“Mila’s Tale” is midrash—the retelling of a Biblical passage. Half of it is a previously unpublished Laurie R. King short story; the other half is the author’s commentary on the text (“Jephthah’s Daughter” of Judges 11) with some suggestions for further reading. This is the first in Laurie’s proposed Ladies of Spirit project, a collection of Modern Midrashes…
On the centenary of the Great War, a journal has come to light, containing weekly entries from a very young Mary Russell. It begins, appropriately enough, on August 4, 1914, when Russell is living with her parents and brother in San Francisco. 4 August 1914. I was fourteen when I first heard about the…
When I first started writing the Russell books, I took great care to assert that these were not Sherlock Holmes stories, that they were about Mary Russell, with Holmes a supporting actor. Which they are, clearly. However… As I’ve mellowed, I have become more interested in the character of Holmes, curious about how this man…
No, really, it’s the author’s…bedside reading. These two books were tucked at the bottom of the bedside table of the motel in Corte Madera where I’m staying during the Book Passage crime writing conference: I have stayed in upscale hotels where the management appears at your door with flowers and a copy of your book to…
We’ve put up two new things into the LRK electrical world, both having to do with a weeklong Writer in Residence I did some years ago at Hanover College, Indiana. The first is a lengthy meditation on how the concept of “vocation” appears in my novels, written by Hanover professor Michael Duffy. It carries the…
In the twenty years since The Beekeeper’s Apprentice introduced Mary Russell to the world, many questions have been raised about the good lady, and about her relationship with Sherlock Holmes, her religious beliefs, her Oxford college, what kind of car she drives—and just where on the Sussex Downs is that house of hers, anyway? In a fervent…
In my early writing days, I produced scenes, chapters, whole books with my legal pad propped on the wheel of a (stationary) car, while one child or another was involved in soccer practice or a piano lesson. Later, when the kids were in school longer hours and this odd hobby of mine began (to the astonishment of…
Coming up in Corte Madera, beginning July 24, a gathering of truly fabulous writers and editors are coming together to talk crime. For 21 years, this has been one of the best crime writing conferences out there—and yes, this year I’m joining in the fun. If you’re serious about starting a crime writing career, or…
In a discussion of how Laurie King came to publish Miss Russell’s Memoirs, “A Case in Correspondence” came to light. This series of postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings culminates with a postcard written by Miss Russell to her new literary agent, Laurie R. King, in 1992: a card that led to the eventual publication of…
“A Case in Correspondence” is a series of twenty postcards, letters, and newspaper clippings dating to 1992. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first Russell Memoir, was published two years later. This collection of correspondence, along with the previously published “My Story”, explain how Laurie R. King came to have Miss Russell’s multi-volume autobiography–although neither story explains…