Tag: Detective Novel

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Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (The Mary Russell #1) by Laurie R. King

by The Lit Bitch10 Comments on Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (The Mary Russell #1) by Laurie R. King

I desperately needed something fun and easy to read….and this time of year I just love a good mystery….something about the turning leaves and the cool, slightly foggy mornings….geese flying south for the winter, the pumpkins ripening….I just love fall and always associate mysteries as the season’s preferred genre….maybe it’s the spirit Halloween (incidentally that is my fav holiday as well)!

I just finished reading The September Society by Charles Finch and was hungry for another mystery but was waiting for my mom to give me back my copy of the next book in the series (The Fleet Street Murders) that I plan on reading next. So I was stuck wondering what to read.

My sister and I went to this great used bookstore in my hometown a few weeks ago and she suggested that I read this series called the Mary Russell series, the first book being The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R King. The bookstore had it in stock so I bought it, took it home, put it on my shelf, and kind of forgot about it.

As I was browsing through for something to read the bright yellow honeycomb cover totally stood out so I grabbed it and started reading….my only regrets were that I didn’t pick this book up MONTHS ago and didn’t buy the next book in the series (because of course they don’t have the book in stock anymore! I was so upset that I had to ‘bookmark it’ every night so I could actually get up for work the next day….I was DYING to get home and start reading it again. Continue reading “Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (The Mary Russell #1) by Laurie R. King” →

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Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch

How perfect and fitting that I am finishing this book today on the first day of September!

I’ve just come off a string of long and content heavy books. So I just mentally needed a break from reading things that were hard/complicated, wordy, and had long, extensive family trees (which is so typical of English literary classics and British based books like Outlander or Through a Glass Darkly!).

So, I was eager to read something else historically based but yet something I also knew to be a little less complicated and easy to read/understand….I immediately turned to the next book in the Charles Lenox Series, The September Society by Charles Finch!

When I started the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge this year, my objective was to complete at least two books in the genre. I selected two books from the Charles Lenox mysteries series by Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death and The September Society.

If you are a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Mysteries….or enjoy Sherlock Holmes-type mysteries….you will devour these books. Finch gives readers a similar approach to the amateur gumshoe/doctor duo with Lenox and his sidekick Dr McConnell who are a bit more down to earth an approachable than Holmes and Dr Watson.

The Sherlock Holmes series has gained a lot of popularity in the last couple of years with the modern Guy Ritchie rendition in 2009 and another upcoming installment (Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows) due out in Dec 2011. I know lots of people are picking up the classic series hoping to find the same type of Holmes character that they see portrayed by Hollywood. Lenox is a breath of fresh air for the typical Sherlock Holmes style mysteries. As I said before, we have a more approachable combo of detective/doctor in the Lenox series…..Lenox is rich, eccentric, witty, charming, and smart. Continue reading “Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch” →

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Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch

by The Lit Bitch9 Comments on Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch

In between books I picked up the first book in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I read this book as part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry.

The HF Reading Challenge required one thing….the book must by set in a historic setting so that means any genre (mystery, sci-fi, YA, fantasy….anything.

I don’t really know too much about the series but the books sounded like they would be right up my alley. I saw the series listed on Goodreads and they had favorable reviews from readers. The are more or less a remake of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and since I have read many of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries I thought these would be a modern twist on an old classic.

The series follows protagonist Charles Lenox who is a wealthy gentleman who resides in the posh/exclusive London address of Mayfair. He is what most readers refer to as the ‘armchair explorer/detective’. Because he is independently wealthy he has lots of time on his hands…and he has a very analytical mind and pays attention to details. He has a great ability to deduce little things which no one else seems to make heads or tails of (like Holmes in that way at least). Continue reading “Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch” →

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Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

by The Lit Bitch5 Comments on Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I have just finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which actually went pretty fast compared to the four novels I read earlier. This collection of short stories was a fun fast read which satisfied my need to read but I did not feel committed to an entire long novel however after the first five short stories I found myself wondering if I was simply re-reading the same story over and over again?

Every short story seemed to follow the same pattern, a client came to see Holmes, he enlisted Watson’s help, Holmes found some small detail in the client’s story that no one else could and made it look easy and eventually he solved the case.

Holmes does have his moments of humor but overall his character seems a little underdeveloped for me. Perhaps when I finish the entire book series he will develop more but really he seems flat.

The one question I kept coming back to throughout this collection was it’s lack of unoriginality. I am sure for most Victorian era readers this was considered very very very fantastic writing and very visionary so I tried to keep that in mind as I read….for the period it was SHOCKINGLY good and different. So I suppose one must not look too far into the essence of the characters and plot line as it much of it is period related but it does get old after a while….I suppose that is why these were published in magazines etc.

Watson starts almost every story with some sort of preface like ‘blah blah blah of all the cases Holmes and I worked together none amazes me more than blah blah blah (I’m paraphrasing horribly here)’ and then he launches into the case. Watson must not get out much or else he has a very bad memory because to him EVERYTHING is amazing!

This leads me to the one question not answered by the books yet…..why DOES Watson start documenting their adventures in the first place? Continue reading “Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” →

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Review: The Valley of Fear (A Sherlock Holmes Novel) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

by The Lit Bitch5 Comments on Review: The Valley of Fear (A Sherlock Holmes Novel) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

As most of you know, I am finishing up the last of the four novels of Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Hound of Baskervilles being the first three) titled The Valley of Fear.

The first three novels were a little hit and miss for me. All of the first three novels that I read were a little on the long-ish and boring side, except for the various forensic science methods/techniques and the short lived love story between Mary and Dr. Watson. So I was totally hoping The Valley of Fear (VOF) was going to be more promising, sadly I was a little on the disappointed side.

I started noticing a formula/pattern to Doyle’s writing pretty early on as most of the stories begin with a little background on Holmes’ “deduction” methods and a set up from the client via Dr. Watson’s narrative. Holmes often does not disclose his theories until late in the story while the audience (like Watson) is forced to try and make heads or tails of the facts. While some find the predictable plot boring, there is some comfort in knowing what to expect.

Obviously the series came out at a time when science, psychology, and industrial advancement were at a pinnacle. Holmes must have been a wildly popular character as he is colorful and interesting…..plus people just naturally have a morbid curiosity about murder and crime….admit it, you know you watch The First 48, Forensic Files, and Cold Case just as much as the next person!

So as I read VOF, I began wondering why the same formula over and over again….I came up with a couple of different possibilities. Like Holmes I have deduced this from the novels: the crime and criminal have not changed; only the style and the way the story is told.

Like A Study in Scarlet, VOF contains a fairly long narrative and background on the murderer. Clearly the focus of the novel is criminal psychology or the proverbial “why” of the crime. Science can easily explain the “how” of the crime but not necessarily the why. The why of a crime/murder is often incomprehensible to a normal person however, society demands an answer, a reason, a why.

Holmes as a character speaks for Victorian society and is clearly a product of that environment. Victorian society is focused on logic, science, and discouraged fantastical ideas. For example, in the Hounds of Baskervilles, the mysterious dog on the moors had to be explained away by logic, it could never be a ghost or phantom…..always a logical explanation. Continue reading “Review: The Valley of Fear (A Sherlock Holmes Novel) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” →