"Holmes, I absolutely refuse to believe that the dead are walking in Eastern Europe."
"Of course not. This agency stands flat-footed --"
"On the ground. Yes, I read Dr Watson's story. 'The Sussex Vampire' turns out not to be a vampire ..." [loc. 201]
I'd rather lost track of the Mary Russell series: the last one I read was The Pirate King back in 2012. I've dipped into subsequent novels and not been hooked, which may simply be 'right book, wrong time'. So when this instalment appeared on NetGalley I thought I'd give it a try: and I have to say it was the perfect beach read for my first (and so far only) beach trip this year.
The setting is Transylvania in 1925. Holmes and Russell have been summoned to Roumania by Queen Marie. There are dark tales of revenants in the churchyard, bowls of blood, attacks on young women, et cetera, and recently the life of the queen's daughter Ileana has been threatened. The queen and her household cherish their time in Castle Bran, the gift of a grateful populace: but are they really welcome there?
Not having read the last few novels in the series, there were references that meant nothing to me (though intrigued me enough that I'll probably give them another try): but I didn't feel that the undercurrents were too intrusive, or that they detracted from the main plot. Russell and Holmes, singly and together, unravel a series of mysteries and meet a number of vivid characters, some of them historical. There are quite a few infodumps in Castle Shade, but these didn't really disrupt the flow, and the information being conveyed -- Queen Marie's ancestry, her role in the Paris Peace Conference, her general good nature -- was interesting and pertinent.
Castle Shade was a pleasing mystery, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the earlier novels in the series: however, it's lured me back into the world of Russell and Holmes.
One minor irritation was the anglicisation: it seems that '-ize' had been converted to '-ise' throughout. I recognised this after the third or fourth mention of the maise fields ...
Thanks to NetGalley for my free review copy, received in exchange for this honest review.
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