“Locked Rooms” by Laurie R. King ‹ Bits

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Locked Rooms: A Mary Russell Mystery by Laurie R. King

Book Review

Reviewed June 25, 2007
Rating: 1 star

I’d been off the Mary Russell series for awhile, but thanks to The Game I was finally getting back into it… and then along comes the depressingly bad Locked Rooms. I should have been warned by the plot summary—Mary Russell and husband Sherlock Holmes return to her childhood home and conveniently uncover piles of clues suggesting that her parent’s accidental death was, well, not accidental—but I chose to read it anyway, and got exactly what I deserved for my stupidity. The writing, as usual, is above average—no one can claim that King can’t wield a pen—but, unfortunately, the author’s gift for words is lost in a muddled plot. It’s never a good sign when an author chooses to take a series backwards instead of forwards, especially when said author is trying to eke the last little drop of mystery out of a character who’s already bogged down with more mystery than she can handle. It’s an even worse sign when an author can’t maintain the usual first-person narration that has been a hallmark of the series, and instead turns to a mysterious, anonymous “recently-discovered manuscript” that conveniently explains (in omniscient narration, of course) the gaps in the main character’s tale. Such a narrative device helped bring down the once-excellent Amelia Peabody series, and I foresee the same sad fate befalling this series. Let us all have a moment of silence for the once-great Mary Russell series… and then let’s find something better to read.