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Summary: A Refreshing Change - Sherlock with a Wife!
Review: Gothic mysteries have always been among my favorites, so seeing the title, The Moor, immediately drew my attention. Then when I saw Sherlock Holmes had been teamed with a female partner, Mary Russell, I was hooked. This is a delightful book!Interestingly, the author provides an editor's note in which it is claimed that the manuscripts have been found and were originally written by Ms. Russell. This is an added note that lends a curious, but nonetheless minor,twist, because as with any mystery involving Holmes, you soon get so tied up into the story that it matters little who is the author. Later in Sherlock Holmes' life, we find that he has taken not only a new partner...but she has become his wife! Mary Russell, who prefers to go by that name, is an intellectual, an Oxford student of theology, and, once in a while, partner to the famous sleuth. What is interesting is that the story is oftentimes written from the point of view of Ms. Russell This change is almost transparent, yet lends a new and highly entertaining perspective to the traditional cases where Holmes is the leader in finding clues and solving the case. For King has "humanized" Sherlock in a gentle, loving way and allows him to call upon his wife for help in a way that shows both his love and respect. A truly delightful team! The Moor takes us to Dartmoor, where Holmes once solved the case of the Hound of the Baskervilles, at the request of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Nearing his 90th year, in the early 1920's, the Reverend has summoned his godson, Sherlock, to find out what is happening on the moors. For there have been strange sightings of a coach and dog, claimed to be a woman who married a local lord who soon died. She "was never officially accused and tried, but for her sins she is said to be condemned to riding in a coach made of the bones of her dead husbands, driven by a headless horseman and led by a black hound with a single eye in the centre of his forehead." More importantly, a local man has been killed and found on the moors. The book opens with Mary Russell receiving a telegram to come immediately to Devonshire...and bring her compass. Mary is not thrilled to be summoned and returns to her reading only to receive another telegram two hours later to bring maps, close her books...and leave now. This tug and pull of the two individuals in their own professional lives erupts throughout the book to show each person's independence, yet reliance on each other. An intriguing diversion from reviewing the clues, until both are so caught up in solving the mystery that, upon meeting after each doing their own research, they both proclaim the resolution of the case! The exploration of the moors, its occupants, its hidden dangers are reminiscent of other stories set in Dartmoor, but still beckon and capture the reader to roam through the site, inspecting each stone, each change in the weather and what it may mean and how it can help solve the mystery. The characters brought forth are delightful and serve to introduce you to the community of those who become close by necessity as they must depend upon each other in this strange, wild land. Ms. Russell's love of reading takes her into the hundreds of books written by Reverend Baring-Gould, where she finds "pieces" of evidence that slowly pull together to help solve the case. In the end, the activity behind the mystery is somewhat mundane... However, watching the Holmes couple, go their respective ways,to gain and add to the clues that leads to the final discovery, provides a new dimension for Sherlock Holmes' fans. If you're one...look for the entire series with Mary Russell as his wife!
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Summary: This is a boring book.
Review: This boring book promises much but delivers little
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Summary: Brilliant local descriptions, clever pastiche, weak storylin
Review: This book features Sherlock Holmes in his late 50s, and his godfather, Revd Sabine Baring-Gould, a real person who lived in Devonshire, England from 1834-1924. The story takes place in 1923, a few weeks before Baring-Gould's death. Mary Russell, the narrator, is married to Holmes, and they have both been summoned to Dartmoor to solve a murder mystery. The story itself is weak, and requires knowledge of 'the Hound of the Baskervilles' for a full appreciation. This is compensated for, however, by the wonderfully vivid and realistic descriptions of Dartmoor, and Lew House, where Baring-Gould lived. As someone who grew up a few miles from this spot, I can vouch for the absolute accuracy of the setting. Laurie King has also read just about all of Baring-Gould's 150 books, and quotes delightfully from many of them. The skill of the book lies in the imaginative conjunction of a fictional and a real character, and for any reader with knowledge of either man, the result is very pleasing. As a lifelong afficionado of Sabine Baring-Gould, I am most indebted to King for bringing him into greater prominence.
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Summary: An excellent discovery!
Review: It's not often that one runs across a new author that he likes so much that he goes out and buys - without reading the plotline - every other book by the author. But that's what has happened to me and Laurie King. I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, so I was intrigued when I saw "The Moor" at the bookstore. She has managed not only to capture Holmes but also to provide the detailed settings that Conan Doyle sometimes missed. And as for my fear that a "Mrs." Holmes would be portrayed as a feminist in the political sense, I'm glad to say that my fears were baseless. An excellent read!
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Summary: I Was . . .
Review: .. bowled over by the first book, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice," but found this one, "The Moor," somewhat of a disapointment. The author explains everything in TO MUCH detail, and spends too much time telling everything that Mary is reading; it, quite frankly, gets boring, and the only reason I read on was to find out what the coach was really made of, and because I like Holmes, and anything to do with him I read. The plot would have been good, but there was not enough action and too much wanderings on the Moor. I almost found myself skipping over paragraphs in order to find something exciting. The ending was good and well-written, but the story moved along too slowly. If this would have been my first reading of this series instead of my second, I doubt I would get the next book. I also find the fact that Holmes married absolutely inconcievable, especially to a woman less than half his age; Conan Doyle, I'm sure, would have had something to say about that. Holmes thought marriage was a rather stupid thing to do and said so more than once ("Watson has deserted me for a wife" . .). Plus, the language in this was rather shocking as well. In the first novel there was only a few bad words; in this work, they are abundent and shocking. So if you want to read a good Sherlock Holmes novel by someone other than the great Doyle himself, read "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" and leave it at that.
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Summary: Another terrific Russell/Holmes pastiche
Review: I love the Mary Russell books by Laurie R. King, and this one was no disappointment. Ms. King does a wonderful job of enhancing our appreciation of this difficult, thorny man--by pairing him with an equally eccentric, intelligent, reclusive, and yet utterly feminine woman. (Who else would have the sang-froid to calmly blow off a "the game's afoot" style telegram from the great Sherlock Holmes himself?) To me, this interplay makes both charcters more enjoyable. The mysteries themselves are good, too--you will not guess the outcome early in the book. Frankly, though, the richness of these tales shines through in the details and the dry humor, as when Mary is re-creating the actions of a murderer dumping a body. After a long spell of intense concentration while mimicking his motions, she looks up to find half the local populace quietly watching her. I also think Ms. King writes of meetings--that is, characters encountering one another for the first time--better than anyone else I can think of. Mary's introduction to the Reverend Baring-Gould was a priceless scene of mannered mayhem--second only to her first encounter with Sherlock Holmes himself, in The Beekeeper's Apprentice. These books are wonderful, and reading The Moor only made me want to read the next one the day it comes out.
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Summary: What's Happened to Laurie?
Review: I was initially bowled over by Laurie King's "Mary Russell" series(and her Kate Martinelli series too). THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE remains one of the best Sherlock Holmes sequels ever. But it seems each Russell book is a bit less effective than the last. THE MOOR has some wonderful bits of atmosphere, and Ms. King always finds amusing character insights, but the book starts and ends with little of genuine interest ever happening. Halfway through I had to admit that there was nothing other than sheer stubborness to keep me reading.
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Summary: Sherlock Holmes with a wife! Well written, poorly plotted
Review: I purchased this book for my mother as a Mothers Day present. She read 25-30 pages and put it aside. So I read it. The story moves slowly but without clear direction. There is no shocker ending, no plot twists. The story plods along to the obvious end. Not an unpleasent read but not exciting.
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Summary: Back in shape after a couple of disappointments
Review: The first of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books from Laurie King -- Beekeeper's Apprentice -- was terrific. The next two -- Monstrous Regiment and Letter of Mary -- were disappointments by comparison. They were slow-moving and full of wearying digressions (and, for my taste, they contained too little Holmes). This one has the series back on track. It's not Beekeeper's, but it's a worthy successor.
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Summary: Laurie King is back in style.
Review: Not only has Laurie King achieved what seemed unattainable- a believable recreation of Sherlock Holmes- she has given him an eloquent personality to match his sharp brilliance. This personality is rendered with hilarious and poignant wit through the eyes of his wife, Mary Russell. Forgive me if I give the impression that Holmes is the main character- Mary Russell's struggles with life, and life with Holmes, are by far the central theme. The Moor is no exception, and a more beautiful, amusing, and suspenseful mystery I have not seen for a long time.
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