It hardly bears mentioning any longer that Ms. King's second "Mary" book demonstrates all the technical skill of the first. The plotting and the characterization are excellent.I wonder though, why I am the only one disturbed by the implications of this intimate relationship between an elderly man and his minor protegee. Does Laurie King mean to imply that the only woman that Holmes could love would have to be one he created? And how sick is that?Nevertheless, I am impressed by Ms. King's treatment of the traditional Holmes mystery from a proto-feminist point of view. This juxtaposition of the world's most famous misogynist as a lover and a defender of women's rights, gives an added, compelling dimension to the man.