Too slow burn for me.

This is probably my last book in the series.

WHY does Mary have to fall off a horse 5 times in one chapter?

In a long, slow book I can’t recall Sherlock or Mary coming up with even one brilliant deduction.

Good writing — but mainly for putting me to sleep. 😀

The Moor (1998) is the fourth book in Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King.

I was surprised that Mary Russell is already the wife of Sherlock Holmes!

What’s the age gap? Forty years?

The events in the book take place between September and November 1923.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes investigate strange goings-on on Dartmoor. Reprising the setting and some of the plotlines of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell come to the aid of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.

Baring-Gould is a real person who inspired this book. He wrote “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and hundreds of other publications. Something of an investigator like Holmes.

The audio book is posted on YouTube. You can listen free.

Not a great book. But I did manage to finish.

The setting is interesting. A collection of tenants in a low rental London boardinghouse.

Lisa, also known as Collette, is on the run after witnessing her shady boss, Tony, beat a man to death at the Nefertiti Men’s Club.

Now her mother is dying in a nursing home and she wants to be nearby, so she rents a room in a boardinghouse that’s one step up from a homeless shelter.

The shabby home, subdivided into apartments, is owned and managed by a grossly obese man who takes advantage of his down-and-out residents:

• Hossein, who’s seeking political asylum in England
• Vesta, who’s lived in the basement apartment all her life
• Cher, a 15-year-old who’s slipped the reins of social services
• Thomas, lonely, tries to make friends with his neighbours
• Gerard

While Collette uses the money she has left, about £100,000, to evade Tony and his henchmen, the residents are dealing with backed-up drains that smell awful.

Unknown to the other residents, one of the men has been making a habit of killing young women, including Nikki, the former resident of Collette’s apartment …

Kirkus Review

I finally read the ORIGINAL in the Aunties series.

Like the sequel, very funny.

It’s like a Wedding at Bernie’s — but with frustrating, meddling, loving Indonesian sisters.

There’s a surprising amount of profanity and sexual innuendo.

“Sutanto brilliantly infuses comedy and culture into the unpredictable rom-com/murder mystery mashup as Meddy navigates familial duty, possible arrest and a groomzilla.

—USA Today (four-star review)