Enough is Enough

[callmemadam]

Right Ladies, that is IT. I’m not reading another detective story by a woman author, set after the First World War with a heroine either involved in it or suffering for it afterwards. Better you should all take a lesson from Kate Atkinson and write believable, gritty mysteries with attractive characters, set in the modern world. It’s much harder to do than carry out ‘research’ which seems to consist of reading Testament of Youth, a very subjective and unreliable source, IMO. In fact, could you all just shut up about the First World War (mud, blood, Tommies, blood, mud ad infinitum) and put your Dandies, Maisies, Daisies and Marys in a box forever?

What has brought on this rant? Being bored to screaming point by The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R King. I was right when I said you had to read the first book to make sense of the rest of the series but I’ve given up on it. Listening to Holmes, Mary says she’d forgotten she wasn’t interested in bees. You and me both, ducks; I never want to read anything about bee keeping ever again. In case you’ve never heard of these books the premise is that young Mary Russell, a girl of extraordinary intellectual powers, meets the retired Sherlock Holmes. He recognizes a kindred spirit and trains her up to be his associate. The problem is that Mary is intolerably intellectually arrogant and above all (it’s first person narrative) so damn solemn about everything. Completely humourless. Worse, because the books are ‘Mary’s truthful version’ of Sherlock Holmes, the series is really a critique of Conan Doyle; one which is greatly in King’s favour and suggests she is the better writer. I will just say that I have never found a Sherlock Holmes story dull.

Comments

Instant remedy

[lethe1]

If you haven't started your re-reading of the Jackson Brodie books yet, now might be a very good time.

[gwendraith.livejournal.com]

Gosh you seem to read a lot of books. How do you get the time? I always have a book on the go but it takes me weeks to get through one usually (unless it's a really unputtable down one) on account I usually only read in bed before going to sleep :)

Re: Instant remedy

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Good thinking!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I don't read a lot compared with some people and I don't read particularly fast. I just read whenever I sit down!

[(Anonymous)]

I read this and didn't take to it; besides, I've never seen Holmes as the marrying kind.

If you've gone off WWI sleuthesses, you could always try a feisty Victorian with a distinctly shady background!
(I've now developed a stock answer for the dreaded question:'And what do you do?' I say:'I kill people for a living.' Works a treat, specially when - as usually - it's asked by a bored older man who thinks he's stuck with a demented biddy at a party/wedding/funeral.)

Nicky
www.nicolaslade.com

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I am definitely going to read your books!

[ramblingfancy.livejournal.com]

Couldn't help but laugh Barbara! Where's a new Hazel Holt when you want one? I didn't like the Beekeeper's Apprentice either. What I'm looking forward to is the new tv Sherlock second series!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid my comments were rather intemperate :-)Also unfair to Daisy Dalrymple, whom I rather like.

Yes, more Hazel Holt, please and Sherlock as soon as possible.

Bored by bees

[(Anonymous)]

Beekeeper's Apprentice bored me as much as The Apprentice on TV! But Maisie Dobbs is a great character, so please don't give up on her. But you've forgotten the new series by Charles Todd (the American mother & son writing duo who have the pseudonym of Charles Todd) featuring WW1 nurse, Bess Crawford. I enjoyed them but they're not quite up to Jacqueline Winsprear's Maisie Dobbs series.
I would mention that if you like historical whodunits, you might like to try another American, Charles Finch, whose crime series are set mainly in Victorian London. His sleuth is Charles Lenox (strange how the writer has used his own name?) a Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer who enjoys relaxing with a cup of tea, and (according to tbe blurb on the back of the first in the series) "a roaring fire, and a good book." The first in this series is called A Beautiful Blue Death. There are now four in the series. Good stories but with the occasional transatlantic lapse in English (but we've come to expect that from American writers who are, after all, writing mainly for their home market and it must therefore be assumed that the home market doesn't understand that an English gentleman wouldn't, for example, "shoot his cuffs" and walk along the sidewalk or take the railroad. But, as I say, quite entertaining stories.
Margaret P

[(Anonymous)]

I hear you! Daisy Goodwin recently made a comment about so many novels which seem to say 'Look how much research I've done' rather than writing a good story. Great post.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry - should have said last comment was from me, Nicola@vintagereads. Don't like to post anonymously but I can't get through your comments system otherwise!

Re: Bored by bees

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Glad I'm not alone! Never heard of Charles Finch, thanks for the recommendation.

My real complaint about the books I mentioned is that there's a big difference between writing about the First World War in the way that Pat Barker has done and just using it in a sloppy way to provide colour in what is essentially light fiction.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Well, hurrah for Daisy Goodwin! Just what I think (and I thought it about Birdsong, too). I'll repeat my reply to Margaret: there's a big difference between writing about the First World War in the way that Pat Barker has done and just using it in a sloppy way to provide colour in what is essentially light fiction.

I'm sorry LJ is a pain to comment on.