The Moor (Mary Russell Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

Laurie R. King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 1999 | Series: Mary Russell Novels

Though theirs is a marriage of true equals, when Sherlock Holmes summons his wife and partner Mary Russell to the eerie scene of his most celebrated case, she abandons her Oxford studies to aid his investigation. But this time, on Dartmoor, there is more to the matter than a phantom hound. Sightings of a spectral coach carrying a long-dead noblewoman over the moonlit moor have heralded a mysterious death, the corpse surrounded by oversize paw prints. Here on this wild and foreboding moor, Russell and Holmes embark on a quest with few clues save a fanatic anthropologist, an ancestral portrait, a moorland witch, and a lowly–but most revealing–hedgehog. As Holmes and Russell anticipate, a rational explanation lies beneath the supernatural events–but one darker than they could have imagined. And one that could end their lives in this harsh and desolate land.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Longtime fans of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, might think that their favorite sleuth met his fate at the hands of Dr. Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. Anyone who believes that, however, obviously hasn't read Laurie R. King's delightful series featuring Holmes and his wife(!), Mary Russell. In The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Holmes succumbs to the Oxford scholar's charms; now, in The Moor, fourth in the series, Holmes and Russell are summoned to Devonshire to solve a tin miner's mysterious death. Lonely Dartmoor provides plenty of opportunities for King to both relate the haunting legends of that part of the world and offer some amusing revisions to one of Holmes's most famous cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Though Holmes purists might resent the liberties taken with their hero, readers in search of a strong female protagonist, some fascinating local history, and spooky ambience will enjoy The Moor. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA?The Hound of the Baskervilles is back?or is it? Certainly Sherlock Holmes thought he had sorted the whole matter out some 30 years earlier, but now his lifelong friend, the curmudgeonly Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, calls Holmes to Dartmoor to sort out new sightings and solve an eerie murder. The detective in turn calls for his new wife, who arrives promptly at Baring-Gould's quasi-Elizabethan house, situated on the edge of the oppressive moor. As in the previous books, King chronicles the adventures of a strong young woman who is a wonderful match and foil for a very Conan Doyle-like Sherlock and creates a wonderful sense of time and place. In this case, it is Dartmoor in 1924. The moor becomes a looming presence and as much of a character as Baring-Gould, the local farmers and peasantry, and the new owners of Baskerville Hall. Familiarity with the original tale is not necessary, but those unacquainted with it before reading this book will surely want to go back to it. King has again successfully brought the famous sleuth into the 20th century and provided him with an assistant much more his match than poor Dr. Watson. The plot is thought-provoking, the solution satisfyingly Holmesian, and the whole adventure gratifying. This is definitely a worthy continuation of a hopefully longer series. It's not only an excellent mystery, but also a fine introduction to Holmes and a more-than-adequate survey of the time.?Susan H. Woodcock, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (January 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553579525
• ISBN-13: 978-0553579529
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Sherlock Holmes

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

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing Change - Sherlock with a Wife!, March 25, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (USA - WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moor (Mary Russell Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Gothic mysteries have always been among my favorites, so seeing the title, The Moor, immediately drew my attention. Then when I saw Sherlock Holmes had been teamed with a female partner, Mary Russell, I was hooked. This is a delightful book!

Interestingly, the author provides an editor's note in which it is claimed that the manuscripts have been found and were originally written by Ms. Russell. This is an added note that lends a curious, but nonetheless minor,twist, because as with any mystery involving Holmes, you soon get so tied up into the story that it matters little who is the author.

Later in Sherlock Holmes' life, we find that he has taken not only a new partner...but she has become his wife! Mary Russell, who prefers to go by that name, is an intellectual, an Oxford student of theology, and, once in a while, partner to the famous sleuth. What is interesting is that the story is oftentimes written from the point of view of Ms. Russell This change is almost transparent, yet lends a new and highly entertaining perspective to the traditional cases where Holmes is the leader in finding clues and solving the case. For King has "humanized" Sherlock in a gentle, loving way and allows him to call upon his wife for help in a way that shows both his love and respect. A truly delightful team!

The Moor takes us to Dartmoor, where Holmes once solved the case of the Hound of the Baskervilles, at the request of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Nearing his 90th year, in the early 1920's, the Reverend has summoned his godson, Sherlock, to find out what is happening on the moors. For there have been strange sightings of a coach and dog, claimed to be a woman who married a local lord who soon died. She "was never officially accused and tried, but for her sins she is said to be condemned to riding in a coach made of the bones of her dead husbands, driven by a headless horseman and led by a black hound with a single eye in the centre of his forehead." More importantly, a local man has been killed and found on the moors.

The book opens with Mary Russell receiving a telegram to come immediately to Devonshire...and bring her compass. Mary is not thrilled to be summoned and returns to her reading only to receive another telegram two hours later to bring maps, close her books...and leave now. This tug and pull of the two individuals in their own professional lives erupts throughout the book to show each person's independence, yet reliance on each other. An intriguing diversion from reviewing the clues, until both are so caught up in solving the mystery that, upon meeting after each doing their own research, they both proclaim the resolution of the case!

The exploration of the moors, its occupants, its hidden dangers are reminiscent of other stories set in Dartmoor, but still beckon and capture the reader to roam through the site, inspecting each stone, each change in the weather and what it may mean and how it can help solve the mystery. The characters brought forth are delightful and serve to introduce you to the community of those who become close by necessity as they must depend upon each other in this strange, wild land. Ms. Russell's love of reading takes her into the hundreds of books written by Reverend Baring-Gould, where she finds "pieces" of evidence that slowly pull together to help solve the case.

In the end, the activity behind the mystery is somewhat mundane... However, watching the Holmes couple, go their respective ways,to gain and add to the clues that leads to the final discovery, provides a new dimension for Sherlock Holmes' fans. If you're one...look for the entire series with Mary Russell as his wife!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most Satisfying Since "Beekeeper", April 20, 2001

By 

Erica "Erica" (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moor (Mary Russell Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

While "The Moor" is not up to "Beekeeper's Apprentice"'s promise, I still pity Ms. King. It's the crowning irony of her career that when an author writes a book this good, she will inevitably not please everyone. Fans of the Holmes-Russell detecting duo will cry foul over this mystery's lukewarm punch. Fans of the emotionally satisfying Holmes-Russell courtship and marriage will sift "The Moor" for bodice-ripping scenes--in vain. And fans of the Sherlock Holmes Canon will yell automatically, but we who love her books them anyway.

Still, it's one of her best, and for the same reasons all her Mary Russell books--even the weak ones--are good. Dartmoor unfolds before us as a kind of moral proving ground, a Presence. We are introduced to Sabine Baring-Gould in the winter of his prolific life, and to his house, which is another Presence--ramshackle, book-lined, with the smell of dinner wafting through to the dusty library. Ms. King knows what she likes, and delivers: innumerable fires in the grate, banked up against the storm outside, and chairs drawn up to the fire-irons, and the tea-things close to hand. She knows Holmes looks must fetching slumped in a fireside chair at 2 a.m., his fingers steepled as he ruminates a difficult case with Mary.

And she knows that what her fans really want is not merely a cold-blooded mystery nor an incongruous bodice-ripper, but for her characters to be true to the real adult people they so obviously are, and to love each other. Which they do, in spades. Holmes' unspoken devotion to Baring-Gould was nicely understated. And King's most romantic scene in the Beekeeper books occurs as Mary, in slightly over her head while sleuthing, paces the floor for Holmes' return. A deftly written moment, and one that makes me wonder how some readers could have so completely misunderstood what Laurie King was trying to say about the integrity of erotic love and emotional bonds.

Alas, "The Moor" was over too soon, and I was left immersed in an atmosphere of old books, old hymns, the power of the moor, and the passing of something grand and beautiful. Not bad, for a historical mystery.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant local descriptions, clever pastiche, weak storylin, February 11, 1999

By 

R. L. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moor (Mary Russell Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book features Sherlock Holmes in his late 50s, and his godfather, Revd Sabine Baring-Gould, a real person who lived in Devonshire, England from 1834-1924. The story takes place in 1923, a few weeks before Baring-Gould's death. Mary Russell, the narrator, is married to Holmes, and they have both been summoned to Dartmoor to solve a murder mystery. The story itself is weak, and requires knowledge of 'the Hound of the Baskervilles' for a full appreciation. This is compensated for, however, by the wonderfully vivid and realistic descriptions of Dartmoor, and Lew House, where Baring-Gould lived. As someone who grew up a few miles from this spot, I can vouch for the absolute accuracy of the setting. Laurie King has also read just about all of Baring-Gould's 150 books, and quotes delightfully from many of them. The skill of the book lies in the imaginative conjunction of a fictional and a real character, and for any reader with knowledge of either man, the result is very pleasing. As a lifelong afficionado of Sabine Baring-Gould, I am most indebted to King for bringing him into greater prominence.