Not my favorite book in the series, but I'll keep reading!

This is probably my favorite so far, and although it is the fifth book by publication date, the events take place at the end of the first book, when things are getting rather dangerous for Holmes and Mary and Mycroft offers to send them out of town. Mary has always wanted to visit Jerusalem, so Mycroft sends them to British-controlled Palestine where they are embroiled in a series of murders and led by two Arab men who have a really hard time with a capable woman who can pass as a man when the occasion calls for it and is every bit as capable (if not more sometimes). As they work their way to Jerusalem chasing their adversary, they run into danger, prejudice, violence, politics, and intrigue, even while Mary shows her male skeptics just how capable she can be. Definitely my favorite Mary Russell book so far!

This was a really slow-starter. The slogging around in the desert while they proved themselves to the locals took well over half the book and wasn't at all exciting, and just barely interesting. The second half of the book was a fine little adventure, and I loved imagining the underparts of Jerusalem. It makes the archaeologist in me pine.

Really disappointing. I couldn't even finish it. The series started out well, but has gotten increasing shallow and without much storyline. The language and writing are great, but this one really lacks any kind of story to pull you through it. I was about half-way through it and realized up to that point they'd just been wandering around in the desert the whole time (indeed one of the characters confirmed that they'd been leading Sherlock and Mary around for the hell of it) with nothing much had happening. I gave up on it; a thing I rarely do.

One of the things I love about this book is the portrayal of early British Palestine.

3 1/2 stars

"He was as dirty and ill-clothed as any London street-arab..." There's the quote that lost this book its stars. I was mostly enjoying the story, though cringing at the constant implications that living like the Bedouin necessitates one being filthy and smelly. But the use of the pejorative "street-arab" broke the camel's back.

Granted, it was said by a character of the early 20th century - our heroine, Mary Russell, in fact - but the author's introduction failed to apologize for such an appalling bit of historicity.

Huck Finn uses the n word, and it's too late for Mark Twain to offer an author's note apologizing for the offense this historic accuracy brings. But it's not too late for Laurie R. King to note that "stree-arab" was a term in use at the time, a specifically racist but also classist term meant to characterize a filthy, impoverished, and perhaps homeless person as being as dirty as an Arab, but that its use today is appalling. Even such an apology would leave the disgust at the lifestyle of the Bedouin permeating the novel. No amount of dye on the skins of Holmes and Russell can cover this over.

Took a minute, but a very satisfactory second half and ending.

Who is Plumbury?? I did not even go back to find out. I did like the descriptions of Jerusalem though.

This was a fun look into the nomadic culture of the Middle East following WWI.