A tricky enquiry!
Island of the Mad (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #15)
by Laurie R. King
Not only but also! An absorbing investigation by Mary and Sherlock that takes us from Bedlam to the Lido and onto the Venetian asylum island of Poveglia.
What a fabulous conondrum for the wonderful Mary Russell and her ever fascinating husband Sherlock Holmes. Mary is asked by an old friend to find out about her aunt Vivian Beaconsfield who seems to have absconded from Bedlam along with some family jewels. The whole family seems cowered by Vivian's brother the Marquess of Selwick, who may or may not have been responsible for confining Vivian to Belam.
The search leads Mary to pre war Venice with Mussolini in power and his Blackshirts are instilling their reign of terror. Wonderful descriptions of the Lido and the going on of the permanent visitors to Venice, including Cole Porter are detailed. (Mycroft has asked Sherlock to look at the Fascists. He is disquieted!) I love the way King has Holmes dropping one off lines to Cole that end up as songs that are well known down through the generations. An amusing way to have Sherlock's influence quietly confirmed, all fiction of course, but a titillating idea.
Venice, it's gondoliers, it's residents, the islands that served as places and asylums are all well interpreted. The threat of the rise of fascism thinly veiled.
A very clever and racy read that had me fairly galloping towards a satisfactory Holmesian end. A brilliant foray into pre war Venice of 1925.
A NetGalley ARC
*****
by Laurie R. King
What a fabulous conondrum for the wonderful Mary Russell and her ever fascinating husband Sherlock Holmes. Mary is asked by an old friend to find out about her aunt Vivian Beaconsfield who seems to have absconded from Bedlam along with some family jewels. The whole family seems cowered by Vivian's brother the Marquess of Selwick, who may or may not have been responsible for confining Vivian to Belam.
The search leads Mary to pre war Venice with Mussolini in power and his Blackshirts are instilling their reign of terror. Wonderful descriptions of the Lido and the going on of the permanent visitors to Venice, including Cole Porter are detailed. (Mycroft has asked Sherlock to look at the Fascists. He is disquieted!) I love the way King has Holmes dropping one off lines to Cole that end up as songs that are well known down through the generations. An amusing way to have Sherlock's influence quietly confirmed, all fiction of course, but a titillating idea.
Venice, it's gondoliers, it's residents, the islands that served as places and asylums are all well interpreted. The threat of the rise of fascism thinly veiled.
A very clever and racy read that had me fairly galloping towards a satisfactory Holmesian end. A brilliant foray into pre war Venice of 1925.
A NetGalley ARC
*****
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