The Beekeeper's Apprentice

I was hooked in the first chapter when the protagonist, Mary Russell, meets Sherlock Holmes, who is retired. There – do I have to say more?

She is a young woman and Sherlock is, well, Sherlock, and yet she matches wits with him while they end up in the middle of a creative and a bit scary Sherlock Holmes-ish tale. I couldn’t wait to get and read the sequels.

Laurie R. King has written many novels featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, and, to tell you the truth, I never had an interest in them when they first came out. Last year, I broke down and bought this book, the first book in the Mary Russell series, and I wish I’d bought it twenty years ago.

King’s book is thoughtful, fun, and considerate of the canon. Holmes is Holmes in this story of how a teenage girl meets the Great Detective. She is also smart enough to keep up with him as they solve their first mystery together.

This wasn’t the first Sherlock Holmes adaptation I encountered - as a kid, I read and was fascinated by some of the Robert Newman books, and watched The Great Mouse Detective - but when the first Mary Russell book was recommended to me by a college roommate, it was an instant connection.

King avoids rewriting the canon by setting the books after Holmes retires to beekeeping, when he meets Mary Russell, a young woman whose brain works much as his does.

We get to see Holmes through the eyes of a brilliant outsider; even better, we get Holmesian adventures with… show more.

Fifteen-year-old, gawky, recently orphaned, Mary Russell meets Sherlock Holmes the afternoon she nearly steps on him on the Sussex Downs when he’s about to commit a crime against himself. Brilliant, Mary’s intellect captures Holmes’ interest immediately, and thus begins a markedly odd, if singularly fruitful, partnership between the two. She, an eventual Oxford student in Theology; he, the Consulting Detective of Scotland Yard, and sometime agent provocateur in Her Majesty’s Service via his beloved brother, Mycroft. Mary is smart as a whip, a singularly apt pupil, and unbeknownst to Holmes, finds a place for herself deep in his heart. For… show more.

There are plenty of Sherlock Holmes spinoffs, but this series is the cream of the crop. While Sherlock’s fame may be what draws readers to the book, Mary Russel is the star. She’s every bit as capable as Holmes, and not afraid to disagree with him or ignore his advice. (Although ignoring his advice may not be such a good idea.) Mary’s true love is scholarship, but when she sees injustice, she willingly sets aside her personal wishes and safety to thwart crime and protect the innocent. She is an inspiration to intelligent, independent females who yearn to have their… show more.

This 17-book series flips history and fiction: instead of fictionalizing a historical character, King’s premise is that a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, is real. Mary Russell, his much younger investigative apprentice, grows up to become his much younger wife, and together they tackle criminals all over the world. The stories begin in 1915 and move forward in time to the 1930s. King is a terrific writer. I like to cite one passage in particular where she describes Holmes holding his wife’s hand—calling it the best sex scene I’ve ever read is probably only a slight exaggeration. Though it is based… show more.