The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes [Hardcover]

Laurie R. King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

In Laurie R. King’s latest Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mystery, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller of ingenious surprises and unrelenting suspense—as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice.
 
It began as a problem in one of Holmes’ beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended—or so they’d hoped—with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those they’ve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.

Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. With Holmes’ young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn’t know she had. But has the couple already made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them?
 
From hidden rooms in London shops and rustic forest cabins to rickety planes over Scotland and boats on the frozen North Sea, Russell and Holmes work their way back to each other while uncovering answers to a mystery that will take both of them to solve. A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, and an Intelligence agent who knows too much: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies—in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.
 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Laurie R. King on The God of the Hive

Basically, I have a low threshold for boredom. For a series writer this can be a dangerous thing, since any series is to some extent the same people doing things similar to what they did before. Over the years, I’ve gotten around this by alternating one series with another, and tossing in the occasional standalone.

But sometimes, I find myself writing the same characters that I did the previous year. Which is fine, I like my characters, and I can always find something for them to do. Even so, there is a faint air of threat in a second year with the same people, rather like having good friends to stay on an island retreat and having a really great time and wishing they could stay longer until the morning comes when they’re scheduled to take off and the bridge is out, and your boat sinks, and a storm comes up and pretty soon they’ve been there for a month and you begin to grumble and snap and wonder what the devil you ever saw in these parasites, and you eye the hatchet and the rat poison and...

Because I know that I have a low threshold for the same faces, whenever I have characters who look as if they’re going to stay on longer than I’d originally intended, I arrange things so that we don’t have a chance to get bored with each other. Little projects and changes of scenery help: plop the characters on a boat and send them to India, say, followed by something entirely different like San Francisco. And make the first one a spy thriller, and the second one more psychological suspense: hence The Game and Locked Rooms. Bring in a historical detective writer--Dashiell Hammett--and voila! No chance to wear on one another’s nerves!

Similarly, the team of players who come back from San Francisco onto ground that’s been worked before--how many times can one write an English Country House Mystery?--needs to have something unexpected thrown at them, and at the faithful reader. You think you know the characters? Well, how about a long-lost son for Sherlock Holmes--and if that’s not enough, maybe give him a granddaughter as well? Then for the following year, take the ingredients of The Language of Bees and change it from first person to multiple points of view, toss with a dash of modern espionage and a sprinkling of ancient British mythology, and pour them all out onto Westminster Bridge in the wee hours, and you have The God of the Hive.

And next year, when the third Russell & Holmes in a row comes out? I plan on--but no, let’s let that be a surprise. Let us just say, what they will do is sufficiently different from The God of the Hive that it will save them from the dangers of an author’s vengeful imagination: last time a writer got tired of Sherlock Holmes, it led to a dive off a high waterfall.

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From Publishers Weekly

Those who enjoyed the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. may appreciate bestseller King's heavy-on-action, light-on-deduction 10th novel featuring Mary Russell and her much older husband, Conan Doyle's iconic detective. The plot picks up in the summer of 1924 right after the previous entry in the series, The Language of Bees. A religious fanatic, Rev. Thomas Brothers, who seeks to unleash psychic energies through human sacrifice, has shot Holmes's artist son, Damian Adler, seriously wounding the young man. Holmes's desperate quest for medical help to save his son's life takes him to Holland, while Mary travels throughout Britain in an effort to keep Damian's half-Chinese daughter, Estelle, safe from Brothers and his allies. Cliffhanging situations abound as both leads benefit from the convenient appearance of extremely helpful strangers. (May)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553805541
• ISBN-13: 978-0553805543
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #284,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling crime writer Laurie R. King writes both series and standalone novels.

In the Mary Russell series (first entry: The Beekeeper's Apprentice), fifteen-year-old Russell meets Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs in 1915, becoming his apprentice, then his partner. The series follows their amiably contentious partnership into the 1920s as they challenge each other to ever greater feats of detection.

The Kate Martinelli series, starting with A Grave Talent, concerns a San Francisco homicide inspector, her SFPD partner, and her life partner. In the course of the series, Kate encounters a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, a manifestation of the goddess Kali and an eighty-year-old manuscript concerning'Sherlock Holmes.

King also has written stand-alone novels--the historical thriller Touchstone, A Darker Place, two loosely linked novels'Folly and Keeping Watch--and a science fiction novel, Califia's Daughters, under the pseudonym Leigh Richards.

King grew up reading her way through libraries like a termite through balsa before going on to become a mother, builder, world traveler, and theologian.

She has now settled into a genteel life of crime, back in her native northern California. She has a secondary residence in cyberspace, where she enjoys meeting readers in her Virtual Book Club and on her blog.

King has won the Edgar and Creasey awards (for A Grave Talent), the Nero (for A Monstrous Regiment of Women) and the MacCavity (for Folly); her nominations include the Agatha, the Orange, the Barry, and two more Edgars. She was also given an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Check out King's website, http://laurierking.com/, and follow the links to her blog and Virtual Book Club, featuring monthly discussions of her work, with regular visits from the author herself. And for regular LRK updates, follow the link to sign up for her email newsletter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully told tale of myth, mystery and suspense, February 24, 2010

By 

Sheila L. Beaumont (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

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This is a most satisfying conclusion to the story begun in "The Language of Bees." Ms. King masterfully refreshes the reader's memory of the dark events in that novel as she traces the separate, circuitous journeys of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell back to London, and we also find out what Mycroft and assorted villains are up to. It's hard to say much about the events in this book without giving too much away, but there's plenty of suspense, mystery, action and adventure, and the quality of the prose and the vivid portrayal of the characters are up to the author's usual high standards.

The highlight of this book for me was an odd, delightful new character, a man who comes to the rescue of Russell, her pilot, and Holmes' young granddaughter, Estelle, after their plane crash-lands in the forest. He introduces himself as Robert Goodman, and Russell can't help thinking of him as Robin Goodfellow, or "The Green Man," which was the author's original working title for this book. Ms. King is also reviving her theme of the holy fool, which she used so effectively earlier in her Kate Martinelli mystery "To Play the Fool." As exciting and well-plotted as the thrilling story of Mycroft, Holmes and Russell vs. the villains is, I saw this book primarily as a powerful mythic tale, with the fey Robert Goodman at the center of it. It's certainly one of the very best books in the series.

Be sure to read "The Language of Bees" before you start this one. And if you haven't read the earlier installments in the Russell-Holmes series, start with "The Beekeeper's Apprentice." It's a great series for anyone who enjoys well-written mystery and suspense with intelligent, likable characters, and it's a must-read for Sherlock Holmes aficionados.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Escape, February 24, 2010

By 

Karie Hoskins "karieh" (Everett, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

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I so didn't want to finish reading this book. I can't explain exactly what it is about Laurie King's books...but even though I dropped out of reading the "mystery/thriller" genre a LONG time ago - I love her books. They have all the wonderful escapism and none of the cheesiness that ruins most "whodunits" for me.

To sink back into the world of Sherlock Holmes...of bolt holes, Irregulars, disguises and detecting far before the world of DNA & CSI...is a delight. And with Mary Russell as our guide - the experience is all the more delightful. She has all of the intelligence, common sense and perception of Holmes - with the very needed addition of compassion and a sharp wit.

"The business end of a gun is remarkably distracting. It dominates the world."

"The God of the Hive" brings the reader into the world of Holmes's brother Mycroft, usually a background character. The reader is also introduced to newly revealed family members for Holmes and a fascinating character Russell encounters under desperate circumstances.

"He stood, torn between the choices I had given him. It might be nothing. A charabanc of travelers benighted and looking for help. A band of Wordsworth fanatics looking for a host of golden daffodils by moonlight. Even some of Mycroft's men coming to our assistance - the last made for a lovely thought. But until I knew for certain, we had to treat this as an invasion, and I hated the thought that this damaged man's generosity of spirit had brought an abrupt loss of his hard-won peace."

Although the story is at the forefront almost all of the time...there seems to be a thread of social commentary running through the events that was not unwelcome.

"Were five armed men another symptom of unrest? Or was this simply what modern life would be, a place where a homicidal charlatan is embraced as wise, where children can be shot out of the sky, where a Good Samaritan can be driven from his home by armed intruders?"

This takes place in 1924...but during a time of great social change when a great schism existed between those eager for a brighter future and those who wanted to maintain their death grip on the past.

As described by Mycroft, "...as you no doubt heard even in foreign parts, there was consternation and loud doom-saying on all sides: The Socialists were expected to bring the end of the monarchy, the establishment of rubles as the coin of the realm, a destruction of marriage and family, and dangerously intimate political and economic ties with the Bolsheviks. Eight months later, the worst of the country's fears have yet to be realized, and MacDonald has surprised everyone by being less of a firebrand than the village greengrocer."

Again, the story is the thing in "The God of the Hives" - and it is a wonderful one. I enjoyed this book immensely and my only regret is that I finished it too quickly and now must wait again for another wonderful story of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "We had little more than twelve hours to assemble a foolproof plan to save a life, and an empire.", February 24, 2010

By 

K. M. "literary devotee" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

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The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes takes up exactly where Laurie R. King's last Russell/Holmes novel, The Language of Bees (Mary Russell Novels), left off. On the run from the law, Sherlock Holmes, with a wounded young man, takes off in one direction, and over open water, while Mary Russell climbs hills on a different heading, fearing she is being followed by the same madman they had all just confronted. Mary is not alone as she tries to get back to the small airplane that brought her to the Orkney islands; she is carrying three-and-a-half-year-old Estelle. Holmes, after snatching up a doctor to treat Damian, his charge and more to him than just that, decides to hole up in Amsterdam. Mary, meanwhile, aims to get back to London, but she, Estelle, and the plane's pilot are forced to take a detour, setting them on a collision course (pun intended) with a nearly elfin hermit/"fool" who goes by the moniker Robert Goodman.

For much of THE GOD OF THE HIVE, Holmes and Russell are separated and communicate very sparingly. All the while, Mycroft Holmes is also being threatened. He's kidnapped by a shadowy person who apparently is the superior of the maniac from whom Damian and Estelle had been rescued. This new villain is, like Mycroft, part of British intelligence. Unlike Mycroft, he considers his version of national security as rationale for blackmail and murder. And that leads to what Mary mournfully decides is a world that's "a less secure, less blessedly interesting place" and "an age of the death of gods."

Ultimately, after much chasing around and playing hide and seek, most of the leading characters converge for a dramatic, tense showdown.

King writes assured, fast-paced chapters that contain some easily-guessed plot points but as many or more twists. Some brief observations:

-- Although Holmes and Russell togetherness -- with their unsentimental couples communication featuring tartness, perceptiveness, and delightful, quick wit -- is more enjoyable reading, I was not bored following their individual adventures.

-- Having so much of Mycroft made me miss Dr. Watson less.

-- The thinly-drawn antagonist could have received more attention.

-- And as for Goodman, he reminded me somewhat of Erasmus, an earlier title character of King's from the Kate Martinelli police mystery, To Play the Fool.

And who precisely is the title character of THE GOD OF THE HIVE? Ah. Burn through this latest visit with Mary Russell and her more famous husband, Sherlock Holmes, and find out! 4.5 stars.