Resumo de Locked Rooms - Laurie R. King

Since she began her journey back to her home town?ostensibly to deal with her father's estate?Russell has been tormented by strange dreams, one of which involves the"locked rooms" of the title, and the sight of her San Francisco childhood home opens a flood of memories and emotions, most of which she's loathe to allow into her über-rational mind. When someone takes a shot at her, Holmes enlists the help of Pinkerton agent Dashiell Hammett and Russell triesto unlock her past, in particular the "accident" that killed her family and left her an orphan in 1914. King's re-creation of San Francisco, especially the backstory during the devastating 1906 earthquake, is superb, and it's a pleasure to see the unusually competent Russell struggling with her own psyche. It is 1930, 24 years after the great earthquake and 10 years since the death of Mary's brother and parents, and her removal to Anglia. This is a morecharacter-driven title than many of the previous Russell/Holmes outings, andMary's emotions and fears are in the forefront. The story is told inalternating sections, by Mary in the first person and from Holmes's point of iew in the third. intelligent,evocative and gracefulKing makes full use of her considerable skills at probing the dark of the human psyche in this utterlymes merizing tale of Mary Russell?s trip back to the San Francisco of her parents with her husband, She rlock Holmes... In alternating sections, told in first person for Mary and third for Holmes, the unraveling of long-buried and terrifying memories also unwinds a skein of wonderful historical texture: the place of Chinese immigrants and the use of feng shui; the night life of a city during the age of jazz, Prohibition, and flappers; and the presence of Dash Hammett, who plays a fascinating role as a very different sort of Irregular. The dreams confuse mary, but her husband Holmes believes they're rooted inrepressed memories of her San Francisco childhood during the great quake and fire. Two points of view (first person from Russell and third person from Holmes) add to the richness of the prose and the complexity of the story line. This energetic novel succeeds both in advancing the relationship of its central characters and in capturing the atmosphere of the era. The teaming of Holmes with a SanFrancisco investigator by the name of Dashiell Hammett is icing on the cake. With his normally capable wife distracted by her emotions, it is up to Holmes to recruit new Irregulars and uncover the truth behind the "locke drooms" that Russell dreams about. This latest title in King's Russell/Holmes series is steeped in the period feel of 1920s San Francisco. Worthy of the highest recommendation and suitable for all public libraries. No one,not even Conan Doyle, has ever done a better Holmes than King does...Since the audacious and brilliant "The Beekeeper's Apprentice," eight books ago, the series can now be seen to have been moving in a long andintricate arc toward just this crisis. That's quite an accomplishment. This finely wrought, cleverly plotted work proves again that King is one of the finest crime novelists now writing. LockedRooms" brims with lively 1920s color and verve, some of it in the warrensof San Francisco's China town.

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