Review - Castle Shade by Laurie R King

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Clever Female Protagonist? Sherlock Holmes? 1920s setting? Mysterious happenings in a Transylvanian Castle?

If any of the above appeal to you in a novel, look no further than the latest instalment from Laurie R King's Mary Russell series, Castle Shade.

It's 1925 and Sherlock Holmes and his wife Mary Russell are headed across Europe to Roumania. They've been summoned to Castle Bran, on the border with Transylvanian and recently come into the possession of the formidable Queen Marie of Roumania. However, there is something odd going on; the local villagers are telling tales of noises in the night and sightings of those who were long thought dead...

It's certainly, as Holmes would put it, a five pipe problem.

Castle Shade is a witty and fun historical adventure, which keeps you guessing until the end. Our hero and heroine are well matched, working well together but also following their individual lines of enquiry, and the dialogue that sparks between them is always a particular highlight. The cast of other characters are well drawn, and I love how King describes the culture as well as the political situation of the time, being informative and offering a great historical backdrop to the story, without overwhelming the reader with too much detail.

I have adored the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R King since I was a teenager. One summer, browsing through my local library's somewhat meagre offerings, I spotted a battered paperback called 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice'. Set in 1913, it followed a young bookish woman - who could that have reminded me of - who is strolling across the Sussex Downs when she falls over a man crouching in the bushes, watching the bees. Infuriated, she reprimands him for getting in her way. Sherlock Holmes - previously enjoying a quiet retirement - is equally irritated by the interruption.

What follows is a wonderful, playful series in which these two unlikely individuals come together as partners in crime solving, and subsequently as partners in life too. I was completely smitten.

The series is a brilliant tribute to the Conan Doyle canon (Watson, Mrs Hudson and Mycroft Holmes all feature) but in themselves they are a brilliant set of stories, sweeping across the historical period, highlighting some well-known events and personalities, and sometimes delving into parts of history very unfamiliar.

Castle Shade is a perfect place to dip into the series (though as a devotee I would recommend devouring the whole series from start to finish), so why not check out the offer and competition below?

Get £5 off Castle Shade (plus a signed bookplate from the author) with the code SHADE15 at this the A&B website.

To whet your appetite, Laurie R King reads an exclusive extract of Castle Shade below!

And there is also a great competition to win all copies of the whole Mary Russell series in paperback (that's 16 beautiful books!), so that you're fully caught up for Castle Shade. Enter here. Competition closes 30 June 2021.

Happy Reading!

I received a copy of Castle Shade in exchange for participating in this blog tour, but as you may have gathered I love this series with all my soul, so all opinions are very much my own. Photographs are my own or copyright of Allison and Busby.