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kansas_girl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
rr_author's review against another edition
2.0
This book had such a promising beginning. The first few of chapters were a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed them - hence the two stars. A spunky fifteen year old, running into a grumpy Holmes. Him taking her under his wings, with the sweet Mrs. Hudson playing a part too. An interesting first case, involving the neighbour in a small town. Oh, how quickly it all came tumbling down.
I began to have my first doubts when there were several cases of brown face. I was very uncomfortable with them. Really, Mary is running around Oxford dressed as an Indian man with painted face, turban, accent, the whole shebang? Very odd, to say the least. Sure, it's set during and just after WWI, which isn't known for being progressive. But it's written in the late 90s, but a progressive author! Then, on Sherlock and Mary's first case together they pick the disguise of gypsies and darken their faces. This didn't seem like a necessary disguise, when there could be so many other options. Especially when travelling to Wales. It wasn't like they were trying to fit in.
The most serious turning point for me was when Sherlock Holmes decides beating up Mary is the best way for them to get arrested. Sure, later on he says he hopes she wasn't hurt. But she is bruised, he slaps her across the face, and she is stumbling around in pain during the scene as he shoves and pushes her. There are plenty of ways to get arrested, this was UNNECESSARY.
After this, my creep senses started tingling. Mary is 15 when she meets a middle aged Sherlock. She refers to him as a father figure and he calls her 'my child' throughout the book, when he's most affectionate. The second she turns 18 and starts wearing nice dresses, he starts gaping at her. There were several awkward scenes where he was staring at her for too long. No. Nope, NO THANK YOU. Sir, you are in your late fifties, go find someone your own age. This is creepy and inappropriate, especially given that he is her mentor/kind of boss, and definitely in a position of power over her. Things only got worse, and although nothing explicitly romantic happened, it was clearly leading up to that for sequels. I've read that he says in a sequel that he wanted to kiss her when he met her at age 15? Straight to jail, right away, thank you very much.
More problems - Mary says that she is Jewish, and is studying theology in university. This has no impact on the plot whatsoever. Is she a practicing Jew? It's never explained. No Jewish holidays are mentioned, she never keeps the Sabbath. They visit Israel for a while, and she seems to think of it reverently. At one point, she decides to eat ham for no reason - and the fact that she talks about this as out of the ordinary leads me to think she must be kosher. The author decides to throw it out the window for no reason. Probably because you can't have a strong female character who is devout? (I'm being sarcastic.)
Of course, Mary is perfect at everything, except when she does stupid things like walk into lampposts and seriously injure herself... She's also suspiciously similar to the author! Both wear glasses. Both attended university for theology. Both 'feminists'. Both marry much older men... Do you sense a pattern? I don't have problems with authors writing characters similar to themselves, but this almost seemed like self-insert fanfic.
There's more I could mention. The way Watson is constantly downplayed. The way Mary is often better than Sherlock Holmes at detective work. Is she his assistance or is he hers? The strange sentence where he says people would think it stranger if he had a boy as his assistant than a girl... Um, what?
Overall, disappointing. It had a beautiful cover, and an interesting beginning. The plot twist was fine, but I didn't care about the story by that point.
I began to have my first doubts when there were several cases of brown face. I was very uncomfortable with them. Really, Mary is running around Oxford dressed as an Indian man with painted face, turban, accent, the whole shebang? Very odd, to say the least. Sure, it's set during and just after WWI, which isn't known for being progressive. But it's written in the late 90s, but a progressive author! Then, on Sherlock and Mary's first case together they pick the disguise of gypsies and darken their faces. This didn't seem like a necessary disguise, when there could be so many other options. Especially when travelling to Wales. It wasn't like they were trying to fit in.
The most serious turning point for me was when Sherlock Holmes decides beating up Mary is the best way for them to get arrested. Sure, later on he says he hopes she wasn't hurt. But she is bruised, he slaps her across the face, and she is stumbling around in pain during the scene as he shoves and pushes her. There are plenty of ways to get arrested, this was UNNECESSARY.
After this, my creep senses started tingling. Mary is 15 when she meets a middle aged Sherlock. She refers to him as a father figure and he calls her 'my child' throughout the book, when he's most affectionate. The second she turns 18 and starts wearing nice dresses, he starts gaping at her. There were several awkward scenes where he was staring at her for too long. No. Nope, NO THANK YOU. Sir, you are in your late fifties, go find someone your own age. This is creepy and inappropriate, especially given that he is her mentor/kind of boss, and definitely in a position of power over her. Things only got worse, and although nothing explicitly romantic happened, it was clearly leading up to that for sequels. I've read that he says in a sequel that he wanted to kiss her when he met her at age 15? Straight to jail, right away, thank you very much.
More problems - Mary says that she is Jewish, and is studying theology in university. This has no impact on the plot whatsoever. Is she a practicing Jew? It's never explained. No Jewish holidays are mentioned, she never keeps the Sabbath. They visit Israel for a while, and she seems to think of it reverently. At one point, she decides to eat ham for no reason - and the fact that she talks about this as out of the ordinary leads me to think she must be kosher. The author decides to throw it out the window for no reason. Probably because you can't have a strong female character who is devout? (I'm being sarcastic.)
Of course, Mary is perfect at everything, except when she does stupid things like walk into lampposts and seriously injure herself... She's also suspiciously similar to the author! Both wear glasses. Both attended university for theology. Both 'feminists'. Both marry much older men... Do you sense a pattern? I don't have problems with authors writing characters similar to themselves, but this almost seemed like self-insert fanfic.
There's more I could mention. The way Watson is constantly downplayed. The way Mary is often better than Sherlock Holmes at detective work. Is she his assistance or is he hers? The strange sentence where he says people would think it stranger if he had a boy as his assistant than a girl... Um, what?
Overall, disappointing. It had a beautiful cover, and an interesting beginning. The plot twist was fine, but I didn't care about the story by that point.
trin's review against another edition
2.0
Sherlock Holmes pastiche/continuation/fanfic in which Holmes, retired to beekeeping in Sussex, is so impressed by the intelligence of 15-year-old feminist Mary 'Sue' Russell that he decides to take her on as his apprentice-detective. Wacky adventures ensue.
Okay. There were some good things about this book. King's prose is enjoyable enough, and her dialogue is suitably witty. The narrative is rather too episodic for my taste, but there are some nice atmospheric touches. And I like the idea of Holmes being surprised, being slowly won over by someone. However. HOWEVER.
There were two things I just couldn't get past. The first is that Russell really is so very much the epitome of Mary Sue-dom; she's smart and pretty and everyone likes her and oh! Is that a tragic past providing an extra source of sympathetic angst? Next it'll be revealed that she has violet eyes and Hogwarts wants her to come join Sparklypoo. But you know? I could have been generous and gotten past all that for the pleasure of seeing Holmes thrown for a loop.
What I couldn't get past, though, was how shittily King/Russell treats Watson. The "bumbling idiot" angle is played up A LOT, but even worse, King makes it seem like Holmes doesn't really care about Watson at all. And I'm talking platonically; everyone can be straight in this story for all I care. But gone is the Holmes who "should be lost without my Boswell"; King actually has Holmes forget to warn Watson that he's in danger from a bomber who's targeting Holmes' friends—though he rushed to Mary's side—and nearly costs the condescendingly-called "Uncle John" his life. Why is this kind of character assassination necessary? It's possible to make new friends and find new lovers without shitting all over the old ones, and to insist otherwise seems so amateurish, the worst kind of rookie fic writer mistake.
I'm actually kind of curious to see where this series goes; King, to her credit, takes it suitably slow, and I want to be convinced by the possibility of Holmes falling for someone. Who can resist incredibly brilliant but emotionally fucked up people in love? Not I. But any further reading of this series is going to be at least somewhat masochistic for me.
*goes to read "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (which has a great Watson-saves-Holmes'-life scene) to make herself feel better*
Okay. There were some good things about this book. King's prose is enjoyable enough, and her dialogue is suitably witty. The narrative is rather too episodic for my taste, but there are some nice atmospheric touches. And I like the idea of Holmes being surprised, being slowly won over by someone. However. HOWEVER.
There were two things I just couldn't get past. The first is that Russell really is so very much the epitome of Mary Sue-dom; she's smart and pretty and everyone likes her and oh! Is that a tragic past providing an extra source of sympathetic angst? Next it'll be revealed that she has violet eyes and Hogwarts wants her to come join Sparklypoo. But you know? I could have been generous and gotten past all that for the pleasure of seeing Holmes thrown for a loop.
What I couldn't get past, though, was how shittily King/Russell treats Watson. The "bumbling idiot" angle is played up A LOT, but even worse, King makes it seem like Holmes doesn't really care about Watson at all. And I'm talking platonically; everyone can be straight in this story for all I care. But gone is the Holmes who "should be lost without my Boswell"; King actually has Holmes forget to warn Watson that he's in danger from a bomber who's targeting Holmes' friends—though he rushed to Mary's side—and nearly costs the condescendingly-called "Uncle John" his life. Why is this kind of character assassination necessary? It's possible to make new friends and find new lovers without shitting all over the old ones, and to insist otherwise seems so amateurish, the worst kind of rookie fic writer mistake.
I'm actually kind of curious to see where this series goes; King, to her credit, takes it suitably slow, and I want to be convinced by the possibility of Holmes falling for someone. Who can resist incredibly brilliant but emotionally fucked up people in love? Not I. But any further reading of this series is going to be at least somewhat masochistic for me.
*goes to read "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (which has a great Watson-saves-Holmes'-life scene) to make herself feel better*
knittingchaos's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. I just didn’t find it very intriguing.
scribe391's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Beginning in 1915 and narrated by Mary Russell, a chance encounter leads to a partnership.
bea_reads78's review against another edition
3.75
Interestingly written— doesn’t really get going until 70 pages in, but the writing is nice and characterization of two main characters good. Others are pretty one dimensional. You can’t really figure the mysteries out from what you’re given, but I suppose that’s not the point. Some issues “of its time”— several instances of blackface. An extended description of a trip to Palestine that I’m not qualified to comment on. Not sure what to make of it on the whole but it was reasonably compelling
redheadtreefrog's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lelainav's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
annashiv's review against another edition
5.0
This is a very well written book in the world of Sherlock Holmes. It isn't a poor rendition using Holmes as a platform, but it really integrates the characters well and portrays them in a believable way that makes them even more real. The mystery itself is well thought out and had me on my toes several times. I loved how the writer dealt with the passage of long periods of time. I know that can be very hard to pull off, but the author did it beautifully. She knew what to include and what to leave to a short explanation. It is well worth a read for any mystery fan, especially if you are a fan of Holmes. It is at the very least an interesting look at his character, even if it isn't what you like to think of him. If Holmes were to have a protege, I believe Miss Mary Russell is the best option I have seen so far.