"The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is Buzzingly Good...

I admit it - I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan.  I love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels and short stories, the British television series - Sherlock, the American television series - Elementary, and all the movies, especially the old Basil Rathbone and the new Robert Downey, Jr. movies. For well over 125 years, Sherlock Holmes has been battling foes with wit and intelligence and entertaining the masses. At the suggestion of a friend, I picked up The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994) by American mystery writer Laurie R. King and found a delightful new Holmes story.

Synopsis: "Long retired, Sherlock Holmes quietly pursues his study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. He never imagines he would encounter anyone whose intellect matched his own, much less an audacious teenage girl with a penchant for detection. Miss Mary Russell becomes Holmes' pupil and quickly hones her talent for deduction, disguises and danger. But when an elusive villain enters the picture, their partnership is put to a real test." (Goodreads.com)

Review: What would happen if you teamed an older, semi-retired Sherlock Holmes with a brilliant, brassy, modern young woman? The Beekeeper's Apprentice! This novel, being the first of the Holmes/Russell novels (there are 12 books in the series as of this posting), establishes the world of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes which I assume is further developed in later novels. That being said, thus far I have fallen in love with King's Holmes as much as I love Doyle's. Mary Russell, the narrator and "author" of the novel, depicts Holmes in a very different way than Watson does in the Doyle books. Why? Because she sees him differently. Mentally, she is his equal. She is an audacious, modern woman, while Watson, a strict Victorian gentlemen, almost puts Holmes on a pedestal. It is unsurprising that their views on Holmes would be different. 

The narration is exquisitely charming and you can sense from how it is written that Mary Russell is a scholar, not a novelist. But Russell is much more than just another Holmes biographer. Dialogue between Holmes and Russell is edgy and intelligent, and the chemistry between the two is phenomenal. Holmes's character remains full and intact, and we see sides of him Watson never was able to explore. Character traits that were two-dimensional in Doyle's books are brought into three dimensions in King's, and we see precisely how human and real this genius of a man is. The entire novel contains such a reality and charm that one can swear that the characters actually existed. The only thing that I found to be strange was a trip to Jerusalem in the middle of the book, which seems to serve no purpose. Although I believe the Jerusalem trip is further covered in a future book, so it is perhaps that it acts as a mere introduction to a longer story.

Even grizzled Baker Street Irregulars will enjoy this book. It's sure to charm even the hardest Holmes purist, and give others a glimpse into the humanity of Holmes, whereas the Doyle books were mainly about the adventure and the mystery. It's a brilliant start to what I hope will be an even better series, and I recommend this first book in the series to those both familiar and unfamiliar with Sherlock Holmes. Although is there anyone really unfamiliar with Holmes? I am eagerly anticipating reading the next novel in the series.

Rating: 5 out 5 stars

Here are some of my favorite moments from Sherlock: