A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995)

The second book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series has Mary finishing up her schooling and Oxford and nearly old enough to come into her inheritance. Mary meets an old friend, Veronica, who is known for her good deeds among the poor. Ronnie introduces her to Margery Childe, a dynamic speaker who leads church services and a troop of well-off women in doing good for less fortunate women and children.

It's hard to explain what the book is about without giving it away, so please don't be put off if my summary (which doesn't tell much beyond the first 50 pages) doesn't grab you right away. Rather than the mystery, which doesn't really emerge until fairly well along into the book, the characters are the main focus. Mary Russell is the first-person narrator, an aging Holmes' protegee. She's a feminist in 1920 Britain, has definite opinions and is every inch Holmes' match for intellect, which makes their banter entertaining. This book was a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to continuing the series. ( )

Probably more of a 3 1/2 star read, if only for the fact that the mystery was somewhat lame and part of the narrative ( that is, the method the villain selected to try to kill Mary Russell)rather more implausible than it needed to be. Still, Mary Russell is a well-drawn character, her independence, intelligence, temper and sense of humour collectively helping me overcome any impulse I might have to refer to her as Mary-Sue Russell. Holmes is believably Holmes. The setting is interesting and not overly crowded with the kind of period detail which screams "author trying too hard".

I loved [b:The Beekeeper's Apprentice|91661|The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell, #1)|Laurie R. King|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298438298s/91661.jpg|891863]. When I recently read it for the first time I wished that I hadn't made a conscious decision not to read it when it was first published. Now I'm rather glad for my delay in coming on board, as I have a whole series to catch up on. ( )

I am enjoying this series. Plenty of early England with a stong female character AND Sherlock Holmes. Win/win. ( )

Somewhat interesting, if a little dense. There was a lot more philosophy and religion and dogma explored in this second book in the series, so it's not surprising that it moved much more slowly. Also not entirely convinced about the development of the relationship between Russell and Holmes, and really confused about the whole *spoiler* kidnap/drug episode. Why, oh why, didn't they just kill her? It made absolutely no sense. I will read the next one as I'm curious about where the series is headed but I wasn't that impressed with this book. ( )

I've read this second entry in they Mary Russell series twice. It's a competent and entertaining entry in the series, but not quite the great mystery an appreciator of the original Holmes stories might expect. It does offer a good deal of expansion to the relationship between Russell and Holmes -- which, honestly, I think is the most difficult part of the whole thing to swallow, but that may be my own prejudices speaking).

I've called this series high quality fan-fiction more than once, but Mary Russell is not really a Mary Sue. She's far too well developed for that designation, too well rounded and complete (although she does suffer from some of the "victim" qualities that occasionally mark author-surrogates in fan-fiction). I enjoyed the book's look at the rise the women's rights movement in early 20th century England and the collection of characters the author used to explain and illustrate the period and its concerns.

The fault I found in this novel was that Mary is absent from a good deal of the real mystery meat because she is the victim of the crime. As such, because the story is told first person, the reader is imprisoned with her and while the story of her fortitude and ingenuity is interesting, she is utterly reliant upon Holmes to rescue her -- which means we do not get to see any of the great detective's work but hear only hints of it after all is resolved. What is usually central to a Holmes related mystery is relegated to the status of afterthought.

Still, it's worth reading this one because the series has very excellent entries coming up, and while the books can stand somewhat on their own, they make more sense as a series. ( )