Book Review - Pirate King by Laurie R. King

I've always kind of liked Sherlock Holmes, though I was never a fan to the point where I devoured all of Arthur Conan Doyle's work.

I do love Laurie R. King's conceit of Holmes being a real figure and living until at least the 1920s, and befriending (and then marrying) a young girl named Mary Russell. Russell soon becomes Holmes' new Watson (though Watson is a character in some of the novels too), recording her adventures with Holmes as they solve mysteries and partake in other adventures.

Sadly, the latest book is not the best example of this. Pirate King is meant to be a farce, a comedy that will change the mood of the series a little bit. The idea is nice, and I usually enjoy comedic episodes of serious television shows.

Sadly, Pirate King is not that funny, and thus becomes extremely tedious.

My review has been posted on Curled Up With a Good Book.

From the review:

Mary Russell has gone on a lot of adventures as Sherlock Holmes' wife, but this is something even she has never experienced. Chief Inspector Lestrade asks her to go undercover with a British film company whose eccentric owner wants to do a strange version of the "Pirates of Penzance." It seems that somebody in the film production company is suspected of nefarious deeds on the sets of various movies the company has made. Mary is supposed to figure out who's behind everything from gun-running to drug smuggling, depending on the movie. Even Mary can't predict what will end up happening as the entourage moves from Portugal to Morocco, and she'll have to use all of her wits to keep the company safe.

Unfortunately, the characters don't mesh at all, it's impossible to keep them straight, and the jokes are based on those characters. Thus, hardly any of the jokes work.

It saddens me a bit, because I had high hopes for Pirate King, and I do look forward to King's next Holmes novel.

This one doesn't work at all, though.