Pirate King

July 4, 2011
In a foreword, King, to her credit, acknowledges the implausibility of her 11th Mary Russell novel (after The God of the Hive) by having her heroine declare, "I fear that the credulity of many readers will be stretched to the breaking point by the case's intricate and, shall we say, colourful complexity of events." If anything, this is an understatement. In the fall of 1924, Sherlock Holmes, Mary's husband, uses the threat of an impending visit from his brother, Mycroft, with whom she's at odds, to persuade Mary to travel to Lisbon, where she's ostensibly to serve as a production assistant for "a film about a film about The Pirates of Penzance." In fact, she's on covert assignment for the British government to investigate the studio behind the new film, whose releases appear to coincide with an upsurge in criminal activity. Sherlockians must wait more than half the book for Holmes to put in a cameo in this action-heavy, deduction-light installment.

April 1, 2011

Sherlock Holmes joins wife Mary Russell as she watches over the young actresses cast in Fflytte Films's latest extravaganza, The Pirates of Penzance, being made on location in Lisbon and Morocco. Suddenly, the prop knives turn real and so do the pirates. The latest in a fun, durable series with two million copies in print, no less. Don't miss.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2011
Brilliant and beautifully complex, the chronicles of Mary Russell are told in the voice of their subject, the much younger, highly educated, half-American Jewish wife of Sherlock Holmes. This one's tangled web includes some very high comedy from Gilbert and Sullivan, pirates, and early moviemaking. Russell finds herself, possibly at the behest of Mycroft Holmes, working for Fflyte Films and on a Mediterranean voyage (in a brigantine!). Her assignment: shepherding a bevy of blonde actresses, their mothers, young British constables, and a handful of men whose dark eyes and darker scars may reflect an unsavory history. Mr. Fflyte, we learn, is making a film version of The Pirates of Penzance and wants real pirates, a real ship, and real locales. King rings merry changes on identity, filmmaking, metafiction, and the tendency of each and all to underestimate blondes. Her descriptions of locale are voluptuous, and her continued delineation of the relationship of Russell and Holmes exquisitely portrays the eroticism of intellectual give-and-take. Quotations from Gilbert and Sullivan and the language of sailing ships (take that, Patrick O'Brian!) add to the general, luscious hilarity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)