A Desperate Fortune: Past and Past!

A Desperate Fortune 

by Susanna Kearsley

(Title links to synopsis.)
This book was a Borders Book Club read and 
will also count for the following challenges:
20 Books of Summer and Historical Fiction.
The only other book written by Kearsley that I have 
read is The Firebird which I found to be excellent, 
and it makes me want to read The Winter Sea, 
her first book in the Slains series!
Honestly, I've added nearly every single one of her releases to by TBR listing!
(I actually own a couple more of hers, but have yet to read them.)

I have a special place in my heart for books that manage to alternate
between two different settings/times/storylines, successfully 
interweaving them seamlessly in the end. 
This book certainly does that...and so much more!
Borders Book Club members really enjoyed it,
with the exception of one who still finds 
it difficult to follow alternating storylines. 
But I'm sure she'll get the hang of it over time. :)

Sara copes with Asperger's--her senses are, well..."very sensitive" and she can easily become "jangled and jarred," though her cousin, Jacqi is ever faithful and watchful, helping her to successfully negotiate society whenever possible. Sara is, and always has been, a 'numbers person.' Though numbers may serve a different purpose for her than for many others, as they provide a calming influence when her nerves are riled, helping her prevent major meltdowns when provoked. Jacqi and Sara are at a family wedding when Jacqi hands a piece of paper to her with the following numbers and text written on it:

10.e.18.18.e.17.space.8.12.18.e.17.1.e.16.18.e.4.space.5.17.2.12.1.e.space.21.12.19.2.5.e (8)

As it turns out, this is a cipher from a handwritten diary that a famous historian is determined to have decoded, as he is convinced it will provide him with needed material for a book he is writing about the Jacobite exiles who existed some 300 years in the past. Since Sara is currently out of work, she agrees to meet the author to see if the job of transcribing this diary is something she would want to do, and he would want her to do for him. There is one minor glitch--the job itself would have to be completed in Paris, France--they're currently located in England. Sara translates this message within 17 minutes:

Letter intercepted. France unsafe. (10)

This message alone is enough to pique Sara's interest in the diary and what information it may contain. It appears Sara would be very well-qualified to complete this type of code-breaking work, given her interest in numbers, her skills, and her perfectionist tendencies.

Mary Dundas had authored this diary and when we meet her in mid-January of 1732:

It seemed on that morning...that the new year intended to go on exactly the same as the last, bringing all the excitement, surprise, and adventure she'd come to expect in her twenty-one years: namely, none. (26)

This made me chuckle and smile. In discussing citizenship, Mary declares herself "nationless" as her mother was French, but her father was "an exile at the French court of a foreign king who had himself no country and no crown." This was King James VIII of England who had been denied the throne, first settling in France and eventually Rome, under the protection of the Pope. Though she remembers little of her life during those first six years with her parents, she clearly remembers the day her father left, 

"Now, Mary," he had told her, "be a good lass for your uncle and your aunt, and mind your manners you've been taught, and use the sense that you've been given, and I promise you, 

you'll have a better life here than I ever could have given you."

At least that's what she thought he'd said. The years, perhaps, had rearranged his words and phrased them into a more sentimental speech within her memory, 

the same memory that insisted she'd replied to him, "I want to stay with you." 

And that his thumb had brushed a tear from her hot cheek, and he had said, 

"We do not always get the things we want." 

She did remember, clearly, that she'd cried for him and called him back, 

and that he had not turned. (32)

This passage made me tear up. How awful for a 6-year-old child, and she had siblings from whom she had been separated, too! Though suddenly, her younger brother (by 4 years), Gaspard, reappears, wanting to bring her to his home. I personally thought this felt a bit too sudden and spontaneous...but you hope you can trust your own brother, right?!? Though Mary was also a bit hesitant, asking her aunt if she was to have a choice, and the woman replied to her, "My dear, you always have a choice." Those prove to be prophetic words over time...

Sara is a very hard worker, 'driven' is the word I believe might best describe her work ethic. Mary is similarly a very hard worker, though their 'work' is of very different substance for each of them. Mary's is to serve as a member of a company of spies while Sara's is to unravel the various codings used to record Mary's experiences. While Mary's world expands to include situations she could never have imagined so does Sara's... Both women must be brave in their own way as they face challenges, Mary as an actor and Sara as a code/cipher breaker, but also as they each learn to trust and eventually love another. The one similarity between the two women in this respect was not to assume, but rather to allow themselves to get to know each person as an individual, regardless of their initial impression.

Kearsley better explains some aspects of Asperger's through Sara:

I'd always been puzzled when books about people with Asperger's claimed that 

we didn't have empathy...My problem wasn't that I didn't understand their feelings, 

only that I didn't have a clue how to respond to them. 

I never knew the proper thing to do or say. I wasn't good at comforting.  (207)

Sara has a huge lesson in 'synchronicity,' as I term it. She allows herself to 'comfort' Noah and in turn learns several different things, not the least of which is a key to breaking the newest cipher she has encountered in the diary...allowing her to continue working and translating. Having felt distinctly uncomfortable in the presence of children in the past, this is a breakthrough for her. This mirrors Mary's acceptance of MacPherson and the sense of 'protection' she begins to feel when in his presence, something to which I could personally relate. When I first met my husband...let's call him "Mr. G," and we started spending time together, I experienced that same feeling of being 'protected' while with him. I later confessed that to him and learned there were underlying reasons that probably contributed to my feeling that way in his presence, but it also informed me of a much deeper, more 'spiritual,' if you will, connection between the two of us. So I hoped this connection would prove to be just as happy for Mary in the end, as it has for me! 

I had to laugh as in one of the confrontations between Mary and MacPherson as they are about midway in their travels, Mary states that Frisque, her cocker spaniel, needs "to do his necessary business," so therefore she must leave the room. 

Whether MacPherson believed her or not he gave no indication, 

but answered her with a brief nod, that although not completely polite, was not rude. 

As with most of his gestures, as Mary had found, it fell stubbornly somewhere between. (316)

Ah, yes, that stoicism one might expect of a 'protector' of clandestine mission teams! And as they all learn, MacPherson is one smart man in many ways, particularly with regard to outwitting the 'other side,' as it were. And even if his plans go awry, he is still capable of saving them all. Mary begins to see a small chink appear periodically in MacPherson's armor, as in the discussion with Thomson's associate regarding slaves, when she states, "Slavery is a kind of death." He waxes on about how "well treated" are some of the slaves, etc., denouncing her "sentiment" as "wrong," when MacPherson intercedes, "She has a right to think as she decides." Mary sees for an instant "a pain so deep and dark" as she had never seen before in his eyes...as he defended her right to voice her opinion. At one point, Mary asks "Hugh" (MacPherson's 'Christian name') if he would have killed her if she had tried to mail the letter she'd written to end her participation in this mission, and he replies, "The letter's burnt, and I've not killed ye. Let the past be past." Hah! At least he's willing to forgive, it seems. And then Luc is, Sara discovers, all too familiar with Asperger's and the meltdowns it can cause, since his own brother has dealt with it his whole life. Luc knows exactly how to comfort ('protect'?) those who must cope with the symptoms. 

Sara serves as a matchmaker of sorts, insisting that Jacqi bring the author to Chatou where she is staying. She hopes to reunite Claudine and Alistair, as she now realizes Claudine truly loves the man. She also realizes her own love as Mary's final entry mirrors her own thoughts and feelings:

In truth there is but one man in the whole of Rome whose honor I am certain of, 

whose friendship I have now come to rely upon, and if it were my choice to make, 

I would lay all my heart before him and refuse to leave his side. 

My father said we do not always get the things we want, and he was right; 

for though my aunt once reassured me I would always have a choice, 

if there is one before me now I do confess I cannot see it, so instead I must-- (449) 

And it is at this point that Sara realizes she does have a choice, and she follows through on her own decision. 

Upon learning of Hugh MacPherson's life experiences, Mary can only comment, as she watches him approach...

"...surely every broken thing can be rebuilt." (481)

As she states to Hugh, when he questions her regarding her determination "to go home,"

Mary gave a little shrug and looked deliberately away.

"Home, as you once told me, is not always where you left it." (487)

Ah, so true. Home is where you make it for yourself. Just as friends are "family you choose," one of my favorite sayings! And so, life continues, and couples try to make a go of living it together. 

In Kearsley's notes regarding the characters, she reminds me of Ariel Lawhon's thoughts about Ritzi and her treatment of this character as a villain or not, in 
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress and the relief she felt when contacted by the real-life child of this historical character, as expressed in this follow-up posting to my review. I can appreciate the predicament for authors as they construct a fictional account of historical events. As Kearsley states,

It's one of my personal quirks that I can't make a person a villain unless I'm convinced, 

from the records available, that's what he was. 

However long dead these people might be, they were--and remain--people first, 

and as such they deserve to be written about with respect. (506)

I would think this a fair way to handle it. And we all know that people can be very complex, although they may appear to be villainous, the reality is that they most likely have a much gentler side, at the very least on occasion. 

Just as Hugh requests Mary to create a "different" ending, we learn that is exactly what Kearsley did for Marie Anne Thérèse Dundas, baptized on July 25, 1710, and died September 4, 1710. 

She wasn't given a chance at life. So I gave her one.

Writers can't truly change history, but we can decide...where a story should end.

Not being fond of the ending of Mary's tale, I wrote a different one.

I wrote a better one. (513)

As I reviewed portions of this book where I had left markers, 

I had to stop myself from continuing to reread it!

That, is the mark of a book I truly love reading.

I was shocked to realize how long this book was, 

because I was so totally enthralled while reading it 

that I didn't remember it being very long.

I highly recommend this one--very enjoyable with complex 

yet well-defined characters and many plot twists!

Just what I love--historical fiction AND mystery/suspense!

Has any book lately fulfilled your favorite characteristics?

Happy reading

                                                                     --Lynn

Top Ten Tuesday for June 7!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish each week...on...TUESDAY!!

(Although sometimes I actually post on a Wednesday!)

I tend to post when I like the topic and have time to do so!

This week's topic? 

The Top Ten Reasons I love ________!

I am going to give you my reasons for loving Historical Fiction and Mysteries!

First up: Historical Fiction

Here is my Historical Fiction page!

#1 I love to learn! 

I love to read and I love to learn from my reading, but I despise dull boring recitations of FACTS, period! I think the majority of people who read at all have the same opinion. I learn so much history from "historical" fiction!

#2 I mainly read for characterization!

This may seem counter-intuitive when considering historical fiction, however, in my opinion, it is a writer's skill to create well-drawn historically accurate characters that impresses me so much! It is through the characters that so much else is depicted and divulged!

#3 I want to "feel" a setting/environment! 

     (You know. That "Calgon-take-me-away feeling"!)

Historical fiction that is well-written makes me "feel" as if I am right there with the characters! Whether it is in 1920's Kenya, 1920's western United States, or 1945 Eastern Europe. 

#4 I want a 'frame of reference' and/or understanding of others from the past.

I want to understand a person's or people's behavior a bit better, and by placing people in their own place and time from the past, it makes the motivations for their actions much easier to discern. Though many times unpleasant to my current-day sensibilities, I can at least better understand "where they're coming from." Facts alone do not give this much information and many times NO context. 

#5 I want a clearer picture of the whole historical process. 

History is not just a collection of bits and pieces of data, but rather a fluid evolution of ever-changing ideas, opinions, and interpretations, which eventually lead to social/cultural change. I like to try to understand how one thing can lead to another, to another... This knowledge is imparted most effectively through a character's thoughts and feelings than in any listing of facts. 

Last, but by no means least: Mysteries

Here is my 2016 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge Page!

#1 I love a good puzzle, and really, a mystery is just a puzzle to be solved!

As I can recall, the very first mysteries I ever read were Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series. I started reading these at 9 years of age and never looked back! It was always so much fun to try to solve the mystery myself!

#2 I mainly read for characterization!

No, you are not seeing double. Yes, this is the same #2 reason I love historical fiction and I am using it once again as the #2 reason I love mysteries! Why? Mysteries, by definition, are somewhat similar--a puzzle to be solved! But one huge way to set a mystery apart and make it unique is by creating imaginative characters. Some of the series I enjoy most for their characters: the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, and the Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt. And there are so many more I could list...but for once, I will try to restrain myself! :) (And do not get used to it!)

#3 I love a good challenge!

Nothing better than an author who can make me suspect each and every character at least once throughout a mystery book! I enjoy NOT knowing "who did it" until the end, or at least close to it! :)

#4 I enjoy a truly compelling read!

While I don't appreciate being "scared," I do appreciate the tension and suspense of not knowing and wondering...and not wanting to wait much longer to KNOW! Mysteries are more likely to keep me up late at night than any other genre! There is nothing quite so satisfying as just turning the pages...burning right through them...over and over and over again! :)

#5 Mysteries are the books I am most likely to reread.

That might seem strange and not make much sense. (Though we are talking about me, after all! So perhaps that isn't unexpected. :)) After all, if I've read a mystery once I already know "who did it," don't I? Well, frankly, the older I get the less true this becomes. Seriously, I often don't remember right away, and I just have some series that I can pick up and reread at any time and know I'll enjoy myself immensely! I have reread the Stephanie Plum books, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, the Sunday Philosophy Club series featuring Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith, Agatha Christie books, and, of course, although they also involve fantasy, the Harry Potter series! :)

What do YOU love? 

So much more than horse trainer or pilot!

I really liked The Paris Wife by Paula McLain when 

I read it almost exactly three years ago as the second book 

to be reviewed in the Literary Wives online book discussion group. I think I've mentioned in the past that it was this 

"club" that motivated me to finally establish a blog 

whereby to post reviews of books I have read. 

And now McLain has captured my heart yet again with 

Circling the Sun, a historical fiction work 

detailing the life of Beryl Markham (nee Clutterbuck). 

Yes, Clutterbuck was this woman's 'maiden' name. Oh, my, 

that name alone would motivate you to be a strong person 

and stand up for yourself, wouldn't it? :) As McLain explains in this All Things Considered interview, once she had read 

West With the Night, she was struck by the similarities 

between herself and Markham, and the lack of personal details.

I am eternally grateful to whatever motivated McLain to research and write this book about Beryl Markham. It was such a pleasure to read! As with The Paris Wife, I was not only drawn into another world, but felt as if I was living there, breathing the same air, viewing the same landscape as Beryl. That is why I love historical fiction--feeling as if I am THERE, wherever THERE is! :) McLain has accomplished this twice now, and with distinctly diverse environments! This book starts with 28-year-old Beryl attempting the first nonstop flight by a female pilot from England to America:

I have a chart that traces my route across the Atlantic, Abingdon to New York, every inch of 

icy water I'll pass over, but not the emptiness involved or the loneliness, or the fear. 

Those things are as real as anything else, though, and I'll have to fly through them. 

Straight through the sickening dips and air pockets, because you can't chart a course around anything your afraid of. You can't run from any part of yourself, and it's better that you can't. Sometimes I've thought it's only our challenges that sharpen us, and change us, too--

a mile-long runway and nineteen hundred pounds of fuel. Black squadrons of clouds muscling 

in from every corner of the sky and the light fading minute by minute. 

There is no way I could do any of this and remain the same. (4)

As I read this I thought to myself that really, each and every day of our lives is like this, isn't it? Each moment we live we are changed a bit, aren't we? 

After all the planning and care and work and mustering of courage, there is 

the overwhelming possibility that the Gull will stay fixed to the earth, more elephant than butterfly,        and that I'll fail before I've even begun. 

But not before I give this moment everything I've got. (4)

And it is that last sentence that sums up Beryl more than any other sentence--she definitely gave everything she had to everything she did in life. She is literally packed into this Vega Gull plane, The Messenger, with fuel tanks forming a "close-fitting wall" around the pilot's seat with petcocks within reach, though she's been instructed to 

...let one run completely dry and close it off before opening the next, to avoid an airlock. 
The engine might freeze for a few moments, but will start up again. I will have to rely on that. (3)

Yikes! That is all I could think as I read these instructions! That is definitely putting your life on the line. And it isn't like it would be now, with instant communication or even another plane flying alongside you for emergency purposes...nope, she was definitely putting her life on the line! 

Here is a sample of McLain's skill in 'setting a scene':

Before Kenya was Kenya, when it was millions of years old and yet still somehow new, 

the name belongs only to our most magnificent mountain. You could see it from our farm 

in Njoro, in the British East African Protectorate--hard edged at the far end of a stretching 

golden plain, its crown glazed with ice that never completely melted. 

Behind us, the Mau Forest was blue with strings of mist. 

Before us, the Rongai Valley sloped down and away, bordered on one side by the strange, 

high Menengai Crater, which the natives called the Mountain of God, and 

on the other by the distant Aberdare Range, rounded blue-grey hills 

that went smoky and purple at dusk before dissolving into the night sky. (11)

I felt as if I was standing in the middle of all this landscape! Beryl was two years old when her family moved to Kenya from England and a mere four years old when her mother packed up her brother and those two headed back 'home.' Interestingly, no mention was made of how this decision was made to split up the children, one with their mother in England and one with their father in Kenya, but it was done. To be abandoned at four years of age by your own mother. Not to say her father wasn't a good, sincere, hard-working man, but he certainly was not a nurturer of children! Very little communication, and absolutely no acknowledgement or discussion of feelings! No sirree! This was when the Kipsigis basically adopted Beryl and gave her a tribal name, Lakwet, meaning "very little girl." To a great degree, the Kip nurtured and raised her during the remainder of her childhood. Kibii was her best friend, a young male Kip about her age, and she spent most all her time doing what he did, to train as a warrior. Though tribal females learned only 'domestic' skills, the elders allowed her this nontraditional role. 

...I belonged on the farm and in the bush...I had come alive here, as if I'd been given a second birth, and a truer one...for as long as childhood lasted it was a heaven fitted exactly to me.

A place I knew by heart. The one place in the world I'd been made for. (18)

I could understand this attachment to the land, a place, this farm called Green Hills, much as I had always felt attached to my grandmother's farm. (I believe I have mentioned before that I knew every square inch of those 180 acres!) Unlike Beryl, I didn't have human companions, only my dog and the livestock! I'm fairly certain I would have been much like Beryl given the same environment and opportunities! 

Mrs. O, the first of many a governess and/or tutor, arrives, and Beryl thinks to herself:

I would show her I wasn't a bit of cobweb in the corner, something to be wiped or straightened, but a rival worth her notice. I would learn her ways and habits, and track her closely until I knew what she was and how to best her, and what precisely it would take to steal my good life back. (31)

Ah, just like hunting any other animal and besting it, eh? :) I admit I can appreciate Beryl's thought processes! Once Beryl turned twelve, Charles (her father) took her along on a business trip to the Elkingtons' farm where there is a 'pet' lion that runs loose. As he explains to Beryl, Paddy the lion

"...has no fear, you see, not as we understand it. He can only be exactly what he is, 

what his nature dictates, and nothing else...You can take a cub from the savannah as they have...feed it fresh meat so it never learns to hunt and brush its coat so it carries a human smell wherever it goes--but know that what you've done is twist something natural into something else. And you can never trust an unnatural thing. You don't know what it is, and it's baffled, too." (37)

As Beryl runs through the bush area around the house, Paddy attacks her, though the lion does let her go, many stitches and weeks are required for a complete recovery.

I had lived to tell the tale. That alone had a powerful effect on me. I felt slightly invincible, 

that I could come through nearly anything my world might throw at me, 

but of course I had no idea what lay in store. (43)

Kibii began walking three steps behind Beryl and avoided hunting with her, etc., as they became teenagers, citing that she was the "memsahib" and that was proper behavior. Although this initially angered her, she knew he was correct and that their relationship had permanently changed, simply due to the color of their skin and disparate genetic heritage. I always think such situations are so sad. All due to "societal expectations" of 'decency' and what is 'proper.' However, this is only the first of many times that Beryl will wish to defy such norms, and in her future, she will do so, and suffer the consequences for it! And little does she know that her mother's own such actions had already set into motion inescapable life changes in Beryl's near future. It is at this same time that Kibii informs her he now has "a moran's [warrior's] name. I am arap Ruta." 

Although Beryl seemingly takes the easy way out and chooses to remain in Njoro, marrying their neighbor, Jock, as he kisses her, she tries "to meet the kiss and to take it in, I couldn't quite feel it. I couldn't feel us." She may only be 16, but she is wise beyond her years to realize she should feel an "us," in my opinion. Beryl soon brokers a "deal" with Jock so she can live on a neighboring farm to become a horse trainer, and at the age of 18 she becomes the first female license horse trainer in the WORLD! That was just one of the firsts she would accomplish! On the first race day that one of her trained horses is running, she thinks of her father:

...if I'd had the power to conjure anything, it would be for him to suddenly appear 

out of the crowd to stand next to me for those thunderous, dizzying minutes. 

That would mean so much more than winning--more than anything. (118)

Ack! Poor Beryl! No wonder this poor child was so scared of marriage, realizing she'd only seen one successful relationship played out in her childhood, that of her 'neighbors' seven miles away, the D's. Her parents certainly provided her with nothing even close to a successful model. This continued throughout adulthood. In fact, I had to become accustomed to recognizing the "happy" couples as those who were not married, while all the married couples were living out farcical 'for show only' relationships with no mutual love underneath the surface. It was a bit confusing for me at first! 

Beryl is no exception, as both of her husbands prove. They both expect her to change to meet their expectations, but she is true to herself and refuses to do so. As one of these estranged wives states,

"No one really knows how it is with anyone else. That's the truth. 

That's our only real retaliation when the gossip starts to churn."

[Beryl] "Maybe that's the secret to surviving all sorts of trouble, 

knowing who you are apart from it, I mean."

[Tania/Karen] "Yes...But like many things, it's so much easier to 

admire that stance than to carry it out." (161)

It is, as they say, much easier said...than done! 

Neither of Beryl's marriages were "happy." The only man she truly loved was one who was as wild and independent as herself, so ironically, the qualities they shared were also those that kept them from 'settling down.' Beryl earns her B-class pilot's license and becomes the first/only professional female pilot in Africa. 

More than anyone I'd known, Denys understood how nothing ever holds still for us, or should. The trick is learning to take things as they come and fully, too, with no resistance or fear, not trying to grip them too tightly or make them bend. I knew all this from my Lakwet days, but being with him helped me remember it, and feel it all again powerfully. (336)

As Beryl completes the first trans-Atlantic flight by a female pilot from England to America:

I drop lower and am crawling soon, as if after so many hours in the clouds, 

I have to remember all over again how to walk. 

As if I must relearn just where I am going, and where--impossibly--I have been. (355)

You can also read the NPR review written by Jean Zimmerman. 

I regret that I was unable to attend the author-signing event with McLain.

I do so love her writing!

And, oh, if you're at all interested in reading this one, please do!

Thought-provoking quotes:

"I have fought for independence here, and freedom, too. 
More and more I find they're not at all the same thing." (Tania/Karen-161)

"We're all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or 

let your fear confine you, then you really aren't your own person at all--are you? 

The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy." (Tania/Karen-165)

This from Denys after Beryl has told the story of Paddy's attack to him and Tania/Karen:

I'll bet it was important for you. We all have those moments--

though not always so dramatic...They're meant to test us and change us, I think. 

To make plain what it means to risk everything." (177)

[Beryl to Denys] "Africa is the cure, then, the opposite of being boxed in...

can you imagine this place starting to pinch on you, too?"

[Denys] "Never...It always seems to be reinventing itself, doesn't it?"

[Beryl] Kenya was forever shedding its skin and showing itself to you all over again. 

You didn't need to sail away for that. You only needed to turn around.

Beryl of Tania/Karen:

Her words were so full they made you think you knew everything about her, 

but it was a magician's trick. 

The truth was she kept her secrets closest when she said them outright. (197)

Beryl of her mother, Clara:

Maybe Berkeley had been right about family--maybe we never survive them, 
or anyone we love. Not in the truest way. My feelings for Clara were tangled at the root, unresolvable. Whether I liked it or not, I would always carry the ghost of her leaving. 
But it also didn't seem right somehow to walk away and ignore her need." (253)

A Swahili phrase:

"A new thing is good, though it be a sore place." (312)
As I have often said, "change is change," and 
even if it is a "good"/positive change, it still requires adaptation. 
It will likely be a bit of a 'sore place' for awhile until the adjustment is complete!

Mary is not really a beekeeper...

The Beekeeper's Apprentice 

(On the Segregation of the Queen)

by Laurie R. King

I had just read this first book in King's Russell and Holmes

series when I met her on April 15th at the 

Christamore House Guild Book & Author Luncheon 

in Indianapolis.  

There are times when I have trouble imagining exactly

how an author conjures up a particular character or 

story arc, and I especially felt this about Mary Russell. 

How? How did Laurie King ever imagine a 'Mary Russell'?

When asked, King told me that 

"sometimes you keep playing with characters, 

you imagine them this way or that way, 

but sometimes, a character just comes to you, 

and that's it." 

And that is exactly how Mary Russell came to King...

all at once, 'just like that'!

Amazing! How does one get so very lucky?

Or how did King put herself in that place to imagine Mary?

Talk about fortuitous! And so enjoyable for us readers!

I now own a signed and personally inscribed copy of the 14th and most recent release in this series, The Murder of Mary Russell, and am determined to purchase all the other books in this series. I loved this first installment so very much I can only imagine these get better as you go! And I know the characters develop and change, so I definitely must read them in sequence. I did virtually force my husband to read this first one and he loved it so much he isn't waiting, but has been checking them out of the library and buzzing through the series. (However, just in case, you're wondering, he is not allowed to speak to me at all about them except to note whether he liked them or not. NO SPOILERS!! I want to discover everything for myself.) :) Rarely are there books that we both really love reading, but this series is one of those. I will add it to Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series in that regard. As a side note, when I noted to Laurie King that Mary Russell reminded me a bit of Flavia, she asked if I'd ever met Alan Bradley, and when I said I had not, she encouraged me to do so if I ever had the opportunity. He is evidently a nice guy! :)

If you decide to read this one, by all means please be aware that you MUST read the Editor's Preface! :) No, really...I must insist! Mary Russell is definitely my kinda woman! She is walking through Sussex Downs with her nose in a book! I had to laugh when I read this. It reminded me of my grandmother becoming angry with me for walking through the house while reading a book. I guess she thought I would fall and break a bone or something! :) Though Mary's book was written in Latin. Please note: none of mine were written in Latin, mainly because I would have never been able to read them! :)

As it was, my first awareness that there was another soul in the universe was when a male throat cleared itself loudly not four feet from me. The Latin text flew into the air, 
followed closely by an Anglo-Saxon oath. Heart pounding, I hastily pulled together what dignity 
I could and glared down through my spectacles at this figure hunched up at my feet: 
a gaunt, greying man in his fifties wearing a cloth cap, ancient tweed greatcoat, and decent shoes, with a threadbare army rucksack on the ground beside him. A tramp perhaps, who had left the rest of his possessions stashed beneath a bush. Or an eccentric. Certainly no shepherd. (5-6)

This description made me chuckle. Sherlock Holmes mistaken for a tramp? Phshaw! Though an eccentric? Yes, perhaps. And agreed. Not a shepherd. 

As they talk, she gives him her impressions:

"...I suspect that someone such as yourself would find it impossible to have an other than 
all-inclusive relationship with a woman, one that totally integrated all parts of your lives, 
unlike the unequal and somewhat whimsical partnership you have had with Dr. Watson." (21)

"I am now fifty-four. Conan Doyle and his accomplices at The Strand thought to make me more dignified by exaggerating my age. Youth does not inspire confidence, in life or in stories, 
as I found to my annoyance when I set up residence in Baker Street.
I was not yet twenty-one, and at first found the cases few and far between. 
Incidentally, I hope you do not make a habit of guessing. Guessing is a weakness brought on by indolence and should never be confused with intuition." (21) 

Not exactly a personable fellow, is he? He certainly says exactly what he thinks! No social filter here! :)

It turns out that Mary has a rather contentious relationship with her aunt who serves as her guardian, but once Mary had traced the woman's bank account, that basically squelched the possibility of her truly sabotaging any of Mary's plans, actions, or behaviors. I tell you what. I am rather glad Mary wasn't my child! I see that she could be 'a handful,' as they say! :) 

Three months after my fifteenth birthday Sherlock Holmes entered my life, to become my foremost friend, tutor, substitute father, and eventually confidant. (29)

In those first few weeks of spring I was like some tropical seed upon which was poured water and warmth. I blossomed, my body under the care of Mrs. Hudson and my mind under the care of this odd man, who had left behind the thrill of the chase in London and come to the quietest of country homes to raise bees, write his books, and, perhaps, to meet me. I do not know what fates put us less than ten miles from each other. I do know that I have never, in all my travels, met a mind like Holmes. 
Nor has he, he says, met my equal. (29)

Mary's aunt was not known for providing food, and Mrs. Hudson, Holmes' housekeeper, loved to feed people, hence, Mary's body was now well nourished. As was her mind...

Though Mary initially had little respect for Dr. Watson, after actually meeting and getting to know him, she admits to Holmes,

"I suppose you know I was prepared to hate him," I said finally.

"Oh yes." 
"I can see why you kept him near you. He's so...good, somehow. Naïve, yes, and

he doesn't seem terribly bright, but when I think of all the ugliness and evil and pain he's known... It's polished him, hasn't it? Purified him."

"Polished is a good image. Seeing myself reflected in Watson's eyes was useful when contemplating a case that was giving me problems. He taught me a great deal about how humans function, what drives them. He keeps me humble, does Watson." He caught my dubious look. 

"At any rate, as humble as I can be." (33)

Hah! Love that sly bit of humor. King has such humor sprinkled throughout and it greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book. 

Mary was aware that several factors combined to make it possible for her to spend such long hours in Holmes' house: it was 1915 and wartime meant that social niceties of chaperonage were basically abandoned or, at best, weakly observed; her aunt cared little about Mary's actions or behaviors as long as they didn't impact her; her parents were dead; and perhaps most importantly, Mrs. Hudson's constant presence provided some semblance of propriety. This same circumstance of wartime loosening more rigid societal norms regarding relationships was depicted in 
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (In answer to your unspoken question, no, I have not yet finished re-reading it from last year...) and the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear (Yet more blog posts I need to finalize!). So war can be/is an impetus for psychosocial evolution in certain areas. While I consider such change to be freeing overall, I do not consider war to be good! 

...he tended to treat me more as a lad than as a girl and seemed in fact to solve any discomfort my sex might cause him by simply ignoring it: I was Russell, not some female, 

and if necessity required our spending time alone together, even spending the night without escort, then that is what we would do. First and foremost a pragmatist, 
he had no time for the interference of unnecessary standards. (35)

Does that mean the human species might actually evolve beyond the need for war? It is my fervent hope... Of course, World War I greatly decreased the number of young men in a society/culture, too. As Mary notes:

The Oxford University I came to in 1917 was a shadow of her normal,self-assured self, 

its population a tenth of that in 1914 before the war, 

a number lower even than in the years following the Black Death. (42)

That is a staggering amount of people gone...just gone...never to return. Of course, the college campuses would be greatly impacted, since most campus populations consisted mainly of younger white males, a few white females, and virtually few other, more diverse, students.

Mary remembering playing chess with Holmes:

...we played games without number under the hot sky. 
He no longer had to handicap himself severely in order to work for his victories. 
I still have that set, and when I open it I can smell the ghost of the hay 
that was being cut in a field below us, the day I beat him evenly for the first time. (41)

I'll just bet she remembers that! Mary returns from school and insists that Patrick, the farm's caretaker, allow her to help with some physical labor, to get back into shape, telling him, "if I don't get back to using my muscles, they'll forget how to function altogether." But she and Holmes continued playing chess, too...

"Sometimes you have to sacrifice the queen in order to save the game." (242)

This as Mary beats Holmes after returning from college, using a move her maths tutor had used to beat her.

Upon her arrival at Oxford, Mary is immediately recruited by "Ronnie" into the acting group and notes this left her with two unexpected legacies:

a coterie of lasting friends (Nothing binds like shared danger, however spurious.) and a distinct taste for the freedom that comes with assuming another's identity. (45)

The latter skill will come in handy during her "work" with Holmes. There are several "mysteries" in this first installment of the series. The first is a neighbor's suspicions regarding what she believes to be her husband's nefarious activities. The second involves a kidnapped 6-year-old child. And the third...well, it involves bombs...and disguises...and betrayal. 

I did not think of myself as a detective. I was a student of theology, 
and I was to spend my life in exploration, not of the darker crannies of human misbehaviour, 

but of the heights of human speculation concerning the nature of the Divine.
That the two were not unrelated did not occur to me for years. (34) 

A dream foreshadows some of their future challenges, as Mary remembers part of Holmes' book on beekeeping:

"A hive of bees should be viewed, not as a single species, but as a triumvirate of related types, mutually exclusive in function, but utterly and inextricably interdependent upon each other. 

A single bee separated from its sisters and brothers will die, even if given the ideal food and care. 

A single bee cannot survive apart from the hive." (167) 

That could most certainly be interpreted in many different ways...

Deciphering a code begins to break the case loose...

the decoded letters spell M-O-R-I-A-R-T-Y. 

But how could that be? 

He is most certainly dead...
by Holme's own hand,

isn't he? 

I can understand why this book was nominated for the Agatha Award in 1994!
I am planning to read the second book in the series this week! 
Have you read any historical mysteries?