Locked Rooms

Starred review from April 25, 2005
In her last outing, The Game
(2004), Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, traveled to India on a case of geopolitical significance, but in the richly imagined eighth novel in this acclaimed series, set in San Francisco in 1922, Russell undertakes a far more personal investigation. Since she began her journey back to her hometown—ostensibly to deal with her father's estate—Russell has been tormented by strange dreams, one of which involves the "locked rooms" of the title, and the sight of her San Francisco childhood home opens a flood of memories and emotions, most of which she's loathe to allow into her über-rational mind. When someone takes a shot at her, Holmes enlists the help of Pinkerton agent Dashiell Hammett and Russell tries to unlock her past, in particular the "accident" that killed her family and left her an orphan in 1914. King's re-creation of San Francisco, especially the backstory during the devastating 1906 earthquake, is superb, and it's a pleasure to see the unusually competent Russell struggling with her own psyche. The plot may be a bit thin, but the narrative has real momentum, the characters are engaging and the prose, as always, is intelligent, evocative and graceful. Agent, Linda Allen.

February 15, 2006
Traveling back to England by way of her childhood home in San Francisco, Mary Russell (a.k.a. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes) is troubled by disturbing nightmares. Although she was the only survivor of the tragic motor-car accident that killed her father, mother, and younger brother, there is clearly something more than survivor's guilt on her mind. Gradually, as Mary explores the gaps in her memory, her husband realizes that someone is trying to kill her, and they both set out to identify the criminal. Set in a less exotic location than recent Russell/Holmes adventures, the book focuses on Mary's self-exploration rather than crime, politics, or mountaineering. Along the way, the two detectives collect an appealing set of assistants, including Dashiell Hammett, a Chinese scholar, and a modern set of street urchins. While the work lacks the charms of fictional, post-Victorian colonial England characteristic of the neo-Holmes canon, it is still a good mystery. King's writing style always transfers well to the audio format, and reader Jenny Sterlin is competent and easy to understand. Recommended for all public libraries." -I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA "

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