Not your average Holmes mysteries

On the recommendation - and generous provision, as a birthday present - from my friend Valerie, I have just read two books in Laurie King's Mary Russel series. They're a continuation of Sherlock Holmes' adventures, picking up from a few years after Doyle left off with his last story and going into the early twenties. The principal protagonist and narrator, Mary Russel, is a brilliant, stubborn and quite likeable (as a character, though not so much as a person) young lady who literally stumbles upon Holmes in the Sussex downs to which he has retired and ends up becoming his apprentice and partner, in an active way that Watson never was. I'm not speaking ill of the good Dr. Watson, who gets a more sympathetic and dignified treatment at King's hands than with many others. He is one of many ambiguous and oft-debated aspects of the original canon that Laurie King presents in an edifying light, and with good grace.

Doyle might have been proud, once he got over the initial shock - if he had the good humor to absorb the unflattering portrayal of himself, mostly by reference, without taking offense.

This has actually inspired me to get back to my Ruse fanfic, whcih I have not worked much on in a long time.