Although O Jerusalem is Laurie King's fifth book in her Holmes-Russell series, it actually takes us back to the era of her first book, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Perhaps King was afraid that her characters, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, were becoming too cozy as an old married couple, and she wanted to recreate the edgy sexual tension of their first encounter.

It's 1918. Nineteen-year-old Mary and her fiftysomething mentor are forced to flee England to escape a deadly adversary. Sherlock's well-connected brother Mycroft sends them to Palestine to do some international sleuthing. Here, a series of murders threatens the fragile peace.

Laurie King connects us, through details of language, custom, history, and sensual impressions, to this very alien environment. Russell, Holmes, and two marvelously imagined Arab guides named Mahmoud and Ali trek through the desert and visit ancient monasteries clinging like anthills to cliffs. They also find time to take tea with the British military legend Allenby in Haifa and skulk through or under the streets of Jerusalem. King puts us into each scene so quickly and completely that her narrative flow never falters.

Stepping back in time also gives King a chance to show us Holmes through the eyes of a Russell not yet as full of love as a honeymooner, nor as complacent as a comfortable wife. "There it was--sardonic, superior, infuriating," Mary says about Holmes's voice at one point.

Wisdom is knowing when, and how much, to shake things up--even in a successful series. Laurie King is a wise woman indeed. --Dick Adler


From Library Journal
O Jerusalem marks the fifth appearance of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (The Moor, LJ 12/97). This time around they have fled to Palestine on a mission for Mycroft Holmes. Disguised as itinerant Muslims and paired with two Arab spies, Russell and Holmes travel through the Holy Land trying to figure out exactly why Mycroft has sent them. A pair of seemingly unrelated murders sets them on the track of a brilliant and power-hungry killer. Only Holmes and Russell (along with some unexpected allies) can stop their adversary from destroying JerusalemAif they can get to him in time. King's clear prose and her vivid depiction of a British-occupied Palestine torn between opposing cultures are the book's main strengths. A bit slow at the start, the action gradually builds to a satisfying and dramatic conclusion. Strongly recommended for all public libraries.-ALaurel Bliss, New Haven, CT Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Nineteen-year-old Mary Russell is not the sort of young lady you'd be likely to find in England in 1917. No, indeed. Few ladies of the day were multilingual; few could throw a knife with deadly accuracy or flip a grown man on his back. But Mary's unusual talents prove useful once again in this new Russell-Holmes adventure, which picks up just weeks after the Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994) drew to a close. Disguising themselves as Arabs, Russell and her mentor, Sherlock Holmes, enter the thick of things in Palestine, where a British military government is trying to maintain stability in the face of rising discontent. Adding to the chaos is a ruthless murderer, as devious and deadly as any Russell and Holmes have ever encountered. With two British agents to guide them, the detective duo follows the villain's convoluted trail into Jerusalem, right to the Dome of the Rock. Clever complications and atmospheric details abound, and once again King's considerable talent makes history virtually leap off the page. With the feminist heroine chronicling events and the cerebral detective stirring the pot, readers can't lose. Stephanie Zvirin


From Kirkus Reviews
Feisty Mary Russell and frosty Sherlock Holmes in a fifth adventure (The Moor, 1998, etc.)this one retroactive. Under cover of night, the two have been smuggled into British- occupied Palestine to do a job for MycroftMycroft Holmes, that is, the great detective's older (and some say smarter) brother. It's 1919, which shoves the Russell-Holmes saga back four years. Full-fledged partnership lies in the future since Mary, at 19, is still wet behind the ears as a ratiocinator. Marriage merely shimmers before them, an outcome with as little substance at this point as a Negev Desert mirage. True, Holmes does like the look of his young apprentice, but he is also twice her age. The why of the backward flip has to do with manuscript material newly available, but what really matters is Mycroft's mission. It seems that Edmund Allenbythe military hero whose tactical brilliance smashed Turkeys centuries-long control over Jerusalemis in danger. Mycroft, a consummate danger-sniffer on behalf of the Commonwealth, is convinced of Allenby's imminent peril but unable to isolate or better define the circumstances. It's up to Russell-Holmes to give the threat shape. Which they do, thanks to the help of two remarkable British agents posing as Arabs, but only after numerous setbacks at the hands of fanatical adversaries. One is an unreconstructed Turk, as devious as he is sadistic; another is a villainous Englishman, mistakenly trusted in high places. Will Russell-Holmes repay Mycroft's faith in them by rising to the challenge? A bit thin as to plotand sedate as to pacebut Holmes gets to strut his stuff now and again so fans of the series arent likely to complain. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Praise for Laurie R. King's Mary Russell novels:

"The great marvel of King's series is that she's managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes' character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart."
--The Washington Post Book World

The Moor:
"There's no resisting the appeal of King's thrillingly moody scenes of Dartmoor and her lovely evocations of its legends."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Erudite, fascinating...by all odds the most successful recreation of the famous inhabitant of 221B Baker Street ever attempted."
--Houston Chronicle

A Letter Of Mary:
"A lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company."
--The New York Times Book Review

"An intellectual puzzler, full of bright red herrings and dazzling asides."
--Chicago Tribune

A Monstrous Regiment of Women:
"As audacious as it is entertaining and moving."
--Chicago Tribune

"King has a gift for the rich, decisive detail and the narrative crispness that distinguished Conan Doyle's writing."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Beguiling...tantalizing."
--The Boston Globe

The Beekeeper's Apprentice:
"Rousing...riveting...suspenseful."
--Chicago Sun-Times

"Worthy and welcome, with the power to charm the most grizzled Baker Street Irregular."
--Daily News, New York


From the Hardcover edition.


Review
Praise for Laurie R. King's Mary Russell novels:

"The great marvel of King's series is that she's managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes' character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart."
--The Washington Post Book World

The Moor:
"There's no resisting the appeal of King's thrillingly moody scenes of Dartmoor and her lovely evocations of its legends."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Erudite, fascinating...by all odds the most successful recreation of the famous inhabitant of 221B Baker Street ever attempted."
--Houston Chronicle

A Letter Of Mary:
"A lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company."
--The New York Times Book Review

"An intellectual puzzler, full of bright red herrings and dazzling asides."
--Chicago Tribune

A Monstrous Regiment of Women:
"As audacious as it is entertaining and moving."
--Chicago Tribune

"King has a gift for the rich, decisive detail and the narrative crispness that distinguished Conan Doyle's writing."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Beguiling...tantalizing."
--The Boston Globe

The Beekeeper's Apprentice:
"Rousing...riveting...suspenseful."
--Chicago Sun-Times

"Worthy and welcome, with the power to charm the most grizzled Baker Street Irregular."
--Daily News, New York


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
My dictionary defines "pastiche" as "a literary piece made up of selections from various works." "Homage" is sort of the same thing. But "lazy writing" is an even more precise way of putting it. It's too easy, in many cases, to write a novel using famous literary heroes without bringing anything of your own to the process. For instance, there have been many lame Sherlock Holmes pastiches this century. Even writers as gifted as John Dickson Carr couldn't effectively take us back to Conan Doyle's London. In the '60s and '70s, the Holmes pastiche subgenre got especially hot. Some good books were written, especially by Nicholas Meyer. But not until Laurie R. King came along in 1994 with her Mary Russell novels did one see how seriously a pastiche could be handled.

Mary Russell is a young Englishwoman who is a Sherlock wannabe. Brainwise, as the advertising folk would say, she is even superior in certain respects. Or so, at least, it seems to me. (I know not everybody will agree — I guess it's just because she's so fetching, she seems brighter.) Holmes and Mary get along immediately, and she joins him as an apprentice of sorts in his crime solving.

Singular and fresh as the setup is, it could quickly degenerate into sitcom formula. But King doesn't let it. In her new Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novel, King takes us to Jerusalem circa 1918, where we see that the historical Jerusalem had its own problems, many of which were not unlike those of the Middle East today.

Here, Mycroft Holmes asks brother Sherlock to help him solve a very serious political intrigue. Andit'shere that King's superior skills as a novelist are on full display. She creates a fully detailed portrait of time and place, while never failing to fully exploit the charming relationship of Mary and Sherlock. It's a book with something for everybody. I learned a lot about Middle Eastern history, and I had a great time doing it.

Laurie R. King is a major new voice in mystery fiction. If you have any doubt of that, pick up O Jerusalem. It works on every level.

—Ed Gorman

FROM THE PUBLISHER

At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England's green and pleasant land, Russell and Holmes enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes' enigmatic brother, Mycroft. "Gentlemen, we are at your service." Thus Holmes greets the two travel-grimed Arab figures who receive them in the orange groves fringing the Holy Land. Whatever role could the volatile Ali and the taciturn Mahmoud play in Mycroft's design for this land the British so recently wrested from the Turks? A recent rash of murders seems unrelated to the growing tensions between Jew, Moslem, and Christian, yet Holmes is adamant that he must reconstruct the most recent one in the desert gully where it occurred. His singular findings will lead him and Russell through labyrinthine bazaars, verminous inns, cliff-hung monasteries - and into mortal danger.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

O Jerusalem marks the fifth appearance of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (The Moor, LJ 12/97). This time around they have fled to Palestine on a mission for Mycroft Holmes. Disguised as itinerant Muslims and paired with two Arab spies, Russell and Holmes travel through the Holy Land trying to figure out exactly why Mycroft has sent them. A pair of seemingly unrelated murders sets them on the track of a brilliant and power-hungry killer. Only Holmes and Russell (along with some unexpected allies) can stop their adversary from destroying Jerusalem--if they can get to him in time. King's clear prose and her vivid depiction of a British-occupied Palestine torn between opposing cultures are the book's main strengths. A bit slow at the start, the action gradually builds to a satisfying and dramatic conclusion. Strongly recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/99.]--Laurel Bliss, New Haven, CT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Feisty Mary Russell and frosty Sherlock Holmes in a fifth adventure (The Moor, 1998, etc.)—this one retroactive. Under cover of night, the two have been smuggled into British- occupied Palestine to do a job for Mycroft—Mycroft Holmes, that is, the great detective's older (and some say smarter) brother. It's 1919, which shoves the Russell-Holmes saga back four years. Full-fledged partnership lies in the future since Mary, at 19, is still wet behind the ears as a ratiocinator. Marriage merely shimmers before them, an outcome with as little substance at this point as a Negev Desert mirage. True, Holmes does like the look of his young apprentice, but he is also twice her age. The why of the backward flip has to do with manuscript material newly available, but what really matters is Mycroft's mission. It seems that Edmund Allenby—the military hero whose tactical brilliance smashed Turkey's centuries-long control over Jerusalem—is in danger. Mycroft, a consummate danger-sniffer on behalf of the Commonwealth, is convinced of Allenby's imminent peril but unable to isolate or better define the circumstances. It's up to Russell-Holmes to give the threat shape. Which they do, thanks to the help of two remarkable British agents posing as Arabs, but only after numerous setbacks at the hands of fanatical adversaries. One is an unreconstructed Turk, as devious as he is sadistic; another is a villainous Englishman, mistakenly trusted in high places. Will Russell-Holmes repay Mycroft's faith in them by rising to the challenge? A bit thin as to plot—and sedate as to pace—but Holmes gets to strut his stuff now and again so fans of the series aren't likely to complain.