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The moor
King, Laurie R.
Adult Fiction KING
From Publishers' Weekly:
On Dartmoor, a man lies dead beside "the footprints of a very large dog." Sound familiar? Yes, Sherlock Holmes is tracking the Hound of the Baskervilles again, some 20 years later with his wife, Mary Russell, whom King has so ably placed beside Holmes in such novels as A Letter of Mary and The Beekeeper's Apprentice. As a narrator, Russell is both more analytical and humorous than Watson. Still, the moor's eerie gloom pervades this sharp yet respectfully nostalgic update of Conan Doyle's classic novella. The elderly, eccentric Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould asks his friend Holmes to investigate the murder, as well as sightings of a ghostly carriage drawn by headless horses accompanied by a gigantic hound. In the constant fog and bone-chilling rain, Holmes and Russell tramp the muddy moors interviewing delightful characters. The new owner of Baskerville Hall, a mysterious, wealthy American, is the obvious villain, although it takes all the detectives' skills to determine his motives. This effort is slightly hobbled by the slow coalescence of its subplots. But King, always a fluent writer, is a wonder at combining the original "Hound" tale with a real person (Baring-Gould) and modern themes (land fraud) into a new, captivating story. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In this fourth Mary Russell novel, read by Jenny Sterlin, King takes us back to Dartmoor, scene of The Hound of the Baskervilles, again on the trail of a spectral hound. Sherlockians have been amused or horrified by King's misappropriation of Holmes. Holmes, who had stated that love is "an emotional thing...opposed to true cold reason" and "I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment," is in the King books married to an American half his age. Not satisfied with changing Holmes's misogynistic nature, King also robs him of his trusty biographer, Dr. Watson. Pastiche, in its truest sense, tries to resemble the style of the original work. Libraries wanting Sherlock Holmes mysteries would do better with any of the BBC series (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/97). Not recommended.ÄTheresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
King, Laurie R.
Adult Fiction KING
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From Publishers' Weekly:
On Dartmoor, a man lies dead beside "the footprints of a very large dog." Sound familiar? Yes, Sherlock Holmes is tracking the Hound of the Baskervilles again, some 20 years later with his wife, Mary Russell, whom King has so ably placed beside Holmes in such novels as A Letter of Mary and The Beekeeper's Apprentice. As a narrator, Russell is both more analytical and humorous than Watson. Still, the moor's eerie gloom pervades this sharp yet respectfully nostalgic update of Conan Doyle's classic novella. The elderly, eccentric Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould asks his friend Holmes to investigate the murder, as well as sightings of a ghostly carriage drawn by headless horses accompanied by a gigantic hound. In the constant fog and bone-chilling rain, Holmes and Russell tramp the muddy moors interviewing delightful characters. The new owner of Baskerville Hall, a mysterious, wealthy American, is the obvious villain, although it takes all the detectives' skills to determine his motives. This effort is slightly hobbled by the slow coalescence of its subplots. But King, always a fluent writer, is a wonder at combining the original "Hound" tale with a real person (Baring-Gould) and modern themes (land fraud) into a new, captivating story. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In this fourth Mary Russell novel, read by Jenny Sterlin, King takes us back to Dartmoor, scene of The Hound of the Baskervilles, again on the trail of a spectral hound. Sherlockians have been amused or horrified by King's misappropriation of Holmes. Holmes, who had stated that love is "an emotional thing...opposed to true cold reason" and "I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment," is in the King books married to an American half his age. Not satisfied with changing Holmes's misogynistic nature, King also robs him of his trusty biographer, Dr. Watson. Pastiche, in its truest sense, tries to resemble the style of the original work. Libraries wanting Sherlock Holmes mysteries would do better with any of the BBC series (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/97). Not recommended.ÄTheresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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