Discussion:
Notes on Current Author: Laurie Richardson King was born in Oakland, CA in 1952, daughter of a furniture restorer and retired librarian and curator. She has a 1977 B.A. in Religious Studies from University of California at Santa Cruz, and a 1984 M.A. from Theological Union. She is married to a retired professor of Religious Studies, still lives in California, and has two children. She didn't begin her writing career until 1987, in her mid-thirties.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice: On the Segregation of the Queen was actually Laurie King's first written novel, although the Edgar First Novel Award was presented to her first published mystery, A Grave Talent in 1993, which also won the British John Creasey Dagger. Mrs. King did not publish Beekeeper at first because there was concern about copyright infringement. That turned out not to be a problem, although the group wondered why it wasn't. When Beekeeper was published in 1994, it was an Agatha Award nominee. Her other nine works include A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Nero Wolfe Award, 1995), With Child (Edgar Award Nominee and American Library Association Best Book, 1996), and O Jerusalem (1999), a further continuation of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series.
Book Review: Laurie King's works are generally critically well-received. Most on-line reader critiques were also favorable.
The group, however, was split as to whether this first of five "pastiches" were "fun" or "unholy". Most buffs enjoyed reading "another" Holmes, but found this author's presentation of Watson demeaning, and the brewing romantic inclinations of the two main characters unsavory, if not wholly untenable. It was remarked that "Mary Russell" shared a good deal of Laurie King's biographical tidbits. It was felt that the author's personal experiences colored her presentation of a "very mature thinking and independent" 15-year-old, with clear feminist inclinations, and an improbable amount of individual freedom for the times. All agreed that a red-pencilled editor would have improved the work. The chapter epigraphs from Maeterlinck's 1901 The Life of the Bee were noted as a fine literary and artistic touch.