The Treehouse

A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King

This is the second book in Laurie R Kings series about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes and once again I enjoyed her writing very much. The story here sees Mary coming to the end of her degree at Oxford and reaching her 21st birthday and thus gaining her inheritance and freedom from the despised guardian Aunt. The blurb for the story is...

"After a tedious visit from relatives, Mary is looking for respite in London when she comes across a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to the enigmatic Margery Childe, leader of the New Temple of God, a charismatic sect involved in the post-World War One suffrage movement, with a feminist slant on Christianity. Intrigued and curious, Mary begins to wonder if the New Temple is a front for something more sinister. When a series of murders claims members of the movement's wealthy young female volunteers, Mary, with Holmes in the background, starts to investigate, but events spiral out of control as the situation becomes ever more desperate, and Mary's search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced... "

The two books that I've so far read in this series both tend to start of a little slowly but perseverance pays off and not only is there a good mystery story going on but Mary's academic background provides for some very interesting reading at times as well. Holmes is irresistable as always and is portrayed in these books with slightly softer edges than normal, he's a little less brittle I think but his mind is, of course, as sharp as ever. Regular characters from the Conan-Doyle books pop in and out - Mrs. Hudson, Mycroft and a Lestrade detective although it is the son of the original. I find these stories irresistable and am currently half way through the third one!

This is my 19th book for the Historical Fiction reading challenge.

Soulless / Changless / Blameless by Gail Carriger

 

 

Alexia Tarabotti is a rather extraordinary woman living in an alternative Victorian England. Not only is she of the bluestocking variety of women, she is also soulless. In this alternate version of the nineteenth century, vampires and werewolves abound and are accepted by British society (it's a different matter entirely on the continent). Queen Victoria boasts regiments of werewolf soldiers who fight for the Empire and she relies upon the advice of her Shadow Council the leaders of which are a vampire and a werewolf. 

The first book sees Alexia investigating the appearance of strange, unmannered and untutored vampires along with the gorgeous, beastly Lord Maccon (a werewolf) - their relationship develops considerably over the course of the book but will they come out of the adventure alive? There's a book 2 and a book 3 so I'm not giving away too many spoilers when I say that they do! Book 2 sees them both travel to Scotland to Lord Maccon's old werewolf pack - danger is everywhere as more than one attempt is made on Alexia's life but the reason for the attempts are unclear as she investigates the mysterious loss of werewolf-ness that the Scottish pack are suffering from. In Book 3, Alexia travels to Italy in order to try and find out more about her Soulless-ness which was inherited from her father (now dead) and once again her life is in terrible danger as vampires try to kill her and Templar knights hold her prisoner.

I enjoyed these books and so did my daughter. They're a funny, light hearted take on the supernatural genre set in Victorian London, without the need for the X rating that's sometimes required for these types of story (and that's why my 14 year was reading them!).

These are books 16, 17 and 18 for the Historical Reading Challenge.