Santa Cruz’s Laurie R. King, whose awards span the alphabet from Agatha to Nero Wolfe, has gone where no other writer has before, pairing the unflappable Sherlock Holmes with a wife, who is his equal. Her 1994 “Beekeeper’s Apprentice” introduced us to the indomitable Mary Russell, and the 15th volume of Mary’s best-selling “memoirs” – “Island of the Mad” – was published last year.
What sparked the idea of giving Sherlock Holmes a brilliant wife?
In the Conan Doyle stories, Holmes shies away from women, not because he disapproves of intimacy, but because he fears that love would be as distracting to his work as grit in a sensitive instrument. He is also Victorian enough to find women “insoluble puzzles” and invariably in need of protection.
Still, I wondered what would happen if this aloof individual were to encounter a woman whose mind was as sensitive an instrument as his, who had no need of protection, who was no more of a puzzle than the face in his shaving mirror?
You mix historic settings with modern relevance. What era resonates for you?
As a child of the ’60s, I feel oddly at home in the ’20s. Both decades see the effects of a devastating war, the growth of women’s rights, the rebellion of drugs and wild music, really short skirts. I also love how I can play with modern issues in historical novels. On the one hand, the time and its issues seem distant and curious, but ideally, as the story goes along, what the reader thought was a static image caught inside a frame begins to feel more like a mirror.
If you could have a quiet dinner with any of your creations, who would it be?
Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have a long, well-lubricated dinner with Mrs. Hudson? What that woman must have seen!
What are you working on now?
Well, interestingly enough, I’m working on a novel centered around Mrs. Hudson. In a recent book (“The Murder of Mary Russell”), we saw Holmes’ long-time housekeeper finally leave Sussex for Europe, after a startling revelation about her past. Who knew the lady even had one?
Favorite Bay Area book event?
Mystery Week, the annual week-long series of events sponsored by the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, starting October 19 with Noir at the Bar during Litquake and spreading out across the Northern California area.
FIVE BOOK PICKS FROM KING:
“Foxglove Summer” by Ben Aaronovitch: A rare country excursion for London police constable Peter Grant, who trades his native beat for the wilds of Herefordshire.
“Brat Farrar” by Josephine Tey: Set in the timeless English countryside, “Brat Farrar” is a gorgeous song to England, to family, to loyalty.
“A Summer in the Twenties” by Peter Dickinson: Brings to life the General Strike, the subtleties of class warfare, the proper ways to make tea and to drive a train and the death of Rudolph Valentino, all in Dickinson’s trademark wry, dry British voice.
“A Month in the Country” by J. L. Carr: In a novel set in high summer in a Yorkshire village just after the Great War, a young ex-soldier is hired to restore the mural in a tiny church, only to find a disturbing masterpiece.
And if you’re looking to introduce a young reader to Sherlock Holmes, you might sneak in “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” by that Laurie R. King person. A young Mary Russell meets, outsmarts and partners up with The Great Detective and drags him, protesting, into the 20th century.
