Mary Russell, the Beekeeper's Apprentice

[Michael Hopcroft]

I just finished reading Laura King's spectacularly good novel The Beekeeper's Apprentice, about a teenage girl in 1915 Sussex whose life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a semi-retired Sherlock Holmes. the heroine, Mary Russell, learns Holmes' trade and eventually becomes involved in a deadly revenge plot against the Great Detective. the novel includes a barely-coeverd but quite intriguing sujourn to 1918 Palestine, during which the two have several adventures that King decides not to desribe in detail.

 

I was wondering how to write up Mary, and would like to know if there are any other readers of this quite long series who have ideas on the subject.

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Mary Russell, the Beekeeper's Apprentice

 

Having read all of Miss Russell's adventures, I don't think it would be all that hard to write her up. I doubt there anything, physically, that would exceed a normal young woman of her age and social circumstance. She does have a very keen mind and a considerable, for a woman of her era, ego. She also would have an exceptional presence, again for a woman of her era. For skills? Deduction and increased perception but not much else in the beginning. She IS a young woman in a very male dominated society. It is under the tutelage of Holmes that she begins to fufill her potental.