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    O Jerusalem
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    O Jerusalem
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    O Jerusalem
    Audiobook13 hours

    O Jerusalem

    Written by Laurie R. King

    Narrated by Jenny Sterlin

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Classically Holmesian yet enchantingly fresh, with colorful characters and a dazzling historic ambience, O Jerusalem sweeps readers ever onward in the thrill of the chase.

    Coming out of retirement, an aging Sherlock Holmes has traveled to Palestine with his 19-year-old partner, Mary Russell. There, disguised as ragged Bedouins, they embark on a dangerous mission. If they fail, the holy city will surely go up in flames. With her unerring flair for the dramatic, Laurie R. King packs this novel with bloodcurdling adventure, clever disguises, and layers of intrigue.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9781407497839
    Unavailable
    O Jerusalem
    Author

    Laurie R. King

    Laurie R. King is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Kate Martinelli novels and the acclaimed Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mysteries, as well as a few stand-alone novels. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first in her Mary Russell series, was nominated for an Agatha Award and was named one of the Century’s Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. A Monstrous Regiment of Women won the Nero Wolfe Award. She has degrees in theology, and besides writing she has also managed a coffee store and raised children, vegetables, and the occasional building. She lives in northern California.

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    Reviews for O Jerusalem

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    • 5/5
      At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England's green and pleasant land, Russell and Holmes enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes' enigmatic brother, Mycroft."Gentlemen, we are at your service." Thus Holmes greets the two travel-grimed Arab figures who receive them in the orange groves fringing the Holy Land. Whatever role could the volatile Ali and the taciturn Mahmoud play in Mycroft's design for this land the British so recently wrested from the Turks? After passing a series of tests, Holmes and Russell learn their guides are engaged in a mission for His Majesty's Government, and disguise themselves as Bedouins--Russell as the beardless youth "Amir"--to join them in a stealthy reconnaissance through the dusty countryside.A recent rash of murders seems unrelated to the growing tensions between Jew, Moslem, and Christian, yet Holmes is adamant that he must reconstruct the most recent one in the desert gully where it occurred. His singular findings will lead him and Russell through labyrinthine bazaars, verminous inns, cliff-hung monasteries--and into mortal danger. When her mentor's inquiries jeopardize his life, Russell fearlessly wields a pistol and even assays the arts of seduction to save him. Bruised and bloodied, the pair ascend to the jewellike city of Jerusalem, where they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for savagery and power could reduce the city's most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite this tinderbox of a land....
    • 5/5
      King did a heck of a lot of research for this book, and since my knowledge of Palestine after WW1 was nearly nil, I learned a great deal. I was fascinated by the characters and plot.
    • 4/5
      This is a review for the audiobook version, which I listened to in the car to and from work and during which I was on school holidays for 2 weeks. I say this as a partial explanation for the next line: Holy cheese whiz, it's finally over! It felt like this book took an unusually long time to get through. In part, as I mentioned above, it's my "car read" and I didn't drive for 2 weeks, but also because for the first half of the book, there isn't much happening at all. A lot of Holmes and Russell walking about in the desert and I mean a lot of walking. For fully the first half of the book, almost nothing happens. But oh, what a rich and vividly written first half of almost nothing it is. I'd come home from work driving through a very cold wet city and feel like I had to shower off the sand and sweat from the deserts of Palestine. I was never bored, never disinterested and when the second half of the book begins and Holmes and Russell are in Jerusalem, it all starts picking up speed until they are literally racing against a clock. My only beef about this book is that it's #5 in the series, but takes place during the same time frame as Beekeeper's Apprentice; if I'd known this, I would have read it second, because it makes much more sense to me. As it stands at #5, I was left "undoing" several rather significant character developments in my head in order to properly place O Jerusalem and it's characters in the proper timeline. I'll definitely re-read this book, and in print, because I think I missed a lot of details listening to it the first time around. But it was absolutely enjoyable and I can't recommend Jenny Sterlin's narration of the series strongly enough.
    • 3/5
      A lot of history, but not a lot of mystery. The detailed history, which I loved, overshadowed the story and left important details, like a motive, unanswered. This was an unfinished book for me from several years ago, I can see why I abandoned it, but I'm glad I picked it back up and finished.
    • 5/5
      Needing to leave England for a while and accepting a commission from Sherlock's brother Mycroft, Mary and Sherlock find themselves in Palestine and in the middle of a plot to destabilize an already troubled area in 1919 when Allenby is trying to forge some sort of peace and the Turks aren't quite ready to give up the area.Mary dons the disguise of an Arab boy named Amir and has a rapid course in Arabic as they join forces with Mahmoud and Ali who are agents for Mycroft and who aren't eager to have two new strangers coming into the area. After a period of testing which tests their stamina and determination and puts a strain on Holmes who is healing from the bomb blast which precipitated their trip to Palestine, Holmes and Mary find themselves trying to find the mastermind who is behind a few murders and a plot to blow up a sacred site in Jerusalem.The story sees Holmes and Russell traveling through many dusty parts of Palestine including cliff-side monasteries and buried tunnels and aqueducts and tombs. Mary and Sherlock even have a chance to swim in the Dead Sea. Mary is often awestruck seeing the sites she has studied and the places that form an important part of her religion. I loved the vivid descriptions of the land and people they meet on their journey. The plot was nicely twisty. I liked the growing relationship between Mary and Sherlock as they ease from Mary's apprenticeship to her being a full and equal partner to Holmes.
    • 4/5
      A worthy addition to Laurie R King's Russell/Holmes series, taking place during an interlude of The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I enjoyed how the author wove the characters within post-World War I history, and made the streets and countryside of Palestine come alive in sight, sound, and smell.
    • 4/5
      Although this book in Laurie King’s Mary Russell series is the fifth one published, it is actually the second chronologically. During The Beekeeper’s Apprentice¸ Holmes and Russell retreat to Palestine to distance themselves from the antagonist and to have time to plan how the villain will be caught. Since Mary Russell alludes to the fact that their adventures in Palestine was instrumental in Holmes now considering Russell as a partner rather than an apprentice, I decided that I would read this book next.Until WW1, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. When the Turks were defeated by the British, Palestine came under British control. When it appears that someone is attempting to sabotage the peace talks, Holmes and Russell are asked to investigate, which they do disguised as Bedouin nomads and with the assistance of two true Bedouins. I enjoyed this novel, especially the Palestinian history when Israel and Judah were under Jewish sovereignty. Additionally, it was good to see why Russell was elevated to partner from Holmes’ student.
    • 3/5
      I have read other books in the Holmes - Russell series and enjoyed them immensely. This one had a bit too much historical detail and seemed a bit tedious reading in parts. The history of the area is pertinent to the setting but at times I felt I was in a lecture class instead of reading a good mystery.I enjoyed the characters and the way of learning about them bit by bit rather than all at the beginning. It made me more interested in their actions than their personalities.Holmes and Russell have been sent on a mission by Holmes brother, Mycroft, as a way of getting out of England for a bit. They are sent to the Holy Land to find out about a possible plot against the British. Military hero, Edmund Allenby has taken Jerusalem from the control of the Turkish, giving England the governing of the area. Mycroft has heard that there is still a faction that is against this change and is set on causing death and destruction.Holmes and Russell spend their time passing a Bedouins, in order to gather the information and form a solution to prevent the possible disaster. For Russell this is a major feat as she is to pose as a young Bedouin boy so that she can help with the investigations and have the ability to get around. She is also tasked with learning the language and customs of the people she is to come from. Assisting them are Mahmoud Hazr and his brother Ali. In reality they are British spies. The Hazrs are to be the guides for Holmes and Russell in helping them navigate the unusual customs of this part of the world.
    • 4/5
      Laurie R. King's O Jerusalem follows an elderly Sherlock Holmes and his young apprentice, historian Mary Russel, as they travel to the Holy Land of 1919 seeking refuge from an unknown enemy in England. While in British-occupied Palestine, they work for Holmes' brother Mycroft in discovering who seeks to upset the uneasy balance between Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the city and the region. King's knowledge of the Palestine of 1919 makes for a vivid backdrop against which she plots her narrative. Additionally, like other successors to the Conan-Doyle stories including Mitch Cillin, she incorporates the original stories into her version of Holmes, with Watson writing fictionalized accounts of their cases, Conan-Doyle acting as the literary agent, and even the early stage play and film by William Gillette existing in this world. As a nice homage to that actor, King has Holmes go undercover as a British officer and use Gillette's name (pg. 333). This will primarily appeal to those who have read King's previous novels, though her reverence for the great detective, knowledge of his exploits, and skill in recreating the Palestine of 1919 will endear her to any Sherlockian.
    • 5/5
      This is absolutely my most favorite series ever! Every book in the series is fantastic-5 star! If you like Sherlock Holmes, you have to read this pastiche. It's the best one I've read yet.
    • 3/5
      This is one of a series of spin-off Sherlock Holmes novels, where the relatively elderly detective partners young theology student Mary Russell. This was the fifth to be published, but was set during a hiatus in the plot of the first novel, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, so I read it now (nearly three years) after that novel. This is a well written novel and the author has obviously done a great deal of research into the time and place, Palestine under the British Mandate just after the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In places, the research is in my view a bit heavy at the expense of a well-flowing plot. Despite these literary merits, for me this doesn't work as a Sherlock Holmes novel; there are flashes of Holmesian brilliance, but for large tracts of the novel, he doesn't come across as the Great Detective; and Russell, while an interesting character, isn't entirely believable and her relationship with Holmes not really plausible within his fictional persona. So overall I'm not too sure if I'll pursue this series of a dozen or so novels, beyond the next one that I already have on my Kindle, and which sounds like it may be a bit more traditionally Sherlockian.
    • 4/5
      Following a bombing in 1918, Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell fled England to British-occupied Palestine under auspices of Mycroft. Disguised as Bedouins and working with two Arab brothers, Ali and Mahmoud Hazr, they became part of mission for His Majesty’s government trying to solve several murders of British agents. They were led on a trip criss-crossing the mostly barren land. While Jews and Arabs had coexisted without severe problems, the Arabs were apprehensive of what would happen following the Balfour Sykes-Picot agreements which would mean the Arabs would lose their homes. They didn’t know about the Paris Peace talks and didn’t trust politicians in other areas to protect them. They had been under Turkish domination for four hundred years and would fight to prevent that from happening again.After the Hazrs finished testing them, Sherlock and Mary learned a large part of their assignment was to locate Karim Bey, a sadistic, former torturer for the Turks, who was planning to dynamite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem while General Allenby was meeting with local leaders on the site. They also have to ferret out a British spy.The book is written in Laurie R. King’s wonderful style, reminiscent of the original Sherlock Holmes series. She provides a lot of detail of what the country looked like at that time:“The residents were only slightly more numerous than in the days when Hagar and Ishmael had been turned out into the wilderness” and there were about seven thousand residents in Jerusalem. The pace alters between a stroll and a fast race, depending on where they were and what was happening. There was a lot of adventure and suspense as the quartet met with others and tried to get information to answer their questions and prevent a catastrophe. There were also vivid descriptions of the life of Bedouins as they travel from location to location.My favorite quote: Using insult instead of argument is the sign of a small mind. Holmes. I plan to cite it frequently when posting comments on Facebook.
    • 5/5
      Love Laurie King. I am going back and forth with this and her Kate Martinelli series.
    • 5/5
      Since I'm reading these books in order, I remember Mary Russell telling readers that she and Holmes had spent an extended period of time in Palestine, and O Jerusalem fills in the details. This fifth book in the series did a lot more than advance the story of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. For me, it helped to fill a large historical gap from the time of the Romans until 1948-- and it did so with style. In fact I didn't realize that the mystery didn't really begin until about halfway through the book because I was enjoying the trek Mary and Sherlock were undertaking.King's subtle humor is sublime as she takes this intrepid duo through the desert with Ali and Mahmoud, two guides who aren't all that enthused about their charges (especially Mary). Life as a nomad is thirsty, blister-inducing, filthy work, and the author tells her tale so well that I often felt like taking a shower and burying my head in a bucket of ice water when I had to set the book aside.Readers are treated to the sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem, as well as bazaars and cliff-hugging monasteries as they watch Ali and Mahmoud's slowly changing opinions of their English companions. The mystery is a good one that keeps the little grey cells chugging away even as I cringed while being taken deep into ancient Jerusalem. O Jerusalem is filled with what I love so much about this series: marvelous characterizations, an intriguing mystery to solve, a wonderful dry wit, and a setting that I can really sink my teeth into. Bring on the next one!
    • 4/5
      This was my favorite in the series so far: the colorful setting, Mary's reactions to playing a young boy for so long, Holmes somewhat crippled by injuries still healing.
    • 3/5
      I tend to think of this as one of the more educational Mary Russell books, but as for how much information on Palestine I actually retained, well, that's a different issue.
    • 4/5
      Anyone familiar with the Sherlock Holmes canon, or even just Christopher Morley's wonderful introduction to it, knows, one of Doyle's most delightfully infuriating tricks was to constantly open an adventure with a tantalizing hint of another one that never got written down. Watson always had an acceptable excuse for this, of course. There simply wasn't enough time, or the details of the case were too classified or the mystery involved persons so distinguished the tale simply could not be put to paper during Watson's lifetime. Or the case notes were locked in a vault in bank.Of course, we Holmesians (or Sherlockians, since no one seems to bother with the distinction anymore, irritatingly) loved Holmes and Watson all the more for it.King has taken a different tack in the fifth installment of the Mary Russell Sherlock Holmes pastiche series, giving us an entire volume dedicated to an adventure only alluded to in The Beekeeper's Apprentice. And it is a treat.Much like in The Moor, Holmes and Russell spend much of the book wandering in early 20th century Palestine, drawn into a mystery that, naturally, brings us a glimpse of T.E. Lawrence, Gen. Edmund "Bull" Allenby and two spies-cum-Bedouin guides. Both of Holmes' and Russell's guides are well developed characters, fascinating in and of themselves and keep the story going even during long, rather dry stretches of travel. They are used as vehicles to explain Arabic and Bedoiun culture, but never cross into caricatures of themselves, a tricky feat that King pulls off exceedingly well.Those who have studied Middle Eastern history or culture (I should admit here that I did, both before and during college, and of course afterwards to the extent I can) will appreciate King's discernment in what she chooses to highlight and use during the course of her novel. The mystery itself was pretty good, though not great by mystery reader standards, laden with international intrigue and coated with a likely bitter resentment that stems from the fallout of World War I. There is a delightful, but subtle, reference to Moriarty (though he has nothing to do with adventure, of course) that readers of the Canon will appreciate.Perhaps because there is a cluster of four characters this time, or perhaps because it pre-dates Russell and Holmes' marriage, or quite possibly because I have been fascinated with the Middle East long before current events threw it into our headlines daily, I found this to be an wonderful, immersive reading experience.All of King's usual skill – character creation and development, historical research blended artfully into a fictitious story, sweeping settings and vivid landscapes – are present in this book. I found Sherlock to be, as usual, as close to himself as can be expected in a pastiche and Russell's religious devotion and passion softens the edges of both their cold, analytical minds. The passage in which Russell describes seeing the Dome of the Rock for the first time from a hill above Jerusalem, as a Jewish woman, is truly beautiful. But at no point is she proselytizing, either.I have always found Russell's interest and academic devotion to theology, and her sincere comfort in religion, to be a wonderfully balancing counterpoint to Holmes' sometimes icy, but crystalline clear, vision of the world. It is one of the things that keeps me reading the series and in this book I found that attribute shone brilliantly.Another of King's talents this installment illustrates more than others, I think, is her ability to keep the reader in the story using realistic detail in her character's stream of consciousness. For example, Russell has to get used to eating while in a kneeling position and, due to all the walking they do in desert, gets badly blistered feet. King never forgets these facts but doesn't dwell on them unduly, either. It helps gives a sense of time.Though Mycroft is hinted at, the reader is disappointed. Sigh. Although Caleb Carr did an impressive job with Mycroft in The Italian Secretary, I would like to see how King handles him.Perhaps the next installment.
    • 4/5
      Oh, I enjoyed this one a lot! It brought back college history classes from nearly twenty years ago and put a much more vivid spin on the Arab-Israeli conflict than the prof ever managed.

      Unlike with The Moor, which had an actual disabled character (gasp!), the disability tag is used here for debilitating injuries being largely ignored, thanks to stupendous levels of stoicism. Granted, Holmes age is showing significantly, which is awesome and an appreciated nod to plausibility. *g*

      I really am falling in love with crossdressing!Mary. And Holmes' nod to Ali and Mahmoud's relationship as being somewhat more and less than brotherly made me laugh and laugh. (The dry humor works for me, okay?)

      Yeah, that was a satisfying adventure story. :)
    • 3/5
      My least favorite of the Russell/Holmes stories so far. While the setting is fascinating, the plot drags rather monotonously and since there's never really any doubt about what's going to happen, the book seems fairly pointless.
    • 3/5
      This Holmes / Russell novel is set in Palestine and what is now Israel in about 1920. The story follows their adventures masquerading as Bedouin nomads and their efforts to save General Allenby, T. E. Lawrence and the Dome of the Rock. This book has an air of unbelieveability in it, so be sure to read the others before you read this one. I think this series is stronger than the individual novels, and the reader benefits from reading the books in order.
    • 5/5
      This is the "missing story" which would be part of The Beekeeper's Apprentice if Laurie King had written it as a 600 page book. (Some of us would have liked that, but it might not have worked out so well for the publishing world.) In publishing terms, it's book number five in the series. Russell is eighteen going on nineteen, and the apprenticeship with Holmes is evolving at a rapid pace. As usually happens for this pair, there was a major complication thrust upon them by a case. It was so bad this time they had to leave London to evade the grasp of the Master Criminal (see Beekeeper's for all this!). Russell chooses to have them go to Palestine where, naturally, there is a new villain who will destroy the Middle East if they don't catch him. This book introduces Mahmoud and Ali Hazr, who appear in two later books. The Hazrs are native to the Middle East, or...not; they move smoothly through the culture. Holmes comes very close to being killed and is rescued by combined efforts; he and Russell unravel the final mysteries.There are many terrific secondary characters here and you learn a lot about the history of Palestine in a painless fashion. It also can be argued that this is a lynch pin book for changes between Russell and Holmes. Warning: be very careful about which part of the book you start at 11 pm. There are two sections in which you will NOT be able to put it down!
    • 3/5
      This was a really slow-starter. The slogging around in the desert while they proved themselves to the locals took well over half the book and wasn't at all exciting, and just barely interesting. The second half of the book was a fine little adventure, and I loved imagining the underparts of Jerusalem. It makes the archaeologist in me pine.
    • 4/5
      I completely agree with Tara - this is my favorite Mary Russell (so far)! Set in Jerusalem this story revolves around a case where Mary and Holmes are trying to find a terrorist who is trying to create a conflict that will result in war in Jerusalem.

      The interesting thing about this Mary Russell series is that the story lines are just ok. There aren't huge plot twists or heart pounding action. But the books are so good. The descriptions of the places, and the character development makes these stories such an enjoyable read. I am sure in a few months I won't remember many of the specifics of the story, but the sense of place and the growing affection I have of the characters will stay with me. I rarely read all of a series. Working in a bookstore, it's important to be broad. But when I get a chance, I pick up one of these books just for the pure pleasure of a good story.
    • 5/5
      Another Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel.

      This one actually backtracks in the timeline to an earlier story. They had set off to Jerusalem to escape a foe, but their stories in Jerusalem were not told in that book. So we encounter 1918 Jerusalem, where General Allenby has just defeated the Turks. Two English-Arabs spies take Holmes and Russell under their wing (albeit grudgingly).

      I will say this is one of my most favorites next to the first in this series!
    • 3/5
      Quite the epic plot! An enjoyable romp. Interesting to go back to when Mary was less sure of herself and less observant of details, as opposed to the confidant woman of just a few years later. I also like that, even among all the danger and such, she appreciates the architecture and history around her.
    • 5/5
      This is STILL my favorite book of the series, second only to the initial book. This is adventure and atmosphere, characters and plot, history and research, humor and tension -- everything, in fact, that I expect from a good mystery book.
    • 4/5
      Mary Russell and Holmes travel to Israel seeking to uncover a terrorist plot ending a string of murders. Although I love King's integration of Russell and Holmes, and the book ended in a page-turner, there were elements of this story that pushed credibility a bit for me. Nonetheless, I found it another good read for Sherlock Holmes fans who have run out of Doyle's work and need a fix, and Laurie King is doing the best job I've seen of maintaining the mystique of the great detective while giving it a breath of fresh air with a young assistant. 3½ stars.
    • 5/5
      I loved the first three Mary Russell novels, set early in the 20th Century, which give Sherlock Holmes a romantic and sleuthing partner. However, the fourth book, The Moor, was less than stellar. I feared that the series might have jumped the shark. However, a commentator on my review of that last book reassured me it was just the low point in the series and it picks itself right up in the next. And so it proved.Almost immediately I could feel this one would be solid. Perhaps King herself felt she had lost her footing in the last book, because this one returns to an earlier time in the relationship between Russell and Holmes--set during an interlude in the events of the first book, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, in 1919 Palestine under the British Mandate, and I feel King has a gift for evoking the period and setting.King seems to shine from what I've read when dealing with Biblical themes. She herself, like her heroine Russell, studied theology at the university level. Her second and third book dealt with such matters, and here the Jewish Russell finds herself in a land that has a lot of personal meaning for her. Holmes, irascible and brilliant, is pitch perfect. Recently I was reading a much acclaimed hard-boiled detective novel, and realized that much of what I disliked about that genre is that the so-called detectives solve their problems with their fists rather than their brains. Now, it's is not as if this book doesn't provide action and suspense in plenty--both Holmes and Russell can take care of themselves in a fight--but what shines in both of them is intelligence, and I think that's a lot of why I do love this series. That I'm not expected to deal with protagonists (however engaging Stephanie Plum might be) who are too-stupid-to-live. This was a pleasure.
    • 4/5
      A prime entry in King's Mary Russell series, O Jerusalem is a welcome return to the earlier stages of Russell's and Holmes' association. I think this book marks an upswing in the series as a whole; while I adore The Beekeeper's Apprentice without limits, I find the middle of A Monstrous Regiment of Women dull, and the following two books not much better. (I should note that the series becomes extraordinarily good later on). I share other reviewers' sneaking feeling that Mary-and-Holmes, though they are excellent as protagonists in a mystery series, have a less compelling relationship than Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell did before they wed. I've dismissed this feeling in the past, as I suspected myself of making Russell into my own Mary Sue, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with my initial impression. They're just cooler apart. While I love Mary, particularly her take-no-prisoners youth, I am astonished by King's writing of Holmes. How does she manage to evoke him, not as Doyle did, but as I perceive him in my own mind?
    • 4/5
      Maybe my favorite Mary Russell mystery, O Jerusalem takes Russell and Holmes to a temporary exile in Palestine while they gather their strength to face an enemy back home and meet the Hazr brothers, two of Mycroft's agents wandering the desert as scribes and spies. This feels like narrative King particularly enjoyed writing, something she put extra attention and care into. The descriptions of Palestine are perfectly lovely and the Hazr brothers perfectly entertaining.