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From Amazon
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
There Are Lots Better Out There for Holmes Fans,
By Lee Enderlin (Springfield, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Letter of Mary (Mass Market Paperback)
Like two of the other books in this series, the plot construction of "Letter of Mary" is so poor that as a professional writer myself, I was stunned that it even got published. It is an amazingly large flaw. In this story, Russell and Holmes separate from each other in order to investigate two suspicious families. King then spends the bulk of the book discussing Russell's experiences. She doesn't let us know anything about what Holmes is doing-he's completely ignored during this part of the story. It all falls apart in the end when we learn in a rather offhand manner that the family that Holmes is investigating is harboring the perpetrator. King does not spend one word preparing us for that. Suddenly, we realize that we have spent 200 pages reading about nothing more than a wild goose chase! Russell's suspects turn out to have absolutely nothing to do with the crime! I was left with one question as I tossed the book away: "What on earth was the point of that?" I can understand having Russell as the main character, but why not have her solve the mystery instead of force-feeding the reader 200 pages of stuff that ultimately have nothing whatsoever to do with the plot? You could skip those pages and the story line wouldn't change at all. That tells me this book is just terribly written. Two other books in this series, "A Monstrous Regiment of Women" and "The Moor" suffer the same fate. Also poorly plotted, they are not worth reading. The other two books I found to rise up to the level of mediocre. It's as if the publisher figured they could sell any book written by anyone with the last name of King. If you're looking for some fresh, modern Holmes novels, try the series by Larry Millett. They are far, far better written and are much more enjoyable reads.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Theme,
By
This review is from: A Letter of Mary (Mass Market Paperback)
'A letter of Mary' is imaginative. It felt a bit like a 'Hitchcock' story. The plot wasn't as tight as King's other novels and I wasn't able to follow along very well, but I really enjoyed Russell and Holmes character - some uncharacteristic disguises. A great theme!
2.0 out of 5 stars
Diminishing returns,
By musickna "musickna" (Saint Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Letter of Mary (Mass Market Paperback)
The first two books detailing the further imaginary adventures of Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Mary Russell, were entertaining - sadly the same cannot be said of the third, A Letter To Mary. The irritating elements of the first novels - an over-precious writing style and a marked inability to convincingly recreate the aura of Sherlock Holmes' society in England in the early 20th century - become far more pronounced here and a relatively weak and unexciting plot compounds the dissatisfaction. The writing slips into occasional preachiness and the characters are becoming less, rather than more, believeable. Disappointing to be sure - I hope the author regains the form of the earlier novels in her next effort.
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