Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King Book Signing
Originally uploaded by BearShots. Does anyone else out there read the Mary Russell mysteries? I grew up reading the Sherlock Holmes case files and this is Holmes post-retirement. It takes a lot for me to follow a series, and I really like these.
Anyway, the newest book in the series came out at the end of April (as dayspring thoughtfully reminded me). I started following "Mary Russell" on Twitter and there were a few posts about book tours. With metaphorical fingers crossed, I did a Google search and discovered that Laurie R. King was doing a discussion/book signing in Cincinnati - about an hour from Georgetown. Two of my four sisters are also Mary Russell fans so we three and a friend of Rosalie's all caravaned up to Cincinnati for IKEA, Trader Joe's and the book signing.
From the beginning of the discussion period, it was quickly apparent that Laurie R. King is Mary Russell. I wasn't quite expecting this since so many people write characters that aren't even mildly related to them. LRK is at least six feet tall with shoulders broad enough that she could easily look like a man, she's witty, kind and speaks with the same patterns and sentence structures as her character creation.
Toward the end, I asked if she had grown up reading Sherlock Holmes - as I was wondering if she had read them as extensively as I had and if it was then that she had really wanted Holmes to have some kind of female companion just as I had. And basically the answer was no. She read one or two of the better known stories in high school, and didn't return to any of it until much older. Apparently Beekeepers Apprentice was her first novel and she wrote Letter of Mary second, which is interesting from chronological standpoint.
If you're looking for a fun summer read, try reading the first book in the series: The Beekeepers Apprentice. The first two chapters are here.