Laurie R. King

Award-winning, bestselling, thought-provoking mysteries

LAURIE'S NEWSLETTER

The Meet (his version and hers)

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I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongst the sheep (which tended to move out of my way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness) I had never before stepped on a person.

It was a cool, sunny day in early April….

April the 8th, in fact. And the rest was history…as we know from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

But don’t forget, Holmes wrote about that meeting, too. And his was from rather different point of view….

So, who are we to believe?  The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, or “Beekeeping for Beginners“?

You decide.

 

Russell’s life onscreen

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The other day, a charming appointment popped up on my e-calendar:

This was to remind me of a video conference with the English team working to bring Russell to the screen.  And despite smoke in the air, the occasional rolling blackout, and the inevitable problems of getting Microsoft to talk to Apple, we managed to meet up.

Once we’d linked up, I started the discussion by saying that I had a really important question for them.

They did look slightly alarmed—since this was a first meet with one and only the second for the other.  Good lord, you could see them think: do we have one of those writers on our hands?  The kind who starts out pushy and gets worse?

But no, I hope I’m not one of those writers.  Instead, my question was: “So, are you two having fun yet?”

And the answer I got was, oh yes indeed, they were—all kinds of fun.

Now, I have no way of knowing whether Russell & Holmes will show up in your living rooms.  I do feel very positive about the project, and these people certainly have the experience and resources to see it through. But to have people who clearly adore Mary Russell, who want to bring me in as a consultant on basic decisions, and whose enthusiasm was palpable—well, all I can say is, Mary Russell is in good hands.

A RussellKing Twitter chat

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Miss Mary Russell and I (her editor, of course) had a conversation on Twitter over the weekend, which a mutual friend kindly transcribed and rearranged so it goes from start to finish, rather than having to scroll down to the bottom for the start (as happens when you follow the conversation hashtag, #RussellKingChat ):

MRH: Good day, @LaurieRKing, so here we are for a conversation on twitter. Thank you for joining me.

LRK: Hello Miss Russell! I’m not very good on Twitter, but this is the way you wanted, so please forgive any errors…

MRH: I’m sure they will be few. I find Twitter the ideal way to communicate with my readers. It is at once intimate and affords distance.

LRK: I remember you had a conversation with my friend Les Klinger some years ago, which he greatly enjoyed.

MRH: I found it tedious.

For the rest, pop over to the web site page of Fun Stuff.

Enjoy!

A Russell-King Twitter conversation

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Saturday morning (or afternoon, or evening depending on your zone) Miss Russell and I will have a Twitter conversation that you, her reading public, may listen in on.  You can look at her feed or mine–@mary_russell or @LaurieRKing–and we’ll be using the hashtag #RussellKingChat.

Some years ago, my friend and co-editor Les Klinger valiantly attempted to conduct a similar conversation with her, which ended up in the very first of our “inspired by Sherlock Holmes” anthologies, A Study in Sherlock.  Here is how that one went:

A STUDY IN SHERLOCK: AFTERWORD

Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger

The following is a transcript of a conversation conducted via Twitter between Leslie S. Klinger (whose Twitter address is @lklinger) and Mary Russell (@mary_russell) in the fall of 2011. Klinger is the editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Russell is a theologian and investigator, who married Mr. Sherlock Holmes in 1921. Her memoirs appear as the “novels” of Laurie R. King–The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, et cetera.

(Les Klinger) @mary_russell Am editing w/LRKing “stories inspired by SH” & wd love an interview w/him or you. OK 4 LRK 2 giv me yr contact info?

(Mary Russell) @lklinger No, my literary agent Ms King does not have permission to give you my private contact information.

(LK) @mary_russell But wouldn’t u prefer to talk in private?

(MR) @lklinger “Private” conversations undergo changes in the mind of the interviewer. I prefer that such exchanges be on public record.

(LK) @mary_russell U want me 2 interview u on Twitter?

(MR) @lklinger I do not wish you to interview me at all, but clearly that is not an option.
(LK) @mary_russell We could call it a Twinterview.
(MR) @lklinger Mr Klinger, if you wish my participation, I must ask that you refrain from whimsy. And excessive abbreviations.
(LK) @mary_russell Sorry, Ms Russell. Okay, no whimsy, & I’ll keep the questions suitable for all eyes.
(MR) @lklinger I should hope so. And I prefer “Miss.” Now, may we proceed with this conversation? I have an experiment awaiting me.
(LK) @mary_russell First, how does Mr Holmes feel about having inspired the creativity of more than a century of crime writers?
(MR) @lklinger My husband does not care to discuss his feelings.
(LK) @mary_russell OK, how do YOU feel re his having inspired 100 yrs of crime writers? People other than (sorry must make this 2 Tweets)
(LK) @mary_russell—than Dr Watson were telling Holmes stories even as the originals were coming out. Why do u think they felt that urge?
(MR) @lklinger They admired Holmes. They wished to speculate about him. So they made up stories.
(LK) @mary_russell That’s it? Just a desire for more?
(MR) @lklinger Nicholas Meyer (your friend?) claimed that Dr Watson was such a great writer, others saw the stories as a challenge.
(LK) @mary_russell But NM was explaining why he wrote his books & doesn’t speak for others. I’m not even sure I believe his excuse.
(MR) @lklinger I said claimed. I met Meyer when he was young. I think he wrote them through frustration with a mere 60 published tales.
(LK) @mary_russell Does it bother u that writers make up fictions about your husband? Some of their stories are pretty outrageous.
(MR) @lklinger I was young when I realised that since Holmes was seen as fictional, by contagion I would be so viewed as well.
(MR) @lklinger Thus I have lived a long life with one foot in the real world and the other in the world of being perceived as a fiction.
(MR) @lklinger My own literary agent, Laurie King, claims that it is necessary to categorise my memoirs—mine!—as novels.
(MR) @lklinger And since I expect that you will now ask how that makes me “feel,” I will admit that the sensation of being fictional is—
(MR) @lklinger—is indeed peculiar. What our—Holmes’s and my—friend Neil Gaiman calls the sensation of being “the idea of a person.”
(LK) @mary_russell Neil is one of those contributing to this current volume—which we’re calling A Study in Sherlock.

(MR) @lklinger I grasp the reference to the initial Conan Doyle story, but this assumption of first-name familiarity jars, a bit.
(LK) @mary_russell Publishers, you know? This is the modern world. & you are after all American.
(MR) @lklinger Half American, and I retain very little of the accent, or attitudes.
(LK) @mary_russell Back 2 the questions. How did Dr Watson react? Some stories came out while his were still appearing in The Strand.
(MR) @lklinger Uncle John had many shouting matches down the telephone with Sir Arthur, demanding solicitors be hired. To no avail.
(LK) @mary_russell Well, we know what Shakespeare thought should be done with lawyers.
(MR) @lklinger That may be a bit drastic. Some of my best friends have lawyer relatives.
(LK) @mary_russell And, um, I’m a lawyer. At least during the day.
(MR) @lklinger I know you are a lawyer, Mr Klinger. That was my feeble attempt at humor. We are also very aware of your New Annotated
(MR) @lklinger—Annotated Sherlock Holmes. An excellent attempt at scholarship, which will do until Holmes’s own notes are published.
(LK) @mary_russell May I ask when that will be?
(MR) @lklinger No need to worry, Mr Klinger, it will be several more years.
(LK) @mary_russell Right. So Dr W was upset, but not Holmes?
(MR) @lklinger Holmes learned long ago to leave the shouting to Dr Watson. He finds it best to stay aloof of the literary world.
(LK) @mary_russell Some stories in this collection are less about Holmes than about people affected by Dr W’s stories. Do you approve?
(MR) @lklinger One might as well approve of breathing air, as of people falling under the spell of Sherlock Holmes, even secondhand.
(LK) @mary_russell So you do understand the appeal of the Sherlock Holmes stories over the ages?
(MR) @lklinger My dear young man, of course I understand their pull. I was captivated by the stories long before I met the man.

(LK) @mary_russell Speaking of captivation, may I ask about your relationship with Mr Holmes?

(MR) @lklinger No. Oh dear, Mr Klinger, ominous noises from the laboratory require my immediate attention. Good luck with your book.

(LK) @mary_russell Just another couple of questions, Miss Russell. May I ask, what is Mr Holmes doing these days?

(LK) @mary_russell Miss Russell?
(LK) @mary_russell Thank you, Miss Russell.

 

DEADLY Pub Day!

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Deadly Anniversaries comes out today!

(And congratulations, Ellen, Richard, and Pat—you’ve won the hardback!)

When the Great War began, in August of 1914, the British Army had about 250,000 regulars.  It took time to train new troops, and in the Kaiser’s first push, the Brits would have been hard put to hold fast, but within six weeks, 150,000 experienced Indian soldiers arrived.

But in the minds of every British officer was the memory of the Indian Mutiny, when the Sepoys rose up, triggering terrible slaughter on both sides. The final offense had been the tallow used to grease rifle cartridges, repugnant to Muslim and Hindu soldiers alike, but that was only the spark that lit a generation of accumulated tinder.

In the Great War, the British Army remembered.  Those Indian Army soldiers were desperately needed, and although they couldn’t do much about the climate in northern France, they did take care to consider and respect their actual needs.

Which meant that starting in December 2014, when a wounded Indian soldier was evacuated from the field hospital to longer-term care, he would wake up here:

I imagine most of them thought they were hallucinating.

The Brighton Pavilion was built in the late 18th century, but was turned into a mock-Moghul profusion of domes and minarets by one of the most prominent architects in London, John Nash. This was a place where a working-class Indian lad would feel at home, right? But as I said, Britain’s officers had learned the painful lessons, and they not only wouldn’t feed a wounded Hindu soldier beef, or put pork in front of a Muslim, they set up a series of individual kitchens for the various religions and gradations of caste. Muslims were given a space to pray facing Mecca, Sikhs had a gurdwara.  Muslims who died were taken to a nearby mosque, while the Hindus and Sikhs were taken to an actual burning ghat, built for them in the hills above Brighton.

When Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller asked me to write a story on the theme of “anniversaries,” I thought of all those men, dragged thousands of miles from home to fight for a country that hadn’t always shown them the utmost expect, and how vital they proved.

I wanted to tell a story for them.

Russell’s Nurse Friend

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One of the people I follow on Facebook is a long-time admirer of the Mary Russell stories who came into the fold when she was younger than Russell is in Beekeeper.  She did some of the illustrations we’ve used in various projects, like this one of Baskerville Hall:

(She was one of the few artists who actually drew Russell with glasses. Glasses are hard.)  Marisa is now a nurse.  In New Orleans. Where the Covid death rate is twice that of New York.

So, yeah.

She’s also a farmer and an artist and an all-round amazing person. When I read her recent comment about having to re-use her mask five days running, I got in touch and mailed her some of the N95 masks I bought last year against the smoke of California’s wildfires.  I also asked her if she’d like to do some illustrations for a fundraiser project we’re in the middle of putting together. (More on that soon.)

I thought you, as fellow members of the Russell community, might like to know what she had to say:

Wednesday, April 1:

Hi Laurie,

Thank you so much for the masks. They have given renewed hope and have helped reduce fear in my hospital among the staff (and myself)! Thank you for protecting us ❤️

It’s been a weird weekend for me, I spiked a temp, but was fortunately able to get tested rapidly and found out I DO NOT have Covid-19 at this point. Received my ok to return to work today. Quarantine has been odd. I have a feeling this might happen multiple times…

I anticipate returning to work if not tomorrow then later this week and will then be able to see with my own eyes if we now have equipment or not. We have been receiving emails from higher-ups that we do, but I am waiting to see that with my own eyes. Many hospitals are having staff re-use their protective equipment still but that picture is changing rapidly. My heart goes out to NYC and other places in the country that have been so tragically hit by this pandemic. I know that every time I go into work recently I have to somehow be ok with the fact that I might die. Going in for a shift at the hospital feels like jumping out of a plane right now, and leaving feels just the same because I am so afraid I am going to bring something home to my husband.

These are, as they say, strange times.

I stay hopeful and motivated in the fact that people do get through this and I need to have faith that I will be one of them. At the very least I can make the most of the situation and help as many as I can until I am stopped.  I do not work in the ED or ICU but I have seen the fatigue and fear in the eyes of my colleagues and have heard their stories. My patients are frightened, alone, and even more vulnerable than ever before. I have felt the pressure myself as an inpatient ICU-step down nurse on an Oncology floor and this is just the beginning of it.

But I will persist 👍

I have found in difficult times throughout my life, when life puts pressures on you like this you absolutely must embrace every shred of happiness that you can. I would therefore be honored  to contribute to your project. It may be just the thing to keep things in perspective!

Thank you and stay safe out there,

Marisa

Thursday, April 2:

I hope not to frighten people, but at the same time I think everyone needs to know what is going on and that it is critical that healthcare providers receive the public’s help.

I received word today that the first nurse has died down here from COVID and that there are possibly one or two more. And this is happening across the country. I think that people don’t realize how powerful their actions can be by simply staying at home – such a simple thing WILL save lives.

On a lighter note, I will start working on your pictures tonight with a goal of getting them completed within the next 3-4 days if that is suitable. I am deeply touched that you would include me in your project and if there’s anything you want changed with the images I send you let me know – I’m very easy to work with and open to modifications. I love the idea of your project.

Thank you Laurie for your support, friendship and excellent books. Stay safe out there.

***

This, I think you will agree, is a young woman Ms. Russell would be very proud of calling a friend.

And I got the first of her illustrations, and it makes me so happy, I can’t wait to share them with you all.

I don’t want to post her email address here, but if you have a message for Marisa, you can email it to me at info@LaurieRKing.com, and I’ll forward it. Or you can post it on my personal Facebook page, which she visits: https://www.facebook.com/laurie.king

Keep safe, keep happy, keep it together, everyone.

Riviera Gold galley stage

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Riviera Gold

…comes a step closer to your hands:

(The ARCs are here! The ARCs are here!)

That’s right, the bound galleys of Riviera Gold dropped into my life while I was down in San Diego, and they’re really pretty. And have a lot of words in them, too!

These copies are for my own giveaway, rather than those run by my US publishers (a UK one will come later on).  But here’s where and when you can sign up for the giveaways:

March 10-17: The Beekeeper’s Apprentices (Facebook group, US only)

March 17-24: The Virtual Book Club, @Mary_Russell, and @LaurieRKing (US only)

March 24-31: News & Nonsense (the LRK newsletter)—world-wide, & SIGNED

March 31-April 7: Facebook  (Author page, US only)

* *

And of course, Riviera Gold (here) is available for pre-order, if you want to show your enthusiasm to my publishers.  Signed from Bookshop Santa Cruz or Poisoned Pen—or unsigned from your local Independent bookshop, (which can really use your business right now), or Barnes & Noble/Nook, or Amazon/Kindle, or as a CD or audio.

Giveaway Signup

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If you didn’t catch the newsletter’s excerpt and giveaway of the upcoming Russell & Holmes short story, “Ten Years On,” you have a couple of days to put your name in for this ARC, for a book published April 21. The story is set in Brighton, in the spring of 1925, ten years after a great battle…

My impatience at this, the day’s third intruder, might have made a lesser man take a step back, but the Sikhs are a race of warriors, and this one was not about to be driven off by an apparently unarmed English female, not without a fight.  “Madame, I have come in search of the detective.”

“You and half of Sussex.”

The newsletter is here, with the signup towards the bottom.

Happy Anniversary, Russell & Holmes

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On this day 99 years ago, two friends of ours were wed.

February 17, 1921

Marriage, to Sherlock Holmes?  He was the least marriageable man I knew.  On the other hand, we were already partners.  And having that piece of paper—that otherwise meaningless piece of paper—would undoubtedly ease such matters as border crossings, hotel rooms, and claiming one another’s body in the event of a fatal mishap.  Marriage would also keep me from the temptations of pure academia, a world that, especially for a woman, could become terribly enclosed.

Marriage—this marriage—would ensure that I was never bored.

So, it was a rational decision, a sensible choice for two intelligent and level-headed people, the obvious next step in our partnership.

* * *

The actual marriage proposal had come when my head was spinning (having been knocked unconscious, deliberately—by Holmes.) and his head was dripping wet, grease-clotted, and thoroughly scorched from the fiery, mid-Thames boat wreck that claimed the life of our most recent villainous opponent.  Miraculous survival, one’s own and of one’s most significant attachment, has a way of adding its own spin to the head.  Or perhaps it was just, as I mentioned, the concussion.  In any case, when he emerged from the filthy surface of the Thames, there followed an astonishing, unexpected, and remarkably… stimulating physical encounter, right there on the docks.  Namely, we kissed.

* * *

And there, dear reader, I married the only man who mattered in my life.

Reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of…well, perhaps not of God, but certainly of prowling cousins with shot-guns, we vowed that we knew of no impediment to our joining; we swore that we would love, comfort, honour, and keep, in sickness and health; and we entered into the state that was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.

(Did I imagine it, that brief glance Holmes shot towards the portrait that hung beside the door, as the vows were being said?  I do not think I did.)

Our Welsh friend romped us through a nice brisk service, trimming away any references to obedience, skipping over the part with the rings (we’d both forgot about rings) and glossing over all mentions of children, Christ and the Church, or St Paul (indeed, pretty much the remainder of the Service.)  He fell to the temptation of acoustics and sang his portions of Psalm, although his voice was throttled down considerably from what he so clearly wanted.  At the end, Mrs Hudson was in tears, Dr Watson was bright pink, the vicar was beaming, and even Mycroft looked moved as he reached inside his breast pocket for a pen.

We hadn’t even been interrupted by gunfire.

* * ** * *

From “The Marriage of Mary Russell,” in Mary Russell’s War. If you want a signed

copy, you could ask Bookshop Santa Cruz to send you one.

Exotic Settings

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(Added note:for a few days, Dreaming Spies will be $2.99 on Nook and Kindle. in the US.)

I always find it interesting to look back at a book I’ve written and reflect on what it turned out to be about, and how it fits into the rest of the series.

While I’m actually writing the things, I’m far too focused on the story—making the plot work and teasing the characters into life—to think much about the larger picture. Then during the editing (Riviera Gold is currently in copyedit, no doubt receiving lots of small tweaks and queries) it’s again a matter of zeroing in on that story and making everything about it… more.

Only after it’s finished—sometimes long after—do I step back and notice links and themes, and how the books fit together in ways that (ahem) readers think I’ve done deliberately.

Such as setting.

Take three of the books set in exotic climes.  The Game started because I wanted to tell a story about India, where my husband had been born and raised.  I’ve spent some time there, and I tried to make the book reflect the flavor of country: strong colors, vivid events, a historical pull between the Indian people and the British raj that, in the 1920s, was beginning to come to the fore. The climate and the food are hot; the streets and the inhabitants are noisy and busy and bright; the place is a sensory overload.

Then there’s Dreaming Spies.  Several books intervened before it came along, but the story begins just as Russell and Holmes are leaving India, bound for Japan.  Dreaming Spies—the half that is set in Japan—was shaped around a hugely different society from India’s.  Intricate subtlety is the hallmark here, and although its social order is also on the brink of vast changes triggered by a relationship with the West, in Japan the moves are tight and deliberate, as the streets are quiet, the colors subdued, and the flavors of foods elusive on the tongue.  Russell found India overwhelming, but she finds Japan baffling, and suspects that deeper meaning lies just outside her perception.   The plot here is filled with layers, felt more than seen.  And when the case later follows Russell to home ground in Oxford, it still takes her a long time to see what is actually going on beneath the surface.

Island of the Mad is also set in two places—England and Venice—but it takes its flavor-notes from Venice.  Warm, friendly, welcoming to anyone with a full wallet, familiar to half the world…and at the same time, full of secret neighborhoods and invisible power-plays.  Like a cheerful public figure secretly going mad…  And that dichotomy permeates the book, where splashy rich Americans unknowingly rub shoulders with brutal Blackshirts, and the craziness of the Twenties touches the desperate madness of trapped women.

Riviera Gold takes place not too far from Island of the Mad—Russell takes a leisurely three week sail around the boot of Italy to the south of France.  1925 finds the Riviera just beginning its shift from winter resort to year-around home for the artistic set, and the thirty miles of coastline that Russell explores here runs the gamut from sun-baked beach picnics with children in the waves, to a dark confrontation with crime and world control.

So: upon reflection, I see a pattern.  Settings, for me, determine the flavor of the book—in all of them, but especially in those like The Game, Dreaming Spies, Island of the Mad—and soon, Riviera Gold.  Exotic places, with problems that are all too universal.  I’ll be posting various things about the four books over the next couple of weeks, and I just wanted you to know what is on my mind as I wait for the copyedit to hit my desk, and I reflect on the place of Riviera Gold among the Russell memoirs.

[Excerpts, discussion guides, buy links, and fun extras can be found on the book pages for The Game, Dreaming Spies, Island of the Mad, and Riviera Gold.]

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