From the Bookshelf of Crazy Challenge Connection…

The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, #1)

Laurie R. King

Start date: May 1, 2012

Finish date: May 31, 2012

Why we're reading this: May 2012 Booklist Book
Chosen from the CIGURL List
[close] May 2012 Booklist Book
Chosen from the CIGURL List

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Nov 29, 2011 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was ok

Shelves: god-awful, thriller-mystery, cozy-mystery, winter-2011-12

I enjoy reading Sir Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, though I haven’t entered Holmes and Watson’s Victorian world in at least five years. THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE premise of a young girl with as much intellect matching the master detective appealed to me. I expected the super sleuth’s tutorial of the young Mary Russell and read a grand tale of an important case worthy of the Great Sherlock Holmes. The book within the novel, “On Segregation of the Queen”, is the memoirs of Mary Russell. Through p I enjoy reading Sir Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, though I haven’t entered Holmes and Watson’s Victorian world in at least five years. THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE premise of a young girl with as much intellect matching the master detective appealed to me. I expected the super sleuth’s tutorial of the young Mary Russell and read a grand tale of an important case worthy of the Great Sherlock Holmes. The book within the novel, “On Segregation of the Queen”, is the memoirs of Mary Russell. Through painfully stilted narration and dialogue, my eye’s glazed into a brain-freeze for the first 1/3rd of Julie R. King’s story. Mary seemed to be unrealistic for a fifteen year old. Her intellect almost to the level of Holmes when most of her education (after the accident) derived from eyes always in a book while walking through the Sussex countryside; I think not. And how did she know enough to call herself a feminist at the tender age of fifteen? But I thought it sweet that she should almost step upon Holmes while meandering about the fields with her nose in one of Virgil’s book.

I found Holmes and his tutelage of Russell to be believable and endearing. We readers get a glimpse into the man’s emotions as well as his investigative skills. King’s portrayal of Holmes is what I had imagined if Doyle had had Holmes to father children. Yes, a daughter would have suited Mr. Holmes. For me, THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE became fun to read when Mary and Holmes investigate the kidnapping of a U.S. Senator’s six-year old daughter. Upon the resolution of the case, Holmes and Mary find themselves embroiled in a very important and intimate case. Someone wants the pair dead! They become their own clients. Will they be able to solve the case before the killer leaves their corpses atop the growing mountain of attempted murders and murders? For those Holmes enthusiasts, Dr. Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Mycroft make appearances and all are in great danger.

King’s story moves ahead at a good pace at this point of Mary’s tale and both the narrative and dialogue seemed less formal. But I took one star from the novel because I was so bored with the first third. I am not used to my eye’s glazing and having to re-read whole passages of a book because I totally forgot what I had read. But I am sure most Holmes devotees will enjoy the whole Mary Russell series. I, on the other hand, may not read another Russell book.
...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2010 Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, fiction, series

This is a new take on Sherlock Holmes stories. Mary Russell, a bright and precocious teenager, meets retired Sherlock Holmes, and they find they have a mutual respect for each other. Over the course of the book, Holmes "tutors" Russell in the art of detection, and they take on a few cases together, then are caught in the web of one that threatens them both.

The author apparently patterns her telling of the stories after Conan Doyle, so they read similarly and will probably be enjoyed by anyone wh ...more

Like · see review