{"id":341,"date":"2005-06-28T21:19:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-29T01:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=341"},"modified":"2005-06-28T21:19:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-29T01:19:00","slug":"king_laurie_r_0_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2005\/06\/king_laurie_r_0_1\/","title":{"rendered":"King, Laurie R.: (05-07) O Jerusalem; Justice Hall; The Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

Three of Laurie R. King’s Russell\/Holmes novels<\/strong>, originally read a while ago and now re-read in anticipation of getting the latest, Locked Rooms<\/cite>, out of the library soon: O Jerusalem<\/cite>, Justice Hall<\/cite>, and The Game<\/cite><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

O Jerusalem<\/cite> is a flashback novel, set chronologically during the first, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice<\/cite><\/a>. Russell and Holmes go to Jerusalem to hide from their Beekeeper’s<\/cite> adversary, and have adventures with two apparent-nomads, the Hazrs. This is exciting and absorbing, with a vivid portrayal of the setting; it should be noted, however, that it is primarily about adventuring rather than detecting.<\/p>\n

Justice Hall<\/cite> is set after The Moor<\/cite>, the fourth Russell\/Holmes novel, but closely concerns characters from O Jerusalem<\/cite> in a way that generates more than a little whiplash (and not just because King had a better idea about their first names between Beekeeper’s<\/cite> and here). I think this may be my favorite to date, a solid and moving exploration of family secrets and obligations in an English manor house whose inhabitants are still feeling the effects of WWI. For those who care about such things, there is very little Holmes in this novel.<\/p>\n

The Game<\/cite> is King’s homage to Kipling’s Kim<\/cite>, as Russell and Holmes hunt for a missing Kimball O’Hara. This is much like O Jerusalem<\/cite>, except in India of course, as Russell and Holmes see the country and have adventures and do little in the way of detecting. It is also engrossing, sensual, and fun, but I was slightly concerned on three fronts: first, the prologue suggests that the framing device, that someone is sending Russell’s manuscripts to King, is being dropped; second, there are some unresolved questions and loose ends; and third, Russell and Holmes are going to have nervous breakdowns from having three cases in a row with basically no recovery time! (It’s my guess that Locked Rooms<\/cite> will address some or all of these, though not always as I’d like—I am concerned at reports that it is partly in third-person Holmes POV. Well, we’ll see when a library copy becomes available.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three of Laurie R. King’s Russell\/Holmes novels, originally read a while ago and now re-read in anticipation of getting the latest, Locked Rooms, out of the library soon: O Jerusalem, Justice Hall, and The Game. O Jerusalem is a flashback novel, set chronologically during the first, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Russell and Holmes go to Jerusalem … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “King, Laurie R.: (05-07) O Jerusalem; Justice Hall; The Game”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,6,13],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-mystery","category-russellholmes","tag-king-laurie-r"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}