Literary Wives #43

War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen

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I am interested as to others' reactions to this book.
I found it to be extremely compelling. 
I literally read it in one day. I simply could not put it down. 
I did not remember this was a mystery...but...bonus! :)
I not only found the mystery compelling, but the characters and their interactions were just as compelling to me as my need to know "whodunnit" if Simon did not commit suicide. 
It seemed as if every single character prompted both compassion and sympathy/empathy. 
Each character was complex, while still being relatable.
I was reminded of The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin, 
since Charles Lindbergh was also a bigamist. 
Actually, he had multiple families around the world.
Quite the "family guy," huh?
Simon was rather similar, though he only had 
two "wives" and one mistress. That we know of...
In addition to being wives, both Lottie and Selina 
were mothers to teenagers. They both had their 
challenges dealing with their children in the wake of Simon's death.

I particularly appreciated Selina and Lottie's various challenges in dealing with their children. As Lottie says:

I can understand why Mum worried so much. When your children are younger 

you think you want to raise them to make their own choices, but gradually 

you realize what you really mean is the right choices, your choices. (p 42)

I did laugh at this, because I believe it is a trap most parents fall into very easily. However, I'm sure in no small part in reaction to my own mother's overbearing and overly judgmental behaviors, I tried very hard not to expect my sons to do what I wanted them to do, but rather tried to educate them to all the possibilities their adult life presented to them. It is, after all, their life...not mine! And I refuse to try to 'live through my children'. That is so unfair and unjust. 

Dealing with my own children became trickier as they aged. As they become adults, you truly have no control and very little opportunity for meaningful input. For the most part you simply sit back and watch unless you intend to alienate them by giving your opinion(s) and/or 'lecturing' them... As Selina discusses what she wishes to say to her daughter Flora regarding her hairstyle: 

...or any of the stupid things overbearing mothers want to 

say to their grown-up daughters. (p 13)

I had to chuckle at this statement. Though it made me recall the fact that my own mother never ever hesitated to give me her opinion, no matter how rude or overbearing she may have been in doing so. (That would go a long way in describing our fraught relationship.) Likewise Lottie with her teenage daughter, Sadie, often choosing to keep her comments to herself to hopefully encourage the girl to confide in her as much as possible. As Lottie states, 

There's something about mothers and daughters, isn't there? (p 39)

Sadie was a "daddy's girl" according to Lottie. I wouldn't know about that either since I never had a father in my life. But I feel as if I would have connected better with a male since I tend to be quite androgynous in my behaviors in many ways. While I have never dealt with a daughter I know that it can be a very difficult relationship to maintain between mothers and daughters, at least from my perspective as a daughter of an extremely judgmental mother. But I digress...

I could appreciate Lottie's bemoaning the fact that her mother didn't live long enough to see just how happy she and Simon have been...

Sometimes I wonder if that's the thing you miss most when someone dies, 

not so much the person themselves as the things they'll never know about you 

and what's happened in your life. The you they'll never meet. (p 42)

As I read this I remembered a friend who stated that he felt what I missed most in the wake of my mother's death was that there would never be a chance for us to have a good relationship since she was no longer in this world. And he was correct. That is what I yearned for my whole adult life and now knew I would never have...

Selina feels "Grief has made her selfish." (p 57) This is the result of her being unable to speak with her son Josh regarding his own grief and emotions in the wake of his father's death. Though I would argue that Selina had buried her own feelings and needs for so long that she was unable to express her own emotions, let alone help her children do so. She cites the fact that "Josh has never been faced with something irreversible" (p 98) and is finding the "brutal finality" of it difficult to accept. 

When the worst that can happen has already happened, 

what can you do but start again? (p 356)

Through all this family trauma, and was there ever trauma, Cohen manages to slip in some humor, mainly through Selina. For example, as she describes the downsides of Skyping: 
     (1) you can never get away/hang up
     (2) you can see each other and that is so "intimate." 
I don't Skype but I had never considered those two factors. I'm sure that's true.  

In the end, Lottie discovers after the funeral that she is pregnant with Simon's child and it is hopeful to see Selina and her own children rally round Lottie during the pregnancy and childbirth. While looking at the new baby, Hope, in her hospital bed

[Lottie] felt that jolt of betrayal when she thought about Simon, 

but the pain had eased, and sometimes now she could remember him just as he was, without that need to eulogize or attack him. 

She could see now that he hadn't been a bad person.

He'd just been able to tuck secrets away in pockets so far inside him 

that he didn't need to see or think bout them--until it was too late. 

And he'd convinced himself that love was the thing, 

that you could forgive yourself anything if it was done for love. (p 373)

I guess that is true... I feel as if Lottie is a much more forgiving person than I, however...

The woman in the hospital bed next to Lottie's comments:

'You've a big family...Is your husband around?"

"No."

"Oh, well...You've got plenty of support from the looks of it, so who needs him, hey?

It's his funeral, at the end of the day."

Just a silly expression, so the woman couldn't really understand why her neighbor ...seemed to find it so very, very funny. (p 374)

Sometimes, unconsciously, others say things that just capture the truth in a very humorous way...

And now for that Literary Wives question:

What does this book say about wives 

or about the experience of being a wife? 

I felt this book had much to say about wives and 

the experience of being a wife.

Each of these wives, Selina and Lottie, loved Simon in their 

own way. However, they were very different people and

Simon's relationship with each wife was very different,

as depicted in the following conversation:

Simon: I know now that happiness isn't about sipping fine chianti while the sun sets over the hills. It's something else, something visceral. (p. 363)

I can't explain. I feel known by her. I feel like me... 
Selina: You're saying I stop you being who you are?
Simon: Sel...
Selina: You're wrong!...I give you the stability to go off into the world and be who you are. Stability is the thing--not love.(p. 364)

This is included at the very end of the book. We learn that Simon had actually been honest with Selina at one point in time and tried to divorce her. However, upon learning she is pregnant with their third child (a lie Selina perpetrates to keep him in the marriage), he decided to remain married to her... I admit that for me, this conversation brought back memories. 

Selina's situation of remaining in a loveless marriage was familiar to me. I remained in my first marriage for another 12 years after I decided my spouse was never going to be the parent he had claimed he would be to our three sons and I was "stuck" due to lack of financial resources. I could not see how it would be possible to raise my sons as a single mother. This was before social safety net programs to help poor folks survive were available and I'm sure I was petrified to try it, as well. So I spent 12 years never considering or evaluating my own happiness in a relationship, it was simply a means to an end--hopefully somehow being able to raise my own children to be responsible, kind, caring adults, regardless of the poor role model I felt their father portrayed.

So that paragraph above sounded rather familiar to me. I don't know if I would have lied to Simon to keep him or not, but perhaps I would have done the exact same thing as Selina. I'm not sure Selina was the type of person capable of forming a truly 'passionate' relationship. She seemed rather cold and distant, though she was phenomenal at organizing her life to keep current on all tasks and provide everything to be expected of a wife and 'good' mother, particularly one whose husband is stationed away from home at least half the time. I'm not sure we can ever know how we might react to any given situation until we are in it ourselves. 

Selina is very proud of the fact that she and Simon do not feel the need to talk to each other all the time, or even every single day. In describing her best friends' relationship:

Hettie and Ian...call each other ten times a day to talk about absolutely nothing at all...

And always finishing with an "I love you." So unnecessary. 

Love is like any other commodity. The more you flaunt it, the less value it has. 

The real trick is to make the other person feel loved... (p 19)

This made me pause. I do believe it to be true...for me, at least. However, I also realize that any two people need to construct their own relationship in ways that are meaningful to them. It is not up to me to decide what is 'good' or 'bad' in any other relationships, only to try to make my own relationships work well for me and the others involved. Is that easy? Sometimes. But certainly not all the time. There are definitely challenges and pitfalls to be overcome. But there should also be times of harmony and happiness and those need to be recalled as often as possible to help overcome the challenging bits, in my opinion.

I could particularly relate to Selina's belief that if she made all the effort to do her best to raise her children and make her marriage work as well as possible, there would be some reward. That was the same fairy tale in which I believed as I stayed in a marriage even after I had lost virtually any respect for my spouse. And even worse for her since she KNEW that Simon was no longer as invested in their relationship and really wanted out, having found another person with whom he could "feel like me." She thought if she was a 'good wife and mother' she would reap rewards. Not necessarily so, however. And, of course, Selina was all about the easy 'rich' lifestyle to which she had become accustomed, hence a further discouragement from divorcing.
                         Maybe in the end we all settle, just to be left with nothing. (p 280)

Unbeknownst to Selina, Simon decided to "marry" this 'other woman', Lottie. So although Selina lied to Simon so he would not divorce her, she did know he was in a relationship with another woman at that time. What she didn't know was that he was maintaining two families in addition to an "extramarital affair"/another sexual relationship which extended over 30 years. All I can say is, Simon evidently had an unlimited supply of energy... And I honestly wondered just how many other women he had sex with while "married." I admit to being very old-fashioned when it comes to the concept of marriage. I always wonder why men can't just keep their pants zipped and maintain a monogamous relationship. It doesn't seem that difficult to do, IMHO! It is a commitment you made, so "just do it"! (Or don't "do it," however you wish to state it. :))

According to Simon

Love is about wanting more. 

Wanting more of someone, more for someone, more life, more love. (p 355)

But as Lottie watches Karen Griffiths embrace her husband and realizes that she followed him and waited for the appropriate time to intervene, loving him regardless of his dependence upon lithium to maintain emotional balance, she felt that Simon's definition was somehow incorrect. Perhaps there was more to love than Simon's definition... Though Simon was definitely selfish with his life. He wanted what he wanted but he lacked the balls to divorce Selina so he could have a monogamous relationship with Lottie--though I feel monogamy was perhaps not an attainable goal for Simon since we know he also maintained a relationship with a third woman throughout these 30 years, albeit off and on... 

Once Selina learns there is a reasonable chance that Simon was actually murdered and did not commit suicide, she feels relieved, thinking 

Maybe I'm not such a failure as a wife, if my husband didn't choose to leave me. 

(p 320)

Uhm. Actually, he did choose to leave you years ago and you convinced him to remain by lying to him about a third pregnancy. But our memories can become selective, can't they? Again, I believe she thought she had 'played the game well' and deserved a prize/reward, rather than destitution. 

As Selina apologizes to Greg's wife (Simon's partner with whom she has been having sex) she thinks...
                                             All of us sorry. None of us safe. (p 320)

I truly wondered what Cohen meant by this statement. Perhaps we are all 'sorry' for people wronged? Yet we know we can become a victim at any time? I thought it a rather ominous thought.

So what exactly is love? And does that lead to other feelings such as commitment that overtake passionate feelings or even hopes and desires? I believe it is different for different people, just as Lottie and Selina obviously provided very different experiences in a marriage for Simon, so do each of us provide "unique-to-us" experiences for our own partners. 

Happy reading!

~Lynn

This is the next book we will review 
on Monday, June 1st! 

The Dutch House

My first Ann Patchett!

Secrets kept? Perhaps...but at what cost?

Two Can Keep a Secret...If One is Dead 

by Karen M. McManus

Secrets are rarely a good idea, are they?!?

Though I guess it depends what the actual secret is and the context, doesn't it?

I admit to being a bit more enamored with this book than McManus's debut, One of Us Is Lying, mainly due to the different story arcs.

(And...neither cover is appealing to me for some reason.)

Though both mysteries are a bit creepy (for me, at least), 

they are both, in my opinion, extremely well-written,

particularly with regard to characterization, especially 

this second book. I loved Ellery and Ezra! (And what cool names!) 

My suspicions kept bouncing around to virtually all characters

at one time or another as I read. (I love that about mysteries!) 

And in the end, I didn't fully realize the solution 

until Ellery and Ezra did! Of course, by then it was a bit too late, 

at least for their own safety.

While I typically have no qualms including spoilers in my reviews, I definitely will not do so for this book. But if you love mysteries or thrillers, I would highly recommend this book. 

It is, in my opinion, a psychological thriller.

McManus is now one of my favorite writers! 

I fully appreciate the fact that one of the protagonists, Ezra, is a teenage male who happens to be gay. It is simply part of this character's background. Very cool...no big deal...that's just how it is. I'm glad that literature/novels can simply reflect the diversity of humanity. Ezra is the male portion of a set of fraternal twins, along with his sister, Ellery, who tends to be very analytical, always looking for connections, or as several characters say, creating "conspiracy theories." She has always been extremely interested in the seemingly inexplicable and sudden disappearance of her aunt, her mother's identical twin sister at the age of 17. And since her mother is now in residential rehab for challenges with addiction, she and Ezra are  forced to move in with their maternal grandmother in the small town where her mother and aunt grew up, Echo Ridge. 

Fortunately for Sadie, their mother, although she drove through and destroyed a store front, the judge overseeing her case believes in "treatment" rather than jail time. Hence their grandmother is paying for Sadie's rehabilitation treatment and also raising her grandchildren until their mother can hopefully return to daily life and resume responsibility for them. Sadie was a rather unsuccessful actress near Hollywood in California and the twins have lived in some fairly undesirable apartments and neighborhoods throughout their lifetime, so Echo Ridge is 'pastoral' by comparison and their grandmother's house is large with more-than-enough room to live comfortably. 

However, on the drive to Echo Ridge from the airport, they encounter a hit-and-run victim in the road who is already dead. He would have been Ellery and Ezra's high school teacher had he lived. No one can unravel the mystery of his death until Brooke is drunk one night and behaves in such a way as to inadvertently initiate an investigation by Ellery which eventually leads to her and the police identifying the killer. I could appreciate Mr Bowman's epitaph on his tombstone:

Tell me and I forget

Teach me and I may remember

Involve me and I learn (49)

So very true! 

Having lived in small towns, or rural/"country" areas outside of small towns, I felt McManus's descriptions of the interactions and immediate spreading of news, rumors, and gossip, were spot on. The older I get the less I can bear the pettiness that results from such a social environment. I guess I should pity those who have nothing better to do with their lives than 'spy' on friends, neighbors, and enemies, and then talk about everyone behind their backs. My mother was a champion at that, so perhaps that helps explain my disgust with such behaviors. It is harmful. No matter how a person may justify it, it can do so much harm to innocent and even not-so-innocent people. My motto has always been, "If they're talking about me, at least they're leaving some other poor innocent person alone..." :)

Ellery perfectly describes her role as peacemaker and "positive communicator" with her mother as they begin a telephone conversation:

I could refuse to play along, I guess. But as my eye catches the photo of her and her sister on my bookcase, I already feel myself wanting to please her. To smooth things over and make her smile. 

I've been doing it my entire life; it's impossible to stop now. (36)

So many times this is exactly how it is with children of parents with erratic personalities and other challenges, especially addiction. They, in effect, attempt to not only serve as parents to themselves, but also to 'parent' their own parents! They never get to be children! Another telling scene is Ellery's relief and pleasure when her grandmother encourages her to consider where she might like to attend college and to schedule her SAT exams. When she describes her lack of interest in the past due to financial insecurity, her grandmother assures Ellery that she will help her. I appreciated how this opened up all new avenues of possibilities and hope for a better future for Ellery and Ezra. 

One of Ellery and Ezra's Echo Ridge friends is Malcolm, brother of Declan, former Homecoming King, and boyfriend of the Homecoming Queen who was murdered in Echo about 5 years ago...at the age of 17. Unfortunately, he was the main suspect and appears to still manage to be at the wrong place at the wrong time...therefore, when Malcolm is the last person to see Brooke alive, it appears he may well be carrying on a frightening 'family tradition as suspect number one', just as Declan was in the past. Brooke was on the Homecoming Court and may have become Homecoming Queen herself, had she not disappeared in the 2 weeks prior to the Echo Ridge Homecoming weekend. Malcolm has always resented the fact that Declan was able to simply move away from Echo Ridge and didn't have to continue to deal with the town gossip and rumor mill about himself. Although once Declan returns and connects with his little brother, Malcolm realizes that "Declan's life is a lot shitter up close than it seems from a state away." Declan's move to another location certanly didn't solve all his problems. 

Ellery becomes obsessed with her desire to "do something. For the missing girls, and the ones left behind." It is always a challenge for those left alive to deal in the aftermath of a disappearance or murder. There is a breakthrough in the 'case' when Brooke becomes drunk and states,

I need to get it back. I shouldn't have...I just shouldn't have. 

I have to show them. It's not right, it's not okay. (135)

This is only the beginning of many clues and unanswered questions for Ellery, Ezra, and Malcolm, as they try to solve several different crimes. In the process of investigating, Ellery and Ezra discover the identity of their previously-unknown-to-them biological father, as well as a whole new family of half-siblings. 

There is a missing custom-made bracelet,

a high school class ring at a murder site, 

a receipt for car repairs under a fictitious name, 

and...paper clips.

And you are a better investigator than I if you solve all three of these crimes 

before Ellery and Ezra do...

I highly recommend this book if you like mysteries!

Have you read any good mysteries lately?

Are you anxiously anticipating the release of any new ones?

My message to Ms. McManus: All I ask is that you please keep writing--faster!! :)

Happy reading!

--Lynn

Blackout -- NOT Andy Carpenter, but just as good!

Blackout by David Rosenfelt

If you follow this blog at all, you should be well aware 

that I love Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series. 

Truly, I do!

However, when I discovered that he also publishes stand-alone mysteries,

I assumed I would also like those and wondered 

if my husband might not also enjoy reading them.

I did. He does!

I checked this newest release out of the library and both of us enjoyed it very much!
Though I admit, I missed Tara greatly! (Andy's canine companion...)

He had me with the first line, really...

Nate Alvarez wanted to screen the call. (1)

Really? Why? What's going on with this guy that he needs to know who is calling? Oh, wait! I do that all the freakin' time!
If your number isn't in my phone, I'll not answer. 

Followed by the second and third sentences:

Actually, he wanted to throw the phone on the ground 

and stomp on it until it stopped ringing permanently. 

There were times in his life that he would have done exactly that, 

but Nate was thirty-seven years old, and in recent months 

there had been faint signs that he was starting to mature. (1)

Yup! There's that snarky self-deprecating humor 

I love so much from the Andy Carpenter series!

Having read these first three sentences, 

I knew this would be enjoyable! I was "in"!

Then we begin to get just a bit of information:

Doug was a loose cannon, always had been. Sometimes it helped him on the job, and sometimes it didn't. What it did was thrust Nate, his partner, into the role of seasoned, level-headed veteran. 

It was not a role that Nate was particularly well suited for. (2)

This is what I love so much. By the top of the second page we have learned so much about these two men--about their personalities and their relationship as partners! Doug had "experienced a personal tragedy that shook him to his core" about six months prior to this. It was an incident that I don't believe anyone could have recovered from or dealt with quickly or completely...perhaps ever. Doug has been chasing Nick Bennett for many years, trying to nail him with...well...something...anything!

Bennett's appearance was particularly deceiving. He was fifty-three years old, graying, 

tall and thin. He looked more like a refined patron of the arts than a person 

who had clawed his way up the criminal ladder in northern New Jersey. 

And ironically, he was in fact a patron of the arts, 

as well as a contributor to many charitable causes. (19)

So immediately we know Nick is one of those guys who is virtually untouchable! This is our first 'bad guy' who is immediately linked to a second 'bad buy,' Ahmat Gharsi, who is currently living in the U.S., unbeknownst to the authorities.  

So he was going to stay in New York City, and with perfect fake identification 

and some minor cosmetic changes in his appearance, he would not be found by the authorities, whether or not they were looking for him. 

Eventually they would learn that he was there.

After the fact. (24)

We are told that Gharsi is underestimating the threat that is Bennett. 

Ahmat Gharsi would learn that Nicholas Bennett was a force to be reckoned with, 
and one he would not be able to handle. 

After the fact. (25)

Doug is found in a motel room with a severe head injury and is suffering from retrograde amnesia in the aftermath. He cannot remember anything that has happened within the past ten years. The prognosis? He may or may not remember anything. Only time will tell. 

Waking up every morning I have the same sensation.

Things seem normal...I seem normal...and my first thought is that it isn't possible. 

There's no way I could have lost ten years of my life.

I'm pretty pissed off about it. It's like I was in a coma all that time, as if I never lived 

those years at all. I'm already realizing that life is all about memories; 

it's the way we keep score. It doesn't matter if a tree makes a sound when it falls in the forest; 

it only matters if anyone remembers it. (45)

I get that. It only seems 'normal' for someone to be angry about losing their memory. It is true that we do "keep score" through memories, isn't it? I'd never thought about it in that way, but I do agree. Without memories, you are basically screwed in many ways. Though Doug had been suspended from the police force, he is now "reinstated with full back pay." But Doug has no idea why he was suspended or what happened to him at that motel! He must ask the Captain his own rank! He was...is, a lieutenant! As you can imagine, that sets any investigation back mightily, when no one even knew where you were, let alone what you were doing and you have no clue either! Yikes! 

Throughout this book, someone tries to kill Doug who becomes a hero when he stops an attack in a movie theater. Then he becomes persona non grata with his own force, Homeland Security, and basically any other law enforcement agency involved, when he receives a tip he believes to be valid and follows up on it with a fruitless stakeout and raid. Much money, time, and manpower wasted for no tangible result. And he has no further leads after that...and still just a teeny bit of memory, but nothing compelling or helpful in solving this case. 

And though she helps, Jessie, is trying mightily to keep a certain distance from Doug, though that gives way before long. You see, not only is Jessie a fellow coworker, but she was once his fiance, until the tragedy six months ago when he broke up with her rather than allowing her to work through their combined grief together. Ouch! This is going to be tricky, as you might well imagine! The morning following their first 'reunion sex' as he prepares to leave, Doug says...

"Nate said if I ever hurt you again, he'll torture and kill me."

"He'll have to get in line." (172)

Alrighty then! At least he knows where he stands with this relationship! He had better 'do right by her,' as they say! Doug receives yet another tip and after sharing the information 
with Jessie, decides this time, he will pursue a stakeout on his own time, by himself...until...

"I'm going with you," she says.

"You don't need to do that. I'm not going to be going in shooting. I'll strictly be an observer."

"Which part of 'I'm going with you' didn't you understand?"

This is one tough lady. Not only can't I fathom why I broke up with her, 

I don't have any idea where I would have gotten the courage to do so. 

"Let me ask you one question," I say. "In past situations like this, 

when we disagreed on something, who would usually come out ahead?"

"I'm undefeated," she said.

"I'll pick you up at seven." (177)

Love it! :) As a feminist I guess I can especially appreciate this. Plus...it sounds...I don't know...I guess...rather...familiar? :)

There are last-minute twists and turns within the plot, betrayal--

all the stuff of a good mystery! 

And, people are definitely in danger! 

Some die.

Some live.

Just a good solid mystery, in my humble opinion, and my husband backs me up on that!

Do you like mysteries?

Do you have a favorite author? Series?

I'd love to know your thoughts. 

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?