IMO, C.N. Douglas avoids the trap Laurie King fell into with "The Beekeepers Apprentice" - Mary Sue'ing her heroine.
Wow, you really think so? I can only say that this just confirms my long-held suspicion that when it comes to otherwise competently written stories, Mary Sue is very much in the eye of the beholder. I like both the Irene books and the Russell series, but if I had to play "Pick the Mary Sue" I would choose Irene long before I got to Russell.
Of course, it all depends on which classic Mary Sue attributes tend to ping your radar first. For me, hearing that a heroine is not only the mental match of Sherlock Holmes but also outstandingly beautiful, endowed with a perfect figure, able to charm everyone she meets, sings divinely, can act as well as any professional, and is continually on the cutting edge of fashion (with whole pages of the story devoted to describing just exactly what she happened to be wearing on any given day) makes said heroine a much less sympathetic and plausible character in my eyes.
Russell is like Irene in that she's highly intelligent and an excellent detective, of course, but she's also more fallible and ordinary in a lot of ways. There are times I want to smack her, as I do Irene, but not for being nauseatingly perfect.
Re: I haven't read "Chapel Noir"...
Wow, you really think so? I can only say that this just confirms my long-held suspicion that when it comes to otherwise competently written stories, Mary Sue is very much in the eye of the beholder. I like both the Irene books and the Russell series, but if I had to play "Pick the Mary Sue" I would choose Irene long before I got to Russell.
Of course, it all depends on which classic Mary Sue attributes tend to ping your radar first. For me, hearing that a heroine is not only the mental match of Sherlock Holmes but also outstandingly beautiful, endowed with a perfect figure, able to charm everyone she meets, sings divinely, can act as well as any professional, and is continually on the cutting edge of fashion (with whole pages of the story devoted to describing just exactly what she happened to be wearing on any given day) makes said heroine a much less sympathetic and plausible character in my eyes.
Russell is like Irene in that she's highly intelligent and an excellent detective, of course, but she's also more fallible and ordinary in a lot of ways. There are times I want to smack her, as I do Irene, but not for being nauseatingly perfect.