Oh Sherlock and ninjas! It was fun to see the leading duo play second fiddle in the end, and the detailed Japanese culture was a highlight. ( )

Another wonderful book by Laurie King. In this one Mary and Sherlock go to Japan and it is as if I traveled with them. Aside from the mystery, which was very good, I love being swept along on their travels and learning about other cultures. Now I have to wait a year for the next one to come out. ( )

As a teenager I read this series almost devotedly, and some of the earlier adventures I really truly love; I even consider the first book one of my all-time favorites. But right before the release of this installment in 2015 I fell off the Russell & Holmes train for awhile and got behind by 5 books. So when started this one in order to catch up, I was SHOCKED at how much I immediately disliked:

-the chemistry between Russell and Holmes is nonexistent in this installment. Their interactions are sanitized and just downright boring, with none of the spark that I vividly remember (and can point to exact passages) from the earlier books.
-the STAGGERING amount and abuse of phonetic spelling used by King to convey accents, particularly Japanese ones. King draws out scenes and emphasizes over and over just how difficult it is for various Japanese characters to pronounce English words, especially the English letter "r", and is just quite offensive at times. Russell is also deeply judgy about characters not being able to speak "properly".
-the reliance on Japanese stereotypes, such as comparing Japanese characters to dolls and children because of how "tiny" they are; the broad, sweeping statements about Japanese people being super industrious; the repetitive scenes of Russell turning her nose up at Japanese foods that are, to her, basically all just stinky dried fish. And there aren't things that just happen a bit and then Russell learns from them and corrects her thinking - even up until the very end of the book these problems persist.
-the mystery is little more than a brainteaser wrapped in a history lesson that King has tried to make multilayered but is really just quite messy. I genuinely didn't believe for a moment this was a case Holmes (any version of him) would get involved in, let alone not be able to see the very obvious answers to.

I don't remember any of the previous books having the same issues to this extent, but I'm also not sure how much of it was maybe a younger me not picking up on things? I'm going to continue my catch-up of the series for now (partially to find out if "Dreaming Spies" is just a weak link) but I'm really disappointed in King for both the overall mystery as well as astounding amount of stereotypes and snobbery she's written into this book. ( )

A great return to form. ( )

The story in Dreaming Spies begins with Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell arriving home after all the adventures in Morocco (Pirate King and Garments of Shadows) and finding a rock in their garden. This rock is just the beginning, or in a way the continuation of an old case that started around a year ago in Japan after Holmes and Russells adventure in India in The Game. 

We start off the story in Sussex and Oxford with the arrival of a rock and an old “friend” of Holmes and Russell. After that, we get to know what really happened in Japan before they arrived in America. Laurie R. King has as usual written a very describing and well-researched book. I felt that I was in Japan as I read and it was a wonderful treat to get to know the country and its culture throughout the story.

The only objection I have and that is that I felt a trifle impatient reading it sometimes. Because even though it was well written not so much happened, or, of course, things happened but alas so slowly. I wanted some more drive to the story. The story in Japan takes up 2/3 of the book and much of that was just to lay the groundwork for the story later on in Oxford. So even though I enjoyed the time on the ship from India to Japan and the time in Japan I liked the story best later on in Oxford when the game was afoot. This doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book. I loved reading it. It was a great book and I think that fans of Laurie R. Kings books will truly enjoy reading this book.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )