Dreaming Spies is thirteenth book in the Mary Russell series, and it is still a wonderful, slightly implausible continuation. I say slightly because I'm not sure if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have thought much past Sherlock's "prime" detective years. I also don't think Doyle could imagine Holmes married, and yet Laurie R King does both. In this novel, Holmes and Russell arrive back to home to a garden discovery that takes the reader into a flashback that lasts the first half of the novel. In the flashback, the reader learns about a mission involving a book, and the Japanese government. The second half moves back into "present day" where the consequences of that mission are playing out in Oxford.
The novel starts off slow. This series is not a fast pace series, because King puts so much information in to get the reader in the right mind set. I don't mind this type of dialogue from author to reader, because it shows how much effort the author put into it. I also enjoy learning about different cultures and about history. I will admit there were moments I was like, "move on already!" But those were rare because with out those pieces, the rest of the story would not have made much sense.
I rated this novel 4 out 5 stars, because it is a bit slow. However, King makes up for that with acrobats, ninjas, and a very interesting (if somewhat complexed) mystery.
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