x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
Mary Russell: Book 1
see page history
Description edit
In 1915, long since retired from his crime-fighting days, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybees on the Sussex Downs. Never did the Victorian detective think to meet an intellect matching his own–until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a young twentieth-century... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters edit
- Mr. Sherlock Holmes: The famous detective, now semi-retired and studying beekeeping in Sussex.
- Miss Mary Russell: At the beginning of the first book, a 15-year-old girl whose parents were killed in an accident and who (literally) stumbles across Sherlock Holmes on the Downs. She lives on property she inherited with a greedy and resentful aunt as guardian; Mary will not fully inherit until she reaches her majority. She becomes his apprentice in this first book.
- Dr. John Watson: Holmes' biographer and friend. Mary comes to call him "Uncle John." A kind man, but not an intellectual equal to Holmes.
- Mrs. Hudson: Holmes' landlady when he lived at 221B Baker Street; now his housekeeper in the house on Sussex downs.
- Mycroft Holmes: Sherlock's brother and British spymaster.
- Patrick Mason: Mary Russell's farm manager.
- Inspector Lestrade: This Inspector Lestrade is the son of the one in the Conan Doyle novels.
- Mr. & Mrs. Thomas: A married couple; the porter and housekeeper at Mary Russell's Oxford lodgings.
- Mrs. Barker: The lady of the Manor House in Holmes' & Russell's Sussex neighborhood.
- Jessica Simpson: A six-year-old girl kidnapped in Wales in one of the episodes described in the first book. Her father is an American senator; her mother insisted on calling Holmes into the case. Also known as Jessie Simpson.
- James Moriarty: Holmes' nemesis. Deceased.
- Patricia Donleavy: Mary Russell's Maths tutor at Oxford.
- Mr. John Dickson: A criminal who makes bombs; Holmes helped put him away in 1908. Holmes suspects him in the current case.
- Mrs. (Tillie) Whiteneck: Proprietress of the Monk's Tun, an inn on the road between Eastbourne and Lewes. Involved with farm manager Patrick!
- Constable Rogers: Somewhat inept constable in the case of the burglary at the Monk's Tun.
- Mahmoud: On a brief adventure in Palestine, Mary and Sherlock meet Mahmoud, who is an experienced guide. He becomes a key character in future adventures!
- Jonathan Simpson: Add a description of this character.
- Mary Todd: Holmes's name for the prtagonist
- Andrewes Stables
- Ron Athens
- Allenby
- Mister Donaldson
- Morris
- Miss Carter
- Mr. Fowler
- Mrs. Woods
- Terrence Howell
- Tom Warner
- Ratnakar Sanji: An alter ego of Mary Russell that she played while at university
- Mr. Sylvester
- Ali
- Dr. Leah Ginzberg: Mary's therapist in California
- Mr. Jones
- Judith Klein: Mary's mother
- Mr. Simpson
- Mrs. Thomas
- Richard Barker
- Justinian: Roman emperor
- Billy: One of Holmes's old Baker Street Irregulars
- Mrs. Simpson
- Henry VIII: Tudor king of England
- Miss Russell: The protagonist
- PC Rogers
- Veronica Beaconsfield: A college classmate and friend of Mary
- Mary McCarthy
- Mr. Connor
- Vicky
- Mary Richardson
- Da
- Tom Fowler
- Mr. Sherlock Holmes
- Conan Doyle
- Kaiser
Quotes edit
-
“I smiled, and it felt strange on my lips.”
Mary Russell -
“In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongst the sheep (which tended to move out of my way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness) I had never before stepped on a person.”
Mary Russell -
“His innocent words and his far-from-innocent manner hit my smouldering temper like a splash of petrol.”
Mary Russell -
“We walked and rode across the wilderness to the Salt Sea, and in the dark before the moon rose we floated in its remarkably buoyant waters, and I felt the light of the stars on my naked body.”
Mary Russell -
“That last spring and summer of undiluted Holmes was a time of great intensity.”
Mary Russell
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
-
“That’s what tears are for, you know, to wash away the fear and cool the hate.”
Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers -
“When faced with the unthinkable,” I said shakily, “one chooses the merely impossible.”
Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers -
“Madam, there is no treachery in the truth. There may be pain, but to face honestly all possible conclusions formed by a set of facts is the noblest route possible for a human being.”
Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers -
“A hive of bees should be viewed, not as a single species, but as a triumvirate of related types, mutually exclusive in function but utterly and inextricably interdependent upon each other. A single bee separated from its sisters and brothers will die, even if given the ideal food and care. A single bee cannot survive apart from the hive.”
Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers -
“Hence the cocaine.” “Hence, as you say, the cocaine.”
Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers -
She also taught me that being womanly was not necessarily incompatible with being a mind.
Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers -
When active, strained vision only obscures and frustrates, looking away often permits the eye to see and interpret the shapes of what it sees. Thus does inattention allow the mind to register the still, small whisper of the daughter of the voice.
Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers -
A quick mind is worthless unless you can control the emotions with it as well.
Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers -
You cannot help being a female, and I should be something of a fool as well were I to discount your talents merely because of their housing.”
Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers -
“I was merely going to say that I hope you realise that guilt is a poor foundation for a life, without other motivations beside it.”
Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him.
Table of Contents edit
Editor's Preface
Prelude: Author's Note
Book One: Apprenticeship: The Beekeeper's Apprentice
1. Two Shabby Figures
2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
3. Mistress of the Hounds
4. A Case of My Own
Book Two: Internship: The Senator's Daughter
5. The Vagrant Gipsy Life
6. A Child Gone from Her Bed
7. Words with Miss Simpson
Book Three: Partnership: The Game's Afoot
8. We Have a Case
9. The Game, Afoot
10. The Problem of the Empty House
11. Another Problem: The Mutilated Four-Wheeler
12. Flight
Excursus: A Gathering of Strength
13. Umbilicus Mundi
Book Four: Mastery: Battle Is Joined
14. The Act Begins
15. Separation Trial
16. The Daughter of the Voice
17. Forces Joined
18. Battle Royal
Postlude: Putting Off the Armour
19. Return Home
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 13 in Mary Russell. (standard series)
Followed by A Monstrous Regiment of Women.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Laurie R. King (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1994
ISBN: 0312104235
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1994
ISBN: 0312104235
Page Count: 368
Awards edit
- Agatha Award (Finalist, 1994: best novel)
- Notable Young Adult book and Outstanding Book for the College Bound from the American Library Association
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.54
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsThough not a "Young adult" book, it may be of interest, and is certainly acceptable material, for younger audiences.
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
Links to Supplemental Material edit
Books That Influenced This Book edit
We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
You were just viewing this book on Will Fagan’s shelf.
