The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six stories and four novels about the great detective Sherlock Holmes. That is not enough for many, though. Due to a passion for the great man and lapsed copyright, there have been dozens, if not hundreds, of other writers who have continued the detective's adventures, in what are known as pastiches. I've read a few of them, and while they are sometimes amusing and clever, I finally have to wonder whether they proper. Legally they may be in the right, and even ethically, but something about them gives me a general feeling of unease.

Fifteen years ago, mystery writer Laurie R. King began a series in which Holmes befriends a teenage girl who becomes his sidekick, and eventually, his wife. The first book, which I just finished reading, is The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Doyle, who tried to kill off Holmes but had to bring him back to public outcry and the lure of financial reward, was once asked what became of Holmes, and he said he had retired to Sussex to keep bees. King seizes on his bit of info, and has Holmes in the countryside, tending to bees, making chemistry experiments, and getting over his cocaine addiction. An orphaned fifteen-year-old, Mary Russell, literally stumbles over him in a field and the two strike up a friendship. Holmes becomes her mentor, and she goes away to Oxford but retains close ties to her new friend, learning his methods of deduction.

Of course the two get tangled in some mysteries. The book unfolds episodically, starting with a simple case involving a German spy and then a more complicated case of the kidnapping of a Senator's daughter (named Jessica Simpson). The book kicks into high gear when the two realize they are being stalked by an old foe of Holmes looking for revenge (I don't think I'm giving anything away to say that there's a connection to Professor Moriarty).

The spine of this novel is the characterization of Mary, who is part American, part Jewish, and all precociousness. She and Holmes spar for a good deal of the book, as she wants to be taken seriously. That eventually grows tedious. I think King has Holmes down pat, but I think I'll stop reading the series here, as I don't really want to know how an asexual man in his fifties eventually weds a girl in her twenties (who knew Holmes was the original Hugh Hefner?) Many of the characters from the canon appear, such as Watson, Mrs. Hudson, LeStrade and Mycroft Holmes, so King has clearly done her research.

The writing style is distinctly purple, and the 409 page length could have easily been trimmed by a quarter. But beyond that, while reading this book I think I have come to the conclusion that if I want to read about Sherlock Holmes, I'll stick to Doyle.