tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16749171.post4615563129878594011..comments2024-03-22T07:00:25.081-07:00Comments on The Rap Sheet: The Dead Have Never Been More ActiveJ. Kingston Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17073921191624535912noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16749171.post-62052004710212684062011-06-03T10:52:50.590-07:002011-06-03T10:52:50.590-07:00I'm surprised that you're surprised by thi...I'm surprised that you're surprised by this sort of mystery, Roberta, since they've been around for awhile.<br /><br />In general, I agree with some of what you say; I too found the Barrron books unreadable - although lately, I've been meaning to go back and check just to see if they've gotten any better.<br /><br />But I did enjoy Bruce Alexander's depiction of the 18th century blind magistrate, enormously. These books deserve a wider audience.<br /><br />I didn't like THE PERICLES COMMISSION in the slightest - only made it through a few pages before putting it down with a sigh of impatience. Most books set in this era simply can never get the speech patterns correctly. Not that I know with a certainty what those speech patterns would have been like - not having been alive then (though sometimes I feel as if I must have been), still, I know that it would not have sounded like 21st century speech with frills.<br /><br />As for Laurie King's wonderful recreation of Holmes - we have another disagreement. Her Holmes/Russell series works on so many levels that I am surprised you lump it together with books of such lesser quality. i.e. the Josephine Tey books by Nicola Upson which do not work, for me, on any level. The writing is that amateurish and derivative.<br /><br />King has taken Holmes and turned him into a 'flesh and blood' man and fashioned a woman who is edgy enough and brilliant enough to suit him. They are complete equals. It is the only sort of relationship I can ever see Holmes having with a woman and I thank King for thinking it up. She shows no strain in 'fitting' details of Holmes' early life into her own stories at all. For me, these tales are a seamless transition. Most especially the early books in the series. THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, O JERUSALEM, THE MOOR, JUSTICE HALL. All, to my mind, brilliant.<br /><br />One last thing: I wonder that you bother to say 'nobody can do Austen like Austen.' <br /><br />Well, duh.<br /><br />Despite all this, believe it or not, I did enjoy reading your round-up.Yvettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919246184376538331noreply@blogger.com