A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd (Inspector Ian Rutledge #17)

Summary from Goodreads:
New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd takes readers into Scotland Yard Detective Ian Rutledge's past-to his perplexing final case before the outbreak of World War I.

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north, on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death.

This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, all of Britain wonders and waits. With every moment at stake, Rutledge sets out to right a wrong-an odyssey that will eventually force him to choose between the Yard and his country, between love and duty, and between honor and truth.

This is a good way to jump into an established mystery series - with a prequel! A Fine Summer's Day has a good serial killer plot, but perhaps too neat a bow on the end. I hadn't read any of the Ian Rutledge novels before (and will be rectifying that shortly with A Test of Wills) but I do know the basics of Rutledge's issues. There are two short scenes that could have been dispensed with completely - one coming in what is basically the Prologue and one in the Epilogue (and only slightly related to that bow I alluded to). Since the character in question makes no appearance of any sort in the book between those two scenes he/it is completely unnecessary.

Dear FTC: I received a hardcover review copy from the publisher - sorry I didn't get it read/reviewed until now.

The Language of Bees (Mary Russell #9)/The God of the Hive (Mary Russell #10)

Summary from Goodreads:
For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve - the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.
But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the surrealist painter had been charged with - and exonerated from - murder. Now the troubled young man is enlisting the Holmeses’ help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

Mary has often observed that there are many kinds of madness, and before this case yields its shattering solution she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Mary will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced - a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

Summary from Goodreads:
In Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mystery, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller of ingenious surprises and unrelenting suspense - as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice.

It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended - or so they’d hoped - with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.

Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them?

From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies - in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.

Well, I have to put The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive together because The Language of Bees is the first of the Russell/Holmes books to end with an actual cliff-hanger and I couldn't wait to get back to the library to pick up The God of the Hive.  These two entries in the series are crazy and veer all over England to sort out why and how Damian's wife and daughter have disappeared.  Unfortunately, the separation of Mary and Holmes in The God of the Hive takes away one thing I absolutely love in this series - the interplay between the two characters; keeping them apart for so much of the book actually pulls the plot down but it picks back up when they come together.  There's a strange perspective change to that of a bird in the cemetery that feels really forced.  I did love how disillusioned Mary becomes with Mycroft...and she has grounds, believe me (cf. The Game).

I might be on series burn-out so I'm going to take a break from Mary and Holmes.

Dear FTC: I borrowed these from the library.

Locked Rooms (Mary Russell #8)

Summary from Goodreads:
Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series. And this time the first couple of detection pair up to unlock the buried memory of a shocking crime with the power to kill again–lost somewhere in Russell’s own past.

After departing Bombay by ship, Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are en route to the bustling modern city of San Francisco. There, Mary will settle some legal affairs surrounding the inheritance of her family’s old estate. But the closer they get to port, the more Mary finds herself prey to troubling dreams and irrational behavior–a point not lost on Holmes, much to Russell’s annoyance.

In 1906, when Mary was six, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire that reduced the city to rubble. For years, Mary has denied any memory of the catastrophe that for days turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. But Holmes suspects that some hidden trauma connected with the “unforgettable” catastrophe may be the real culprit responsible for Mary’s memory lapse. And no sooner do they begin to familiarize themselves with the particulars of the Russell estate than it becomes apparent that whatever unpleasantness Mary has forgotten, it hasn’t forgotten her. Why does her father’s will forbid access to the house except in the presence of immediate family? Why did someone break in, then take nothing of any value? And why is Russell herself targeted for assassination?

The more questions they ask of Mary’s past, the more people from that past turn out to have died violent, unexplained deaths. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective and crime writer named Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads them through the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic car “accident” that a fourteen-year-old Mary alone survived–an accident that may not have been an accident at all. What Russell is about to discover is that even a forgotten past never dies…and it can kill again.

Going straight on to book eight, we pick up right after The Game left off.  I seriously started to worry about Mary and Holmes's relationship because Mary almost goes off the rails by simply being in San Francisco.  Great plot twists and there's an interesting perspective switch partway through the book.  Loved how Dashiell Hammett was brought in as a character and colleague.

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library.

The Game (Mary Russell #7)

Summary from Goodreads:
It’s only the second day of 1924, but Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, find themselves embroiled in intrigue. It starts with a New Year’s visit from Holmes’s brother Mycroft, who comes bearing a strange package containing the papers of an English spy named Kimball O’Hara—the same Kimball known to the world through Kipling’s famed Kim. Inexplicably, O’Hara withdrew from the “Great Game” of espionage and now he has just as inexplicably disappeared.

When Russell discovers Holmes’s own secret friendship with the spy, she knows the die is cast: she will accompany her husband to India to search for the missing operative. But Russell soon learns that in this faraway and exotic land, it’s often impossible to tell friend from foe—and that some games aren’t played for fun but for the highest stakes of all…life and death.

After the intimacy of the characters in O Jerusalem and Justice Hall this entry in the Russell/Homes series was something of a let-down for me. The characterization of the setting wasn't as rich, parts of the plot felt forced, and Sunny Goodheart's character was really annoying. Maybe if I'd put more space between this and Justice Hall it would have read better for me.

Also: poor Holmes, he does like to brush Mary's hair. 

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library.

A Fatal Waltz (Lady Emily #3)

Summary from Goodreads:
At her friend Ivy's behest, Emily reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the sprawling English country estate of Lord Fortescue, a man she finds as odious as he is powerful. But if Emily is expecting Lord Fortescue to be the greatest of her problems, she is wrong. Her host has also invited Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who was once linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, the debonair Colin Hargreaves. What Emily believes will be a tedious evening turns deadly when Fortescue is found murdered, and his protégé, Robert Brandon—Ivy's husband—is arrested for the crime.

Determined to right this terrible wrong and clear Robert's name, Emily begins to dig for answers, a quest that will lead her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid backstreets. Not until she engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge: the price of exonerating Robert can be paid only by placing Colin in deadly peril. To save her fiancé, Emily must do the unthinkable: bargain with her nemesis, the Countess von Lange.

So I wanted to strangle Emily a bit in this book for all her internal quibbling over whether Colin was going to run off with the Countess - it was obvious that Colin was smarter than that and that he was madly in love with Emily.  So that was a sticking point.  Other than making Emily a bit of a ninny of a man (this after she pretty much makes it clear that she was going to stand up to Lord Fortescue - which, in hindsight, did give her a motive that only she knew about), this was a fun mystery with a lovely section set in Vienna.  The Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) is a character and Tasha Alexander renders her beautifully (this takes place after the tragedy of Mayerling).  Going to Vienna had the added bonus of getting Emily away from her crazy mother (even if she did take the annoying Bainbridge with her).

Now, I have to go find the Emily and Colin wedding scene floating around on the Internet before reading book four.

Dear FTC: I bought a copy of this book on my Nook.

A Poisoned Season (Lady Emily #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
London's social season is in full swing, and Victorian aristocracy is atwitter over a certain gentleman who claims to be the direct descendant of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Adding to their fascination with all things French, an audacious cat burglar is systematically stealing valuable items that once belonged to the ill–fated queen.

But things take a dark turn. The owner of one of the pilfered treasures is found murdered after the theft is reported in the newspapers, and the mysterious thief develops a twisted obsession with Lady Emily Ashton. It takes all of Lady Emily's wit and perseverance to unmask her stalker and ferret out the murderer, while faced with a brewing scandal that threatens both her reputation and her romance with the dashing Colin Hargreaves.

Coming back to Lady Emily, I was delighted to find that her second mystery is more streamlined than the first.  Emily is determined to be her own person - she and Colin Hargreaves seem to be progressing in their romance but she won't be bullied into marriage (by her social-climbing mother) or deterred from intellectual pursuits.  Although Colin is a master spy, Emily doesn't expect him to swoop in and rescue her when her investigations become dangerous.  Very enjoyable.

Dear FTC: I read a copy purchased on my Nook.

Justice Hall (Mary Russell #6)

Summary from Goodreads:
Hours after Holmes and Russell return from solving the murky riddle of The Moor, a bloodied but oddly familiar stranger pounds desperately on their front door, pleading for their help. When he recovers, he lays before them the story of the enigmatic Marsh Hughenfort, younger brother of the Duke of Beauville, returned to England upon his brother's death, determined to learn the truth about the untimely death of the hall's expected heir - a puzzle he is convinced only Holmes and Russell can solve.

It's a mystery that begins during the Great War of 1918, when young Gabriel Hughenfort, the late Duke's only son, died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. While Holmes heads to London to uncover the truth of Gabriel's war record, Russell joins an ill-fated shooting party. A missing diary, a purloined bundle of letters, and a trail of ominous clues comprise a mystery that will call for Holmes's cleverest disguises and Russell's most daring journeys into the unknown! from an English hamlet to the city of Paris to the wild prairie of the New World. The trap is set, the game is afoot, but can they catch an elusive villain in the act of murder before they become his next victims?

In my opinion, you can't read Justice Hall without having read O Jerusalem because Marsh and Alistair are none other than Mahmoud and Ali, the men who concealed/aided/befriended Russell and Holmes in O Jerusalem.  A very intricate plot that is wonderful in all of the twists and turns.  Commendable also for subtly introducing a homosexual relationship that wasn't terribly apparent at the outset.

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library.

O Jerusalem (Mary Russell #5)

Summary from Goodreads:
With her bestselling mystery series featuring Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell, Laurie R. King has created "lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company," according to The New York Times Book Review. Now the author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice and The Moor--the first writer since Patricia Cornwell to win both the American Edgar and British Creasey Awards for a debut novel (A Grave Talent)--unfolds a hitherto unknown chapter in the history of Russell's apprenticeship to the great detective.

At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England's green and pleasant land, Russell and Holmes enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes' enigmatic brother, Mycroft.

"Gentlemen, we are at your service." Thus Holmes greets the two travel-grimed Arab figures who receive them in the orange groves fringing the Holy Land. Whatever role could the volatile Ali and the taciturn Mahmoud play in Mycroft's design for this land the British so recently wrested from the Turks? After passing a series of tests, Holmes and Russell learn their guides are engaged in a mission for His Majesty's Government, and disguise themselves as Bedouins--Russell as the beardless youth "Amir"--to join them in a stealthy reconnaissance through the dusty countryside.

A recent rash of murders seems unrelated to the growing tensions between Jew, Moslem, and Christian, yet Holmes is adamant that he must reconstruct the most recent one in the desert gully where it occurred. His singular findings will lead him and Russell through labyrinthine bazaars, verminous inns, cliff-hung monasteries--and into mortal danger. When her mentor's inquiries jeopardize his life, Russell fearlessly wields a pistol and even assays the arts of seduction to save him. Bruised and bloodied, the pair ascend to the jewellike city of Jerusalem, where they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for savagery and power could reduce the city's most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite this tinderbox of a land....

Classically Holmesian yet enchantingly fresh, sinuously plotted, with colorful characters and a dazzling historic ambience, O Jerusalem sweeps readers ever onward in the thrill of the chase.

Well, there isn't much I can add to the Goodreads summary for O Jerusalem.  Suffice to say, this is the entire section of time that was skipped during The Beekeeper's Apprentice when Holmes and Mary had to flee England to recover and plan.  Of course, being who they are, it certainly isn't a quiet trip through the Holy Land.  I have to really say that I loved, LOVED the care and research taken with respect to the setting, detail, and atmosphere of World War I-era Palestine. I appreciated it very much and loved every word. Interesting plot, too, since it basically underlines issues still present nearly a century later.  This is much better than the previous installment in the series, The Moor.

That said, I had a great deal of trouble jumping back from the Mary and Holmes of A Letter of Mary and The Moor , where they are married and that part of their partnership is addressed/settled, to an eighteen-year-old Mary and not-sure-what-to-do-with-her Holmes who literally skirts the issue of her being female/his attraction to her by dressing her as a boy during their sojurn in Palestine. This might be a book better read right after book #1, The Beekeeper's Apprentice , since no forward-looking allusions to their relationship are made in O Jerusalem, and it must be read before book #6, Justice Hall (see next review).

And I have one series-level complaint: whoever thought up the cover designs with "Mary" on them dressed in a bathrobe and holding Holmes's pipe really needs to actually read the books - far too provocative. I like the new paperback re-issues better.

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library.

The Moor (Mary Russell #4)

Summary from Goodreads:
Though theirs is a marriage of true equals, when Sherlock Holmes summons his wife and partner Mary Russell to the eerie scene of his most celebrated case, she abandons her Oxford studies to aid his investigation. But this time, on Dartmoor, there is more to the matter than a phantom hound. Sightings of a spectral coach carrying a long-dead noblewoman over the moonlit moor have heralded a mysterious death, the corpse surrounded by oversize paw prints. Here on this wild and foreboding moor, Russell and Holmes embark on a quest with few clues save a fanatic anthropologist, an ancestral portrait, a moorland witch, and a lowly - but most revealing- hedgehog. As Holmes and Russell anticipate, a rational explanation lies beneath the supernatural events - but one darker than they could have imagined. And one that could end their lives in this harsh and desolate land.

It was fun to return to Dartmoor - the location of Holmes's adventures in The Hound of the Baskervilles - but this installment of the Russell/Holmes series wasn't quite as good as the previous two.  Although I appreciated the plot twists and "local color" this mystery dragged.  There were also a few too many parallels to Baskervilles (paw prints? a portrait? hmmm....) for my taste.

A Letter of Mary (Mary Russell #3)

Summary from Goodreads:
In 1923, an amateur archaeologist brings Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes an inlaid box from the Holy Land and then promptly dies in a suspicious traffic accident that leaves the master detective and Mary with an dangerous manuscript seemingly written by Mary Magdalene. 

A very neat little mystery that promises a great deal in the way of theological intrigue and misogyny yet resolves itself in a mundane way. Much to Holmes's chagrin. How boring for him and a nice change for the reader.

I liked this installment of Mary Russell's "memoirs". It continues in Mary's theological vein, with the arrival of a purported letter from Mary Magdalene where she identifies herself as an apostle, but rather than the death-defying cat-and-mouse games of the first two books it has a bit of a slower pace. Also interesting to learn a bit about the Russell/Holmes marriage.  One of the best scenes was one where Holmes attempts to out-logic his gut reaction to Mary working undercover as a misogynist's secretary; he views Mary as his partner in deduction, not a subservient wife, yet really has to fight an innate urge to keep his loved one from harm. A slightly-related scene that made me laugh was one where Holmes attempts to cajole Mary into something and she describes her nice warm bed as "invaded" by a cold, bristly male person smelling faintly of cheap gin and strongly of tobacco (I'm paraphrasing, since I don't have the book to hand but you get the picture); an excellent way to show intimacy between the characters without being graphic.

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
Winner of the Nero Wolfe Award
It is 1921 and Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes's brilliant apprentice, now an Oxford graduate with a degree in theology--is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Independent at last, with a passion for divinity and detective work, her most baffling mystery may now involve Holmes and the burgeoning of a deeper affection between herself and the retired detective. Russell's attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, Margery Childe, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic, whose draw on the young theology scholar is irresistible. But when four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot? Holmes and Russell investigate, as their partnership takes a surprising turn.

Returning to Mary Russell, I picked up A Monstrous Regiment of Women.  The intersection of Mary's coming of age with the religious awakening and seeming cluster of deaths made for excellent reading.  Many kudos to Laurie R. King for the amazing sequence where Mary is kidnapped and deliberately re-addicted to opiates in an attempt to knock her off is excellent.  Love the ending.

(Also, this is a beautiful cover for the paperback edition I read.)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Summary from Goodreads:
Flavia de Luce 11 is an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. In the summer of 1950, inexplicable events strike Buckshaw, her decaying mansion home. A dead bird is on the doorstep, a postage stamp on its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man dying in the cucumber patch. His last words must save her father imprisoned for his murder.

Since I'm on a mystery kick, I decided to check out the Flavia de Luce series since the premise - eleven year old intelligent child-sleuth - sounded interesting.  So I borrowed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie from the library.

This is a fun mystery, quick to read, but I had a bit of trouble with believing Flavia as the narrator.  She is supposed to be intelligent, nerdy, and self-educated but her vocabulary didn't fit that of a child, let alone one who has extensively in the sciences.  For instance, a metaphor that compared furniture of two different eras/styles using the metaphor of an old man watching a mistress taking off her stockings.  Coming as it does in a chapter where Flavia explores her mother's room it grates.  Good central mystery, though.  Not going on to the rest of the series now, but one to keep in mind for the future.

Beekeeping for Beginners (Mary Russell prequel)

Summary from Goodreads:
In this crackling short story, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King reveals an unforgettable new twist in the adventure that led supersleuth Sherlock Holmes to discover his first (and finest) apprentice, Mary Russell.

Sherlock Holmes is fending off a particularly dark mood as he roams the Sussex Downs, in search of wild bees. The Great War may be raging across the Channel, but on the Downs, the great detective nears terminal melancholia—only to be saved by an encounter with headstrong, yellow-haired young Mary Russell, who soon becomes the Master’s apprentice not only in beekeeping but in detection.

Holmes instantly spots her remarkable ability, but his sharp eyes also see troubling problems. Why is this wealthy orphan who lives with her aunt so shabbily dressed? Why is she so prone to illness and accident? Is she herself the center of a mystery? These are questions that the great detective must answer quickly lest his protégée, and his own new lease on life, meet a sudden, tragic end.

The tale of their meeting has been told from Russell’s point of view, but even those who have never met the famed Russell-Holmes pair will read this tale with delight—and, as its climax builds, with breathless excitement.

An interesting little story/novella that gives an extra bit of background to Sherlock and Mary's first meeting in The Beekeeper's Apprentice.  Sherlock's voice is nice, but there is an unnecessary switch from Holmes's first person point-of-view to third person (Watson then Mary) before coming back to Holmes. Cute but definitely shouldn't be read before The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily #1)

Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily series was recommended to me by my SIL (who I have yet to get to join GR) so I put And Only To Deceive on my Book Blogger Holiday Swap wishlist.

And I was gifted a copy. Shame on me for not reading it until now.

The plot is a bit convoluted, but I liked it (this likely comes from reading Victorian novels so I am maybe a bit immune to these sorts of things).  Lady Emily is coming out of mourning for her husband who died while abroad in Egypt (aside: Victorian mourning is crazy-pants).  Just as she starts moving in Society again she visits the British Museum - and discovers that her late husband, whom she married to conveniently escape her mother, may have been involved in antiquities fraud.  Or theft.  Emily sets out to unravel the mystery, starting with her husband's journals which reveal more than she sought to know.  Meanwhile, Emily is presented with two eligible suitors: Andrew Palmer (wanker, didn't like him) and Colin Hargreaves (the late-husband's best friend, who, although he should have been up-front about certain things from the beginning, was on Emily's side the whole time). 

I loved all the Greek literature and art information intertwined with Emily's tale - not only is this a mystery, it is also a coming-of-age tale where Emily learns who her deceased husband really was, learns to mourn him, and starts to learn who she really is and what she wants.

Definitely interested in reading the next in this series (Kristen got me into the Pink Carnation series so I'll trust her on this one).

The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell #1)

I bought The Beekeeper's Apprentice a while back as part of a B2B1F sale and just never got around to reading it. Well, @mary_russell started tweeting bits of plot from her books since there's a new one coming this fall and they looked interesting...so I started reading last night.

And finished at 3am. Very fun to read, very hard to put down. A great character study aside from a good mystery (with a hint of one in the middle that Mary skirted around that I think is actually book 5, O Jerusalem). Very evocative of the Holmes voice via Conan Doyle without trying too hard and overdoing it. I loved Mary - sharp as a tack, stubborn, and more than Holmes's match. Much better than boring old Irene Adler. Having read a few spoilers, I do have to say that the age gap between Holmes and Mary is only very weird when it gets emphasized.

Also a good read for the Downton Abbey fans since the WWI setting from the point of rations, working in the fields, etc. is very well-described from the vantage of a very intelligent, Oxford-bound teen.