A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Rating:
Summary: The "romance" made me squirm too!
Review: I agree with the reviewer who felt the romance between Holmes and Russell was just too unbelieveable. It would have been a lot more believeable to me if it had been presented more as the type of relationship shown in My Fair Lady, with Holmes never losing his cynical and analytical character. I loved the book except (and it's a big except) for the romantic relationship between Holmes and Russell.

I's probably typical of our society's current mind set that there must be a romance between the leading characters! I'm just surprised the authoress fell for that expectation!

But, you know what?, I'll probably read the next books because the mysteries and the solving of them is great fun! :)

Rating:
Summary: A positively engaging follow-up..
Review: I had heard mixed reviews of A Monstrous Regiment of Women before I read it, directly after its prequel, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I didn't think I would enjoy it nearly as much as the first one--I was wrong. For fans of Mary Russell, this is surely a book to be enjoyed. I read the Holmes/Russell novel for Sherlock Holmes, however. Though he isn't in the book much at this time, the scenes he -is- in are absolutely charming and unforgettable. Many people don't enjoy Holmes in this book--To them he doesn't seem to be the Holmes of Watson. Naturally, he isn't. He's seen from an entirely different perspective in Russell's narration, he's allowing Russell to take the case on her own, rather than stepping in and doing the work for her--And he finally has a woman astute and edgy enough for him to realize that women aren't always something to scoff at. This woman happens to be Mary Russell, thirty-nine years his junior with an intelligence, arrogance, and attitude remniscent of Holmes himself. Mary Russell is, indeed, Holmes as a young woman--including her own weakness to opium derivatives.

I'm not a fan of mystery novels as it is, so I found the character work in the King novels fascinating. Russell's narrative focuses on the people involved, and personal matters, rather than just the case. You get a sense of who people are and why they're involved, not who did it in the where with the what. In order to grasp all of this development, you MUST read The Beekeeper's Apprentice before this book.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women contains some of the best scenes in all of the Holmes/Russell series--Short passages between Holmes and Russell will jump out from the page. You can hear them in your mind and the characters will suddenly become real. Anyone who followed Holmes and Russell through the first six years will find true delight in reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Laurie King's Russell makes me enjoy Sherlock Holmes
Review: I recently reread King's Mary Russell series after reading the newest edition, "The Game," and I think "A Monstrous Regiment of Women" is still my favorite, though I'd recommend the whole series to anyone who's interested in an intelligent turn-of-the-century mystery starring an acerbic, intelligent woman who is more than the equal of the famous Sherlock Holmes.

I think "A Monstrous Regiment of Women" is the book I most enjoyed because it shows Russell pursuing a case that is entirely her own -- mysterious deaths among the followers of a charismatic feminist preacher -- and coming into her own as a woman in every sense of the word. Sherlock Holmes is very much present, but this is Russell's story and Russell is one of the most interesting characters I've encountered in mysteries.

I also enjoy the book because of the developing romantic relationship between Holmes and Russell. I've read the howls of protest from fans of Sherlock Holmes over this series, but I find King's books more enjoyable than Arthur Conan Doyle's. I took a course in college on Holmes and always viewed the stories as a rather quaint, stodgy, stilted picture of the Victorian era. By giving him Russell as a partner, King gave him a much needed shot in the arm and human vulnerabilities. Why wouldn't this Holmes fall in love with his best friend and partner? They're clearly soul mates. King makes the 39-year age difference insignificant.

Rating:
Summary: Monstrous Regiment A Fit Successor To Beekeeper's
Review: I,as an avid reader of all Victoriana,was enchanted by Laurie King's Beekeeper's Apprentice. Her grasp of the Victorian world is quite remarkable. Upon reading the next in the series,A Monstrous Regiment of Women,I was ,once again,transported into the world of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. A reader of Holmesian fiction,but not an absolute purist,I was engaged by seeing Holmes in situations not entirely of his own making. The age difference between Holmes and Russell was not uncommon for the Victorian period and,so,was not as uncomfortable for me as it has been for some readers. Their involvement with aspects of the women's Suffrage Movement was interesting in that Holme's views on women have always been somewhat misogynistic. To plunk him down in the middle of the Movement presented some interesting moments. Some of the plot devices were predictable but it was still a book with enough twists to make me keep turning pages long after I should have been asleep. I recommend it to anyone interested in the Victorian period as well as those who can take their Holmes with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing sequel to Beekeeper's Apprentice
Review: It's been a year since I read the Beekeeper's Apprentice but all of my memories are very positive. In fact, they were so positive that I actually put off reading the sequel because I feared it wouldn't live up to the original. Alas, I fear I was correct.

This is the third King book I've read (To Play the Fool and A Darker Place being the others) that deals with a religious cult. I think the books were all written around the same time and religion must have been all but an obsession for King. Unfortunately it makes for pretty uninteresting reading for me personally. So, in this book I skimmed many pages and found that I really didn't care much about what was happening the Childe's regiment of "suffragettes/cultists."

While there isn't much Holmes in this book, what is provided is plenty interesting. I'm probably somewhere in the middle on the controversy concerning the romance between Holmes and Mary. Yes, the age difference is troublesome. Still, they are both such unusual people that why should they be usual in who they love.

Bottom-line: Uninteresting plot/mystery dulls the enjoyment of reading about Mary's attaining her majority (and her fortune) and the maturation of her relationship with Holmes.