Piracy, as well as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Once you start reading Laurie R. King’s Pirate King, prepare to feel surrounded by buccaneers. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are back, this time on the high seas as well as in dry dock as Mary is shuffled off by a dismissive Holmes to look into low crimes associated with even lower art—the English silent film industry.
Some rather highly placed peers have invested in Randolph Fflytte, whose last three movies have been flops. Worse still, where his productions go, crime follows. Mary Russell is sent in the guise of an “assistant’s assistant” to oversee prima donnas while she discreetly looks into the nefarious goings-on associated with Fflytte films.
Writing as Mary Russell, King is having as much fun as her readers. Pirate King is the eleventh Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes adventure, and Santa Cruz resident King, whose books routinely make the New York Times Bestseller list, builds what proves to be a very clever and complicated literary engine entirely out of snappy dialogue, brisk action and the engaging voice of Mary Russell.
Russell provides a pleasingly grounded contrast to the hyper-competence of Sherlock Holmes. Surrounded by pretend pirates, megalomaniac mothers, pampered daughters and temperamental men of dubious talent and intent, Russell’s job is to keep her wits when all about her have lost theirs. King knows when to make the danger real and when to bring on the laughs. She sees the comic nature of those who are keenly unaware of their own self-absorption.
Pirate King is as intelligent as it is entertaining; you get pirates of all stripes and some though-provoking perspectives on piracy itself. You’ll get as much and more from King herself; you can count on her to make you think as often as she makes you laugh. The book may be about pirates, but the writer is truly the treasure.
Laurie R. King reads from and discusses Pirate King Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7:30pm at Capitola Book Café, 1475 41st Ave., Capitola. Free.
