The men that did return came back damaged, and many weren’t choosing to marry, preferring to fall into paths of self-destruction. They are “surplice women,” there are too many women and few men returned. King explores the fact woman were required to vacate the jobs they had to marry, but marry who. These women were left without a place at the end of the war. Margaret is rallying women who previously were nurses and running the country in the absence of the men sent to war. Ronny is deeply involved in The Temple and a charismatic woman named Margaret. Holmes is brought into to help Ronny’s young man but that is not the only mystery in London. The book delves deeply into the effects on society, gender roles, and personal self-worth World War I had on its survivors. Ronny is engaged but is breaking the engagement because her young man came home from the war broken with drug addictions she has not been able to pull him away from. Veronica, or Ronny, pulls her into her life. Mary finds herself in London waiting to come into her inheritance and runs into a friend, Veronica, from her schooling in Oxford.
Russell is going through many transitions as a student to academic, child of controlled means to an heiress, girl to woman, and the strange tension between Sherlock Holmes and herself – she is no longer an apprentice and can she be trusted to handle a case on her own?
She is turning 21 which allows her to throw out her distasteful, money grubbing Aunt whom has held the purse strings to her inheritance. Mary Russell has graduated and is about to debut her first Academic Article that is not attached to being a student. I did not want to unfairly overshadow the rest of what is otherwise a fantastic book. I waited to write my review because of these feelings. Right until the end this was going to go on my favorites shelf and could only receive a 5 star rating but there is a twist at the end that has left me disappointed and uncomfortable for the future of the series. I have very mixed feelings regarding this book. King’s ‘Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’ series. ‘A Monstrous Regiment of Women’ is the second novel in Laurie R.
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