Play The Game With Holmes and Russell
The Game by Laurie King
Some books come with prerequisites. Laurie King's The Game is one.
First, while not essential, it helps to have read all the other books in the series. It is a prerequisite that you have read the opening two novels in King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series: The Beekeeper's Apprentice and The Monstrous Regiment of Women. These two books set the stage for the four novels that follow (A Letter of Mary, The Moor, O Jerusalem, and Justice Hall.).
Second, another book is all but mandatory reading before delving into The Game: Ruyard Kipling's Kim.
If you're new to Laurie King, three novels may seem like a hefty prerequisite. Is it worth the time investment? Given that Laurie King is my favorite modern author, you can hardly expect me to say no, can you? The three books listed above are delectable enough in their own rights to make it worth your time, even if The Game weren't waiting as dessert. Kipling is one of the classics and many readers will already be familiar with Kim. If you aren't, this is the perfect excuse to go back to that adventure tale by the author of The Jungle Book and the Just So Stories.
The Game does make a tasty after-meal treat. It hasn't enough sustenance to make a meal by itself, but it remains a worthy snack.
In The Game, Holmes and Russell are ringing in the New Year when they are summoned by Mycroft Holmes. He assigns them a mission, despite their reluctance to leave London. One of England's Indian operatives, a former companion of Sherlock Holmes, has gone missing and has remained missing for the past three years. The operative is Kimball O'Hara, Ruyard Kipling's Kim. Mary expresses surprise that this supposedly fictional character is real, but accepts it with the rationalization that half of the world believes her husband, Holmes, is fictional.
Soon the couple is steaming off to India, sharing the boat ride with a plethora of English and American characters. They begin picking up hints during the journey while they prepare for their mission by developing their new roles. Once they arrive in India, they go to ground, immersing themselves in British and Indian politics as well as picking up a waifish follower.
In some ways, The Game is a tribute and a mirror to Kipling's classic. It is a novel of disguises, politics, devotion and adventure. This is an especially interesting tribute in that it also continues the Holmes genre, seamlessly meshing the two in a way that makes sense and is entertaining.
Surprisingly, King avoids taking a political stance on colonialism. Her characters sometimes question it, but there is no detailed, in-depth treatment of it the way Monstrous Regiment of Women explored early feminism and religious mysticism or the way Justice Hall challenged the execution of deserters in World War I.
Rather, The Game, as its title implies, is a romp through India in the early days of Gandhi. We see the self-indulgence and extravagance of the maharajas, the poverty of the people, the distance and arrogance of the British. We're treated to a slice of Indian culture, though with much less emphasis on religion than found in Kipling's earlier story. We are given a glimpse of the tensions between Great Britain and Russia and why India played such a crucial role in world politics.
King does an exceptional job of storytelling. She manages to build suspense right up to the scene where it seems the protagonists have no way out. King paints a gruesome picture that requires all the wits and cleverness of Holmes, Russell, and their British contact combined. While the early chapters are leisurely, the final ones are so fast-paced that one dare not put the book down because it would mean lingering in doubt about the fate of the characters we've come to care about.
The Game is not without its weaknesses. There is very little catharsis after the book's climax as it ends very quickly afterward. The novel begs comparisons to such classics as Kim, the Holmes canon, and even to King's own early work. In such company it is dwarfed.
However, saying one is short when standing next to giants is not necessarily that harsh of a criticism. Nor could I bring myself to level it if it were. The book was enjoyable and I was thrilled to once again be spying upon the adventures of Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes.
