Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Refreshing Change - Sherlock with a Wife!, March 25, 1999
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!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most Satisfying Since "Beekeeper", April 20, 2001
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant local descriptions, clever pastiche, weak storylin, February 11, 1999
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.
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