A delightful short story. ( )

Not that great. Fortunately it was short. It is meant to be an extra insight into the life of Sherlock Holmes but feels much more like juvenile fan fic. Meh. ( )

This was a fun short story/ novella to read. While published 17 years after The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the first book in the Mary Russell series, this story is best read as a companion piece to the first book. Told predominantly from the point of view of Holmes, the story starts off at the same place [The Beekeeper's Apprentice] does, with Russell and Holmes' chance encounter in the Sussex countryside. King keenly captures Holmes' personality and mindset while providing Holmes with a new lease on life as he works behind the scenes to protect Russell.

Overall, a very quick and satisfying read for this Holmes fan. ( )

No real new information when it comes to the characters or plot history. It just tells the meeting of Holmes and Russell from Holmes' perspective. A nice short audiobook to listen to while doing some chores around the office. ( )

A short story that takes place within the time frame of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, here we get a detailed look at the conflict between Mary and her Aunt during the time her aunt was her guardian.

I'm left feeling vaguely "meh" in part because Ms. King takes a few liberties with her own story line and because of the narration.

Mary makes if very clear in The Beekeeper's Apprentice that she intends to mention her aunt as little as possible so the author certainly has quite a bit of leeway to make this plot work, but still, Mary never mentions a trip to London to see her solicitors after meeting Holmes and quite plainly tells Holmes in the first book that all the paperwork is settled very soon after meeting him. (That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to go spoilery.) So I guess while the author still has room to create this story, she had to screw with the timeline a bit and it left me feeling discombobulated - I had to go back and re-read the pertinent sections of book 1.

Also, the narration was good - very good. But Robert Ian Mackenzie's voice is inherently friendly - he kept reminding me of a lovely English grandfather. Really pleasant and warm, but Holmes isn't any of those things and trying to listen to cold logic and deductive reasoning from someone who sounds like grandpa wasn't working for me. For narration, Jenny Sterling has nailed Holmes' cold, detached voice so thoroughly I'm not sure I could listen to anyone else at this point,

Except Benedict Cuberbatch - can you imagine him narrating a Holmes story? - I think I'd swoon... ( )