The Game

Starred review from January 26, 2004
The seventh Mary Russell adventure (after 2002's Justice Hall
) may well be the best King has yet devised for her strong-willed heroine. It's 1924, and Kimball O'Hara, the "Kim" of the famous Rudyard Kipling novel, has disappeared. Fearing some kind of geopolitical crisis in the making, Mycroft Holmes sends his brother and Mary to India to uncover what happened. En route, they encounter the insufferable Tom Goodheart—a wealthy young American who has embraced Communism—traveling with his mother and sister to visit his maharaja friend, Jumalpandra ("Jimmy"), an impossibly rich and charming ruler of the (fictional) Indian state of Khanpur. With some local intelligence supplied by Geoffrey Nesbit, an Englishman of the old school, and accompanied by Bindra, a resourceful orphan, the couple travel incognito as native magicians (Mary, it goes without saying, learns Hindi on the voyage out). Ultimately, their journey intersects with the paths of the Goodhearts and the mysterious Jimmy. At times, travelogue and cultural history trump plot, but the sights, smells and ideas of India make interesting, evocative reading (Mary's foray into the dangerous sport of pig-sticking is particularly fascinating). If for some Mary Russell is too perfect a character to be as enduringly compelling as Holmes, all readers will appreciate the grace and intelligence of King's writing in this exotic masala
of a book. (Mar. 2)

FYI:
King's latest stand-alone mystery is
Keeping Watch (Forecasts, Feb. 3, 2003).

November 1, 2003
Conan Doyle meets Kipling as Mary Russell and hubby Sherlock Holmes head to India, hunting for a spy who turns out to be the model for the orphan in Kim.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2004
Adult/High School-Once apprentice, now investigator, Mary Russell travels to India in 1925 with her former mentor, now husband, Sherlock Holmes. In this seventh adventure, the duo is searching for Kimball O'Hara, the Kim of Rudyard Kipling's eponymous novel. On a mission from Sherlock's brother Mycroft, long involved in British espionage, they are tasked with finding Kim or evidence of his status as victim or traitor. Sailing to India on a luxury liner, they meet an American family with a debutante daughter, a social-climbing mother, and a left-leaning son, who of course reappear at a strategic moment. Upon their arrival, Mary and Sherlock disguise themselves as native traveling magicians and seek out an anti-English and very sadistic maharaja, "Jimmy." With her usual thorough research, King imbues the mystery with lots of historical detail and a real sense of time and place. This is one of the best in the series and can easily be read on its own, though readers will then want to go back and see how the strange, but surprisingly plausible, meeting and union between a young Mary and a considerably older Holmes actually occurs. Likewise, a previous reading of Kim is unnecessary, but teens will likely be intrigued enough to go on to read that as well. A sure bet for mystery lovers and historical fiction fans.-Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2003
It's New Year's Day 1924, and Mary Russell knows that the summons to her brother-in-law Mycroft's home can bode naught but ill. So the brilliant, young half-American Jewish wife of Sherlock Holmes finds herself and her spouse on the way to India, and the person they search for there is none other than Kimball O'Hara--the grown-up British agent who was once the Kim of Rudyard Kipling. This intriguing premise allows King room to develop a series of voluptuous set pieces: about the learning of language, prestidigitation, and disguise; about shipboard mores among the upper classes; about the daily habits of a maharaja's many-splendored guests and how they are housed, fed, and entertained. All the while and underneath these musings develops a wondrously taut mystery, ticking away like a malevolent clock. The whole builds and explodes into a deadly finale: a hunt for wild boar and a daring rescue (of Holmes) with unlikely saviors in the persons of a beggar child and a languid, snarky American. King scored another critical triumph earlier this year with her stand-alone thriller " Keeping Watch "[BKL Ja 1&15 03], but devotees of the Russell series will be overjoyed at this return to familiar ground. Fabulous reading, breathless excitement, and the myriad pleasures of watching great minds at work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)