Books
A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell Hamilton
Description: Mary Gentry and her boys on their visit home to the land of faery play politics and magic and oh, there’s sex and violence.
In this latest installment, the plot progresses.
No really, the plot progresses. More symbols. More magic mojo.
I like this series because, unlike the Anita books, she’s clearly going somewhere. And in this book we really do start to make progress. Mary is pulling together her circle of allies and we’re not just talking boyfriends here, we’re talking a power circle. We’re talking a pregnant plot, errr…okay, not so pregnant. But lots of building in a direction.
Not sure which direction yet, its all very mid stream, but I’m very curious to see where we’re going.
Locked Rooms by Laurie King
Description: Mary Russell and her husband, mumble mumble, arrive in San Francisco to resolve details of her parents estate and end up tumbling into a mystery. Well, it is a mystery series, so there was bound to be one. After all, why else have mumble mumble in the story.
I always feel a little awkward explaining the basic premise of the series, I mean, Sherlock Holmes married! It does seem a bit ummm…improbable.
The thing about Laurie King’s series is that she really makes it work. She imbues (great word imbue) each book with an incredible sense of time and period. As to the setting, well, I live here; I’m bound to enjoy a mystery set along familiar streets and ways.
This book was a bit of a departure in that King split the narrative point of view between Mary Russell first person and Holmes third person. This allowed the book to play with perspective and Mary as an unreliable narrator in way that wasn’t really possible in previous books. With the idea of locked rooms both real and in our heads. Discuss ideas that we will not allow ourselves to face.
It’s always particularly enjoyable when a new book enables you to go back to older books in the series and see events in a new way. As soon as I finished Locked Room, I went back to Beekeeper’s Apprentice with a new eye for old well loved details.
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