SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady
Just another GR refugee. Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.
Currently reading
The Murder of Mary Russell
My ARC courtesy of Random House/Net Galley - much thanks! My opinions are my own.
The Murder of Mary Russell - well, it's a title to get your attention, isn't it? But perhaps this novel might more fairly be described as "The Backstory of Mrs. Hudson." Because she didn't walk into 221 Baker St. in 1880 without a past, which takes up at least half of this book.
We open with Mary Russell answering the door to find a man who claims to be "Samuel Hudson," Mrs. Hudson's son, come to visit her all the way from Australia. Mary is instantly on guard, though she can't entirely say why.
Later that day, Mrs. Hudson comes home to find Mary missing, her heirloom china broken, much blood on the floor, and Mary's throwing knife impaled in the side of the wall.
And then we get the history of Mrs. Hudson, from her parents meeting in the 1850s onward. It is only in the second half of the novel that we are mostly back in 1925.
I'd recommend refreshing one's memory of the story "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott," from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, as it comes up here, and in important ways.
It was an interesting novel, though not quite the one I was expecting. And it may be the novel in this series with the least Mary Russell in it. It kept my attention, however. I'll be interested to see where this series goes from here.
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