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Title: Dreaming Spies
Author: Laurie R. King
Narrator: Jenny Sterlin
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
Language: English
Release date: 11-03-16
Publisher: Lamplight Audio
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher's Summary:
It's 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive home to find a stone. The stone is inscribed with the same name that they last saw in the Tokyo garden of the future emperor of Japan.
It is the first indication that the investigation they did for him a year ago might not be as complete as they had thought. In Japan there were spies; in Oxford there are dreams, and in both places there is danger....
Critic Reviews:
"Snappy prose and a captivating plot distinguish King's 14th novel featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes...." (Publishers Weekly)
"A story that keeps the reader enthralled...one of the most consistently outstanding mystery series out there. Any time spent with the Russell-Holmes duo is a delight." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
Not quite enough of a mystery or a protagonist for me
After I read the 12th Russell/Holmes book, The Pirate King, I thought I was done with the series I'd previously enjoyed so much. In that book, Holmes was offstage almost the entire time and Mary was at her self-satisfied and complaining worst. And that boat trip was the dullest ever. But Dreaming Spies, with its title that plays on the "dreaming spires" that Matthew Arnold attributed to Oxford drew me in. I've always enjoyed Oxford-based mysteries.
Sure enough, Oxford book-ends the story, but the action mainly takes place in flashback, on another boat trip (oh, no!) and in the Far East. This is another slow boat, but not to China; instead, to Japan. Aboard ship, Russell and Holmes meet a young woman named Haruki Sato who may not be what she seems. Holmes also spots an aristocrat he suspects of being a blackmailer. And then a passenger goes missing . . .
In this series, Laurie R. King has taken to emphasize, more and more, the culture and politics of whatever country or society she has her characters visit or infiltrate. This time around, we read a lot about cruise ship culture and Japan in the 1920s. It's not that it's not interesting; it's just that it can feel a bit more like a travelog than elements blended to create a sense of time and place for a mystery.
All this world-setting also has a tendency to slow the plot down to a crawl. And so it is here. Well over half the book goes by before there is any actual detective work. If you are a particular fan of Mary Russell and enjoy reading about cruise ships and Japan in the 1920s, that leisurely pace won't be a problem. Readers expecting to have a mystery to solve may become impatient, though.
The final third of the book is where the meat of the detection and the action occur. If there had been more of this and less of the travelog, I would have easily given the book at least four stars.
If you love the Russell/Holmes series already, I would describe this as a mid-level entry. It's certainly better than The Pirate King, because Mary is on much better behavior here than in that book, and Holmes is present more of the time.
Maybe it's just me, though, but I find I'm no longer much of a fan of Mary Russell. I like strong female protagonists, and being an Oxford scholar is a fantasy for me, but in these later books in the series, Russell mainly operates on her own; that sparkling dialog and challenge of wits she used to have with Holmes is nearly nonexistent, and Russell on her own just isn't an interesting enough character to carry the books.