Knave of Diamonds: 2025's Mary Russell Novel Gets A Review

I do love Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell series.  I've reviewed Dreaming Spies on this blog here ,  Island of the Mad  also on this blog here  and The Lantern's Dance, last year's Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell novel here . In addition I reviewed Back To The Garden, a standalone Laurie R. King book  here.  I downloaded a copy of this book from Net Galley.  This means the publisher approved my receiving of this book probably due to my publishing reviews on one of my blogs, and on Goodreads.

I was hoping that Knave of Diamonds would be as dramatic as Island of the Mad or as complex as The Lantern's Dance.   This post on the most recent Laurie R. King mystery will not be quite as positive as those previous reviews.  

                                               

 I noted that Mary Russell referred to an American dancer as "Josephine something or other" who had come to Paris to join a "revue negre".  This means that the dancer is African American and is likely to be Josephine Baker.  I reviewed Josephine Baker's Last Dance by Sherry Jones on this blog here.  So Mary Russell had never heard of Josephine Baker, and there is no reason why she should have heard of her.  She had no connections to either African Americans or the dance world.  

Jacob Russell, Mary's Uncle Jake, is a prominent character in Knave of Diamonds.  There are numerous chapters from his viewpoint.  Fortunately, the chapter viewpoints are labeled.  This isn't always the case in multiple viewpoint books.  So I was relieved not to have to do detective work to figure out which character was speaking.  

Jake is a thief, but not entirely reprehensible. Although more ethical than some thieves,  Jake is no Robin Hood.  He may rob from the rich, but he keeps the proceeds for himself.

One detail that I thought I'd include in this review is that Jake didn't realize that a signet ring could be important even though it wasn't part of the Irish Crown Jewels whose theft was the central event of the plot.  Lords used signet rings to validate documents.  So the Vicars, who were the noble family involved in the case, should probably have considered it a significant heirloom. The signet ring didn't come up elsewhere in the plot, and I thought that was rather curious.

The Stealing of the Irish Crown Jewels by Myles Dunegan, which is a factual account of the actual theft of the Irish Crown Jewels,  which is fictionally described  in Knave of  Diamonds, is cited by Laurie R. King as source material.  I decided to buy a Kindle copy, and hope to review it eventually.   

In conclusion, I was intrigued by the historical aspect of Knave of Diamonds and want to find out more about it even though I experienced the novel as overlong.

 

                                                           

 

 

 

                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

Suffragette Mystery, 1912

 I'm finally reviewing a novel that is allowing me to return to Flying High Reviews three months after I last posted here.  It does center on a strong female protagonist.  I'd like to try to read those more frequently. 

I purchased Lady Rights a Wrong from my public library's bookstore. I was hoping that the suffragette protagonist, Lady Cecilia Bates, would be a character who would capture my interest.  

Cecilia is investigating the death of suffragette leader, Amelia Price, which seems to be an accident.    

                                     

 

Cecilia wanted to learn how to ride a bicycle.  Once you've learned that skill, it makes you more independent.  Unfortunately, as I know from experience, learning to ride a bicycle involves a great deal of falling before you've mastered it.  In that era, it would be considered quite improper for a lady to be seen falling. 

I was engaged by this book through a good proportion of my reading process, but I have to say that I eventually found it tiresome.  I imagine I will give it a B- grade which would be two stars on Goodreads.

                             
                                             

                                      

  

                                      

 

 

 

The Queens of Crime

 I haven't posted a review on Flying High Reviews in 2025 until now.  This is a blog for books containing strong female protagonists.   It's taken me about two and half months to find them.  I'm not surprised that this review deals with a book I've chosen from the library rather than one that was sent to me by an author or publisher.  

                                

 Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict deals with a group of  real life mystery authors.  Benedict chose  Dorothy Sayers as the viewpoint character.  The others are Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy who is referred to as Emma in this novel, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh.

From the Wikipedia article on Ngaio Marsh, I learned that Sayers, Christie, Allingham and Marsh have been called the Queens of Crime. Baroness Orczy, who is not known for writing mysteries, is not included in that group.  She is best known for having written the historical fiction, The Scarlet Pimpernel, but she also had written crime novels about which I know absolutely nothing.  In fact, Benedict's novel, the subject of this review, was the first time I learned that Baroness Orczy had written anything other than The Scarlet Pimpernel.  So I definitely got an education from reading this book. 

I feel that I need to mention that although I have read Sayers, Christie and the one well known novel by Orczy, I have never read any books by Margery Allingham or Ngaio Marsh. 

The authors discuss how they write. Agatha Christie says that for her characters come last.  It definitely shows.  That is not a compliment.  Although I watch Poirot on television, I don't find him interesting as a protagonist.  She may start with plot, but her plots are formulaic.  Christie was the first mystery author I read.  Since then I've discovered authors I prefer whose work is more complex.

Dorothy Sayers says that she creates biographies for her characters. She wondered if they should create a biography for the missing May Daniels even though she isn't a fictional character. IMAO, that's definitely the wrong direction. That should be self-evident.   She has an actual life which they need to uncover, not create.  Knowing about her life should be a starting point for their investigation into her disappearance.  

Dorothy realized that May shouldn't be viewed the same way as a fictional character after she attended the police briefing about May's disappearance.  After that, it felt very real.  She shared the information that the police provided with the other women in their group.

Since May's disappearance is the central mystery of the novel, I can't include any further information about it.  I also can't reveal how the novel ended.  I would give it the grade of B.  This means that I liked it, but didn't love it.