*** The Moor, Laurie R King, 1998
It's a return to Dartmoor for Holmes as the specter of the dreaded hound emerges again from the moor. One thing that attracts me to King's Mary Russell series, beyond the primary element of excellent writing, is the tie-in to elements from the canon, such as Baskerville Hall in this case. I also greatly enjoy references to or use of contemporaneous fictional and historical characters.
In The Moor, a historical figure, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, plays a major role. He is of interest to Holmes fans because he is the grandfather of William Stuart Baring-Gould, the author of what was probably the first attempt to create a full biography of Holmes, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A life of the world's first consulting detective.
This book was not as action and thrill packed as some of the earlier Mary Russell books, but it made me want to see Dartmoor, which has never happened in any of the other books I've read or movies I've seen with that setting, so that is saying something.
I'm still digging the series. You should check it out.
4 comments:
I wrote Laurie R King a fan letter (email) once and she wrote me back. She is kind of a regular person like you.
That may be the first time I've been accused of being a regular person.
Mary Russell has been responding to my tweets about the novels. Interesting and amusing.
http://twitter.com/bradwhitt
Doh moment....did you know Sabine Baring-Gould was a real person? He wrote lots of stuff. (One of his grandsons was quite the Sherlockian.)
I just read "Now the Days is Over" - a children's book based on a hymn Baring-Gould wrote. Illustrations a bit Sendak for me...but I like the hymn.
Yeah, I mentioned his historicity in the review. (Another doh moment?)
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