Berthe Morisot (Wikimedia Commons)
Haven’t you always loved summer reading?
Especially when you were a kid with an entire summer to fill with good books, movies, games and outdoor play–maybe even swimming?
But it was always time to lay around reading that captured my heart each June when school let out.
I could only check out ten books at a time, and I hounded my mother for visits to the library, but it was a glorious orgy of words, ideas, characters and location.
The thrill never ended–particularly if I found an entire new series to read!
Last Summer Reading: Elisabeth Ogilvie
Last summer I reread the extensive Maine lobstermen and women stories of Elisabeth Ogilvie.
I’d read the whole group several times since I first stumbled on them in Kitsap County, Washington 25 years ago.
Even then, I marveled at Ogilvie’s wisdom and the rich life you could make on a small lonely island in the middle of Penobscot Bay!
Indeed, one summer we went to Maine just so I could ride a ship in that bay and feel the wind blowing my hair back from my face.
We gorged on lobster, too.
This Summer Reading: Laurie R. King
This summer–indeed, halfway through this summer–I chanced on a book by Laurie R. King called Dreaming Spies.
Copies currently at my house!
I picked it up at the library because of the cover alone (I know, I know).
A woman wearing a cloche hat staring over Oxford‘s spires.
Since I was writing a chapter that very day set in 1924 Oxford, I picked up the book and read it looking for additional background for my book.
That didn’t happen.
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes might have started in 1923 Oxford, but the book quickly moved back in time and before I knew it, they were sailing on a steamer from India to Japan a few years before.
Who cared? The story engrossed and I forgot all about Oxford until the final chapter!
Glory! It’s a series!
I didn’t know I’d picked up book that was #16 of a so-far 19-book series that continues!
The summer-what was left of it–stretched gloriously in front of me full of thick, rich, reading!
I’ve read seven now, with a new one in hand, another I picked up from a friend and two more coming from the library.
Who needs any more research? (I finished writing the biography, Mrs. Oswald Chambers since I started reading King’s books).
And so it begins
The premise of the books starts in the first one, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, when 15 year-old Mary Russell, dressed in boy’s clothing, stumbles on a beekeeper in 1915 Sussex.
It’s Sherlock Holmes, who is equally surprised to discover a young woman as clever at detecting as he is–or at least she shows promise.
A brilliant orphan who will come into money at adulthood, she lives several miles away on an inherited farm.
He takes her under his wing, as does Mrs. Hudson and the kindly Dr. Watson soon referred to us Uncle John.
The detecting begins just as she matriculates to Oxford at 19.
Rollicking, clever, intricate and good fun ensues.
With mystery, weapons and twists to keep everyone interested!
Sherlock Holmes Ignorance
As it happens, I’ve never read Arthur Conan Doyle‘s stories about Sherlock Holmes, nor have I watched the recent television series.
I’m ignorant of Sherlock Holmes knowledge to compare with these books.
But King introduces enough sly and joking references to the books, I can enjoy the tour de force.
I’m the best example, elementary really, of a happy reader enjoying the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes books by Laurie R. King.
I’ve got enough books ahead of me to extend summer reading well into the fall.
Tweetables
Summer reading: Sherlock and Mary Russell? Elementary! Click to Tweet
The joy of finding a book series to enjoy all summer (and fall). Click to Tweet
You’re never too old for great summer reading. Thanks Laurie R. King! Click to Tweet
I don’t like it when I read a book in a series out of order. I have been known to stop reading that book, go back and start at the beginning. This has cost me a fair amount of money, but led to some great reading.
There is only one book in my past that I never finished reading.
Both my husband and I love the Sherlock Holmes books. This series sounds fun!
The trick with this series is subsequent books went back and were fit into the chronologically appropriate place–King did not start with the first book and write the rest of the series in order. So, I’ve been bouncing around since everything pretty much seems to have taken place during a ten year time period (if even that much). Mr. and Mrs. Holmes were VERY busy!