I enjoyed this so much I've already bought the second book in the series. I loved getting to live in a world with Sherlock Holmes and his apprentice Mary Russel. The mysteries were intriguing, and the character development was fabulous. I listened to the audible version and the narration by Jenny Sterlin was fantastic.

Mary Russell is a highly intelligent, slightly awkward teenager when she meets Sherlock Holmes. This re-imagining of Holmes as a retiree who trains a teenage girl is amazingly well done. The mysteries and investigative techniques are interesting but it is the intricacies of a relationship between two difficult people that keeps me reading.
I highly recommend the whole series. --Rebekka J.

Thoroughly enjoyed this & will definitely be reading more books in this series.

Spoiler

Slightly concerned about the *~tension~* brewing between Sherly & Mary... but that's a problem for Future Olivia.

I've read a couple of the later books in this ongoing series of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes so I was very interested to see how it all started. I'm impressed. Mary's introduction and the overall story is mature and stands up well to King's later books in the series.

The story seems rather basic at the start - an introduction to the newest character in the Sherlock Holmes tome and then a series of vignettes of Russell and Holmes' first "cases" but the trajectory of the book changes and suddenly they're in the middle of a most serious case that left me guessing to the very end.

Well done Ms. King!

Really enjoyed this. I haven't read the original Sherlock Holmes, but reading this makes me want to. I enjoyed the female perspective, and the strong female character. Definitely recommend.

This series made me want to read Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. This first book is exceptional - I recently recommended it to someone (a writer) I met who was disturbed by another Holmes "spin-off." I promised him that this series treated Holmes with great respect (and it's true).

My brother-in-law included this book on a lengthy list of suggestions for what to read, when queried by my husband. As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I couldn't help but be interested in reading Laurie R. King's book.

At first I was put off by Mary Russell's story telling; her style seemed laborious. But slowly I warmed to her story of how she met Sherlock and developed a relationship with him. I believed her, because her description of Sherlock in his 60s (my my, not far from my age now ;-) ) meshed with how I imagined he would be. And then the pace of the tale picked up. Russell, with the guidance of Sherlock (and the editing of King) became an adept sleuth and teller of tales.

I enjoyed the descriptiveness of locations, events and psyches. I appreciated the barring of souls. And I truly delighted in the unveiling of the mastermind responsible. Confession (not a spoiler): I had a tiny inkling of who this would be, but banished it to the back of my mind until further proof could be obtained.

Thus I have put on reserve at my local library Mary Russell's next grand adventure with Holmes, A Monstrous Regiment of Women.

I liked the book until the denouement when we find out "who done it". Spoiler alert: I like it when the killer is actually someone we know, someone who has a prior role in what we are reading. Throwing in a wholly new character at the end is, well, disappointing.

Really cool idea, probably better as a movie. Got old and didn’t finish it.