I was blown away by this book. Simple, everyday living by a local parapalegic, living in my own neighborhood. It is told with honesty, dignity and self deprecating humor.
There are some mysteries that you read once. They click along like a devious piece of machinery and challenge you to a contest of wits; and when you get to the end, you sigh with relief--delicious relief!--that the mystery has been solved, the murderer unmasked, the red herrings all set aside and accounted for. The joy is all in the puzzle, and once you know how the puzzle works, you don't have to read it again.
I've read this book five times. It's a comforting book, not because it's a comforting story (there is, after all, a kidnapping, bombs, and murderous intent in quantity), but because it introduces characters so wonderful that you can't help but enjoy time spent in their company. The first is Mary Russell, fifteen years old and voraciously intelligent, with the habit of walking across the English countryside with her face in a book. The second is Sherlock Holmes. He is ostensibly retired and living on the Sussex Downs where he keeps bees; and the last thing he is expecting, so late in his career, is to find a young woman whose brilliant mind and scrupulous observations make her the perfect apprentice, student, and friend.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice has the intricate plot and breath-stealing suspense that all satisfying mysteries should possess. It carries you to the England of 1915, wakes your curiosity with hints of theology and chess strategy, and gives you Russell and Holmes, who survive reading and re-reading and happily entrench themselves in your imagination.
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