Q&A with Laurie R. King discussion

Laurie R. King wrote: "As for where they're going, I'm not sure why you think I would know that. I'd like them to visit Japan, and spend time in Oxford, and maybe Turkey, but until I start the next book, I'm unlikely to know. "

This is what I LOVE about the series. We get inside the author's mind whenever she opens up a chink in an earlier book and spins out a whole new adventure. I often get bored with serials because they add on case after case, episode after episode, without deepening the character(s).

With Holmes and Russell, we get the feeling that Ms. King is discovering new facets of their history and psyches, and kindly revealing them to us.

I agree that this interconnectedness is one of the most attractive features of the books. They aren't standalone books, but rather each adventure grows organically out of one another. As you say, it's not as if the characters are changing, rather that we're simply getting to know them better, learning their in-jokes and intimate histories. One of the best examples of this for me was the linking of the attempt to force Mary into drug addiction with her experience in the hospital after the car crash.

I would LOVE more adventures in the Middle East -- I want them to meet Gertrude Bell. Japan would be fun because it would be a totally new venue for them. But really, it doesn't matter where they are, it will be great fun!

Ha! I wonder what Holmes would make of T.E. Lawrence?

The encounters with imaginary characters are also wonderful, like Mary's satisfying little encounter with Lord Peter Wimsey in A Letter to Mary.

Lisa wrote: "The encounters with imaginary characters are also wonderful, like Mary's satisfying little encounter with Lord Peter Wimsey..."

I can't tell you how much that warmed the cockles of my Wimsey-loving heart :)

You too, eh? Can't imagine what took that Vane woman so long to fall for him!

Lisa wrote: "You too, eh? Can't imagine what took that Vane woman so long to fall for him!"

Exactly! Silly woman. But that scene on the riverbank where she finally realizes? Yowza.

Isn't that amazing? Nothing happens, and yet it is one of the sexiest scenes in fiction. One of my favorite scenes anywhere, although I must admit that the Holmes/Russell kiss in A Monstrous Regiment of Women is right up there.

Harriet has her issues, and I sympathize. Even so, I often want to smack her for the way she treats Lord Peter.

C.P. wrote: "Isn't that amazing? Nothing happens, and yet it is one of the sexiest scenes in fiction...[but] the Holmes/Russell kiss in A Monstrous Regiment of Women is right up there."

Yes to both!! Too many authors seem to think that nekkid = sexy. It can be, of course, but IMHO it takes a lot more skill to take the reader's breath away with something as simple as a shared glance or a first kiss. Both these scenes are killer examples of how to write knock-out sensuality without resorting to nudity.

It's all in the head, and of course there's the build-up to consider. The sexual and emotional tension when Holmes and Russell were pretending to feud on the ship back to England in Beekeeper's Apprentice was excruciating -- all the more because of the tender interludes. I just read it again and it took my breath away!