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

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

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

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

Like · see review

Feb 02, 2016 Lindsey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-mystery, 1900-1950, hfu2016, sherlock

As a fan of Sherlock, I loved this book and its spunky heroine, Mary Russell. It just seemed to pick up right where the original Sherlock stories left off, complete with Sherlock's idiosyncrasies and attention to detail. I loved the idea of Sherlock creating an apprentice in Miss Russell and seeing Watson and Mycroft through her eyes added for some humor. This was superbly written as a mystery in its own right and I will certainly be looking for more in this series. ...more

Like · see review