Go here for updates on the eleventh Mary Russell novel, in stores September 6, 2011. In this newest adventure for the intrepid Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King takes readers into the frenetic world of silent films, where the pirates are real and the shooting isn’t all done with cameras…
Click here to order a signed copy
Click here for an excerpt
Watch a video trailer here
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| ISBN: 978-0-553-80798-1 | UK ISBN: 9780749040918 |
| September 6, 2011 | 12 Sept, 2011 |
Order a signed copy here or here. Or through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Audible Books. To pre-order in the UK, click here, or for a UK edition with a signed bookplate, write to Heffer’s.
For Laurie’s thoughts on writing Pirate King, follow her blog posts on Mutterings, watch the video below to hear her read the introduction, and play along in our Ten Weeks of Laurie ARrrgh! King Festival. (Download a press release with details by clicking here.)
| Nothing seems amiss until the enormous company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, where the thirteen blonde-haired, blue-eyed actresses Mary is bemusedly chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell feels a building storm of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with secrets, ominous currents between the pirates, decks awash with budding romance—and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their dangerous outlaw leader, La Rocha. Plus, there’s a spy on board. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout. |  |
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Reviews
Booklist (starred review): Brilliant and beautifully complex, the chronicles of Mary Russell Holmes are told in the voice of their subject, the much younger, highly educated, half-American Jewish wife of Sherlock Holmes. This one’s tangled web includes some very high comedy from Gilbert and Sullivan, pirates, and early moviemaking, Russell finds herself, possibly at the behest of Mycroft Holmes, working for Fflyte Films and on a Mediterranean voyage (in a brigantine!). Her assignment: shepherding a bevy of blonde actresses, their mothers, young British constables, and a handful of men whose dark eyes and darker scars may reflect an unsavory history. Mr. Fflyte, we learn, is making a film about the making a film version of The Pirates of Penzance and wants real pirates, a real ship, and real locales. King rings merry changes on identity, filmmaking, metafiction, and the tendency of each and all to underestimate blondes. Her descriptions of locale are voluptuous, and her continued delineation of the relationship of Russell and Holmes exquisitely portrays the eroticism of intellectual give-and-take. Quotations from Gilbert and Sullivan and the language of sailing ships (take that, Patrick O’Brian!) add to the general, luscious hilarity. Library Journal In the latest volume of Mary Russell’s memoirs (after God of the Hive), Sherlock Holmes’s young wife is sent to Lisbon by Scotland Yard’s Inspector Lestrade. Her mission: investigate possible criminal activities of the Fflytte Film Company and the whereabouts of the studio’s one-time secretary. Mary’s strong personality and wit, on which fans of the series have come to rely, serve her well as she makes her way through the day-to-day frustrations and calamities involved in film production. She is joined by Holmes as the company and her investigation wend their way to Morocco. Russell’s encounters with the cast and crew of Pirate King, along with her dislike of all things Gilbert and Sullivan, provide humorous conflict, while her crime-solving collaboration with Holmes, as always, gives readers a taste of their sharp intellect and clever deductions. VERDICT Recommended for series fans as well as devotees of historical mysteries.
Extras
You can hear the book’s intro in Laurie’s talk to the UC Berkeley library, during their Story Hour, starting at the 19:00 point:
Click here to download a letter to Gilbert and Sullivan societies on how to get involved in the Ten Weeks of Laurie ARrrgh! King
Watch the Pirate King trailer:
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