Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

So much has been said already about the plot, and the fact that its really just the end to the previous book that I won't say more here. My first point is that I agree with King's insight that a man like Mycroft Holmes, who has a shady job inside the government, may not turn out to be all ethics and morals. A man with such a job has to be extremely practical, and at times unethical. His "embezzlement" reminded me a great deal of the Iran-Contra affair in the U.S. Kudos to King for seeing that Mycroft would not just be this big and fuzzy, all knowing, wise teddy bear, as he is often portrayed by other authors.
Second point: I agree with other commentators that the villain in this story was weak and undeveloped. Actually, they both were (there really were two villains, one just killed the other). Reading other King books leads to the conclusion that she has a fascination with religious cults, which explained the direction of the first book in this two part series. However, this second book introduced an entirely new villain, and this book, though a completion of the last, went off in a completely different direction. I felt that this villain was just created and sketched in to provide some explanation for events King wanted to put Russell and Holmes through. The villains were not the only characters I felt were undeveloped. I agree with the critics who felt that Damian Adler was also woefully underdeveloped. I hope that will be remedied in later books.
Third point: The ending was very disappointing. I felt like she got to a point where she said, how can I wrap this up?, and she rushed to do so. I kept waiting for the moment when Holmes meets his granddaughter for the first time, but it never came. Holmes, suddenly thrust into the role of grandfather to this precocious 3 year old girl, would be a scene well worth writing and reading. Russell even hinted at it throughout the story. But then, nothing. Just some open packages and that's it. I even felt the scene on the bridge was awkward and undeveloped. So much seemed to be promised, and then it fell flat. I had the distinct impression her publisher called and said we need this tomorrow.
Finally, I have read criticism about Russell from readers who are not fans of the series. I find it ironic, though, that they keep reading the books. Although, perhaps I understand it. I, too, have found Russell grating. Part of Holmes' appeal was that, while he had some amazing qualities, he was also deeply flawed. We could appreciate Holmes' genius, but also feel that, in many ways, we functioned better than he did. He was human, in other words - a flawed, interesting man. Russell, grates, however, because she is always right, always smarter than everyone else, etc. King has tried to "humanize" her by making her poor at cooking, but that's a skill Russell clearly doesn't care about anyway. Being bad at cooking actually accentuates her superhuman feminist self. In this book, we do see her notice that she has missed some things Holmes has noticed, which helps to bring her down a notch, but not much. Since Russell is the primary narrator, she just comes across as a braggart. That's not a nice quality. Actually, I think, though, that it is consistent with her age and immaturiy. She thinks she's so mature, and mature enough for someone like Holmes. However, she reveals herself to be no more mature than other women her age. One can only think Holmes keeps her around to do his dirty work for him, since she is relatively intelligent and willing to do whatever he tells her to do. (Which also suggests she's not quite the independent spirit she thinks she is.)
All said, if you haven't read the books before, don't start here. Read the others, and if you like them, and they hold your attention, keep reading. All in all, King can weave a good tale. She has moments of genius, but then, I think, she just gets bored and tired, and rushes through.

With this book, I feel that the series has reached a turning point. Laurie R. King has grown as a writer, Mary Russell has grown as a character, and the books have become something bigger than they were before.

Don't get me wrong. I love the earlier books. The first three in particular are my absolute favorites. I was sorry when the books moved away from Russell's personal journey (while still having a great story to tell, of course), and rejoiced when they returned to that territory with Locked Rooms. I do regret that it really isn't consistent with Russell's character for all the following books to concentrate on this.

However, if this book is representative of where the books are going, I'm not going to notice that I'm missing anything.

The God of the Hive is much grander in scale then the earlier books, in spite of covering much less geography then some of its predecessors. I loved the exploration of Mycroft, both as an individual and as a part of the government. I hesitate to say that the focus of this book is political in nature, but I think that it is. It's the kind of politics involved in how the world works, how power flows, and how small actions can snowball into bigger consequences.

The book is still character driven, and I found Robert Goodman (the Green Man of the working title of the book) to be one of the most interesting I have read in the series (after Russell and Holmes, of course). The effect of the events that occurred in The Language of Bees as well as The God of the Hive on Russell and Holmes isn't neglected either.

I was concerned about the role the child Estelle would play, but she was handled well.

The book effectively wraps up the threads dangling at the end of The Language of Bees (and has a much more satisfying ending). I think much of my discomfort at The Language of Bees had to do with the nature of the transition of the series.

I strongly recommend this book to those that have been following the series. If you haven't, I'd suggest reading at least the previous book, The Language of Bees. Better yet, star with the first book of the series, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, and then decide if you want to continue to make your way through each book, or if you want to skip forward to these two most recent books.

Title The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
Author Laurie R. King
Rating ****1/2
Tags mystery, series, mary russell, sherlock holmes, mycroft holmes


Tenth in King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, it is also the continuation of the book before it, The Language of Bees. King is one of my favorite authors, and I make it sort of a game to see if this time she'll fall prey to some of the problems other writers have. In The Language of Bees, I was somewhat concerned that she might be creating a villain she liked too much and would keep writing about past the point of good writing. She doesn't fall into the trap. In The God of the Hive, that villain is slowly revealed as the tool of an even greater villain. The stakes are high... not only is Sherlock's son and granddaughter in great danger, but so is Mycroft, Sherlock's brother. And when Mycroft is in danger, so is the British Empire.

The plot is handled masterfully. The action never stops, in part because it splits, following Mary Russell as she takes care of Holmes' granddaughter as they flee from danger with the pilot she hired in The Language of Bees and Sherlock fleeing separately with his gravely-wounded son who is in danger from the police. In London, Mycroft has been interrogated by the police and seems to be in danger both physically and of losing his position.

Another winner from King. Recommend having both The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive together and reading them as one long volume.


Publication Bantam (2010), Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication date 2010
ISBN 0553805541 / 9780553805543

Recommended for fans of the series.

Laurie R. King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series is a great favorite. The greatest disappointment (and yet delight) on receiving a review copy of "The God of the Hive" was realizing that I had missed the release of the previous volume, The Language of Bees: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, which I later ordered. While this is a sequel to that earlier book, neither my wife nor I felt that we were not adequately brought up to speed in the first chapters and enjoyed God of the Hive just fine on its own. Still, we plan now on reading both books together in sequence.

The whole premise of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes books is both audacious and delightful. Because of their initial meeting in The Beekeeper's Apprentice: Or On the Segregation of the Queen/A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Mary Russell Novels), the development of their relationship, marriage and subsequent adventures, the series is best read in order. So, while I recommend this current volume to any fan of mysteries, I more strongly recommend that newcomers begin at the beginning.

For established fans, there is ample suspense and complexity in "God of the Hive" to warrant reading - particularly to see how the plot of the prior volume resolves itself. But the world created here is not at the deep level as some of the earlier books, nor does it have as strong of an historical flavor as the earlier ones. There are some surprising (and some not-so-surprising) twists and turns and, for me, a slightly disappointing ending.

My review copy had many dozens of typographical errors in it and several compositional errors that slipped past an editor. I do not know if the final publication copy will contain these things.

If you read my review of King's last book, The Language of Bees (Mary Russell Novels), you'll understand why I approached this book with some trepidation. But after some initial concern, I found that my fears were unjustified.

For those unfamiliar with King's Mary Russell series, know that she has married off inveterate bachelor Sherlock Holmes to a woman much younger than, but just as intelligent as, he. In her last, she also gave him a son by Irene Adler, as well as a daughter-in-law and granddaughter. So purists need not apply! And if you haven't read the last book, and don't want to know, read no further, because I have to give away some of that plot to discuss The God of the Hive. You have been warned!

When we last saw Holmes and Russell, they had rescued his granddaughter and his wounded son Damian, leaving for dead (or so they thought) the cult leader who had murdered Damian's wife as well as several other people. Circumstances had made Damian a suspect, and a warrant had issued for his arrest, as well as for the arrests of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, and Mary Russell.

The tale continues, told from several points of view. Holmes has taken his son off by boat, picking up a stray female physician along the way, and gone to ground in Holland. Mary and the child Estelle have found their pilot, and are flying off, but someone shoots at the plane, wounds the pilot, and they are forced to land in a forested area where they meet, and are assisted by, an odd man who goes by the name of Robert Goodman. In London, meanwhile, Mycroft has been kidnapped, and is being held prisoner by persons unknown for reasons unknown.

All roads, in this case, lead to London, as Holmes and Mary try to re-connect via the agony column of the Times, staying one jump ahead of the evildoers trying to find them, while Mycroft tries to figure out where he is and why. All sorts of complications arise. If the plot sounds rather intricate, that's because it is, and if I have any criticism at all, it's that the plot is a mite confusing at times (but that's the Intelligence Service for you!), and there are rather too many new characters introduced, some of whom, if you've read Dr. Watson's memoirs, you may have heard of before.

But King is a master of misdirection, and of story-telling. In Robert Goodman particularly, King has created a very intriguing character, the disaffected scion of a noble family and shell-shocked veteran ("that old responsibility dream" as Peter Wimsey once said). Indeed, I think my favorite parts of this book were those with Mary, Estelle and Robert, learning more about him, and watching his easy play with the child.

So I'm happy to say that, unlike with her last, I did find this one satisfying, and can say that King is back on track, and I am looking forward to more, particularly if the end presages what I hope it does.

The God of the Hive takes place immediately after the events of The Language of Bees. Though most of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes books can stand alone and even The Language of the Bees seemed to end with only a small potential problem, these two books are two halves of the same story. The ending of The Language of Bees has Holmes and his wounded companion trying to get to safety and medical care. Meanwhile, Russell is heading off with Estelle (a small child they'd rescued) looking to get back to London and safety.

What they don't know and won't find out as their paths diverge is that the events they've been tracking that caused warrants to be issued for their arrest are not just the result of a deluded preacher with a god complex. In fact, somehow Mycroft and the security of the government are also involved.

Russell and Holmes are unable to communicate with each other except through short ads in the Times, highly condensed and coded. The story takes place after the end of WWI and the world is changing rapidly. Holmes, separated from Russell, begins to question the wisdom of letting people get too close, of caring for someone so much that you lose your objectivity. Russell finds herself questioning her involvement in crime solving or espionage using her training in comparative religion to wonder about the morality of making decision for others when they essentially have no say or knowledge of what's being done in their name. Can the greater good be determined by one person, ten, a hundred? Having run into the religious zealotry of the previous book, many philosophical questions are raised.

As usual Holmes is spot on to what any Holmes reader would expect, but changed by time and circumstances. Russell is very much a woman of her times -- strong willed, resilient, intelligent, and quick witted in tense situations. In their journey to save their charges, and to meet up again, they run into some interesting characters. Russell meets a wonderful fool, in the sense of enthusiastic appreciating and wholehearted enjoyment of the now. The action is nearly constant with little respite and the narrative changes from Holmes' to Russell's points of view to move the story forward often leaving the reader with enough information to jump to the wrong conclusions or not...

Once again, we haven an excellent and engrossing tale of intrigue, cross-purposes, misdirection, and adventure.

While this is a rollicking tale of derring-do and high crimes, it's not a book written to Laurie R King's usual standard. Yes, there's non-stop action and I read it nearly at one sitting. And Russell is quite as Russell-esque as ever she was (_not_ motherly, as another reviewer claims), but there is so much action in so little space - less than 400 pages - that there's no time for reflection, for interiority. Philosophical conundrums - the heart and soul of the series - are raised and dismissed in bare half-dozen line bundles, dolled out in dribs and drabs, grudgingly it seems, and thus almost undergraduate in their superficiality.

Russell thinks. She reads and she thinks. Here she doesn't pick up a book for other than illustrative purposes from start to finish. Nor does she think much. She's too busy. Even when she and Holmes have time to debate, they merely exchange Socratic one-liners. In the earlier books these exchanges could go on for pages and were the hallmarks of the series as King gave us windows into two remarkable minds.

Here no one is remarkable. Robert Goodman is charming, charming with the charm of the lost boy - very like the male lead in Touchstone, King's most recent stand-alone. I adored that book, but I have a sense of its left-overs being tidied into the cracks and crevasses of this story.

This story. Ostensibly a continuation of the action in The Language of Bees, this narrative is all plot: and then this happened and then that happened and sometimes these things happened at the same time. There is no continuation of the controlling theme or the framing metaphors from The Language of Bees. Yes, the reader can reach for the distant connection of the empty hive and a blighted England, but the reader has to do all the work; the author seemingly can't be bothered. And there is no closure for the idea of the empty hive, just domestic peace with presents and (as another reviewer notes, no conclusion for Javits.)

The Wordsworth quotes are the best thing in the book -- and I obnox Wordsworth. As always, King is good with landscape, both rural and urban, and there's a fine stretch in Cumbria that I did enjoy. But the Robin Goodfellow/Green Man imagery never really works. Robin Goodfellow is anything but, while the Green Man is less regeneratively self-sacrificing than King suggests. Really, with all the to-ing and fro-ing in France she missed a great chance to make her point by having Goodman wander through Ameins, where there's is an inexplicable Green Man on the west facade of the cathedral. They could have carved something.

The Brits have a word that perfectly describes the whole Robert Goodman plot: twee. Not being a Brit, I would call it affected. Had King spared us more time and ink, she might have made the Green Man/God of the Hive/Goodfellow pastiche work. Maybe.

If King had played fair - or if her publisher had played fair, since I don't know who made the call - the two novels could have been one and I could be a much happier reader. I adore this series, but this book is the second bitter disappointment King has handed a faithful reader in the brief span of a year.