“A Letter of Mary” - Laurie R. King

(Russell and Holmes book 3)

📝 The last book in the series ended with the certainty of a Russell-Holmes romance. ALM opens on their married life in full progress, but with Russell beginning to feel has fallen into a boring routine.

📝 The whole premise for the crime was ga-ga. The plot is dull and meandering in places; Russell going deep undercover as an employee of a suspect is particularly tedious. Hypnosis is described in painstaking detail but this contributes minimally to the plot. There was a brief flicker of hope with the Mary (Mariam) of Magdala as an Apostle and leader of the Church in Jerusalem theory, but unfortunately this angle ultimately fizzles out and doesn’t contribute overmuch to the narrative.

📝 Mary Russell is even more introspective than Maisie Dobbs; that’s saying a lot! Granted it has been a while since I’ve last read a Russell and Holmes novel, but I don’t remember her always being like this. 

📝 I’ve noted it before, but it bears repeating - the Holmes-Russell relationship makes me uncomfortable since its murky origins when Russell was a teenager. And there’s the whole mentor-mentee angle as well. Though she’s now his partner, Russell still very much views Holmes as her superior. It’s an odd dynamic.

📝 As compared to the prior books in the series, this one disappointed. I don’t say it often, but I’d give ALM a miss.