Well, we are now into the last month of the year, and I still have twelve of these posts to get up! Thankfully, I just finished my last writing project for the year, so I’m planning to dedicate these final weeks to finishing up these reviews in very rapid succession. We’ll see how good my memory is now that it’s well over a year since I read most of the rest of these…

Book #4 in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, this was an enjoyable callback to The Hound of the Baskervilles. I also enjoyed the way the author wove actual historical characters/events in the person of the Reverend Baring-Gould, who I had never heard of but enjoyed researching afterwards.

While I did enjoy this one, I was annoyed at how Mary spends much (most?) of her time without Holmes. Her character is all right, but I mostly enjoy this series for its treatment of Holmes and their relationship, so I get much less interested when he is absent. Spoiler alert: This won’t be the last book in the series where I have this complaint.

Another enjoyable addition to this series! In this one we learn more about Constance’s past finally, and get to see the children develop their abilities a bit more and try to settle into their strange new life in hiding. Not especially brilliant, and the story is, as usual, rather silly, but the series continues to be best taken for what it is–a refreshing, entertaining childrens’ story. As with the other installments, I especially appreciate that the adults in the story are intelligent, wise, and have the childrens’ best interests at heart, as opposed to the “parents are stupid” attitude of much childrens’ fiction.

I’ll admit I remember this one probably the least out of the series, but I know I did like it!

I first heard Dr. Kathy Kock speak at an online homeschool summit a few years ago and instantly appreciated her outlook and advice immensely, and I’ve taken any chance I can to hear her speak since. So when I attended her session at last year’s Texas Homeschool Coalition Convention and heard this book recommended, I immediately bought it.

It was practical and excellent, and had the effect of removing the word “perfect” from my vocabulary when dealing with my children, which has been so helpful as I work to teach and care for them. I highly recommend this one.

This 5th book in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes story was just okay. As always, I love the relationship between the two characters, and it was somewhat interesting to finally get to go back and see what happened that was hinted at while the two were hiding out in Palestine during The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

But overall, I just found this one fairly boring. The mystery didn’t interest me at all, nor did the setting and historical information. The characters were the one redeeming aspect of this one. Thankfully, I mostly used this series to listen to as I was falling asleep at night, so boringness wasn’t really a huge problem!

At first I was thrown off by the fact that this one jumps forward several years to the children being grown up (except Constance, who is now a teenager). But while I wish we could have seen more of the children AS children, I eventually grew to enjoy seeing them at these ages as well.

The new character, Tai, was endearing. The story was as charming and amusing as all the rest. I do find myself hoping that there might be more stories that go back and explore the time between this one and The Prisoner’s Dilemma and all the time we missed, but in the meantime, this is a worthwhile addition to the series.

I’ll be back very soon with five more. We’ll see if I can make it by the end of the year!