She does so much better when she stays in England

I live in San Francisco, and I often look for books that use the City as a setting. Sometimes they are disappointing, but Locked Rooms was just stunning for its research. I know Laurie R. King lives in California, and perhaps she has fallen in love with the romance of San Francisco history. She did a great job with this book weaving in details of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Also her characters were walking down streets I know so well I think I could conduct a walking tour of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell in San Francisco. The whole book added wonderful depth to Mary Russell's character (if you're a series fan). Plot twists weren't excessively obvious, either. Brilliant.

I never thought i was one for mystery novels but this was a great book! I didn’t realize this was a series and started in the middle but i didn’t feel lost. And the last part was so thrilling i couldn’t put it down, i recommend this book.

This is a jewel of a book! It's part of a series, and you won't want to miss any of its related titles. I only wish there were a dozen more of them.

I ran across the first book in this series by accident several years ago. I listened to it as an audiobook, and have no doubt the narration was key to my liking the book so much.

The premise is clever: These are the stories of Sherlock Holmes -- who supposedly was not a fictional character at all -- and his brilliant young female protegee, Mary. King deftly explains away any evidence that Holmes was not a real person, including Conan Doyle's involvement in the his chronicles. She depicts Holmes as a delightfully eccentric and complex man, making him much more appealing and interesting than Doyle's sometimes dour character.

Mary is the real star of these books, however, and she is one of the most fascinating fictional characters I've ever encountered. She is both brave and vulnerable, and brilliant without being intimidating. Her relationship with Holmes grows as the series continues, and is characterized by a mutual love and respect very uncommon during the time in which the novel is set. Just seeing the brilliant Mary and equally brilliant Holmes interact is worth the price of admission, and the clever plotlines and dialogue are icing on the cake.

The narrator for this series is unparallelled, capturing the essence of both Mary and Holmes so precisely that I can't imagine how anyone could enjoy this book as much in print.

If you're a Holmes fan, you won't want to miss this series. If you're not, this might turn you into one!

i say "surprising" not because i've read any of this author's previous works, but because i would never have guessed that sherlock holmes married and in san francisco could possibly be enthralling ... but it was. at first, i didnt think so and put the story aside for a month, but when i came back to it, i was immediately drawn in, partly by the excellent narration, but undeniably also by the skill of the author. i look forward to more by both of them.