Literature, Avast!

The Pirate King is a novel that prominently features both Sherlock Holmes and pirates — and while that’s probably about as much selling as author Laurie R. King’s (who’s been known to call herself “Laurie Arrrrgh King”) appearance at the Tattered Cover requires, here’s a bonus: It’s also Talk Like...

By Jef Otte

September 15, 2011

Audio By Carbonatix

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The Pirate King is a novel that prominently features both Sherlock Holmes and pirates — and while that’s probably about as much selling as author Laurie R. King’s (who’s been known to call herself “Laurie Arrrrgh King”) appearance at the Tattered Cover requires, here’s a bonus: It’s also Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Truth be told, this is King’s first venture into pirate waters, but she’s been carrying the Holmes torch for some time in her series of Mary Russell novels (of which The Pirate King is the eleventh), wherein the eponymous character solves mysteries in memoir form with the help of an aged Holmes, her mentor. “The series has been getting kind of far from its whimsical roots,” observes King. “At first it was fairly lighthearted, but lately they’ve been getting more...not dark, really, but structured like a thriller. So this is me kind of hitting the reset button; it’s meant to be silly.”

And silly it is: The plot involves Russell and Holmes deducing that a group of pirates starring in a silent film are actual pirates, and…well, find out more at 7:30 p.m., when King reads selections from her book at the Tattered Cover, 2526 East Colfax Avenue, in celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day. King insists that she doesn’t do the pirate accent — but, she concedes, “it depends on how much grog they serve.”

Find out more about the author at www.laurierking.com; for more information on Tattered Cover readings, go to www.tatteredcover.com.
Mon., Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m., 2011

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