THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE

Laurie R King’s first Mary Russell novel The Beekeeper’s Apprentice was published in 1994. Since then she has gone on to publish at least another 18 books in the series.

After the fashion of many Sherlock Holmes books, the author purports to have been in receipt of a number of manuscripts and other fascinating items. The writer of these manuscripts (M.R.H.) states that Holmes was real flesh-and-blood – ‘my Holmes is not the Holmes of Watson... my perspective, my brush technique, my use of colour and shade, are all entirely different from him. The subject is essentially the same; it is the eyes and the hands of the artist that change’ (page xvii).

In 1915 the young fifteen-year-old Mary Russell is reading a book on the Sussex Downs when she literally trips over Sherlock Holmes. [The book blurb gives the date as 1914, which is incorrect!]

‘... it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year... In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongst the sheep (which tended to move out of my way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness) I had never before stepped on a person’ (p5).

Holmes is studying bees and has quite a few hives to look after behind his cottage, his retreat, which is administered by Mrs Hudson.

The narrative is first-person by Mary, and it’s a joy to read. The voice and character of Mary and Holmes are captured perfectly.

This first interaction on the Downs soon conveys to each that their intellects mesh remarkably well. We meet the ‘real’ Mrs Hudson and Dr Watson and Sherlock’s brother Mycroft. Holmes takes Mary under his wing, training her in his techniques and methods of disguise, even arranging for her to undertake Oriental self-defence. The years pass as she studies at Oxford, spending her holidays at the Sussex cottage to learn from her mentor.

The tone varies from serious, to intellectual, to humorous: ‘My first task was to make a move towards reuniting Watson with his trousers’ (p205) – a sentence you’d never find in the Conan Doyle cannon!

Before long, Mary – who Holmes always refers to as ‘Russell’ – joins the Great Detective on his investigations. Considerable danger is afoot, it seems; and the main perpetrator is as cunning as the late adversary Moriarty. As time goes by, despite the age difference the pair become close.

This book has heart, humour, depth of description that sets the reader in the scene, and a main character who greatly appeals.

A splendid beginning to a series. Next: A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995).

Note: This cover is pretty poor. The later A&B cover and its successors are much better.