The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Sep 19, 2012 Ashley Marie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Let me start by saying that I do understand why people like this book. It's well written, the plot is interesting and engaging, and the heroine kicks plenty of ass.

So why didn't I like it? Several reasons:

1) Mary is appropriately named. Such a Mary Sue. "What's that? You need to be able to do math in base 8 to solve this mystery? No problem! I do that for fun!" Blech, make me sick.

2) This read like glorified fanfic to me. That's not necessarily a bad thing for some people, but it was distracting ...more

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Jul 22, 2024 Chaitra rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sherlock-holmes, private-eye, retellings-spinoffs-adaptations, historical-mystery, abandon-series, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've had my troubles with Sherlock Holmes adaptations. I don't think I've liked a single series except for Enola Holmes. That series never makes Sherlock anything other than he is, except that he has a sister he kind of doesn't mind. I thought, given the barest glance at the blurb, that this series would be similar - considering Mary is fifteen and Sherlock is fifty when they first meet. In the first few chapters, narrated by an older Mary, that's confirmed - she says Sherlock became her father I've had my troubles with Sherlock Holmes adaptations. I don't think I've liked a single series except for Enola Holmes. That series never makes Sherlock anything other than he is, except that he has a sister he kind of doesn't mind. I thought, given the barest glance at the blurb, that this series would be similar - considering Mary is fifteen and Sherlock is fifty when they first meet. In the first few chapters, narrated by an older Mary, that's confirmed - she says Sherlock became her father and Mrs Hudson her mother.

And cut to only a few years later, the dynamic has changed. Sherlock in his absolute panic for Mary's safety forgets that he has other associates who are far more in the public's eye than Mary, he forgets Watson until Mary reminds him. I've never been a fan of Watson's. But his relationship with Sherlock is undeniable. In this book, Mary is ready to dismiss him, to hate him on account of how dense he is and her inability to figure out why Sherlock keeps him around. She comes around almost immediately because as soon as he meets her, he fawns on her, without her having to do anything - she's actually washing her face or something. She is so entitled as to feel completely confident in scorning what is a decades long friendship between the two men, without once thinking about how she might be perceived by a man Sherlock considers his biggest friend.

I should have really stopped at that. Because it's one thing to be confident in your intellect, I'd rather no one smart hide that they are smart unless it gives them considerable advantage. But that you would be so up your own ass that you can't really see that it's you who is the newcomer here, I can't abide that. Not to mention that she values Watson very little until he turns into a toady. Mary is a Mary Sue. She needs to be a bit of one if she is to be the intellectual equal of Sherlock, but not so much that in order to make her his equal, he needs to be diminished. At which point she is his better - which is confusing, but it's exactly how she's portrayed. She figures a whole lot out that Sherlock doesn't. She has 'hidden depths' because she knows how to manage those dumb dogs based on her powers of observation. What of Sherlock's legendary ones then?

Apparently this is a series in which they get married. She's in her twenties and he's maybe sixty. It's plausible for the time it's set in, but the set up makes it seem a little dirty which is basically the 90s showing. I read a couple of blurbs for future books in which Sherlock seems to have fathered a child with Irene Adler, making it still further from the original Sherlock. I'd always thought of Sherlock as asexual/aromantic, and that was fine, charming even. I was already dealing with Watson's overly romantic rendition of a case, I didn't also need Sherlock to lose his head. Why would King not follow this? Why did Mary have to be married to Sherlock for their relationship to have any value? Why could they not maintain the father-daughter, mentor-protege relationship they seem to have started with?

I don't even like the original Sherlock. I like this version and the Mary Sue he's stuck with even less. This is it for me with this series. ...more

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May 21, 2025 Jasmiina F rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, historical-fiction

An interesting addition to the Sherlock Holmes stories, featuring a strong-willed and intriguing female lead. The characters kept me engaged throughout the book, and the story had just the right amount of suspense.

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