A Monstrous Regiment of Women

After reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice, I decided to ride on the high of enjoyment I'd acquired while reading it, and plunged straight into the next book in the Mary Russell series, titled A Monstrous Regiment of Women.

To say that the title is intriguing is something of an understatement. It is taken from the title of John Knox's treatise The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, which was published in 1558 and is, as the title indicates, a document against women - more specifically, the rule of women. Knox's indictments against women are grounded solidly in the Bible and in associated texts, and he makes many references to them to shore up his case. What he would have made of the Anglican Church's acceptance of women into its ranks as ordained priests and bishops, I'm not certain - though I can imagine the resulting apoplexy would kill him.

It is the participation and influence of women in traditionally male spheres that forms the core of the novel. While in London during the Christmas season, Mary Russell bumps into an old acquaintance of hers from Oxford. Said acquaintance is very involved in the activities of a new, predominantly female church, led by one Margery Childe. Russell's involvement in Childe's church and, increasingly, in her acquaintance's personal life, spins out into a series of dangerous misadventures that culminates in Russell and Holmes solving a series of murders of wealthy young women connected to Childe's church, and discovering something about themselves, as well.

Unfortunately, this book was hardly as strong as its predecessor, and certainly feels like a letdown. I wish I could give it 2.5 stars, since while one half of it was good, the other half was really quite dreadful. The bits involving theology and women were, I think, the best part. Russell specializes in theology, and her discussions with Childe in connection to the systematic elision or reduction by centuries of translators of the strength of female influence in the Bible are utterly fascinating, and are certainly the strongest moments in the book. Also, Russell's regard of Childe and her thoughts regarding mystics, specifically female mystics such as Catherine of Siena, are fascinating for those who are interested in the role of women in Christianity and their role as recipients and distributors of God's word.

However, the other half of the book hardly lives up to the strength of its other half. I refer specifically to the heroin subplot, wherein Russell is kidnapped by some mysterious male perpetrator, held in a dank basement, and is shot full of heroin in an attempt to make her hopelessly addicted to the drug. Through sheer strength of will she resists the pull of the drug, and Holmes rescues her eventually, but the episode is far too melodramatic for my tastes, a resounding echo of similar events in soap operas. I should think that soap opera moments have no place in a novel about Holmes and a woman with the same level of intelligence as he - or if it must happen, then it shouldn't happen to them. And yet there it is, and from that moment onwards the novel seems to take a downhill slide.The choice of perpetrator also seemed overly melodramatic to me, another resounding echo of soap opera plotlines. Perhaps I would have been more willing to accept Childe's abusive husband as the mastermind behind the murders if there had been more setup besides that one moment where Russell sees Childe with facial injuries, but there is no such setup. I was actually quite convinced that it was someone else in the Childe's church masterminding the whole thing (I'd actually settled on her maid being the most plausible, with collaborators), and so the fact that it was Childe's husband all along made me feel rather cheated. While I am not one to question the author's choice of perpetrator in a mystery novel, this one was so poorly done that my mind rebelled against it for a good long while, and still does.

Finally, there is the change of relationship between Holmes and Russell. Although the beginning of the novel, and indeed, even the previous novel, had already set this whole change up, so I knew it was likely to come relatively soon, the way it comes about did not seem as being quite in-character for both Holmes and Russell. While I've already come to accept - and enjoy - King's more emotional Holmes, and Russell is already quite emotional in her own way (though that emotion is filtered through a dry wit and intellectual mind), the way they reach the conclusion they do about the direction their relationship should take is far too sudden for my liking, not to mention rather out-of-character.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice was a solid, enjoyable introduction to a new character and to old, familiar (but not quite) ones. Unfortunately, A Monstrous Regiment of Women is quite the letdown. Weak subplots and melodrama are certainly not what readers of the first book would expect in a second attempt, and their presence weakens incredibly what might otherwise have been an intriguing book. Russell's voice, fortunately, is still as entertaining as ever except when she's being more emotional than usual, and is just enough to sustain the reader throughout this rather awful story.