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The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Paperback)

by Laurie R. King (Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (132 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (Mar 26 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553381520
ISBN-13: 978-0553381528
Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 2.5 cm
Shipping Weight: 409 g

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (132 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #403,733 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#31 in Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > King, Laurie

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This is item 1 in The Mary Russell Series.

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Sherlock Holmes takes on a young, female apprentice in this delightful and well-wrought addition to the master detective's casework. In the early years of WW I, 15-year-old American Mary Russell encounters Holmes, retired in Sussex Downs where Conan Doyle left him raising bees. Mary, an orphan rebelling against her guardian aunt's strictures, impresses the sleuth with her intelligence and acumen. Holmes initiates her into the mysteries of detection, allowing her to participate in a few cases when she comes home from her studies at Oxford. The collaboration is ignited by the kidnapping in Wales of Jessica Simpson, daughter of an American senator. The sleuthing duo find signs of the hand of a master criminal, and after Russell rescues the child, attempts are made on their lives (and on Watson's), with evidence piling up that the master criminal is out to get Holmes and all he holds dear. King ( A Grave Talent ) has created a fitting partner for the Great Detective: a quirky, intelligent woman who can hold her own with a man renowned for his contempt for other people's thought processes.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-At 15, Mary Russell is tall and gangling, bespectacled and bookish. In 1915, the orphaned heiress is living in her ancestral home with an embittered aunt she has plucked from genteel poverty to act as a guardian until she reaches her majority. In order to escape the woman's generally malevolent disposition, she wanders the Downs. On one such outing, she trips over a gaunt, elderly man sitting on the ground, "watching bees." This gentleman turns out to be Sherlock Holmes, and the resulting acquaintance evolves into a mentoring experience for the young woman. The story is well written in a style slightly reminiscent of Conan Doyle's, but is also very much King's own. The plot is somewhat predictable, but the characterizations are excellent and the times and places are skillfully evoked. Readers come to understand much of Holmes that was unexplained by Dr. Watson. These additions are entirely plausible, and the relationship between the great detective and his apprentice is delightful. Readers see much of Sussex, London, and even of student life at Oxford and the conditions of Romanies (Gypsies) in Wales. Wartime Britain is accurately evoked, and the whole is a lot of fun to read. While a fitting addition to the Holmes oeuvre, the narrative is delightfully feminist. It is likely to please YAs already entranced by Sherlock Holmes and will surely attract a few new fans.
Susan H. Woodcock, King's Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

132 Reviews

5 star:		(95)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

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4.5 out of 5 stars (132 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Aug 15 2009

By	Pauline - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Beekeeper's Apprentice: Or On the Segregation of the Queen/A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell (Paperback)

The year is 1915 and Sherlock Holmes is retired, but a young lady of fifteen years falls into his life and she becomes his prot�g�. Mary Russell is orphaned and lives with an aunt who is only interested in Mary's inheritance and does not offer Mary any loving guidance. Sherlock Holmes takes the job of teaching Mary all the skills he has learned in his detective work. Mary Russell exhibits an impressive intelligence and is able to absorb what Sherlock teaches her.

As she attends school at Oxford Mary spends her holidays with Holmes and they become involved in detective work together. Mary rescues a young girl from kidnappers and is able to help the young girl deal emotionally with her lose of innocence. Mary is able to relate to the girl's emotional turmoil through her own experience of losing her parents and brother in a car accident.

In the crimes that Holmes and Mary solve there is a common menace. A criminal master mind has been stalking Holmes and the ones he loves and all of their lives are at risk. Mary and Sherlock Holmes have to combine their great minds to figure out who this criminal mastermind is.

"The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Laurie R. King is the first book in a series a books with Mary Russell being a detective. In this first book she learns the basics of detective work along the side of the great Sherlock Holmes himself.

There are a few things I found hard to deal with in this book. The first thing was the treatment of Dr Watson, he is treated like a baboon and there is a general feeling that Holmes wants nothing to do with Watson now that he has Mary to work with. I think it would have made more sense if Watson was embraced and still loved, rather then shunned and ridiculed. He plays a very small role so why debase him?

Another weakness with mystery novels is that so many words are spent on developing the scene of the crime and the detective work and as a result there are fewer words left for developing the characters. One thing I love about reading is falling in love with the characters and having them become my new best friends and it just does not fully develop into that type of relationship in this book, there are a few times it comes close, for example when Mary and Sherlock are in Palestine I truly feel Mary's love for who she is and how she lost her family, I loved that section, but overall they did not become fast friends with me.

This is a female power book; Mary is a great example of a female with a great intellect and of someone who gets the job done right. "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is an excellent read for young adult female readers who are looking for strong female characters.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Mar 20 2008

By	P. C. Kidd (Victoria, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Beekeeper's Apprentice: Or On the Segregation of the Queen/A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell (Paperback)

I was grabbed from the first line of the introduction. King writes the way she speaks, I imagine, and I could hear a cool, authoritative, strong-willed voice through the whole, wonderful book. The plot was engaging and clever, and her mastery of Holmes's character was complete. I wasn't two pages into the thing before I ordered all the other titles Amazon had on offer. Now I have to wait until she joins Russell and Holmes again: cue heavy sigh. As an academic who generally limits her reading to works on cultural history, I found this a light, funny, delicately romantic read and I take delight in recommending it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Keeper, Jul 13 2004

By	Sarah (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Paperback)

I was introduced to this book by my sister, who got it from a friend. I finnished the book, and promptly started to look for the next book, The Monstrous Regiment of Women. If you are looking for a book that you can't put down, and makes you feel like you are actually there with Mary Russel and Sherlock Holmes, then this is the book for you!!

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