Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King: A review

Morocco, 1924. Control of the country is divided between two European nations - Spain and France. But that control is slipping as a native revolt gains momentum.

It is not only Spain and France that maintain an interest in Morocco. Germany has mining interests there and seeks to promote and protect those interests, and England, (or, at the time, the British Empire) by nefarious means, tries to guide events into pathways that will benefit its own foreign interests. At the center of the British efforts, in Laurie R. King's fictionalized telling of the events, is Mycroft Holmes and, of course, where Mycroft spins and weaves, his younger brother Sherlock lurks in the shadows.

Sherlock Holmes and his young wife Mary Russell were already in the area in a continuation of the action which we saw in the last novel in this series, The Pirate King. They are participating in the filming of a motion picture about - yes - pirates. Sherlock breaks away from the company to pursue his own adventure, while Russell continues playing her part in the filming. Then, one day near the end of filming, Russell walks off into the desert, hand in hand with a strange child. And disappears.

Sherlock and Russell had planned a rendezvous in Fez a few days later. Sherlock waits for her but she doesn't appear. Alarmed, he begins to search for her.

Meanwhile, an injured Russell is lying in an unknown house also in Fez, although she doesn't know where she is. In fact, she doesn't know who she is. A head injury has induced amnesia, but her instincts are intact, and when French "soldiers" come looking for her, her instinct tells her to escape and, incredibly, she does, wandering into the city.

As she wanders, she gathers information, and as Sherlock looks for her, he, the ultimate gatherer of facts, also receives a tangled web of information. At first, all those bits and pieces seem disjointed and unrelated, but this is, at base, a Sherlock Holmes mystery and so everything connects in the end.

Along the way, we once again meet up with Mahmoud and Ali, brothers whom Holmes and Russell had met and bonded with during a previous adventure in Palestine, and, of course, they turn out to be at the very center of the unfolding events. It seems touch and go as to whether the four friends, not to mention that strange child with whom Russell had disappeared into the desert, will survive the brutal Moroccan political climate of 1924. But, since this is Sherlock Holmes, we have a sneaking suspicion that they will, in spite of all odds.

Laurie King's pastiche series based on the great Arthur Conan Doyle's consulting detective has been one of my guilty reading pleasures for years now. Sherlock Holmes was my first literary crush when I was twelve years old. All these years later, he still has the power to fascinate me. King, I feel, has caught the essence of his personality, even though she's given the confirmed bachelor a young wife, his former Beekeeper's Apprentice. Mary Russell is the focus of these stories and the narrator of her share of the tales. (Sherlock's part is told in third person.) It is from Russell's "notes" that Laurie King constructs her stories, of which Garment of Shadows is another winner.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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