Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King O Jerusalem (1999) Each Tuesday during this spring’s Twenty Weeks of Buzz , I’ll be posting about a different one of my twenty books, with remarks, reflections, and information about the writing process. (Click on the photos below to enlarge.) A historical mystery would appear to be a contradiction in terms: If something already happened, where’s the mystery in it? But more than merely the event in question, working in an historical setting permits the author to poke at the edges of then-and-now, and to find the reverberations of the present in the past. I once read a memoir about early twentieth century life in Jerusalem, which presented the image of a city cheerfully united under the oppression of the Turks. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian: equally poor, equally oppressed, equally squeezed by the Ottoman grip. The children of the three communities played together, the men worked together, the women marketed together—the author, a Muslim, recalled the tradition of the milk mother, when women with children of like ages would nurse the other’s infant, as a form of insurance in those pre-formula days. Life was far from idyllic, but the concerns that stemmed from the difference in religion were among the lesser barriers to peaceful life. And then came the Great War, and Allenby presenting his victory to the bled-dry British people as a Christmas triumph. The Ottoman Empire was gone from Palestine, leaving the British to extend their own, very different understanding of fair rule to a land with an entirely different history . O Jerusalem was written well before the events of 9/11, but even then it was clear the direction in which the world was moving. We have come far since Muslim and Christian women in Jerusalem nursed one another’s children. And sadly, a big step of that path was under the hand of the well- meaning British. Comments. Strawberry Curls says. This is one of my favorites (if I can choose a favorite, that is) of the Russell novels. The sense of the place, so foreign and so filled with history, just drips off the page and the story is just a rip snorting yarn on first read, then something much richer when you reread it. Thank you for these essays on your novels, Laurie, they are a treat to read. I remember my great excitement when this one came out. These are some of my favorite Holmes/Russell interactions. I think it’s one of my favorites of the series. (I am also excited for God of the Hive!) I, too, remember this one particularly – I think it was the second Russell I was able to buy as it was actually published, and so I was just beginning to read them in order. I recall (this was pre-internet days for me!) walking into Borders on Union Square in San Francisco on the first day of my holiday in summer 1999 and seeing this on the ‘new books’ stand – Joy! The perfect surprise for holiday reading, as I hadn’t known it was being being published. (NB while I love the anticipation now, I do miss the spontaneous ‘finds’ when walking into a bookstore this way and seeing something unexpected!) O Jerusalem and it’s successor are superb books indeed, Laurie does so much more than tell a story here. I blame Ms. King for my decsion to read a dual biography on T. E. Lawrence and Aaron Aaronshon. And for the one to watch “Lawrence of Arabia”. ENough said. Loved the book. But! Damned if I remember who Colonel Plumberry was. I don’t want to read it again as I have about 10 more of her books on hand to read at this moment. Can somebody help me out? Tari, I was in the same predicament. I downloaded a Kindle version from the Libby app and searched for “Plumbury.” O Jerusalem — Laurie R. King. With her bestselling mystery series featuring Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell, Laurie R. King has created "lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company," according to The New York Times Book Review. Now the author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice and The Moor --the first writer since Patricia Cornwell to win both the American Edgar and British Creasey Awards for a debut novel ( A Grave Talent )--unfolds a hitherto unknown chapter in the history of Russell's apprenticeship to the great detective. 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. Classically Holmesian yet enchantingly fresh, sinuously plotted, with colorful characters and a dazzling historic ambience, O Jerusalem sweeps readers ever onward in the thrill of the chase. O Jerusalem. We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method. Listeners also enjoyed. Justice Hall. A trail of ominous clues comprise a mystery that leads from an English hamlet to the city of Paris to the wild prairie of the New World. The trap is set, the game is afoot; but can Holmes and Russell catch an elusive killer, or has the murderer caught them? Best Holmes since Arthur Conan Doyle. Crocodile on the Sandbank. Amelia Peabody inherited two things from her father: a considerable fortune and an unbendable will. The first allowed her to indulge in her life's passion. Without the second, the mummy's curse would have made corpses of them all. Nice break from the usual- The Janissary Tree. It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the balance of power in his court. Who is behind them? Only one intelligence agent can be trusted to find out: Yashim Togalu, a man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world. You see, Yashim is a eunuch. Turkish History. The Name of the Wind. This is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend. Unfinished forever. New Spring. For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, a child is born, an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before he can be killed by the forces of the Shadow. Read it after reading others in the series. The Triumph of the Sun. In the burning heat of the Sudanese sun, the city of Khartoum is under siege from the fearsome forces of the Mahdi, the charismatic leader of those who tire of the brutal Egyptian government. In Khartoum, along with thousands of innocent citizens, are trapped the fanatical General Charles Gordon, intrepid soldier Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, English trader Ryder Courtney and the British consul and his three beautiful daughters. needs chapters. Justice Hall. A trail of ominous clues comprise a mystery that leads from an English hamlet to the city of Paris to the wild prairie of the New World. The trap is set, the game is afoot; but can Holmes and Russell catch an elusive killer, or has the murderer caught them? Best Holmes since Arthur Conan Doyle. Crocodile on the Sandbank. Amelia Peabody inherited two things from her father: a considerable fortune and an unbendable will. The first allowed her to indulge in her life's passion. Without the second, the mummy's curse would have made corpses of them all. Nice break from the usual- The Janissary Tree. It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the balance of power in his court. Who is behind them? Only one intelligence agent can be trusted to find out: Yashim Togalu, a man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world. You see, Yashim is a eunuch.