Pirate King (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, Book 11) - Laurie R. King

Written by Laurie R. King
Read by Jenny Sterlin
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 48 Kbps
Unabridged

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series, Book 11
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Release Date: 7/6/2011
Duration: 11:15:24

As Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark on their 11th adventure together, they find themselves immersed in the world of silent filmmaking. Here, the pirates are real-and unlike the shooting done with a camera, this sort can be deadly.

In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. But rumors of criminal activities swirl around his popular movie studio. At the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell travels undercover to the set of Fflytte’s latest cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, the project will either set the standard for moviemaking for a generation . . . or sink a boatload of careers.

As the company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, the thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses whom Mary is chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell senses ominous currents of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with many secrets, decks awash with budding romance–and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their outlaw leader. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

In a foreword, King, to her credit, acknowledges the implausibility of her 11th Mary Russell novel by having her heroine declare, “I fear that the credulity of many readers will be stretched to the breaking point by the case’s intricate and, shall we say, colourful complexity of events.” If anything, this is an understatement. In the fall of 1924, Sherlock Holmes, Mary’s husband, uses the threat of an impending visit from his brother, Mycroft, with whom she’s at odds, to persuade Mary to travel to Lisbon, where she’s ostensibly to serve as a production assistant for “a film about a film about The Pirates of Penzance.” In fact, she’s on covert assignment for the British government to investigate the studio behind the new film, whose releases appear to coincide with an upsurge in criminal activity. Sherlockians must wait more than half the book for Holmes to put in a cameo in this action-heavy, deduction-light installment.