...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q&A with Laur...: The significance of bees to the larger story | 6 | 112 | Sep 12, 2012 11:38am |
Edgar-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King writes series and standalone novels. Her official forum, the LRK Virtual Book Club, is here on Goodreads, so please check there to join in the book-discussing fun.
King's next novel The Bones of Paris, will be out in September 2013, seeing Touchstone's Harris Stuyvesant and Bennett Grey find the darkness beneath the light of 1929 Paris. In the Russell se...more
More about Laurie R. King...
King's next novel The Bones of Paris, will be out in September 2013, seeing Touchstone's Harris Stuyvesant and Bennett Grey find the darkness beneath the light of 1929 Paris. In the Russell se...more
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“I would have stolen it for you, had I known you were interested." His voice was muffled by the door to the lumber room down the hallway, and I heard thumps and a crash.
I raised my voice a trifle more than mere volume required. "I'm interested because she was. Both of them, come to that--Damian's art is infused with mystic symbols and traditions."
Holmes' voice answered two inches away from my ear, making me jerk and spray a handful of maps across the floor. "Religion can be a dangerous thing, it is true," he remarked darkly, and went out again.”
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I raised my voice a trifle more than mere volume required. "I'm interested because she was. Both of them, come to that--Damian's art is infused with mystic symbols and traditions."
Holmes' voice answered two inches away from my ear, making me jerk and spray a handful of maps across the floor. "Religion can be a dangerous thing, it is true," he remarked darkly, and went out again.”
Apr 08, 2009 01:50pm
updated May 10, 2009 03:11pm
Jun 03, 2009 11:03am