mary russell travel writer

Mary Russell’s Guide to Travel Writing.

Mary Russell

• 5 December 2011

If you’re a writer, there’s only one way to travel and that’s solo. Travel with a companion and you come complete with an invisible wall around you. Two people chatting in their own language or poring over a map together is exclusive and can deter local people from offering help and maybe even that magical invitation to coffee that opens the door through which every travel writer wants to go, taking you right into someone’s home and heart. And let’s be honest, we all like to see what someone’s loo is like. We peep round a door and great, the bed’s not made yet and it’s three in the afternoon. That tells us a lot. So what do you do? You jot your observations down quickly and unobtrusively in your handy little notebook.

“But don’t you get lonely being on your own?” is the question often asked and the answer is no. On the contrary, it’s a relief to sit down at the end of a busy day that’s been full of new and challenging experiences to finally mull over what’s happened.

It’s at this point that I pull out the very small notebook I always carry in which I jot down observations made throughout the day, often nothing more than a phrase:  plastic bucket by the river  reminds me of the woman washing her clothes by the Euphrates and the way the setting sun lit up her plastic bucket. Or maybe there was time only for one word:  ashtray  bringing back the image of the waiter morosely scraping a squashed grape from the floor, using the edge of an ashtray for the job.

The small notebook is the quickie one from where ideas and happenings are taken, expanded and written down into a bigger book, usually a school exercise book bought in whatever country I’m in. Then there’s another small notebook in which I write down books referenced, directions on how to get to the bus station or the no-star hostel, the names and contact details of people I’ve  met such as  the man in Aleppo who travelled to Ireland regularly to buy reconditioned tractors to sell  on, in Syria; the student in the street who quoted Shaw, the librarian in the Alliance Francaise in Damascus who gave me a map to look at  – all useful once I get home and start to write the book.

Interviewing that great travel writer, Eric Newby (A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush) I asked him about note taking. “Oh, always,” he said. “Paddling down a river, I write saw cow on one bank saw two cows on other bank. Everything goes in. And I use a pencil. Handy if you drop it in the river as it’ll float.” He’s right about noting everything. Some events are so momentous you know you’ll never forget them. And you don’t. What you do forget, though, are the details – did the man with the gun have a beard? What colour was that plastic washing up bowl that flared up in the sun? How many miles is it exactly from Damascus to Baghdad? Hang on, is that miles or kilometres?

And photographs – do I take any? Yes, sometimes as a striking image that might be used later in a book or for an illustrated talk, other times simply as an aide memoir, to record an inscription over a door, a display of vegetables in the souk, a bus time table. On the other hand, Paul Theroux told me once that he never ever took photographs: “I have to find the words to describe what I see. With a photograph, it’s too easy. I once saw a flock of birds wheeling through the sky in Venice and two years later I was still trying to capture what I’d seen, in words.”

And how long does it take to write a travel book?   Maybe two or three years of research, a year travelling, a year at least to write the book, another year until it’s published. But in reality much much longer.   Journeys of a Lifetime  came about when I collected together all the diaries I’d kept – from my first solo journey to Lesotho to the present – written in school copy books, 21 in all.

And what about research? Discovery favours the prepared, someone said, and I agree. I really do want to know what was happening in 1488 or 1994. I want to know who was al Rumi. Or the 100 names for Allah. On second thoughts, make that 99. Only the camel knows the 100 th  name which is why every camel has such a superior expression on its face. And when a friend in Damascus tells me he lives in Bilal Street, I’m glad I did a bit of reading: Bilal was Islam’s first muezzin and, because he was Ethiopian, has become something of an idol for Rastafarians. You need to know these little things.

But this, my latest book,  My Home is Your Home , was some ten years in the writing partly because it took a long time to get a visa. On the form I was asked to state my job so I wrote writer at which point, the Syrian visa office in London told me, the application had to be sent to Damascus. Writers are a suspicious lot, apparently, and have to be checked out. Standard procedure, the man explained. Send the application to Damascus where it’s put it in a drawer and forgotten.

I could have lied, of course, said I was on holiday or visiting friends, but I’d decided from the start, that I was going to be open and above board. I knew enough about Syria to know that its inhabitants had been stitched up by the European powers during and after WW1. So I chose the honest way and where did it get me? Nowhere. Fast. Eventually, after about five years, a friendly member of the Arab League sorted things out for me. I got my visa and I was away.

Once there, I stayed in a no-star family-run hotel, an excellent place on many counts. It was the cheapest I could find, the family became my friends, I met other people with whom I could spend the odd sociable hour or two and the hotel itself was a lovely old villa lived in, way back, by a member of the Ottoman military.

I stayed there, on and off, for three months, often looking at the signposts that read Baghdad, in seductive lettering. But without an Iraqi visa, I couldn’t cross the border and so I returned home to Dublin where I found, on the kitchen table, an envelope with an Iraqi stamp on it: an invitation to visit. Two months later, I was travelling across the Syrian Desert, toothbrush, camera and notebook in my rucksack, heading for Baghdad, the city of Haroun al Rashid.

About the author

(c) Mary Russell, December 2011.

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Palmyra before Isis: an Irish travel writer’s eyewitness account

Mary russell visited the ruined roman city of palmyra a couple of times before the war. this is an edited extract from my home is your home: a journey round syria.

“The Palmyran pillars, as enduring as the Great Wall of China, have stood here for 2,000 years but what if they suddenly toppled down upon me? This could be the year they fall, disturbed by a distant earthquake, a shifting of the sands,” wrote Mary Russell in 2011

It’s the winter solstice when, in Europe, the sun will rise, the Earth will tilt slightly and we will have started the long slow climb back to spring sunlight. But this is Palmyra and so it’s the desert nights that will get warmer. They’ve got to, for today is December 21st: Bel’s day.

Bel, god of fire, who orders the stars, guides the world and gives it fertility; Bel, whose ship is a snow-bearing cloud and whose voice is the sound of thunder. Bel – mightiest of warriors and lord of the earth – is still celebrated but in unexpected places. In Ireland, Bealtaine – the month of May – is his time. It’s an Irish word carried across the water from Roman Britain where the god Bel went under the name of Jupiter. If I were back home in Ireland on this day, I’d be with a group of sun-worshippers, standing by the megalithic passage grave at Bru na Boinne, waiting for the sun to rise.

Later – and far from Bru na Boinne – I leave the hostel and walk along the road to the Temple of Bel and smile for I am a regular sun-worshipper, at ease in this pagan world of the all-powerful flame.

It's now 08.30 and the day is warming up. A few young boys in blue overalls collect the bits of paper and soft-drink cans that litter the side of the road. Their hearts aren't in it but they carry on, bending, picking up, bending again. This is the road to the other part of Tadmor – Roman Palmyra – and the authorities want it to look good, to show that they care about what is undoubtedly the greatest first-century place of worship in the Middle East.

The Temple of Bel is an electrifying 200 metre square rectangle of towering pillars, altars and divine mystery. At its centre is the sublime Propylaea, the huge vestibule fronting the inner sanctum with a majestic stairway, 35 metres wide, leading up to its eight-pillared entrance. To the left of the Propylaea is the altar on which the animals were slaughtered and to the right the pool where the priests washed the blood from their hands and cleansed their death-dealing axes.

Though much of the Temple is in ruins – it is, after all, over two thousand years old – it is still possible to sense the noise and feel the thronging presence of the huge crowd of people gathered to enjoy the spectacle of the sacrifice and of the priests in their ceremonial robes and head coverings going about their sacred tasks. With blood regarded as the essence of life, the practice of sacrificing animals – camels, bulls and rams, though rarely pigs – was an important activity since, during the ritual, the priests spilled the animals’ blood on the altar thereby returning it to the gods to whom all life belonged.

Naturally, brought up in a religious culture which daily re-enacts the death, 2000 years ago, of a political activist in Roman Jerusalem whose followers believe they are drinking the blood and eating the flesh of the crucified man, I was intrigued to see what the people in this Roman outpost got up to at the same time.

As I make my way to the Temple entrance I notice, in the main outer wall, just by the little wooden ticket hut, a tunnel which disappears under the wall and reappears on the inside. Through this tunnel were driven the sacrificial animals already washed and decked out in coloured ribbons in preparation for the killing ceremony. If the animal to be sacrificed was a bull, his horns were painted gold. Once through the tunnel, he was then driven up a ramp to the waiting priests.

But for the ceremony to be performed in an official manner, more was required than ribbons and gilded horns. Care had to be taken that the animal displayed no fear as it was led to the slaughter. If it did, then the sacrifice was considered to be polluted and had to be repeated with a different animal. To avoid this, someone had the job of bending the beast’s head downwards in a visible display of humble acceptance of its fate. If this proved to be a problem, the beasts were first stunned with a blow from a heavy stick.

Once the animals were killed, they were cut open and their entrails examined. If no abnormalities were found, the sacrifice was deemed to have been accepted by the gods. Occasionally, the priests were given the liver of the animal to “read” for portents of good or evil. At that point, the carcass was cut up and the heart and lungs set aside as offerings to the gods while the rest was given to the people to be consumed later at a festival banquet. The heart and lungs were then carried up the wide steps to the Propylaea and into the inner sanctum where, to the right, there is still a stairs leading to the roof where the actual offering to Bel was made.

I sit on a warm stone to gather my thoughts and then mount the steps that lead into the inner sanctum where, in recognition of the fact that Palmyra was both a major trading city and a powerful military outpost of the Roman Empire, its walls – those that are still standing – reach 18 metres high. (The average height of a room in a house these days is about 2.5 metres.)

The inner sanctum is a wide hall with what looks like a large inglenook fireplace at each end but which turn out to be altars to other, lesser deities. Though Bel was the leader of the pack, the Palmyrenes had a few local gods as well: Yarhibol, god of the sun, and Aglibol, god of the moon. There were caravan deities too: Samas was one, his symbol a camel.

Going up to the south altar is a set of shallow steps which lead to a niche where a small statue of Bel was usually displayed. During ritual processions, it was taken from here and paraded round the Temple.

The ceiling of this altar alcove puzzles me. The guide book speaks of a burst of acanthus and lotus leaves, of a zodiac circle with Jupiter/ Bel in the guise of an eagle in a starlit sky presiding over the celestial movement of the planets and thus regulating the destiny of humans. But the ceiling is black with age and smoke for, as often happened in Syria, local people moved into these sacred places and made them their own. In his book Palmyra, Iain Browning has an aerial photo of the Temple showing it crammed with flat-roofed, mud-brick houses packed tight as commuters on a Tokyo train and crowding right up against the inner sanctum. This happened because people intermittently made their homes here until, in 1929, the French occupying powers developed the neglected town of Tadmor half a mile away so that the Temple area could be cleared of the raggle-taggle bunch of local Arabs.

As the Roman Empire declined, so too did Palmyra’s importance until, in 634 CE, it was taken by the Muslim army whose leaders overlaid a mosque upon the existing stones, steps and pillars. Allah is said to be the god of all gods but the attempt to superimpose one religious building on another was in vain for Islam was dwarfed by the Temple of Bel who still reigns supreme in his awesome building while all that remains of Islam is a mihrab and a Sufic inscription dating back to 728 CE.

The driving heat of the sun nails the day to the buff-coloured earth and the encroaching desert smothers the ghosts of the people who once came here to worship their gods. Solitude lies like a shroud across the sand.

A flock of pigeons wheels across the sky before settling on top of the temple wall. Halfway up the wall, a homely tuft of grass grows out of a niche. Higher up, much higher up, a series of large romanesque windows, empty and blind, frame a neat section of blue sky across which, Chirico-like, a puff of white cloud floats.

Much of the temple is built of huge squares of granite brought from Egypt though the pillars that loom over me are made of local grey sandstone. I get a sudden flash of a Holywood film I once saw in which the blind Samson, pushing against the huge pillars of the Temple, brings it crashing down around him.

The Palmyran pillars, as enduring as the Great Wall of China, have stood here for two thousand years but what if they suddenly toppled down upon me? This could be the year they fall, disturbed by a distant earthquake, a shifting of the sands. By a movement of the gods. Nervously, I stand up. After all, who could have foreseen the toppling of the Berlin Wall?

[  www.maryrussell.info  ]

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Mary Russell

Remembering Sarajevo Library. World Book Day: April 23

Get in touch if you enjoyed reading bc this piece. It’s close to my heart

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Death of Bobby Sands

I was on the train traveling back from Zimbabwe and held up at the town of Mafikeng on the border between Botswana and  apartheid South Africa.

The delay lasted for some 24 hours which gave me the chance to get off the train and go in search of the museum.  Amazingly, I found it with the Visitors   Book open at the day:  May 5 1981. I made my entry: Bobby Sands, MP, died today.

He’d been on hungerstrike  in Northern Ireland for 66 days.

Apartheid South Africa  was at that time an unpleasant place to be in and as soon  as I made the entry I legged it back to the waitng train with the intention of returning one day. But I never did. Next time I was up near the border Mafikeng was a hotspot with white supremecists riding shotgun round the town in one of apartheid’s  last choking gasps. Two months later,  apartheid officially came  to an end on October 7 2010.

Bobby Sands was part of the global struggle for freedom.

My claret- coloured tulip

My tulip.Cant you almost sip the claret.

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A surprise find: the great Vee

Ignore this as itv is merely a test…

Date is Easter Monday. Following day is still Easter!

April 13 have deleted

Ballycorus again!

My home is your home: a journey round syria.

My book about travelling round Syria in the 1990s. It was easy going – I used local buses. There were five grades of comfort….I usually travelled on a grade four bus..

My new book, My Home is Your Home: A Journey Round Syria. Please scroll down to read more about the book.

“Beautifully written, mixing historical observations with first-hand experience, Russell’s book will be a welcome introduction for all visitors to Syria.”

Dr. Eugene Rogan, Middle East Centre, University of Oxford

My Home is Your Home

A Journey Round Syria

Syria is a country few people know much about – apart from the political upheavals of the last few months. My Home is Your Home will change all that. Equipped with notebook, biro, bicycle and, occasionally, a bus ticket, Mary Russell travelled not only to places such as Aleppo, Homs and Hama but also to some of the more remote parts of eastern Syria taking, unexpectedly, an overnight taxi ride across the desert from Damascus to Baghdad. The result is an enthralling and quite unique account…

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I love short stories

My task for 2020 is to write a short story a month. To encourage myself j am reading two collections of short stories by William Trevor.

The stories I am writing don’t have to be prize winners but they do have to be finished not cast aside in despair or exasperation. Finishing them is the challenge. Too many distractions lurk in the corners of my mind….

Writers I like:Carver and of course Frank O Connor.

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Mary Russell(& Sherlock Holmes) Mysteries Books In Order

Publication order of mary russell and sherlock holmes books, publication order of mary russell non-fiction books.

Mary Russell is the protagonist of a series of detective novels written by Laurie R. King based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. The mystery series include thirteen novels from 1915 to the latest in 2015 set in Japan and Oxford. The author has been successful in bringing alive a character with whom the reader can relate. Mary Russell travels in search of truth and quest taking with her the reader on a roller coaster ride of inquiry, curiosity and bafflement.

MARY RUSSELL’S EARLY LIFE

Born on 2nd January 1900 Mary Russell has grown to be a detective to reckon with. From a collection of written memoirs, Mary Russell reveals a character with great strength and intelligence replete with cognitive and logical reasoning very akin to Sherlock Homes under whom she received her initial training. Being just 15 and Sherlock Holmes as her mentor in Sussex Down, she was able to gain experience and training as his companion. Holmes was able to transfer his genius to a woman detective who could do as well as him and sometimes even better. Seven years through her journey of learning, exploring and solving the toughest of mysteries, the wedding knot in 1921 was, of course, a very interesting event, binding two intelligent characters of the same genre. The character of Holmes, thus, has not just got enclosed in the bee hive, but got relived in the character of Mary. The female form of Sherlock Holmes, thus, moves on an interesting journey of mysterious events to explain and solve many complicated cases. Not breaking ties with the other characters attached to Holmes, Dr. Watson becomes her uncle and Mrs. Hudson as a mother figure. As she moves along she encounters many historical figures and fictional figures that make reading so intense and varied. So, we get to meet Kim, Peter Wimsey and many more characters along the way.

MARY RUSSELL’S PERSONALITY

Being the daughter of a Jewish mother and an American father, she was greatly influenced by Jewish tradition. Her intelligence gets her through the Oxford University, where subjects like chemistry along with theology grabs her curiosity. What interests the reader about her character is her personality as drawn by the author. She has a charming persona tall, slim and blonde with twinkling blue eyes. Can any reader of Canon Doyle’s ever forget the twinkle in Sherlock Holmes eyes? Well, here we have that twinkle transferred that keeps the reader hypnotized as she moves through the mystery. Her sense of humor is also effective and is derived from Holmes wit. There are many places where the reader could break into a knowing smile at the way she matches her wit with the grand old detective’s. Her unassuming talent of using firearms and working her ways in adverse surroundings, jumping escaping through alleys and rooftops and adopting strategies makes her character stronger than Holmes sometimes and very modern.

Being a woman, who is so well read and well versed in many languages ranging from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi, she becomes the ideal detective of the 21st century. Her abilities to stand up for the rights of women very early in her career in the famous A Monstrous Regiment of Women’ which questions the position of women in the Church are appreciable. In a discussion of a passage from the Christian Bible, her opinion on the thought that -women should keep silence in church; for they are not permitted to speak, but should subordinate, as the law says… -is instant and spontaneous. Her studies revealed that it is a constituted thought to refer to God as masculine. As the mouthpiece of the writer she strongly feels that equality is what should be the essence of life. This fight for equality, perhaps, has been party to the inception of Mary Russell as a female detective.

UNFOLDING MYSTERIES THROUGH TRAVEL

Traveling to solve mysteries along with Mary and Holmes worldwide in foreign lands makes interesting locales for the mystery series. Travelling from San Francisco to India to Japan and weaving the plot in the most meticulous manner with characters and descriptions that make scenes stand right before the eyes of the reader is the writer’s talent. There are vivid accounts of shipboard life and the realistic descriptions of Japanese scenery along with its traditional and social hierarchy that make fascinating reading for those who think of the east as a mystic land. In The Game (1924), she explores the British Raj in the land of India, which is rich in description of the Maharaja way of life and the Indian land of magic, the Dalai Lama and a host of other interesting facts about the land. In The Moors (1923) Mary brings alive the famous hound and the ghostly mystery is once again in the forefront engulfing the reader with detailed descriptions of the moors.

MARY SPEAKS IN FIRST PERSON

Most of the mystery series are written in the first person narrative to solidify the themes. The first two books in the series are about her life from fifteen to twenty one and the later books are about her life after twenty one to twenty seven. Using the first person narrative the female Sherlock Holmes is able to make the reader relate to her point of view and the reader sails in the feelings and the thought process of the protagonist, keeping him forever engaged in solving the mystery with her. Reasoning and logically finding the route to come to the correct solution becomes the effort of the reader as Mary pulls him along every turn of events.

On the whole the character of Mary Russell is a highly absorbing character in a substantive plot caught in weird societies and milieus. In the words of the author, “That poor woman is forever dropped in a cold place: cold and dry in the desert, cold and wet in Dartmoor, cold and inside a country house. I keep trying to get her to warm the place….” However, somehow Mary is always stuck in a fog, clearing it, then, becomes her obsession. Well, the picture of the fog and London is what Sherlock Holmes was all about…

2 Responses to “Mary Russell(& Sherlock Holmes) Mysteries”

I know that I had read this , but am now unable to find the title . Which book resolves the reason that they had to flee to Palestine ?

Hi Deborah, During the first book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Holmes and Russell flee to Palestine. Readers are not told what occurs there in that book– those events take place in O Jerusalem. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice simply tells us they leave and then how things are resolved when they return. You can read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by itself and miss nothing. However, if you want things chronologically, you can read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice up to the point that they leave, then switch and read the entirety of O Jerusalem, then go back to The Beekeeper’s Apprentice to see the resolution. I hope this clears it up and makes some sense.

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Reading Lists → Mary Russell

Mary Russell Books In Order (Full List)

Mary Russell is a series of 17 books by Laurie R. King. The first book published in the series is Beekeeper's Apprentice in 1994. Here is a complete list of Mary Russell books in order.

Last update: January 11, 2024

1. Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994)

In Laurie R. King's captivating Beekeeper's Apprentice, a clever young woman named Mary Russell becomes the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes' apprentice, embarking on a thrilling journey through complex crime-solving, gender barriers, and the depths of friendship.

• 📇 341 Pages
• 📝 85,250 - 102,300 Word Count
• ⏱️ 11 Hours Reading Time
• Read Amazon Reviews →

2. Monstrous Regiment Of Women (1995)

Laurie R. King's "Monstrous Regiment of Women" is a gripping sequel in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, where a fearless duo delves into a chilling web of theological conspiracies and unspeakable crimes, shaking the foundations of Victorian England's patriarchy.

• 📇 336 Pages
• 📝 84,000 - 100,800 Word Count

3. Letter Of Mary (1996)

In "Letter of Mary" by Laurie R. King, Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell delve into a captivating mystery when they receive an unexpected package that reveals a shocking secret about a biblical artifact. A thrilling addition to this beloved detective series.

• 📇 339 Pages
• 📝 84,750 - 101,700 Word Count

4. The Moor (1998)

In "The Moor" by Laurie R. King, detective Sherlock Holmes finds himself entangled in a dangerous game of secrets, fog-shrouded moorland, and a haunting mystery that threatens the lives of those who traverse its treacherous landscape.

• 📇 320 Pages
• 📝 80,000 - 96,000 Word Count

5. O Jerusalem (1999)

In "O Jerusalem" by Laurie R. King, renowned detective Sherlock Holmes and his spirited partner Mary Russell embark on a treacherous journey to the Holy Land, delving into political intrigue and facing their toughest adversaries yet. A gripping historical mystery that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

• 📇 425 Pages
• 📝 106,250 - 127,500 Word Count
• ⏱️ 14 Hours Reading Time

6. Justice Hall (2002)

In Laurie R. King's gripping novel, "Justice Hall," detective duo Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes find themselves entangled in a web of family secrets and international intrigue as they investigate a murder that exposes the darkest corners of an aristocratic British dynasty.

• 📇 352 Pages
• 📝 88,000 - 105,600 Word Count
• ⏱️ 12 Hours Reading Time

7. The Game (2004)

In Laurie R. King's gripping thriller, "The Game," detective Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are pulled into a perilous conspiracy involving a ruthless foe, secret agents, and a deadly game of international espionage. Can they outsmart their opponents before it's too late?

• 📇 400 Pages
• 📝 100,000 - 120,000 Word Count
• ⏱️ 13 Hours Reading Time

8. Locked Rooms (2005)

In "Locked Rooms", Laurie R. King takes readers on a daring adventure through the shadowy streets of San Francisco, as detective Mary Russell uncovers secrets from her own past that threaten to unravel her present. A thrilling and captivating mystery that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

• 📇 488 Pages
• 📝 122,000 - 146,400 Word Count
• ⏱️ 16 Hours Reading Time

9. The Language Of Bees (2009)

In the tantalizing pages of "The Language Of Bees," acclaimed author Laurie R. King weaves a thrilling web as Sherlock Holmes and his feisty apprentice, Mary Russell, delve into a perplexing case involving bees, family secrets, and a deadly conspiracy that shakes the very foundations of their partnership.

• 📇 435 Pages
• 📝 108,750 - 130,500 Word Count
• ⏱️ 15 Hours Reading Time

10. God Of The Hive (2010)

In "God of the Hive" by Laurie R. King, detective duo Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are faced with a hidden network of spies, secret codes, and high-stakes danger as they navigate the intricate web of international intrigue.

• 📇 354 Pages
• 📝 88,500 - 106,200 Word Count

11. Pirate King (2011)

In Laurie R. King's thrilling novel, "Pirate King," fierce detective Mary Russell dives into a treacherous case as she joins a film crew on a pirate-infested island. With danger lurking around every corner, Russell must uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim.

• 📇 300 Pages
• 📝 75,000 - 90,000 Word Count
• ⏱️ 10 Hours Reading Time

12. Garment Of Shadows (2012)

In Laurie R. King's gripping novel, "Garment of Shadows," the indomitable Mary Russell wakes up in Morocco with no memory and finds herself caught in the midst of dangerous political intrigue and a quest for identity that pushes her limits.

• 📇 266 Pages
• 📝 66,500 - 79,800 Word Count
• ⏱️ 9 Hours Reading Time

13. Dreaming Spies (2015)

"Dreaming Spies" by Laurie R. King takes readers on an exhilarating journey alongside Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell as they unravel a complex web of espionage, deceit, and treacherous alliances in early 20th-century Japan and Oxford. An enthralling tale of mystery and international intrigue.

• 📇 331 Pages
• 📝 82,750 - 99,300 Word Count

14. The Murder Of Mary Russell (2016)

In "The Murder of Mary Russell," Laurie R. King presents a gripping Sherlock Holmes mystery that unearths a shocking revelation about his formidable partner, Mary Russell. As the truth unfolds, old secrets resurface, threatening their lives and their extraordinary partnership.

• 📇 384 Pages
• 📝 96,000 - 115,200 Word Count

15. Island Of The Mad (2018)

In Laurie R. King's captivating novel, "Island Of The Mad," detective duo Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes find themselves investigating a series of puzzling murders on a secluded island, as madness and dark secrets unravel amidst the backdrop of 1920s Venice.

16. Riviera Gold (2020)

In "Riviera Gold," Laurie R. King invites readers to the glamorous French Riviera in the 1920s, as the brilliant detective duo Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark on a thrilling new case filled with secrets, scandals, and stunning vistas.

17. Castle Shade (2021)

In "Castle Shade" by Laurie R. King, the legendary detective duo, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, find themselves in a picturesque Slovenian castle, tasked with solving a mysterious death that weaves a web of secrets and danger among its ancient walls.

• 📇 360 Pages
• 📝 90,000 - 108,000 Word Count

• Mass Market Paperback

The Twentieth-Anniversary Edition of the First Novel of the Acclaimed Mary Russell Series by Edgar Award–Winning Author Laurie R. King. An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee • Named One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past. Full of brilliant deduction, disguises, and danger, The Beekeeper's Apprentice , the first book of the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mysteries, is "remarkably beguiling" ( The Boston Globe ).

In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. But even in their first case together, the pair face a truly cunning adversary who will stop at nothing to put an end to their partnership.

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It is 1921 and Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes's brilliant apprentice is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Independent at last her most baffling mystery may now involve Holmes and the burgeoning of a deeper affection between herself and the retired detective. Russell's attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, Margery Childe, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic, whose draw on the young theology scholar is irresistible. But when four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot?

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1923. Mary Russell Holmes and her husband, the retired Sherlock Holmes, are enjoying summer on their Sussex estate when they are visited by Miss Dorothy Ruskin, an archeologist just returned from Palestine. She leaves in their protection an ancient manuscript which hints that Mary Magdalene was an apostle--an artifact certain to stir up a storm in the Christian establishment. When Ruskin is suddenly killed in a tragic accident, Russell and Holmes find themselves on the trail of a fiendishly clever murderer.

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In the eerie wasteland of Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes summons his devoted wife and partner, Mary Russell, from her studies at Oxford to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. Through the mists of the moor there have been sightings of a spectral coach made of bones carrying a woman long-ago accused of murdering her husband--and of a hound with a single glowing eye. Returning to the scene of one of his most celebrated cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell investigate a mystery darker and more unforgiving than the moors themselves.

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New York Times bestselling crime writer Laurie R. King writes both series and standalone novels. For a complete list of her books in order, please visit http://www.laurierking.com/books/complete-book-list

In the Mary Russell series (first entry: The Beekeeper's Apprentice), fifteen-year-old Russell meets Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs in 1915, becoming his apprentice, then his partner. The series follows their amiably contentious partnership into the 1920s as they challenge each other to ever greater feats of detection. For a complete list of the Mary Russell books in order, click here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CJLA42C/kindle/ref=sr_bookseries_null_B00CJLA42C.

The Kate Martinelli series, starting with A Grave Talent, concerns a San Francisco homicide inspector, her SFPD partner, and her life partner. In the course of the series, Kate encounters a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, a manifestation of the goddess Kali and an eighty-year-old manuscript concerning Sherlock Holmes.

The Stuyvesant and Gray books feature Harris Stuyvesant, a Bureau of Investigation agent who finds himself far out of his depth, first in England during the 1926 General Strike (Touchstone), then in Paris during the sweltering confusion of September, 1929 (The Bones of Paris).

King also has written stand-alone novels--A Darker Place as well as two loosely linked novels, Folly and Keeping Watch--and a science fiction novel, Califia's Daughters, under the pseudonym Leigh Richards.

King grew up reading her way through libraries like a termite through balsa before going on to become a mother, builder, world traveler, and theologian.

She has now settled into a genteel life of crime, back in her native northern California. She has a secondary residence in cyberspace, where she enjoys meeting readers in her Virtual Book Club and on her blog.

King has won the Edgar and Creasey awards (for A Grave Talent), the Nero (for A Monstrous Regiment of Women) and the MacCavity (for Folly); her nominations include the Agatha, the Orange, the Barry, and two more Edgars. She was also given an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Check out King's website, http://laurierking.com/, and follow the links to her blog and Virtual Book Club, featuring monthly discussions of her work, with regular visits from the author herself. And for regular LRK updates, follow the link to sign up for her email newsletter.

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Alan J Chick's pages

Laurie r king’s “mary russell” series, chronology of the series, books in the series.

• The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
• A Monstrous Regiment of Women
• A Letter of Mary
• Mrs Hudson’s Case (short story)
• O Jerusalem
• Justice Hall
• Locked Rooms
• The Art of Detection (Kate Martinelli series)
• The Language of Bees
• A Venomous Death (short story)
• My Story (short story)
• The God of the Hive
• Birth of a Green Man (short story)
• A Case in Correspondence (short story)
• Beekeeping for Beginners (novella)
• Pirate King
• Garment of Shadows
• Mary’s Christmas (short story)
• The Mary Russell Companion
• Dreaming Spies
• Mary Russell’s War (short story)
• The Marriage of Mary Russell (short story)
• The Murder of Mary Russell
• Stately Holmes (short story)
• Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense (collection)
• The Customer (short story)
• Island of the Mad
• Ten Years On (short story)
• Riviera Gold
• Castle Shade
• The Lantern’s Dance

This series describes the life and adventures of a young woman, Mary Russell, who meets Sherlock Holmes after he has retired to Sussex, and becomes his apprentice in detection, then his partner, and finally marries him at the end of the second book.

Sherlock Holmes, of course, is a character in stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. A few other characters from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories also appear in the “Mary Russell” series, particularly Dr John H Watson, Mycroft Holmes, and Mrs Hudson. There is an Inspector John Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, in the “Mary Russell” series: he is the son of Inspector G. Lestrade in Conan Doyle’s series.

And then there is Billy Mudd. As is made clear in “The Murder of Mary Russell”, Ms King has combined Conan Doyle’s characters Billy the page (who appears in some of Conan Doyle’s stories to announce visitors to Holmes at 221B Baker St) and Wiggins, the head of the Baker Street Irregulars (those street urchins who run errands for Holmes). At the time of the Mary Russell stories, Billy has grown to adulthood, has a family, and runs an enquiry agency, employing some of the former Baker Street Irregulars. He often appears in the stories to assist Holmes and Mary.

Sherlock Holmes always addresses Mary as “Russell” (and she keeps her maiden name after they marry), and she always addresses him as “Holmes”.

Although Holmes has retired, from time to time he still does detective work. Some of his cases are assignments from his brother Mycroft, who is an important administrator in the civil service.

Holmes’ age: In “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”, Holmes gives his age as 54, when he meets Mary in 1915. He states that Conan Doyle (who is Dr Watson’s literary agent in this version of the world) “thought to make me more dignified by exaggerating my age.” [Laurie R King argued the case for him being this age in an essay on her website, but the essay seems to have disappeared since.] Since Mary is 15 at this date, there is a difference of 39 years between them.

Rather than being another Dr Watson, Mary soon becomes as skilled an investigator as Holmes, so in fact she is the equivalent of a young female 20th century Sherlock Holmes. The series is written in the first person from Mary’s point of view, except in the later books there are also chapters written in the third person, from Holmes’ or other characters’ points of view, especially where Mary isn’t present.

(Ms King maintains the fiction that Mary Russell is the author of the series, and she, Laurie R King, is the editor. In this way she is making a parallel with the relationship between Dr Watson and Arthur Conan Doyle.)

The series is written as if it is happening in the real world, with various historical figures appearing in the pages, as well as some fictional characters from other authors’ books.

The stories are rather intense, with Mary getting into some life-threatening situations, and at other times experiencing distress and suffering.

I have listed the stories in publication order. For the full-length novels, this order generally agrees with the series’ internal chronology. The main exception is “O Jerusalem”. In the case of “Dreaming Spies”, the framing story fits into the chronological sequence, but the backstory occurs earlier in the chronology. Again in “The Murder of Mary Russell”, the framing story fits into the chronological sequence, but the backstory occurs many years before.

The short stories and novellas are generally set during various periods – some earlier in the chronology, and some around the period the novels are up to. The author generally uses these to fill in the background. “My Story”, “A Case in Correspondence” and “The Customer”, however, are set closer to our present day.

For most of the stories, the periods which I have shown, in which each story is set, are taken from the “Writer’s Guide to the World of Mary Russell” by Alice “…the girl with the strawberry curls”. I have indicated this with “ … Writer’s Guide. ” Unfortunately this useful document seems no longer to be on the author’s website.

Another reference I have used is the chronology on the author’s website on the page “ A Chronology of the Russell Memoirs “. I have indicated this with “ … website chronology. ”

Otherwise I have provided my own comments on the periods, derived from the text of the stories.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (1994)

Period: Early April 1915 to August of 1919 when Holmes invites the recovering Russell to accompany him to France and Italy for six weeks, to return before the beginning of the Michaelmas Term in Oxford (late Sept.). … Writer’s Guide.

Mary Russell is a 15 year old girl when she almost literally stumbles over Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs in 1915.

Mary’s family had been in a car crash in San Francisco the year before. Her parents and younger brother had been killed, and Mary had been injured. After her recovery, she had been sent to live in the family farm house in Sussex, with an aunt as her guardian. Mary does not get on with her aunt. Despite the fact that she will get a sizable inheritance when she turns 21, her aunt is in charge of the finances from the trust, and is stingy in providing for Mary. Mary takes all opportunities to be away from the house, and often wanders the Downs reading a book. As a result she almost runs into Sherlock Holmes who is crouched examining some bees.

Mary and Holmes soon find they are kindred spirits. He takes her to his home for afternoon tea, where she meets Mrs Hudson – previously Holmes’ landlady in London (as described in the Conan Doyle stories) – and now his housekeeper in his Sussex house.

Holmes’ main activity in his retirement is keeping bees, but he continues with his chemical experiments, and other activities related to his detective career.

Mary becomes a frequent visitor to Holmes’ house over the next 2 years, engaging in discussions, and without particularly realising it, learning detective skills from him. (As this period is during the First World War, she also helps out at local hospitals, with the injured serviceman returning from the front.)

In 1917, Mary goes away to Oxford University, majoring in chemistry and theology. During the term breaks she returns to Sussex and visits Holmes, and gets involved in a couple of detective cases with him.

A more serious case arises when Jessica Simpson, the six-year-old daughter of an American senator, is kidnapped in Wales. Holmes and Mary disguise themselves as gipsies, and travel in a horse-drawn wagon through the area, attempting to find the child.

In December 1918 an unknown enemy makes a series of attacks on Holmes and his associates. A bomb goes off at Holmes’ cottage, and Holmes is injured and is in hospital for a day. But as soon as he can he goes to meet Mary in Oxford, and prevents her from setting off another bomb planted in her room in the students’ residence. And they manage to warn Dr Watson before a bomb goes off at his home. As other attacks continue, and since the clues to their opponent are sketchy, Holmes and Mary decide to leave the country, while Mycroft and Scotland Yard continue to investigate.

Holmes and Mary take the opportunity to take up one of Mycroft’s assignments. Mary (since she is Jewish, as her mother was,) chooses the assignment in the Holy Land. [A brief description of their time in Palestine is given in this book, but a more complete description is in the book, “O Jerusalem”.]

On return to England, Holmes and Mary decide on a strategy to combat their opponent. Holmes and Mary will pretend to become estranged, hoping that their opponent will leave Mary out of consideration, with Mary being the weapon in reserve. (Mary finds this pretence – which almost becomes real – particularly distressing.) In the end, when they confront their enemy, their survival is touch and go.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995)

Period: December 26, 1920 to February 6, 1921 although the postscript takes us six to eight weeks later, and then several months after that with two conversations. … Writer’s Guide.

Mary meets a friend from Oxford University in London: Lady Veronica (“Ronnie”) Beaconsfield. Veronica takes her to a meeting of a movement she is involved with, called the New Temple in God, headed by a charismatic feminist woman called Margery Childe. This organisation is much like a church, with a definite religious flavour, with Margery giving talks (much like sermons) three times a week. It also runs a women’s shelter, provides assistance to the poor, and lobbies for women’s rights.

When Margery meets Mary, and learns that she is studying theology, Margery asks Mary to teach her, since Margery is self-taught in theology, and Mary agrees.

Mary learns that a few of Margery’s inner circle of women have died, seemingly in accidents. But then Veronica is pushed in front of a train and ends up in hospital. It starts to look as if there is a connection between the deaths, especially since they had all left sizable amounts of money to the New Temple in God in their wills. But Mary can’t believe that Margery is responsible.

At this point Mary turns 21, and comes into her inheritance. Her aunt is required to leave the Sussex farm house, and Mary does a lot of spending – refurbishing the house, buying lots of clothes, and making a donation to the Temple. She takes over Veronica’s duties at the Temple, essentially becoming one of the inner circle. In fact, she is setting herself up as bait for the killer.

But she has done this too well – she soon finds herself in great danger.

Holmes is somewhat in the background for much of this story, but he does turn up periodically to provide assistance. And in the end, he saves her from the dangerous situation she lands in. But during the adventure, Mary starts to wonder what her real feelings are for Holmes.

The term “Monstrous Regiment of Women” comes from the title of a treatise published by John Knox in 1558: “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women”. John Knox believed that according to the Bible, women should not have authority. It was directed against Mary Tudor, and later applied to Mary Stuart. “Regiment” is used in the sense of “regime”.

A Letter of Mary (1997)

Period: August 14, 1923 to September 8, 1923. … Writer’s Guide.

Dorothy Ruskin, an amateur archaeologist whom Mary and Holmes had met in the Holy Land, visits them in their Sussex home. She gives Mary an ornate box containing a scroll which purports to be a letter written by Mary Magdalene, the follower of Jesus Christ described in the Bible. Mary Magdalene describes herself as an apostle of Jesus: Mary Russell believes that if the letter is proved to be authentic, the concept of a female apostle would cause great turmoil in the Church.

A few days later Mary and Holmes hear that Miss Ruskin had been killed in a car accident when she returned to London. They travel to London, and find evidence that Miss Ruskin had been murdered, and her hotel room searched. Then they hear that their Sussex home has been ransacked in their absence. Apparently, from the way they have searched through books, the criminals have been looking for a sheet of paper. Could they have been looking for the scroll written by Mary Magdalene? This seems unlikely, since it’s not the sort of thing which would be hidden in a book – folding it would damage it.

Mary and Holmes meet with Mycroft and Lestrade. Scotland Yard is busy with other crimes, so they divide the investigation of suspects between them.

Mary is assigned to investigate Colonel Dennis Edwards, Miss Ruskin’s sponsor, whom Miss Ruskin had met for dinner the night she died. Colonel Edwards is a misogynist, who was angry when he discovered that the archaeologist he was meeting was a woman. Mary assumes the role of a meek, vulnerable young woman, the kind that Colonel Edwards would be attracted to, and gets a job as his secretary. She finds his attitude a bit hard to take. And it is worse when the Colonel’s son turns up, a man with roving hands.

Meanwhile Holmes has got a job as handyman with Miss Ruskin’s sister, Mrs Erica Rogers. Mrs Rogers does not seem to have liked her sister. Could she or members of her family have killed Miss Ruskin? Was it a matter of inheritance?

Lestrade and Mycroft are investigating other aspects of the case: Miss Ruskin’s involvement in the politics of the Holy Land, as well as the background of the various suspects. It turns out that Miss Ruskin had been supporting the Arabs, but then was converted to the Zionist cause. Could Arab resentment be the cause of her death?

Another author’s fictional character: Lord Peter Wimsey from books by Dorothy L Sayers. Mary meets an aristocratic man whom she knows, and who knows her and Sherlock Holmes, when she and Colonel Edwards go to a weekend house party at a mansion. The man is one of the guests. Mary addresses him as “Peter”. His full name is not given, but from his description and way of talking, he seems to be Lord Peter Wimsey.

Historical person: J R R Tolkien . Mary tells Holmes that during her visit to Oxford that day (3 September 1923), she had “met an odd man called Tolkien, a reader in English literature at Leeds who has a passion for early Anglo-Saxon poetry and runes and such.” Mary had just mentioned being at the Eagle and Child (a pub in Oxford), so presumably it was there she had met him. (The Eagle and Child would later be the meeting place of the Inklings , a writers group at Oxford University, which included J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis .)

• Mrs Hudson’s Case (1997)

Short story originally published in the anthology “Crime Through Time”. Included in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: October 1918. Set during the time period covered by “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”, during Mary’s second year at Oxford, two months after the completion of the Jessica Simpson kidnapping case. A period of about 2 to 3 weeks is covered by this story.

Mary is back from Oxford, visiting Holmes. Mrs Hudson complains to Holmes that someone has been breaking in and stealing food and other things. But Holmes isn’t interested. So Mary agrees to help, and sets up cameras to try to detect the intruder. But she has to return to Oxford the next day. In the meantime, Holmes has to go to London to provide advice to Scotland Yard on the kidnapping of the two Oberdorfer orphans, Sarah and Louis, from their uncle. This will take him away from home for a while.

When Mary hasn’t heard from Mrs Hudson for two weeks, she rings her. But Mrs Hudson sounds strange on the telephone. So Mary decides to return to Sussex. But Mrs Hudson won’t let her in. So Mary breaks in, and finds the two missing children. Mrs Hudson has been hiding them and looking after them. What is going on?

The Moor (1998)

Period: No specific dates given but soon after LETT [“A Letter of Mary”] ends, so sometime the end of September or early October 1923 to early November 1923. We know that Russell and Holmes arrived back at the cottage on Nov. 5, 1923. … Writer’s Guide.

Holmes and Mary have come to Lew House, the home of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, in Lew Trenchard, in Devon. This is not far from Dartmoor, the setting of Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. Baring-Gould is nearly ninety, and is old and sick. He has been a friend of Holmes for many years, and Holmes had consulted him on the Baskerville case (according to Laurie R King’s novel).

Baring-Gould has asked for their presence because there is a problem on the moor. The legendary ghostly coach of Lady Howard has been seen several times, usually accompanied by a large black dog. (Is the Hound back again? But in fact the moor is full of strange stories, including stories about black dogs.) And a man had died in mysterious circumstances.

Holmes and Mary venture out onto the moor to look for evidence and ask the local people what they have seen. Mary finds the moor a dreary place – wet, covered with strange rocks and scrubby vegetation, with overcast sky, and often raining or foggy.

Returning to Lew House, they meet visitors: Richard Ketteridge, the new owner of Baskerville Hall, and his secretary, David Scheiman. Ketteridge invites them to dinner at Baskerville Hall the next day, an invitation which they take up.

Holmes and Mary continue their investigations separately, investigating where a coach could have entered the moor (assuming a physical coach rather that a ghostly one). Mary is on horseback, with a horse which tends to shy and throw his rider. And then the horse falls and injures himself and Mary. Mary is forced to walk, leading the horse, to the nearest dwelling, which turns out to be Baskerville Hall. And there she gets the impression that Ketteridge and Scheiman are hiding something.

Back at Lew House, Mary hears that another dead man has been found in the nearby lake – a man Mary and Holmes had met briefly at Lew House.

What is going on? Were the coach and the dog meant as distractions from some evil-doing? Had the two men been killed because they chanced upon something they were not meant to see?

Historical person: The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould , parson, squire, hymn writer (including “Onward Christian Soldiers”), antiquarian and folklorist.

O Jerusalem (1999)

Period: From the final week of December 1918 until approx. the beginning of Feb. 1919. … Writer’s Guide.

[Note: This story has been published out of order of the series chronology. As noted for “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”, the events of this story occur during the period of that story. Mary turns 19 soon after this story begins. She had just been promoted by Holmes from apprentice to partner.]

Fleeing from an enemy in England, Holmes and Mary leave the country, and take the opportunity to take up one of Mycroft’s assignments. Mary (since she is Jewish) chooses the assignment in the Holy Land.

Palestine at this time is occupied by the British, having thrown out the previous Turkish regime. But there is still unrest in the land.

Arriving in secret, they meet up with Arab brothers, Mahmoud and Ali Hazr, with whom they will be travelling. Holmes and Mary are also disguised as Arabs, Mary as a beardless young man. Much of their time is spent wandering the Palestinian desert, sleeping in tents, leading the mules who are loaded with their possessions, and meeting the local people.

They meet Joshua, the spymaster, Mahmoud and Ali’s boss. Joshua tells them of vague indications of a threat to the peace of the land, possibly from Turkish people from the old regime, who want to get rid of the British rule. Some of his agents have died, but it is not clear whether these are isolated incidents or part of a pattern.

Holmes investigates the death of one agent, and follows up what clues he can find. Finding a beeswax candle in the man’s pack results in the group visiting the several monasteries to find the one which made the candle.

Their wanderings are interrupted by an invitation to visit and report to General Allenby in Haifa. Mary is pleased of the opportunity to get a proper bath and sleep in a proper bedroom.

But leaving by car the next day, they are ambushed. Mary is injured, but is rescued by Mahmoud and Ali, but Holmes is kidnapped. They later manage to rescue him, but he has been interrogated and tortured.

The clues take them to Jerusalem. Mary joins a group of people removing rocks and soil from the Cotton Bazaar, to try to pick up any useful gossip. Then Holmes and Mary go to a dinner at the American Colony , at which they hope to gather more information. Holmes dresses as a military officer, and Mary, temporarily putting aside her Arab youth persona, dresses in a somewhat provocative frock Holmes has provided her, Holmes not having realised the effect it would have. Mary responds by flirting with all the young men.

The clues point to a particular Turkish man, who apparently intends to blow up the Haram es-Sharif (the Temple Mount), when General Allenby and various important people will be present. Holmes and Mary’s investigations take them to Solomon’s Quarries , an underground cave under the city of Jerusalem, and a series of tunnels connected to it, where they suspect their adversary has planted a bomb. But will they be in time?

Historical persons:

General Edmund Allenby : Holmes and Mary meet him three times.

T E Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) : There are several references to him in the book, and he makes a cameo appearance in the Epilogue.

Jacob Eliahu later known as Jacob Spafford: the youth who discovered the Siloam inscription in Hezekiah’s tunnel . Mary meets a man called Jacob (although no surname is given), at the dinner at the American Colony, who states that he had been that boy.

Justice Hall (2002)

Period: Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, 1923 to December 21, 1923. (The epilogue takes place Dec. 26, 1923.) … Writer’s Guide.

Mary and Holmes have just returned home to Sussex from Dartmoor (the adventure described in “The Moor”), when an injured man comes to the door. Initially not recognising him, Mary realises that this is Ali Hazr, their Arab companion whom they had last met in Palestine (as described in “O Jerusalem”) five years before. But he is now dressed as an Englishman. In fact Ali is really an Englishman, Alistair Hughenfort, and the man they had known as Ali’s brother Mahmoud is actually his cousin, William Maurice Hughenfort, normally known as Marsh Hughenfort. (Holmes had concluded while they were in Palestine that the pair were actually English; Mary seems not to have been convinced.)

When Alistair recovers, he explains that his cousin Marsh had inherited the position of Duke of Beauville when his older brother Henry died, and is now living at the ducal seat, Justice Hall. However there is some difficulty, and he begs Holmes and Mary to come with him to Justice Hall in Berkshire. (Alistair’s injuries were apparently caused by being caught up in a riot in London, but Holmes and Mary wonder if there is more to it than that.)

So Holmes and Mary travel with Alistair to Justice Hall, a magnificent property with beautiful grounds. And there they meet Marsh, hardly recognisable as the man Mahmoud they met in Palestine. He seems to have adopted the position and responsibilities of Duke thrust upon him, and discarded his Arab persona, but is not happy about it. Alistair begs Holmes and Mary to persuade Marsh to give up the ducal position and return to Palestine.

Marsh’s sister Phyllida Darling, her husband Sidney, and their two children live at the Hall. Since before Henry’s death, Phyllida and Sidney have got used to running the place, and are always having parties, and inviting lots of guests.

Holmes and Mary learn a number of things about the Hughenfort family from Marsh. Henry had had a son Gabriel, who had died in the war, but reading between the lines of the death notice, it appears he had been executed. This is so surprising that Holmes decides to look into it. Also Marsh’s younger brother Lionel had married and had a son Thomas. Lionel had since died. His widow and son are living in France. Since Thomas seems now to be the ducal heir, it is necessary to confirm whether Thomas is indeed the legitimate son of Lionel.

While Holmes is in London, searching for information about Gabriel, Mary stays at Justice Hall. And a woman called Iris Sutherland arrives, who, to Mary’s surprise, turns out to be Marsh’s wife. The couple have been long separated, but are on good terms, which is a bit of a mystery.

Mary joins a bird-shooting party, and is partnered with Iris. But Marsh gets shot, although not fatally, apparently by accident, and Alistair, who was with him, gets slightly injured as well. This incident makes Mary, and Holmes when he returns, wonder whether someone is attempting to clear the way to inherit the position of Duke.

The investigations into Gabriel seem to indicate that some relative was manipulating events to ensure Gabriel’s execution. They also turn up information about a girlfriend of Gabriel’s called Hélène. Mary and Iris take a trip, by ship, to Canada to try and find her.

The Game (2004)

Period: January 1, 1924 to approximately early March 1924 (there are no specific dates for the ending). … Writer’s Guide.

Mycroft gives Holmes and Mary an assignment: to go to India and try and locate a missing secret agent – Kimball O’Hara – the title character of Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim”. O’Hara had been an orphan (of Irish parentage) in India, who had been given a job in the Survey of India, which also included an intelligence function. As part of “The Great Game” , Tsarist Russia was keen to take possession of India, and the task of the secret agents was to watch the border regions. O’Hara would now be in his forties.

Although the threat from Russia had been thought to have ceased with the Bolshevik Revolution, there is now some concern that Bolshevik Russia has similar intentions to occupy India.

Holmes tells Mary he has met O’Hara before – during the time that Holmes was presumed dead. [Here Ms King expands on part of Holmes’s description of his activities to Watson from Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Empty House”.] In 1892, Mycroft (who alone had known that Holmes was alive) had sent Holmes to India to locate a missing agent who was thought to have entered Tibet, and possibly been captured. Holmes had joined a Scandinavian exploration group in the north of India, taking the role of a Norwegian called Sigerson. He had met O’Hara, who was then the disciple of a Tibetan lama. Holmes joined O’Hara and the lama, disguising himself as a Tibetan monk, and the three of them had entered Tibet. Holmes had also fulfilled another part of his mission, of meeting and giving a message to the Dalai Lama.

So Holmes and Mary travel to India, the main part of the trip being by ship from Marseilles, passing through the Suez Canal. On the ship they get to know an American family called the Goodhearts: Mrs Goodheart, her son, a young man called Tom, and her daughter, a teenage girl called Sunny. Tom professes to be a Communist, and is also a friend of Jumalpandra (called Jimmy), the maharaja of the [fictitious] state of Khanpur in the north of India. India at this time is under British rule; however there are a lot of Indian Princely States, such as Khanpur, with their own rulers.

Arriving in Bombay, Holmes and Mary take the train to Delhi, where they meet their contact, Geoffrey Nesbit. They then disguise themselves as Moslem travelling magicians, and travel on foot to Simla, with a donkey and cart carrying their possessions, and accompanied by Bindra, a young Indian boy who persuaded them to take him as their assistant.

At Simla, they meet Nesbit again, who wants them to modify their mission to investigate Khanpur. Although outwardly respectable, there are some disconcerting rumours about the state, and concern that the maharaja might be making an alliance with the Russians. Holmes and Mary decide to split up. Holmes travels on as a magician with Bindra; Mary casts aside her disguise to become an Englishwoman again, and joins the Goodhearts (who happen to be in Simla), to travel by train to Khanpur.

In Khanpur, Mary and the Goodhearts are taken to a place called the Forts. The New Fort is the maharaja’s residence, and is full of house guests of all nationalities. The Old Fort across the road is out of bounds, and Mary wonders if Kimball O’Hara might be imprisoned there.

Their host, the maharaja Jimmy, seems charming and sophisticated, but also has a streak of cruelty. Mary joins Jimmy and the guests for pig-sticking, a sport where the participants hunt wild boar on horse-back, armed with spears. And Mary realises how dangerous this is when, unwisely dismounting, she comes face to face with a large ferocious boar with sharp tusks. But more danger is to come from the maharaja.

Another author’s fictional character: Kimball O’Hara from Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” .

Locked Rooms (2005)

Period: Picks up after three weeks in Japan in May 1924 then perhaps into very early June 1924. … Writer’s Guide.

The book is divided into 5 “Books”, and unlike the rest of the series so far, alternates between a first-person narrative from Mary’s point of view, and a third-person narrative from Holmes’s point of view.

After their time in India (in “The Game”) and Japan (in “Dreaming Spies”), Holmes and Mary continue on by ship to San Francisco. As they approach their destination, Mary becomes somewhat disturbed; this is the place where her parents and younger brother were killed in a car accident, nearly 10 years before. She starts having three recurring dreams: objects flying through the air, a faceless man, and a locked room to which she has the key.

Holmes suggests that her first dream relates to a memory of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 , when Mary was six, but Mary doesn’t believe she was there at the time. But later confirmation by her lawyer, and other friends and neighbours confirm that she was. The family had camped out in a tent, along with many others, in Lafayette Park, as it was unsafe to stay at home.

Arriving in San Francisco, they stay at the hotel, St Francis. Mary has business to conduct in the city, concerning the various property she has inherited from her parents.

Visiting the family home, she discovers that it has not been kept up. She learns from her lawyer, to her surprise, that there is a condition in her parents’ will that no one may enter the house without a family member present, until 20 years after the will was made in 1906. The law firm made an exception, and had the house cleaned after her parents’ death, and have had the gardeners in once a year, but without allowing them into the house.

Mary and Holmes examine the house and contents. They discover that there have been recent intruders who were searching for something. Wondering whether the locked room of her dream was literal or metaphorical, they search for hidden rooms, but find none.

Mary remembers that they had a Chinese couple, Micah and Mah Long, working for them as gardener and cook. She goes to San Francisco’s Chinatown to ask about them, but has no success. However, on her return to the house, someone tries to shoot her, and she is rescued by a Chinese man. This man is Tom Long, the adopted son of Micah and Mah. His adoptive parents had been murdered by some unknown person shortly after Mary’s family’s death.

Mary decides to visit her psychiatrist Dr Leah Ginsberg. Dr Ginsberg had helped her recover after the accident which had killed her family. Mary had been thrown free of the car, but had suffered injuries. She also felt guilty because she believed that it was her arguing with her brother which had distracted her father, and caused him to lose control of the car, which had gone over a cliff. But Mary discovers to her shock that Dr Ginsberg had been killed, shortly after Mary had returned to England, apparently by a burglar the doctor had disturbed.

Mary meets up with Flo Greenfield, a childhood friend, and they go out to nightclubs together. (This is during the Prohibition period, however the authorities in California generally turned a blind eye to supply of alcohol in nightclubs etc.) Holmes subtly suggests that Mary visit the Russells’ summer house at the lake, and Mary goes there with Flo and Flo’s boyfriend Donny, visiting the site of her family’s accident on the way.

Meanwhile, Holmes has been doing his own investigations. The coincidences of the deaths of the Chinese servants and Dr Ginsberg, so soon after the deaths of Mary’s family, lead him to conclude that Mary’s family were murdered. Had the car been tampered with? There are indications that something critical had happened in the Russell family life at the time of the earthquake, so he makes various enquiries with the neighbours of the family home. He discovers there had been a man, whose face was burnt, and who had ointment and bandages on his face, who approached the Russells’ tent in the park, and had frightened the six-year-old Mary. This must be the faceless man of Mary’s dream. Who was this man, and does he have any other significance?

And Holmes meets up with Dashiell Hammett, a private detective, and writer of detective fiction. Hammett had previously worked for Pinkertons Detective Agency, and now still accepted an occasional commission from them. He had received such a commission now, and the client, a woman with a Southern United States accent, had hired him to follow Holmes. This woman sounds suspiciously like a woman who had been asking questions about Holmes and Mary on the ship to India (in “The Game”). Holmes persuades Hammett to turn down the commission, and work for him instead.

Having had time to relax, and recover from her distress and shock, Mary comes to the same conclusion as Holmes: her family had been murdered.

Historical person: Dashiell Hammett , private detective, and writer of detective fiction. Hammett was employed for a time by Pinkertons Detective Agency .

The Art of Detection (2006)

Period (of Sherlock Holmes story): Spring 1924, in San Francisco, soon after the events of “Locked Rooms”.

This book is actually part of the Kate Martinelli series, set in the modern day (2004), but within it is a Sherlock Holmes story. Kate is a police detective in San Francisco, and is given a copy of a manuscript containing a Sherlock Holmes story, in the course of investigating a homicide. The manuscript had been found in an attic in San Francisco. The question is raised in the Kate Martinelli story whether this could be a genuine story written by Arthur Conan Doyle, while he was in America.

The Sherlock Holmes story is written in such a way that it could either fit into the “Mary Russell” series, or be treated as a stand-alone Sherlock Holmes story. Mary herself is not present in the story, and is not referred to by name. However, Holmes makes a few indirect references to her, and to other things from the “Mary Russell” series, which would probably only be interpreted this way by people familiar with the series.

The story is in the first person, from Holmes’s point of view. He gives his name as Mr Sigerson, which is an alias he used during the time he was presumed dead, as reported in Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Empty House”.

While his travelling companion (obviously Mary Russell) is going about other business, Holmes decides to investigate San Francisco’s underworld. He makes the acquaintance of a young man called Martin Ledbetter (who had tried to pick his pocket) and employs him as a guide. Ledbetter takes him to a club called the Blue Tiger. There is a singer performing there, called Billy Birdsong, apparently female, but actually a male transvestite. (Note: feminine pronouns are used throughout the story to refer to Billy.) [Billy Birdsong and the Blue Tiger are also mentioned in “Locked Rooms”.] After her performance, Ledbetter introduces her to Holmes. Billy tells Holmes about a frequent visitor, with whom she has become quite friendly, but who has inexplicably stopped coming. This is a soldier called Jack Raynor. Holmes agrees to investigate. His investigation takes him to Fort Barry, on the Marin Headlands, where Raynor’s dead body is found in a gun emplacement. Holmes must find out who the murderer is.

The Language of Bees (2009)

Period: August 10, 1924 to August 30, 1924. … Writer’s Guide.

This book is written in the first person, from Mary’s point of view, except for certain chapters which consist only of dialogue between Holmes, and either Damian Adler or Mycroft.

Holmes and Mary have just returned home to Sussex, after seven months overseas, when they meet a man at their door – Damian Adler, Holmes’s son.

The character, Irene Adler, appears in only one of Conan Doyle’s stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia”, where she impresses Holmes because she is the only woman to have outwitted him, and in this respect she is also mentioned in a few others of Conan Doyle’s stories. [This has made her a favourite character to appear in non-canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, playing a variety of roles – often as a love interest for Sherlock Holmes.]

[Again Ms King expands on part of Holmes’s description of his activities during his absence, from Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Empty House”.] During the time when Holmes was presumed dead, he had heard that Irene and her husband, Geoffrey Norton, had been involved in an accident, which had killed Norton, and forced Irene to retire from her career as opera singer due to her injuries. So Holmes travelled to Montpellier in southern France, where she was living on the edge of poverty. He was able to help her financially, and set her up in a paying job. And for a while they became lovers. But the relationship came to an end, and Holmes returned to London. But Irene had become pregnant, and given birth to a boy, Damian. [Damian was born in 1894, so is about 6 years older than Mary.] But Irene didn’t tell Holmes about the boy, although she did tell Mycroft, and swore him to secrecy.

But in July 1919, in the aftermath of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”, Holmes found out he had a son, when Damian, now twenty-four, was arrested in France for murder. Irene had died in 1912. Damian had been a soldier in the war, but had been injured, and had been invalided out. But he had become addicted to the drugs he had been treated with. And he had been in a pub brawl with the man who was later found dead. Holmes and Mary travelled to France to attempt to acquit Damian, but in the end the evidence against Damian fell apart, and it didn’t come to court. Damian stayed in France when Holmes and Mary returned to England, but disappeared after that, and Holmes wondered if he was dead.

Now Damian has turned up again. He had travelled to China, and lived in Shanghai, continuing his job as an artist. There he had met a Chinese girl called Yolanda, and married her, and they had had a daughter called Estelle. The three of them had come to England in recent months, and had been living in London. But now Yolanda and Estelle (now three and a half years old) have disappeared.

Holmes and Damian go to London to try and find Damian’s missing wife and daughter. But after a few days, Damian himself disappears. Mary joins Holmes in the investigation. In particular, Mary visits London’s Bohemian society (artists, writers, etc) that Damian is part of, and attends a service of Yolanda’s church, the Children of Lights.

Mary finds the church a mishmash of various religions. The leader, Reverend Thomas Brothers, who established the church, is absent when she is there, but she learns that he has written their holy book, and apparently thinks of himself as some kind of god. But a number of deaths at ancient monuments around the country seem to indicate that Brothers practices human sacrifice, and that Damian’s family is in danger.

Mary thinks Brothers’ next sacrifice will be at the solar eclipse. Holmes heads off to Bergen, Norway, from where the eclipse can be observed, while Mary, following other clues, heads for the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland. But to get there in time, she has to be flown by a pilot, Cash Javitz, in a worn-out aircraft, in rough weather. Is she on the right track, and will she get there in time?

• A Venomous Death (2009)

Short story. Included in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: “ A Venomous Death ” is undated, but may take place in early summer, 1922 or 1923. … website chronology .

Sherlock Holmes is called in by the police, not in his capacity as a detective, but that of a beekeeper.  A retired professor of philosophy has been killed by a swarm of bees in his bedroom, and the police want Holmes to remove the swarm. As he does this, Holmes and Mary discuss the case. Holmes concludes it was murder, and identifies the culprit.

My Story (2009)

Short story, self-published. Included in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: “ My Story”  … take[s] place in the spring of 1992. … website chronology .

Over the years, the popularity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories has led to the problem of Holmes and Mary being pestered by Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.  Their main protection has been that Sherlock Holmes is thought to be a fictional character, and that they have loyal neighbours willing to protect their privacy.  But now, in 1992, when Mary is 92 years old, the American Sherlockians have tracked them to their Sussex home.  Holmes and Mary flee their home, and make their way to Mary’s house in Oxford.

But four days later, some Sherlockians have turned up in Oxford, so Holmes and Mary flee again. May-day celebrations are taking place in Oxford, and Mary hopes they can lose themselves in the crowd.  But soon they are spotted again, and they make their escape to a punt on the Thames.

(The story is continued in “A Case in Correspondence”.)

In the midst of all this chaos, Mary has collected up her memoirs, along with various distinctive objects, in a trunk to deliver to Laurie R King. This explains the jumble of objects in the trunk which Ms King received, which led to her original publication of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”.

The God of the Hive (2010)

Period: August 30, 1924 to Sept. 9, 1924. (The Epilogue concludes on Oct. 31, 1924.) … Writer’s Guide.

This book continues on from “The Language of Bees”. This book has some chapters written in the first person, from Mary Russell’s point of view, and other chapters written in the third person, describing the activities of Holmes and other characters, where Mary was not present.

Holmes, realising that Mary’s destination in the Orkneys was the correct one, had changed his destination to meet her there. There they had prevented the Reverend Brothers from killing Damian on the altar stone in the Stones of Stenness . In the struggle that followed, Brothers had shot Damian in the shoulder, and Damian had shot Brothers, apparently killing him. Holmes and Mary decide they have to split up, Holmes to take Damian to a doctor, and Mary to look after the child, Estelle. Tragically, Brothers had murdered Yolanda earlier in the piece. But the police suspect Damian of the murder, and also want to arrest Holmes and Mary for assisting him and withholding information. So they all want to stay clear of the police, especially since Damian is claustrophobic, and would go crazy in custody.

But after leaving Holmes, and recovering Estelle from an abandoned hotel, Mary realises that Brothers probably survived, and might come after them, so she returns to the pilot, Cash Javitz, and asks that he fly her and Estelle to Thurso, on the Scottish mainland. So they set off. But as they approach Thurso, someone fires on the plane – presumably someone associated with Brothers. Javitz is injured in the leg. They decide that it is too dangerous to land, and continue flying south.

They get as far as the Lake District, where the damage to the plane causes them to crashland in a forested area. Fortunately all three have survived. They are helped to escape from the plane wreck by a man called Robert Goodman, whom Mary immediately associates with the Green Man , the ancient god of the forest, or Puck , a fairy character also known as Robin Goodfellow. Goodman takes them to a cabin in what turns out to be a private wooded estate.

Meanwhile, Holmes has taken Damian in a boat, captained by a fisherman called Gordon, to the Scottish town Wick, where he finds a female doctor, Dr Henning, and takes her on board the boat to remove the bullet from Damian’s shoulder. But to hold the boat steady for this treatment requires sailing with the wind, so they soon find themselves halfway to Holland. They decide to go to Dr Henning’s cousin in Holland.

Meanwhile, in London, Mycroft has been abducted by a rival, and confined to a locked room in an isolated warehouse. Mycroft is a powerful man in the government service, and runs an intelligence service somewhat independent of the main intelligence services of the British government. Essentially, he answers to no one but his own conscience. But this rival, Peter James West, wants to take over the position, and he doesn’t have the same ethical constraints as Mycroft. Mycroft realises that West intends to kill him.

In fact, West was responsible for bringing the Reverend Brothers from Shanghai to England, when he discovered that Damian and Brothers knew each other, and that Mycroft was Damian’s uncle. West wants to create a scandal to discredit Mycroft before killing him.

Mary and Holmes do not know about West. But they each start to suspect some powerful person, other than Brothers, is after them. A group of armed men attack Goodman’s cabin, but Mary and her companions escape in the attackers’ car. And Holmes notices men on watch when he travels to Amsterdam, but manages to elude them. Then Mycroft’s death notice appears in the paper – can this be true?

Peter James West is the god of the hive (the city).  Robert Goodman is the god of the forest. 

Birth of a Green Man (2010)

Short story, self-published. Included in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: “ Birth of a Green Man”  is undated, although it would appear to be some time in the early 1920s. … website chronology.

[This story provides background for Robert Goodman, from “The God of the Hive”.]

Robert Goodman had been in the war, and sent to hospital for shell-shock.  He leaves there to return to his home in the Cumbrian Lakes. There he lives, not in the mansion, but in the woods.

He finds a boy abused by his father and helps him.  And administers justice.

He has become the Green Man, the god of the forest.

A Case in Correspondence (2010)

Period: “ My Story”  and “ A Case in Correspondence”  take place in the spring of 1992, but [“ A Case in Correspondence” ] talks about the 1924 events in God of the Hive. … website chronology .

This story continues on from “My Story”.  It takes the form of a series of postcards and written communications between Mary and other people.

After leaving the boat on the Thames, Mary had sent Holmes off in a cab, with the expectation he would make his way back to Sussex.  Mary stayed behind at the Vicissitude Hotel for Ladies in London, to complete her research that the Americans had interrupted.  She sends a postcard to their Sussex home, seeking confirmation that Holmes had arrived home safely.

Mary receives a postcard back from their housekeeper, Mrs Emma Hudson (wife of the great-grandson of the original Mrs Hudson), that Holmes had not turned up.

Mary continues to send postcards to various people, trying to find out where Holmes had disappeared to: to Billy Mudd (grandson of the original Billy Mudd and now head of the investigations agency), Dr Watson-Scopes (Dr John Watson’s granddaughter), and to “M”, (Mycroft’s successor in his intelligence organisation).  This last brings up the continuing bad feelings between the organisation and Mary Russell about the Robert Goodman affair (this relates to “The God of the Hive”), and the organisation’s attempt to prevent Mary from sending the memoir to Ms King to be published.

Finally Mary sees a message in the London Times from Holmes, revealing his whereabouts.

• Beekeeping for Beginners (2011)

Novella. Included with “Garment of Shadows” and in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: Covers the meeting and early weeks of Russell and Holmes relationship (Early April 1915 to June 1, 1915) from Holmes’ POV . … Writer’s Guide.

Parts of this story are in the first person from Holmes’ point of view. Other parts are in the third person.

The story begins with a description of Holmes and Mary meeting for the first time – as described in “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” – but this time from Holmes’ point of view. A significant addition to this version is that Holmes, having been excluded from contributing to the war effort, is feeling useless, and contemplating suicide, until he meets Mary.

This is followed by a description of a visit by Dr Watson to Holmes’ Sussex cottage. Watson does not meet Mary at this time, but he is interested that Holmes has a new young apprentice.

Then follows the main part of the story, with Holmes’ involvement in Mary’s life in a way that Mary doesn’t find out about.

Holmes had learned from Mary that she had made a will, from which her despised aunt would not benefit. This effectively removes any incentive from the aunt of attempts against Mary’s life.

However, it soon comes to light that some of the supporting paperwork, concerning properties in America and France, which Mary had inherited from her father, had gone down with the Lusitania when it sank. Mary has to make a new will. And in the meantime, she has suffered a series of seeming accidents: a fall on the stairs, a brawl with the aunt’s son resulting in minor injuries, and a mysterious period of illness.

Holmes decides to investigate. Without Mary’s knowledge, he enters Mary’s house at night when Mary and her aunt are asleep. He searches for poison, which he thinks the aunt must have given her to make her sick. He doesn’t find any. But he does find evidence that a thread had been stretched across the stairs, causing Mary to trip.

Holmes next suspects that the aunt’s son will make an attempt on Mary’s life as she travels in to London to make her new will. He secretly follows her. He has the help of some of the former Baker Street Irregulars (now grown to adulthood, and employed by Billy Mudd’s investigations agency), and they take turns watching the place where she is staying and then following her through the crowded London streets. And Holmes finds that his suspicions are accurate – he finds Mary’s cousin lying in wait to attack Mary.

Pirate King (2011)

Period: November 6-30, 1924. … Writer’s Guide.

Mycroft is coming to stay at Holmes and Mary’s place in Sussex. Mary had upset Mycroft in their last adventure (in “The God of the Hive”), so she thinks it may be wise to be absent. With some reservations she takes on an assignment referred to Holmes by Scotland Yard.

There have been some coincidences relating to the movie company, Fflytte Films. (Note – this is the silent movie era.) Shortly after the company made a film about guns, there was an outbreak of gun sales. And after it made a film about drugs, there were a large number of drug parties. And a film about rum-running in America was followed by the arrest of McCoy (“The Real McCoy”) for smuggling of liquor. (And after the movie about Hannibal, was there a large influx of elephants? Mary asks Inspector Lestrade, teasingly.)

Now that the company is making a film about pirates, is this likely to result in real piracy? And the studio secretary, Lonnie Johns, has disappeared. Mary agrees to take Lonnie’s place and investigate.

Mary finds herself as the assistant to the film company’s general manager, Geoffrey Hale. Her job is general organising, as well as chaperoning a large group of young actresses. The director is Randolph St John Warminster-Fflytte.

Randolph Fflytte believes in making his films as authentic as possible. The new film is actually a play within a play. The storyline is that the fictional film crew is making a film of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance , and encounter some real pirates. So Fflytte’s actors are going to play the fictional film cast and crew, and the pirates, as well as the characters of Pirates of Penzance .

Fflytte has hired a lot of his actors in England, but in order to get authentic-looking pirates, he intends to take the company to Lisbon, Portugal. There he’ll hire actors for the pirate parts, and do some filming, and then travel on to Morocco for more filming.

But in Portugal, Fflytte is dissatisfied with the actors auditioning for pirates. Their translator, Fernando Pessoa, introduces him to a rough-looking character, a retired fisherman called La Rocha, who has a lot of influence in the underclass. Fflytte agrees that La Rocha would be ideal as the pirate king. La Rocha brings in a lot of his friends to play the pirates.

Fflytte purchases an authentic-looking pirate ship, and they set off for Morocco, with La Rocha as the captain. Mary discovers to her surprise that Holmes has arrived on board and joined the cast. From the descriptions in her letters, he recognised La Rocha as a known pirate. It seems likely that La Rocha and his pirates will hold the rest of them for ransom once they reach Morocco. And then they could be killed or sold into slavery.

Historical person: Fernando Pessoa , Portuguese poet and translator.

Garment of Shadows (2012)

Period: December 1924 … Writer’s Guide.

[The scene described in the Author’s Afterword (the author in this case being Mary Russell), with Holmes and Mary leaving Morocco, occurs in January 1925).]

Again this book has some chapters written in the first person, from Mary’s point of view, and others in the third person. In the Author’s Preface, Mary explains that she had constructed the third person sections from other people’s testimonies and comments over the weeks and years that followed.

Continuing on from “Pirate King” (after the resolution of the crisis in that story), Mary had gone with the Flytte Films company, from the city of Rabat in Morocco, out to Efroud, in the desert, as they continued with their filming. Holmes (having got a replacement for his role in the film), seized the opportunity to do some travelling in Morocco. But first he visits Hubert Lyautey, the French Resident-General of Morocco in Fez. Lyautey happens (in Ms King’s fictional world) to be a distant cousin of Holmes.

But on Holmes’ return to Rabat after his travels, he finds that Mary has gone missing. She was last seen walking away from the film company’s campsite in the company of a young boy.

Mary wakes up in a bed in a strange house. She has suffered various injuries, including a severe head injury, but which has been treated. However, she has lost her memory. She doesn’t even know who she is, or how she came to be there. When soldiers approach the house, she escapes, and wanders through the city, stealing and scavenging for food. She concludes that she is in the city of Fez, in Morocco.

Holmes learns that Mary had left a message that she was going to Fez, and heads off there. He encounters a young mute boy, who seems likely to be the boy that Mary had been with. The boy leads him to Dar Mnehbi, Hubert Lyautey’s palace in Fez, and the staff, recognising Holmes, willingly provide accommodation to him.

There Holmes meets Ali Hazr. Mahmoud and Ali Hazr previously appeared in the books “O Jerusalem” and “Justice Hall”. They are actually British agents in Mycroft’s intelligence organisation, and in that capacity have spent most of their time in Palestine disguised as Arabs. After the events of “Justice Hall”, they intended to return to Palestine, but were reassigned to Morocco. But now Mahmoud has gone missing.

Morocco is at this time divided into the French Protectorate in the south and the Spanish Protectorate in the north. But a rebel movement has arisen in the Rif mountain region in the Spanish Protectorate, led by the brothers Mohammed and M’Hammed Abd el-Krim. The hostilities threaten to spill over into the French Protectorate.

Mahmoud and Ali have been in contact with the Abd el-Krim brothers, and wanted to organise a meeting between Mohammed Abd el-Krim and Hubert Lyautey. Hearing that Holmes and Mary were in Morocco, Mahmoud had been going to contact them to assist in the meeting, but Ali had not heard from him since.

Then the young mute boy turns up again at Dar Mnehbi, this time leading Mary. She has still lost her memory, and doesn’t recognise Holmes or Ali, but after some discussion accepts their explanations of who they and she are. The boy’s name is Idir, and is a companion of Mahmoud and Ali. Ali questions him, and using gestures and writing, the boy describes what had happened.

Learning that Holmes was away from Rabat, and that Mary was at the film company’s campsite at Efroud, Mahmoud had sent Idir to Mary with a message. Mary had accompanied Idir to where Mahmoud was waiting, and Mahmoud had told her his plans. Then Mahmoud had received a message that Lyautey wanted to meet him, and Mahmoud and Mary had gone to the meeting place. But the message was false, and the men they encountered kidnapped Mahmoud and assaulted Mary. A passer-by took Mary to the residence of an English nurse, who cared for her, and it was there that Mary had recovered consciousness. Idir had been following Mahmoud and Mary to the meeting place, and saw what had happened.

Mary gradually recovers her memories.

Ali, Holmes and Mary agree to go ahead with the meeting between Lyautey and Abd el-Krim, some distance from Fez. Mary, who is fluent in Arabic and French, will be their interpreter. However, there is an ambush, but they manage to fight off the attackers, and the meeting goes ahead – with Lyautey and Abd el-Krim coming to some understanding of each other’s positions.

It is now several days since Mahmoud had disappeared. Back in Fez, Holmes and Mary decide they need to search for Mahmoud. Holmes disguises himself as a wandering holy man, and takes Idir with him as they travel to the towns to the north of Fez. Mary performs her investigations within Fez, starting with the nurse who treated her.

But their unknown enemy seems to know of their movements, and they soon find themselves in more trouble.

Hubert Lyautey : Resident-General of the French Protectorate in Morocco.

Mohammad ibn Abd el-Karim al-Khattabi (Mohammed Abd el-Krim) : leader of the Rifi Rebellion in Morocco.

[Note: the meeting between Lyautey and Abd el-Krim described in this book is fictitious.]

Mary’s Christmas (2014)

Period: Mainly takes place in 1911, the year before Russell’s family reunites and moves back to San Francisco, told by Mary Russell after her marriage. … Writer’s Guide.

Uncle Jake, the younger brother of Mary’s father Charles, is the black sheep of the family.  He often turns up at the Russell family home unexpectedly, and often provides the children with unusual gifts.  He tells them stories of his wild adventures.  Mary and her brother Levi are always excited to see him.

The Russell family have lived at times in America and at times in England.  At the time of this story, Judith (Mary’s mother), Mary and Levi live in London, but take holidays at the Sussex farmhouse. Charles remains in America for business, but comes to England for the holidays.

Judith is Jewish, and Charles is Christian, but his Christianity “[rides] lightly on his shoulders”, and he is quite happy for Judith to bring up Mary and Levi according to her own traditions.

Christmas 1911 will be the last holiday the family spend in England before returning to America.  Judith, Mary and Levi go to Sussex earlier than usual, and because Charles has not arrived from America yet, Judith takes Mary and Levi with her to the pub to order the drinks for the holiday celebrations.  The publican makes a derogatory remark about them being Jewish.

Later, Uncle Jake turns up, and Mary tells him what had happened.

Jake teaches Mary how to play poker, and also how to throw cards across the room accurately.  (The training comes in handy later with her knife-throwing – a throwing-knife also being the gift Jake gives her during this visit.)

When Jake comes to Sussex he always goes to the pub to play poker.  And as you might expect, Jake comes up with a clever way to turn the tables on the Evil Publican.

The Mary Russell Companion (2014)

“Original writing, a collection of Russell-themed media, selected historical research, pictures, and countless Russellisms fill this large ebook.” – Laurie R King’s website.

Dreaming Spies (2015)

Period: April 1924 (trip from India to Japan) and April 1925 In Sussex and Oxford. … Writer’s Guide.

[The Preamble and Book Three are set in Sussex and Oxford in March to April 1925. These two sections form the framing story, which follows on from “Garment of Shadows”. Books One and Two are set in April 1924, during the period between “The Game” and “Locked Rooms”.]

Holmes and Mary return to Sussex, in England, in March 1925, after the events of “The Pirate King” and “Garment of Shadows”. While Holmes attends to other business, Mary drives to her house in Oxford. But there she meets a Japanese woman, who has been injured, whom she had met a year before.

Leaving India (after “The Game”) in April 1924, Holmes and Mary take a cruise ship to Japan. On board is an Englishman, Lord James Darley, whom Holmes knows to be a blackmailer. He is accompanied by his wife Charlotte, and his son from a previous marriage, Thomas.

Also on board is a young Japanese woman, Haruki Sato. Haruki agrees to teach Holmes and Mary the Japanese language. She also holds information sessions on Japanese culture for the ship’s passengers, which Holmes and Mary attend. But Holmes and Mary discover that Haruki is a ninja.

Arriving in Japan, Haruki invites Holmes and Mary to come to the inn run by her father in the village of Mojiro-joku. There they learn that Haruki and her father belong to a long line of ninjas in service to the Japanese Emperors. And it is there that they meet the Prince Regent of Japan, Hirohito (who would later become the Emperor). The Prince asks Holmes and Mary to work with Haruki to perform a task for him.

In a visit to England previously, Hirohito had presented a beautiful illustrated book of poetry to King George V. But afterwards the Prince had learned from his father that something valuable, probably an important document, had been hidden in the binding. And now he has received a letter from Lord Darley, offering him the book for a large sum of money. The Prince wants Holmes, Mary and Haruki to recover the book for him.

Although things do not go exactly as expected, it seems that the mission is completed satisfactorily.

However, in 1925, when Haruki turns up at Mary’s house in Oxford, it seems that the job is not finished. The book held by Lord Darley had been a forgery, and the hidden document was not present. Mary treats Haruki’s injury, and leaves her at the house to recover.

Mary visits the Bodleian Library, where the book had been held, before being sent out to be restored. Holmes joins her in Oxford, and together they search for and find the country house of the Darleys. Haruki joins them when they attempt to recover the book. But again things do not go quite as expected.

Historical person:

Hirohito – Prince Regent during this story – later Emperor of Japan.

Mary Russell’s War (2015)

Period: Mary Russell’s War Journal started  Aug. 3, 1914 and running until just before Russell met Holmes on the Sussex Downs in early April, 1915.  … Writer’s Guide.

• The Marriage of Mary Russell (2016)

Short story. Also included in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection).

Period: February 1921, following on from “A Monstrous Regiment of Women”, but before the postscript.

At the end of “A Monstrous Regiment of Women” Holmes had proposed to Mary, and she had accepted. But where and when could they get married?

Mary learns from Holmes that the Holmes family has a family chapel, on a property near Northamptonshire in the Midlands. But when Holmes’s father died, the property had fallen into dispute. It rightfully belongs to Mycroft, but a cousin has claimed it, and is occupying the homestead there. If Sherlock or Mycroft should show up, they are likely to be attacked with shotguns and dogs.

Also Dr Watson is about to go on an overseas trip to America, to receive a literary award for his stories, and do a lecture tour. Mary insists that Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson must attend the wedding. But if they don’t have it soon, it will be months before Dr Watson is back.

Mary realises that Holmes will be disappointed if the wedding is not held at the family chapel, so she agrees to have it there. Holmes pulls a few strings to ensure all the legal formalities are fulfilled.

So they arrange to travel to the Midlands, along with Dr Watson, Mrs Hudson, Mycroft and a vicar, and sneak onto the property after dark, hoping to avoid the notice of Holmes’s cousin.

The Murder of Mary Russell (2016)

Period: the “current day” period is a period from 13 May 1925 until several days later. Mrs Hudson’s backstory starts with her future mother, Sally Rickets (the first date mentioned specifically is 1852, when her employers move from Edinburgh to London) and continues up to when Mrs Hudson becomes Holmes’s landlady in 1881. Then an additional chapter provides Mrs Hudson’s thoughts on the subsequent years leading up to the “current day”.

[A lot of this story revolves around Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “The ‘Gloria Scott'”. There is a sailor in that story called Hudson.  Ms King has made that sailor Mrs Hudson’s father, although there is no connection in Conan Doyle’s original stories.]

Mary Russell is alone at the Sussex home when a man arrives. He says he is Mrs Hudson’s son Samuel, from Australia. But then he turns a gun on Mary, and forces her to help him search Mrs Hudson’s possessions.

Mrs Hudson arrives home to find Mary missing, and blood on the floor. What has happened? Has Mary been murdered? Mrs Hudson contacts Billy Mudd, to get hold of Sherlock Holmes (who is away on an investigation), then calls Lestrade of Scotland Yard, who brings in his police detectives. Holmes arrives after Lestrade has left.

Conan Doyle didn’t give Mrs Hudson a first name, but Ms King gives her the name Clara. But she was born Clarissa Hudson. (Hudson is her maiden name, and she never married.)

Sally Rickets meets James (Jimmy) Hudson in London in 1853, and they soon get married. But Jimmy Hudson is a crook, working for a crime boss in London, called The Bishop. But when the police start arresting members of The Bishop’s gang in 1855, Jimmy and Sally flee to Cornwall. Jimmy is as much afraid of The Bishop as the police, since he had run out on him while owing him a lot of money. So Hudson leaves Sally in Cornwall, and signs on as a crew member of the ship the “Gloria Scott” carrying convicts to Australia.

However, the crew and prisoners of the ship mutiny, and the ship is sunk, with only a few survivors who escape in a ship’s boat, and are later picked up by another ship, and transported the rest of the way to Australia.

But Sally is pregnant, and gives birth to Clarissa at her sister’s home in Edinburgh. Hearing that Jimmy has reached Australia, but will not be returning soon, she commits a theft and manages to be transported to Australia, taking Clarissa with her. There she rejoins her husband and they live at the Rocks in Sydney. Later another daughter, Alicia, is born. But then Sally becomes sick and dies. The Hudson family are living in poverty, with Jimmy not earning much money, and spending a lot of it on drink.

Then Jimmy discovers that Clarissa has a great talent for play-acting. She is able to take on a variety of roles, and speak in a number of different accents. He teaches her the art of the con-artist, and the two of them travel around Australia earning money by performing cons. Alicia stays in the care of a woman in Sydney.

When Clarissa reaches young womanhood, Jimmy and Clarissa decide to return to London. There they continue their con-artistry in England and in Europe. Clarissa takes on more sophisticated roles, and enters into the London Society. Eventually she and her father part company.

Clarissa meets a young Viscount called Hugh Edmunds and falls in love. Expecting that they will get married, she sleeps with him. But he leaves her, and marries someone else. And Clarissa discovers she is pregnant.

Running out of money, and finding it difficult to continue her cons while pregnant, she goes to The Bishop, and gets a job with him. He gives her as a partner the young boy Billy Mudd, who soon becomes an expert pickpocket. During this time, Clarissa’s son Samuel is born.

At this stage, the young university student Sherlock Holmes appears on the scene. As described in “The ‘Gloria Scott'”, he has become concerned that Jimmy Hudson has been blackmailing the father of a friend of his.

After the events that follow, Sherlock Holmes insists that Clarissa sail back to Australia, taking Billy and Samuel with her. If she returns to England within a year, he has a job for her. But Holmes tells her she must leave the baby in Australia, with her sister Alicia. And Clarissa does return, bringing Billy with her. And so she takes on the role of landlady at 221B Baker St, as Sherlock Holmes starts his profession as a consulting detective.

In 1925, as Sherlock Holmes is investigating Mary Russell’s disappearance, there seem to be a lot of connections with the “Gloria Scott”.

Stately Holmes (2016)

Short story, originally published in “Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense” (2016) (collection)

Period: “Stately Holmes” is set in December, 1925. … website chronology .

Holmes has injured his back moving a beehive.  He has had his back strapped.  Mary believes his resultant stiff posture gives him a dignified or “stately” appearance.  [This is obviously a pun on the part of the author, as Justice Hall, a “stately home”, makes an appearance in this story.]

Holmes’s son Damian Adler, Damian’s daughter Estelle (now 5 years old) and Damian’s second wife Aileen Henning-Adler are coming to London from Paris for Christmas, and Holmes and Mary are going to visit them in London.  (Damian and Estelle appeared in the books “The Language of Bees” and “The God of the Hive”.  Aileen is the Scottish doctor who removed a bullet from Damian in “The God of the Hive”.)

But before this can happen, Mycroft calls Holmes and Mary in.  Young Gabriel Hughenfort, son of the Gabriel mentioned in “Justice Hall”, had been declared the Duke of Beaufort at the end of that book.  He is now 7 years old. He has persuaded his mother Helen (this is the Hélène referred to in “Justice Hall”) to bring him from their home in Canada to visit Justice Hall.  But Mycroft has heard from Justice Hall that there is apparently a ghost in residence – one that steals food and clothing, but is never seen.  Mycroft sends Holmes and Mary to investigate.  And he has already sent the Adler family on to Justice Hall.

Berkshire, where Justice Hall is, is cold and snowy at Christmas time.  Holmes and Mary join in the Christmas activities with the Hughenforts and the Adlers, the Hall’s servants and the local villagers.

Holmes is impressed by young Estelle, and her imagination, creativity and deductive ability, inheriting skills from both Holmes and Damian.  During the course of this story, Holmes and Estelle do detective work together, including examining footprints in the snow.

At night, Holmes and Mary hunt through the corridors for the supposed ghost, including in the hidden tunnels, but don’t find anything.

On Christmas morning, Estelle brings Holmes a gift from the Christmas tree.  This turns out to be an envelope containing a photograph, providing valuable evidence for a case Sherlock and Mycroft are working on.  How had Estelle known it was there?

Estelle and Gabriel claim that Father Christmas had visited them the previous night and spent a long time talking to them, gave them gifts, and told them about the gift for Holmes.  Who had this visitor really been?

Mary Russell’s War and other stories of suspense (2016)

Collection. My reviews of the individual stories are shown separately in publication order.

• Mary’s Christmas (originally self-published by the author in 2014)
• Mary Russell’s War (originally self-published by the author in 2015)
• Birth of a Green Man (originally self-published by the author in 2010)
• My Story (originally self-published by the author in 2009)
• A Case in Correspondence (originally self-published by the author in 2010)
• Stately Holmes (2016 – original to this collection)

The Customer (2017)

Short story, published in “Bound by Mystery, Celebrating 20 years of Poisoned Pen Press” (2017) (anthology)

Ms King says in her introduction that the described encounter between Mary Russell and Barbara Peters had only recently come to light, when she had received the account that follows.

Period: May 1995, between the events of Laurie R King’s book signing at the Poisoned Pen bookshop in 1995, and the Classic Crime conference in 1996, which led to the formation of Poisoned Pen Press.

A white-haired old woman, with an English accent, (she is soon revealed to be Mary Russell) enters a bookshop called The Poisoned Pen, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

She tells the shop owner (Barbara Peters – later to become the Editor-in-Chief of Poisoned Pen Press) she wishes to buy the signed copy of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”.

The two women discuss the possibility of a more serious conference, for crime writers to discuss their research, and talk about their Golden Age counterparts: in Laurie R King’s case, Arthur Conan Doyle and his characters.

When the customer leaves, she gets into a limousine, where the shopkeeper sees the woman’s partner, an even older man, with piercing grey eyes.

The shopkeeper then realises the customer had left a package behind. It is addressed to her, Barbara Peters, and contains a book on beekeeping, written and signed by Sherlock Holmes.

Island of the Mad (2018)

Period: Island of the Mad takes place in June, 1925. … website chronology.

Mary gets a phone call from an old friend, Veronica “Ronnie” Fitzwarren, née Beaconsfield.  Ronnie is asking for her help: her Aunt Vivian has disappeared.

Mary had known Ronnie at university, and was involved with her in the events of “A Monstrous Regiment of Women” in 1921.  At the end of that story, Ronnie had married Miles Fitzwarren.  She had given birth to a son, Simon, in 1922.  But then Miles had been killed by an Irish sniper’s bullet in 1924.

Vivian is a resident of Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, also known as Bedlam.  Vivian had returned home for her half-brother Edward’s 50 th birthday, accompanied by a nurse. At the end of their stay, Vivian and the nurse had left to return to the hospital, but had never arrived.  Vivian had taken jewellery with her: a diamond necklace, a tiara, bracelet and earrings  – although this was actually hers, inherited from her mother.

Edward Beaconsfield is the Marquess of Selwick.

The previous Marquess of Selwick had had three children, Edward and Thomas by his first wife and Vivian by his second.  When he died, Edward had inherited the title.  But he preferred to stay at the Selwick house in London and the family property in France, rather than Selwick Hall in Surrey.  So Thomas looked after Selwick Hall; he was married to Dorothy and had a daughter, Veronica (Ronnie).

But when the War came, Thomas enlisted.  And was killed.  Edward returned to look after Selwick Hall.  Dorothy, Ronnie and Vivian had to move from the main wing to the east wing.

Vivian had had her coming out in 1910, at the late age of 19.  But there was no prospective husband in view.  She then went for a trip to Europe before returning to Selwick Hall.

And then things went wrong with her.  She became disturbed and unbalanced.  She began to harm herself.  And then she attacked Edward with a poker.  She was committed to a series of mental hospitals.  She would be pronounced cured and return home, but then relapse.  She ended up in Bethlem.  And she seemed to do better there.

Mary had gone with Ronnie and the 5-month-old Simon, to visit Vivian at Bethlem, in 1922.  The hospital had a horrific reputation of dreadful treatment of its inmates in past centuries.  But its treatments had much improved by the present day.

Vivian seemed calm and virtually normal.  They all had tea and scones in the sitting room.  Mary introduced herself to Vivian’s nurse, Rose Trevisan.  Ronnie invited Vivian to come and live with her, but Vivian said she felt safe in Bethlem.

Now (back in 1925), Mary and Sherlock travel to London together, but split up for their separate investigations.

Mary visits Ronnie at her London flat. But she finds it difficult talking to Ronnie, with the 3-year-old Simon’s constant wailing.

She travels to Selwick Hall in Surrey and visits Ronnie’s mother, Lady Dorothy.  Dorothy tells Mary that Vivian’s nurse’s name was Trevisan; she was the same nurse whom Mary had previously met.

Mary examines Vivian’s rooms. In Vivian’s sitting room she finds the paintings and drawings Vivian had done over the years.  In Vivian’s bedroom she finds many miscellaneous objects hanging on the wall; two spaces in the arrangement seem to indicate some missing objects.

Mary has dinner with Dorothy and Edward.  She finds Edward quite unpleasant: pompous, politically extreme, socially offensive and misogynistic.  He admires Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship of Italy, and believes Britain should have something along the same lines.

Mary stays overnight at Selwick Hall, as she still needs to talk to the servants.

The next day she examines Vivian’s rooms again in the company of Dorothy and the maid Lily.  She learns that Vivian had taken some money and various objects from the safe.  Lily realises that there is a mask with a moustache missing, as well as some male clothes; in past times Vivian had worn male clothes while roaming the countryside doing her art.  (Maybe Vivian had disguised herself as a man when she had disappeared.)

Mary talks to the other servants.  She visits Emma Bailey, from one of the tenant farming families.  Emma used to supervise Vivian and Ronnie when they were young.  (Vivian is actually not much older than Ronnie.) Something Emma says leads Mary to conclude that Vivian is a lesbian.  (Maybe this is Edward’s reason for keeping her locked up in Bethlem.)

Mary returns to London and meets up with Holmes and tells him what she has learned.  Holmes tells her that Vivian is unlikely to be in London; he has checked all the places she would be likely to go.

They wonder whether to make enquiries of Bethlem, to obtain information about Nurse Trevisan and Vivian’s medical records.  But Edward could be paying Bethlem to keep this information secret.  Mary decides to get herself admitted to Bethlem as a patient, to see what she can find out.  In this she is aware that she is following the example of Nellie Bly , an American journalist who got herself admitted to a mental hospital to do an exposé.

Mary dresses herself and makes herself up to appear to be a madwoman.  She goes and pesters a policeman, and soon finds herself admitted to the asylum.  (She has made Holmes promise to get her out in three days if she can’t manage this herself.)  She is processed and is seen by the doctor.  She talks to her fellow patients and gets some information about Vivian and Nurse Trevisan.

She manages to steal a key from a nurse; that night, she gets into the doctor’s office and locates Vivian’s file.

The file contains the notes from her time at all of the hospitals she had stayed at. They follow the general pattern: she was brought in by her family, certified insane, but eventually improved and was discharged. The longest period she had stayed at any hospital before Bethlem was nine months.

But at Bethlem, after her involuntary arrival in 1920, she had become a voluntary boarder in 1921. There was a recent note from the doctor, from 4 weeks ago, stating that Vivian had asked if her certification was rescinded. He told her it was. She could leave at any time, by giving 72 hours notice.

But, Mary wonders, if she intended to leave the hospital, why didn’t she go through the formalities and give her notice?

Mary makes her escape from the hospital and goes to Mycroft’s flat in London. (The place is empty.) She sleeps in the guest room until afternoon.

She wakes, having heard Holmes arrive. Homes serves her coffee and a meal, which she is pleased to eat after the mediocre food in Bethlem.

Holmes reports the results of his investigations. Vivian had not pawned her necklace in London. Holmes had talked to the bank manager of Vivian’s bank, and although the bank manager had not said so explicitly, Holmes gathered that Vivian had withdrawn a considerable amount of money from her account.

Mycroft arrives home in the evening. Holmes had told him about Lady Vivian, and Mary tells him about her trips to Surrey and to Bethlem.

After dinner, the discussion turns to other topics. Mycroft mentions a report that had come across his desk, concerning Rotha Beryl Lintorn-Orman . In 1909, she and other girls had showed up at the Crystal Palace Scout Rally . At that time the Scouting Movement was officially only for boys, but the end result was the establishment of the Girl Guides (called the Girl Scouts in some countries).

But then in 1923, Lintorn-Orman had established the British Fascists , which, in the two years that followed, thousands of people had joined. They admire Benito Mussolini in Italy.

Holmes and Mycroft continue to talk, but Mary withdraws into her own thoughts. And putting together various clues, she comes to the conclusion that Vivian had gone to Venice.

Mary visits Ronnie again. The visit is easier than the previous one, as they go for a walk with Simon in the pram, during which the boy stops his wailing.

Mary is aware that Ronnie is having financial difficulties. She has no housemaid or cook, and being busy with Simon, she can’t get a job. But she is reluctant to return to Selwick, or to go to the unwelcome Fitzwarren household.

Mary tells Ronnie her theory that Vivian is in Venice. Ronnie is fascinated with the idea: Vivian had loved Venice when she had visited before, and had arranged that Ronnie and Miles would spend their honeymoon there. Ronnie is all for heading off to Venice herself to find her aunt.

Mary feels guilt for neglecting her friend, and assures Ronnie it will be no problem for her, Mary, to go to Venice to find Vivian.

Mycroft tells Sherlock he wants him to go to Venice with Mary, to look into the rise of Fascism in Italy. (This is a private conversation, at which Mary is not present, and the chapter consists only of the dialogue between the two brothers.) At this stage there are no hard facts, and Mycroft thinks that Sherlock would be more capable of getting a feel for things than his own agents. Sherlock is reluctant because of some bad experience in Venice in the past, but in the end agrees to go. But he resolves not to tell Mary about his mission; ostensibly he will be there to help Mary in her search for Vivian.

A week later Mary and Holmes are packing for their trip to Venice. Mary checks with Holmes that he has arranged for an anonymous monthly payment to Ronnie, stated to be from a “Friend of Miles Fitzwarren”. In the last week their enquiries have revealed that Vivian had emptied her bank account, and that she and Rose Trevisan had left London disguised as brother and sister.

Mary had visited Venice several times previously, starting from when she had gone there with her mother when she was a child. She had found a delightful place: a fascinating blend of solid and liquid. But she realises that Holmes does not especially like it; he is a person who prefers sharp edges and clear colours, who values cold facts and logical reasoning. He is also wary of the current Fascist government in Italy and the Blackshirts in the streets.

Two days later they arrive in Venice by train.

Review to be continued.

Ten Years On (2020)

Short story, published in “Deadly Anniversaries” (2020) (anthology)

Period: April 1925

Mary answers the door of her Sussex home. The caller is a large man, a Sikh.

The man asks to see the detective. Holmes is currently away. Mary says that if it is a detective he wants, she is one. She invites him in.

The man, whose name is Anik Singh, tells how he had been in the Indian Army force who had fought with the British against the Germans in the Great War.

He had been injured in early 1915, and had been sent to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which had been converted to a hospital for wounded Indian soldiers.

He recovered and received orders to return to the Front in the third week of March. Two days before leaving, he passed through the new arrivals area and heard the voice of his brother, Manvir.

Manvir had been fighting in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle , and had received three bullets. He had been shipped to Brighton, but was ill and feverish, and did not recognise his brother.

Months later, Anik received a letter from his mother in India, saying that she had received a postcard from Brighton, dated early April, saying that Manvir was recovering.

But then in July a telegram arrived saying Manvir had died. Anik had assumed that the time lapse was due to administrative delays. But when he later checked the hospital records, all he found was a note saying “Died of wounds”, dated 14 June. He presumed it had been a lingering death.

But recently the family had received a parcel. It was a box containing Manvir’s kirpan , the Sikh dagger, one of the five required articles of all Sikhs. Anik has the box with him, and hands it to Mary to examine.

Manvir had carved onto the blade a record of all the battles he had fought in. The final marking said “three bullets”. Manvir had lived long enough, and recovered sufficiently, to carve a notation relating the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.

(That had been ten years ago. Mary remembers what had happened to her ten years ago, when she had first met Sherlock Holmes. She had recently suggested a celebration of the anniversary to Holmes, but he had not understood the significance.)

Anik says he needs to know what had happened. Why his brother had lived for some weeks, but did not write. Why he was recovering, but then he died.

Mary says she will investigate.

She drives to Brighton, and manages to obtain a list of nurses who had worked at the Royal Pavilion, and might know something about Manvir Singh.

She begins to track them down, but finds that they are reluctant to talk. But Mary persists.

Riviera Gold (2020)

Review to come.

Castle Shade (2021)

The lantern’s dance (2024).

Laurie R. King Mystery Writer

Laurie R. King – Books – Russell & Holmes

Laurie R. King –  A Chronology of the Russell Memoirs

Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Characters

Sherlock Holmes on the Web: the Sherlockian.Net Holmepage

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Laurie r. king, mary russell: my story part 2.

Follow Mary Russell’s account of the story behind how and why Laurie R. King came to have the Russell/Holmes memoirs, as described in Laurie’s prefaces to the first four Russell books. Further chapters to come each week during the Fifteen Weeks of Bees every Monday on Myspace , or Tuesdays in Laurie R. King’s blog, Mutterings .

Mary Russell: My Story

Any literary agent whom I put in charge of my memoirs needed to be, first of all a woman. She needed to be strong-minded enough to resist the blandishments and threats unleashed upon her once the nature of these manuscripts came to light. And since I thought it best to begin with someone with links to Mary Russell above any links to Sherlock Holmes, I cast my mind over my relatives: cousins of various stripe abound, but search as I might, I could find no combination of literary interest and common sense.

Next, I sought out the descendents of my university friend, Veronica Beaconsfield, only to find that the current generation lacked the wit of their grandparents.

So I went further back, to my childhood in San Francisco, and there, in the early weeks of 1992, I found the person I sought. The granddaughter of a childhood friend, she was in the early stages of a literary career—her first novel had been accepted at a New York publisher—but she was also sensible enough to balance the demands of children, travel, a husband with his own career, and a complex household. And an untold benefit: She had a background in Old Testament theology!

Without delay, I began to assemble the manuscripts and prepared to send them off to Ms King in California—but before I could do so, catastrophe struck.

It was the preface of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice that sucked me in lo these many years ago. I am loving that we are now hearing from Mary herself how these tales came into your hands. Thank you for making Mary Russell such a wonderfully vivid and alive character. Counting the days until The Language of Bees arrives. All the best.

Marvelous, Laurie. Thank you for this glimpse. Adventure ahead!

Due to an illness and now retirement, I visited a local library and found your beautiful books. I just couldn’t get enough of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes! I read them out of order the first time, then in order the second time and loved the stories. Their interesting escapades and the story of their developing romance was just brilliant. I wanted more details but recognize that what is hinted at and left unsaid just spurned my imagination! Wow. Thank you for such great story lines and for reawakening my love of the immortal Sherlock Holmes.

Hmmm. If Russell considered Veronica’s descendants, but not her own, this must mean that she and Holmes never did have children together.

Or their children/grandchildren were too close to the situation or unavailable. A grandchild of Russell and Holmes would probably be climbing Everest or running a think tank to eradicate AIDS and malaria in Africa or something.

I read Locked Rooms first as I had chosen it as a member of our library book committee based on a Kirkus review. I immediately went out and purchased all the prior stories. I’ve read and reread them many times and was desperate for a new book. I cannot wait til it’s published and thank your incredible brain and imagination for creasting such believeable characters. Have you ever considered making a film or are they too long to compress into a mere 2 hours? I now have something to look forward to. Audrey Walker, Verbank, NY

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How To Read Me

Your Books in Order

Mary Russell Books in Order: How to read Laurie R. King’s series?

Set in the world of famous literary detective Sherlock Holmes , this mystery series written by American author Laurie R. King introduces us to Mary Russell, the new protégé of the British detective.

Mostly set between 1915 and the late 1920s, those memoirs written and compiled apparently by an aged Mary Russell began with the meeting of the bright young woman with an older Holmes who takes her under his wing. Now, they solve crimes together.

How to read the Mary Russell Series in Order?

Every book in the Mary Russell series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

• The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator.
• A Monstrous Regiment of Women – It’s the dawn of 1921. Veronica Beaconsfield introduces Mary Russell to the New Temple of God, led by the enigmatic, electrifying Margery Childe. Part suffragette, part mystic, she lives quite well for a woman of God from supposedly humble origins. Despite herself, Russell is drawn ever deeper into Childe’s circle. When Veronica has a near-fatal accident, Russell and Holmes launch a quiet investigation. But the Temple may bring the newly rich Russell far closer to heaven than she would like.…
• A Letter of Mary – It is 1923. Mary Russell Holmes and her husband, the retired Sherlock Holmes, are enjoying the summer together on their Sussex estate when they are visited by an old friend, Miss Dorothy Ruskin, an archeologist just returned from Palestine. She leaves in their protection an ancient manuscript which seems to hint at the possibility that Mary Magdalene was an apostle. When Ruskin is suddenly killed in a tragic accident, Russell and Holmes find themselves on the trail of a fiendishly clever murderer.
• The Moor – In the eerie wasteland of Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes summons his devoted wife and partner, Mary Russell, from her studies at Oxford to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. Through the mists of the moor there have been sightings of a spectral coach made of bones carrying a woman long-ago accused of murdering her husband–and of a hound with a single glowing eye.

• O Jerusalem – At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England, Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes’s enigmatic brother, Mycroft. Their arrival coincides with a rash of unsolved murders that has baffled the authorities and seems unrelated to the growing tensions in the area among Jew, Moslem, and Christian. Still, no one is too pleased at Holmes’s insistence on reconstructing the most recent homicide in the desert gully where it occurred. What they unexpectedly uncover will lead Russell and Holmes into mortal danger.
• Justice Hall – It’s a mystery that begins during the Great War, when Gabriel Hughenfort died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. But it’s not until Holmes and Russell arrive at Justice Hall, a home of unearthly perfection set in a garden modeled on Paradise, that they fully understand the irony echoed in the family motto, Justicia fortitudo mea est: “Righteousness is my strength.” A trail of ominous clues comprise a mystery that leads from an English hamlet to the city of Paris to the wild prairie of the New World.
• The Game – It’s only the second day of 1924, but Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, find themselves embroiled in intrigue. It starts with a New Year’s visit from Holmes’s brother Mycroft, who comes bearing a strange package containing the papers of an English spy named Kimball O’Hara. Inexplicably, O’Hara withdrew from the “Great Game” of espionage and now he has just as inexplicably disappeared. When Russell discovers Holmes’s own secret friendship with the spy, she knows the die is cast.
• Locked Rooms – In 1924, San Francisco is booming. The great fire and earthquake of 1906 cleared the ground for a modern city, but the closer she comes to the place she used to call home, the more troubling Mary Russell’s dreams become. As Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, attempt to settle their affairs in the City by the Bay, Mary’s past isn’t the only thing that catches up with them – a mysterious stranger is waiting for the pair, and may be the only one who holds the key to the locked rooms that have been haunting Mary’s dreams…

• The Language of Bees – For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from the past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the surrealist painter had been charged with-and exonerated from-murder. Now the troubled young man is enlisting the Holmeses’ help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.
• The God of the Hive – Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath of a murderous secret organization bent on infiltrating the government. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with limitless resources and powerful connections.
• Pirate King – In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate the criminal activities that surround Fflytte’s popular movie studio. So Russell is travelling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King.
• Garment of Shadows – In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hivelike streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.

• Dreaming Spies – After a lengthy case that had the couple traipsing all over India, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are on their way to California to deal with some family business that Russell has been neglecting for far too long. Aboard the ship, intrigue stirs almost immediately. Holmes recognizes the famous clubman the Earl of Darley, whom he suspects of being an occasional blackmailer. And then there’s the lithe, surprisingly fluent young Japanese woman who befriends Russell and quotes haiku. She agrees to tutor the couple in Japanese language and customs, but Russell can’t shake the feeling that Haruki Sato is not who she claims to be.
• The Murder of Mary Russell – Mary Russell is used to dark secrets-her own, and those of her famous partner and husband, Sherlock Holmes. And what of the other person to whom Mary Russell has opened her heart: the couple’s longtime housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson? Russell’s faith and affection are suddenly shattered when a man arrives on the doorstep claiming to be Mrs. Hudson’s son. What Samuel Hudson tells Russell cannot possibly be true, yet she believes him-as surely as she believes the threat of the gun in his hand.
• Island of the Mad – The last thing Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, need is to help an old friend with her mad, missing aunt. Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, since the loss of her brother and father in the Great War. Although her mental state seemed to be improving, she’s now disappeared after an outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital . . . better known as Bedlam.
• Riviera Gold – It’s summertime on the Riviera, and the Jazz Age has come to France’s once-sleepy beaches. From their music-filled terraces, American expatriates gaze along the coastline at the lights of Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and sometimes hidden away. When Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive, they find their partnership pulled between youthful pleasures and old sins, hot sun and cool jazz, new affections and enduring loyalties.

• Castle Shade – The queen is Marie of Roumania: the doubly royal granddaughter of Victoria, Empress of the British Empire, and Alexander II, Tsar of Russia. A famous beauty who was married at seventeen into Roumania’s young dynasty, Marie had beguiled the Paris Peace Conference into returning her adopted country’s long-lost provinces, singlehandedly transforming Roumania from a backwater into a force.
• The Lantern’s Dance – After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat. As Holmes rushes after Damian, Russell stays behind to search the empty house and found an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image-the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view. Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions…

• Mary Russell’s War: And Other Stories of Suspense – A collection of 10 short stories, from a prequel novella of Mary Russell’s teenage diaries to the real story of how Miss Russell came to send her Memoirs to Laurie R. King, from Mrs. Hudson’s own investigation to a tale of young Russell’s beloved Uncle Jake–and, a Christmas investigation by Sherlock Holmes and his very young assistant. Collects Mary’s Christmas, Mary Russell’s War, Beekeeping for Beginners, Mrs Hudson’s Case, The Marriage of Mary Russell, Birth of a Green Man, A Venomous Death, My Story, A Case in Correspondence and Stately Holmes .

Beyond the Mary Russell novels, other writers put their spin on Sherlock Holmes like Nancy Springer with the Enola Holmes series, Martin Davies with the Holmes and Hudson series, Sherry Thomas with The Lady Sherlock series, M.J. Trow with the Sholto Lestrade series, David Lagercrantz with the Rekke/Vargas series, and more!

An avid reader who likes order! Read a lot of Sci-Fi, but also hardboiled fiction, and non-fiction (mostly about the history of cinema). My favorite authors are John Wyndham, Arthur C. Clarke, Grant Morrison, Susanna Clarke, Ross MacDonald, Ed Brubaker, Matt Wagner, and Jason Pargin.

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Actually, if you read these by the years covered, “O Jerusalem” begins right after “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” and if read this way, Mary has developed the skills to deal with the complexities in the following book “A Monstrous Regiment of Women.”

I have been through all the books with the exception of “Castle “. I was attempting to start at the beginning and start over . Can you please tell me which title has Mary and Holmes returning form Palestine ? I am unable to find it. The one in which Mary confronts her old Professor who is the villain.

book 2… the monstrous regiment of women

the first book the Beekeeper’s Apprentice is the one where they come back from Palestine, and are surprised by Mary’s professor at Sherlock’s cottage.

I agree, would read 1, 5, then 2.

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Laurie R. King: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics

The mary russell series is beloved by readers the world over. but just how did this extraordinary character come about.

Thirty years ago, the first Mary Russell book (do not call it a Sherlock Holmes book, or, for heaven’s sake, a pastiche), was published. It was a cause for celebration then, and a cause for celebration now, especially with the 18 th book, The Lantern’s Dance , now on our doorstep. Let’s take a closer look.

It was in 1987 that the thirty-five-year-old Laurie Richardson King sat down at the kitchen table in the farmhouse she’d help build herself, and picked up a fountain pen. She’d spent years roaming the world with her husband, Noel, from the far Pacific to South America to India to Israel. She held both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in religion, and would undoubtedly have gone on to a doctorate, but Noel was thirty years older than she and nearing retirement age, and they had two small children in school, and…it would have been irresponsible.

As she sat at the table, she was thinking about a recent PBS series she’d been watching about Sherlock Holmes. It had irritated her a bit. Everybody was always so impressed by Holmes’ intellect and intuition, but, really, what was the latter but the instinct mothers used every day? People spoke condescendingly about “women’s intuition,” but when men had it, it was considered something so special. 

What if you took all the ingredients that made up Holmes, she wondered, and poured them into a woman of the period? What would that look like? And what if the woman was actually just a girl – raw, troubled, scarred by trauma, but possessed of extraordinary eyes, wits, skill, and determination – and she was put in Holmes’ path (or, more accurately, he in hers)?

King pulled the pad forward and began to write:

“I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him….My first awareness that there was another soul in the universe was when a male throat cleared itself loudly not four feet from me. The Latin text flew into the air, followed closely by an Anglo-Saxon oath. Heart pounding, I hastily pulled together what dignity I could and glared down through my spectacles at this figure hunched up at my feet: a gaunt, graying man in his fifties wearing a cloth cap, ancient tweed greatcoat, and decent shoes, with a threadbare Army rucksack on the ground beside him. A tramp perhaps, who had left the rest of his possessions stashed beneath a bush. Or an Eccentric….

“’What on earth are you doing?’ I demanded.” ( The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, 1994).

And so was born Mary Russell, half-American, half-British, keenly Jewish, orphan, scholar, and budding feminist; a girl haunted by nightmares of the car crash that killed her mother, father, and brother; and determined to find purpose as an ambulance driver in the Great War that was raging in 1915. First, though, she wanted to take one final ramble across the Downs, and it is there that she stumbles upon a man who, unbeknownst to her, at 54 and retired for 17 years, has become so overwhelmed by “a soul-grinding boredom and a pervading sense of uselessness” (“Beekeeping for Beginners, Mary Russell’s War , 2016) that he is actively considering suicide.

Instead, he is accosted by this girl dressed as a boy, who, to his amazement, makes him laugh, and, to his even greater amazement, turns out to have acute skills of observation and deduction. It sparks something in him. This  will be his purpose now: to hone her, train her, help her fulfill her true potential. She in turn becomes a willing student, her lessons continuing even after she goes off to Oxford, and she comes to regard him as “my friend and mentor, my tutor, sparring partner and comrade-in-arms,” although “arguments were a part of life with Holmes – a week without a knockdown, drag-out fight was an insipid week indeed” ( A Monstrous Regiment of Women , 1995).

The cases in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice start small – a mysterious illness, a series of burglaries – but then a visiting American Senator’s daughter is kidnapped. Russell rescues the girl, but the reverberations are dramatic. An implacable new enemy has been made. Holmes is nearly killed by a bomb, Russell barely avoids another bomb, bullets whistle through their window. They must flee England to regroup, and when they return, after an extraordinary adventure in Palestine that we don’t even read about until the fifth book, O Jerusalem (1999), they defeat their enemy, but it is clear to Russell that two things have changed. One is that Holmes is now prepared to treat her, not as an apprentice, but as “his complete, full, and unequivocal equal.” The other is that she has developed a definite taste for “the sharp exhilaration of danger and the demands of an uncomfortable way of life…a pure, hot passion for freedom.”

And there is another change as well.

It has been more than five and a half years since they first met. She is a woman now, and they have bonded over many perilous investigations. They share “a rabidly independent nature, an impatience with lesser minds, total unconventionality,” and yet now, she realizes, “Holmes was a part of me. Because of my age when we met, neither of us had erected our normal defenses, and by the time I came to womanhood, it was too late. He had already let me under his guard, and I him” ( A Monstrous Regiment of Women ).

After narrowly escaping death, they share a first kiss, and then look at one another. “You do realize how potentially disastrous this whole thing is,” says Holmes. “I am old and set in my ways. I will give you little affection and a great deal of irritation, though heaven knows you’re aware of how difficult I can be.”

“Holmes, is this a proposal of marriage?”

It is. The next time we see them, in A Letter of Mary (1996), it is two years later, and they have undergone other perilous undertakings, some of which we are treated to in subsequent books. We don’t see the wedding (though if you want to read a riotous description of it, seek out the short story, “The Marriage of Mary Russell” in King’s short story collection, Mary Russell’s War ), nor do we witness their honeymoon, thank God. But from then on, they are one unit, even though as Holmes says in A Letter to Mary , “I still find it difficult to accustom myself to being half of a creature with two brains and four eyes.”

One unit, however, doesn’t mean they are always together. Many of the books find them operating on separate tracks. In Locked Rooms (2005), set in San Francisco, Russell is forced, finally, to confront the dark secrets and nightmares of her own past, while Holmes investigates what really happened to her parents. In Garment of Shadows (2012), Russell wakes up in Morocco, with blood on her hands, soldiers at the door, and no memory of who she is or why she is there, while Holmes searches frantically for her. In the electrifying double-header The Language of Bees (2009) and The God of the Hive (2010), Holmes and Russell go separately on the run, wanted by the police, hunted by enemies, communicating only by coded messages, while guarding precious human cargo. In the new book, The Lantern’s Dance (2024), it is Holmes who must chase down the reality of his own parentage, while an injured Russell decodes an astonishing tale of blackmail, murder, and obsession found in a trunk.

Kidnapped in England, beaten bloody in Pakistan, bound to an altar for human sacrifice in India, ambushed by gunfire in Morocco, imprisoned in a coffin in Roumania, isolated midair over Scotland – “We flew through the morning, a trapped woman, a sleeping child, and a pilot slowly bleeding to death at the controls” ( The God of the Hive ) – from 1918 to 1925, there is barely a respite for Holmes and Russell. 

But they do have their fun. Their disguises are many. Hindu magicians, Bedouins, Buddhist pilgrims, workmen, cab drivers, beggars, station attendants – whatever the case requires: “Once he dressed me as a lady of the evening,” reminisces Russell. “Another time I wore a water-butt…A barrel under a drainpipe. A very damp and draughty disguise” ( Justice Hall , 2002).

Surprising people pop up. At any point, you might encounter Lawrence of Arabia, Pablo Picasso, Dashiell Hammett, Prince Hirohito, Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald, Queen Marie of Roumania, an “odd man named Tolkien,” Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, or Lord Peter Wimsey. You’ll also encounter more familiar Holmesian characters, but with a decidedly different slant,

Mrs. Hudson, for instance, is a revelation. In the blockbuster The Murder of Mary Russell (2016), King gives us Hudson’s full and shocking backstory as a grifter and conwoman in England and Australia, until the day she is brought up short by a young man seeking reparations for her misdeeds, “a grey-eyed devil,” who offers her a path to penance, “and more acting than you could dream of.”  He is leasing a house in Baker Street, she will be the landlady, and he will be the tenant, “although I fear, Mrs. Hudson, that you will find me a most troublesome tenant.”

For 46 years, Mrs. Hudson plays the part, first in London, then in Sussex, until the day she returns home to a pool of blood on the floor, a missing Mary Russell, and the certain knowledge that her past has finally caught up with her. While Holmes sprints flat-out to find Russell, Clarissa Hudson knows it’s time to summon up some of her old skills if they’re to get to the bottom of this, skills that will serve her well both here and in the subsequent Riviera Gold (2020) – although even then, she’ll keep some secrets, even from Sherlock: “You know, when it comes to women, Mr. Holmes has always been just the teensiest bit naïve.”

Mycroft is here, too, of course, corpulent, pale, “an enigmatic and occasionally alarming figure whose authority with His Majesty’s government was as immense as it was undefined” ( O Jerusalem ). It amuses him to think of himself as a glorified accountant, “though it was quite literally true: He kept accounts….He accounted for political trends in Europe and military expenditures in Africa; he took into account religious leaders in India, technological developments in America, and border clashes in South America….He kept accounts of the ten thousand threads that went to make up the tapestry of world stability” ( A Letter of Mary ).

Mycroft is forever sending Russell and Holmes to help with those accounts. The trip to Palestine is at his behest, to India, to Roumania, to Morocco. Seldom are the missions quite what they seem, and the couple are starting to get fed up with his deceptions: “The next time Mycroft asks us to do something,” says Russell, “we really must say no.”

And with good reason. Mycroft is hiding a secret himself. In God of the Hive , we find out what it is. It almost gets them all killed.

Other familiar names pop up as well:

• Billy, the stalwart of the Baker Street Irregulars, whose origins intersect surprisingly with those of Clarissa Hudson;
•  Watson, glimpsed only occasionally, though Russell feels sorry for him: “It occurred to me that Holmes was well accustomed to deceiving this man, because he was not gifted with the ability to lie, and thus quite simply could not be trusted to act a part. For the first time I became aware of how that knowledge must have pained him, how saddened he must have been over the years at his failure, as he would have seen it, his inability to serve his friend save by unwittingly being manipulated by Holmes’ cleverer mind” ( The Beekeeper’s Apprentice ).
• Irene Adler. Yes, her presence is felt as well. I won’t tell you how, you’ll have to discover it for yourself. But it’s spectacular.

And there’s one name you might not know. It’s that of Mary’s Uncle Jake, “the black sheep, the family rogue, whose exploits filled my childhood with admonitions over the dire and delicious consequences of misbehavior….The cautionary tales about Jake’s near-disasters had quite the opposite effect on my impressionable mind; namely the temptation to follow in his footsteps became irresistible” (“Mary’s Christmas,” Mary Russell’s War ).

It is Uncle Jake who gave an eleven-year-old Russell the gift she carries with her forever after: a slim piece of wickedly sharp steel with a rosewood handle and straps to fasten it to her ankle. She has used that knife many times, and to great effect, not least of all after she has subdued a foul-mouthed armed thug in The Language of Bees , tied his hands and legs, and rolled him up in a carpet. Then she kneels beside him, shows him the red-stained knife – “a thin, shiny blade edged with scarlet” – then slowly licks it clean, pats her lips delicately, and slides it back into its scabbard.

“’You shouldn’t have cursed,’ I told him.”

It’s paint, not blood. But nobody messes with Mary Russell.

Someone else I suspect nobody messes with? Uncle Jake. We’ll all find out next year, 2025, promises Laurie R. King, when he comes back into Mary Russell’s life in the next installment.

As you’ve seen from all of the above, King likes to play with her chronology, teasing events, then skipping them entirely, until coming back to them with a bang in a later book. It seems like the actions of a meticulous planner, someone who knows just what kind of arc she wants, and plots it out accordingly.

You would be wrong.

“I’m not the kind of writer who creates meticulous plans – for a book, or a series, or indeed a life,” she’s said. “I’m more the ‘organic’ kind, who finds an interesting seed and plants it to see what will grow.

“This does not mean my books aren’t written to a very definite plan. As I’m writing, I can always feel when the story is going the way it’s meant to, and when it’s threatening to veer away. But where other writers work out their plan externally, on a sheet of paper, or a white board or Post-Its or what-have-you, for a writer like me, the outline lives in the darkest corners of the brain, doled out in bits and pieces as they’re needed. Usually greeted with cries of ‘Aha’ and ‘Oh, I see now’ and ‘Hey, what if I then….’

“This…method (may we call it that?) looks haphazard to the outside world. It’s undisciplined. Muddled. Amateur. And though I’ll admit that when I am deep in the throes of a tricky re-write, the second draft where a novel emerges out of a rough 300-page set of notes, it can feel a bit like struggling to bring a riot of anarchists to order. However, even at the most obstinate places, I never really doubt that the back of my head knows exactly where it’s going. 

“At any rate, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.”

It’s a technique that mirrors her life in many ways. Her father, “a man with itchy feet,” moved them around so much that it wasn’t until she was in high school that she entered the same school in September that she’d been in the previous June. She was, she confesses, “socially inept, physically awkward, excruciatingly shy, and always an outsider,” so books became her companions and inspiration.

She can remember, in the first or second grade, composing a story about a small creature that lived under a hill, each line illustrated “with small, precise drawings of mysterious figures and round red doors set into grassy hillsides.” Unfortunately, she spent so much time on the drawings, she never finished the text.

“Thus, the writer’s first lesson: Finish the story.”

The family never had much money, and there was no way, she said, that they could afford putting her through college. In the end, she “more or less backed into university, when the aunt with whom I lived after finishing high school insisted I keep myself busy by enrolling in junior college.” There, she encountered a professor who introduced her to logic, philosophy, and religious studies, which in turn led her to the University of California, Santa Cruz’s program in religion, and finally, seven years later, (she had to work her way through) she had her BA.

Her master’s also took seven years, split up by work, marriage, travel, children, and house renovation. Her husband, Noel King, a former professor of hers, was “far better with a concordance than a circular saw,” and so she immersed herself in the world of “Skil saws, framing hammers, paintbrushes, and electrical drills. How-To books spring up like mushrooms beside my volumes of textual criticism and feminist theology. I became, quite literally, a home-maker.”

And then, at thirty-five, her children at school, and wondering what to do with her time, she sat down at that kitchen table and began to write. The core of the book, 280 pages, took her 28 days. Then she rewrote it, and then, not quite knowing what to do with it, she started another, which would ultimately become the third book in the series, A Letter of Mary. And then…she wrote yet a third, not a Russell book, but the story of a lesbian SFPD homicide inspector named Kate Martinelli.

Meanwhile, she’d started sending out the first book, then titled The Segregation of the Queen , to publishers, to no avail, and finally realized she could either write or send, but not both. She looked in the back of Writer’s Digest and found five agencies in San Francisco, and wrote to each of them, enclosing chapters of Queen and the Martinelli. The first agency said their client list was full. The second said they liked one, but not the other. The third liked the other, but not the one. The fourth said they’d read both books if she sent them $385 – for each. The fifth was a woman named Linda Allen. “I would love to represent you,” she wrote back, “but I have some problems with these two manuscripts.” She outlined the work she felt they needed, and noted, “The characters in either one of these books could develop into protagonists for a series. Do you agree?”

Laurie did. She reworked them both – and it was the police novel, A Grave Talent, that Linda Allen sold first. It was published in 1993. The Russell, now titled The Beekeeper’s Apprentice , followed the next year. It rather confused people. Were they actually by the same woman? They were so different! The first was a hard-driving third-person mystery; the second was a first-person period romp with more than a dash of humor. Yes, the publisher had to explain, the author was indeed the same, and for a while, the two series alternated, with a vigorous scattering of stand-alones thrown in along the way – at one point, her publisher’s sales and marketing departments threw up their hands and simply proclaimed, “Laurie R. King’s Next Book is Always a Mystery.”

Two weeks after Beekeeper ’s publication, King’s editor informed her that A Grave Talent had been nominated for the Edgar award for first novel. When she got to the banquet, she was stunned to hear her book announced as the winner. “The only thing I’d ever won in my life was a box of brandied cherries at a community Bingo game, a prize quickly confiscated by my parents, as I was only ten at the time.” It then won the John Creasey New Blood Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association. 

Both series, as well as the stand-alone Folly (2001), have since gone on to win the Agatha, Macavity, Nero, and Lambda awards, and been a finalist for a slew of others, and her co-edited guide, How To Write a Mystery (2021), won the Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity.

And the plaudits continued.

In 2022, she won the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America for her body of work.

In 1997, she won an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, her old seminary.

It’s hard to decide which must have pleased her most.

I guess we’ll have to ask her.

___________________________________

The Essential King

With any prolific author, readers are likely to have particular favorites, which may not be the same as anyone else’s. Your list is likely to be just as good as mine – but here are the ones I recommend.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice  (1994)

“The first thing I want the reader to know is that I had nothing to do with this book you have in your hand. Yes, I write mystery novels, but even a novelist’s fevered imagination has its limits, and mine would reach those limits long before it came up with the farfetched idea of Sherlock Holmes taking on a smart-mouthed, half-American, fifteen-year-old feminist sidekick. I mean, really.”

This is the opening premise for the series: that a UPS truck barreled down King’s driveway, delivering a trunk filled with garments, objects, and manuscripts, each of the latter bound with narrow purple ribbon and sealed with wax, stamped R. We’ll learn in Mary Russell’s War how King came to be picked, but in the meantime Beekeeper is an excellent introduction to the characters, settings, and style of the entire series, not to mention the kind of rip-roaring adventures that will ensue. The interplay between Russell and Holmes as their relationship evolves over the course of the novel’s four years from mentor and student to something much more complex is entirely credible, and the climactic events are dramatic indeed: “It burst upon us like a storm, it beat at us and flung us about and threatened our lives, our sanity, and the surprisingly fragile thing that existed between Holmes and myself.”

That may sound like hyperbole, but just wait till you get there.

O Jerusalem (1999)

“She is a jewel, that city, small and brilliant and hard, and as dangerous as any valuable thing can be.”

Russell and Holmes are about to find that out the hard way.

The Jerusalem of 1919 is a maelstrom, explains a British spymaster: “The French want it, the Arabs think it’s theirs, the Jews believe they were promised it, the British hold it, and General Allenby spends all the hours God gives him driving from Dan to Beersheva, calming arguments among the factions.”

“While you hear the rumor of distant wolves,” notes Holmes.

Disguised as Bedouin men, Russell and Holmes are paired up with two of Mycroft’s agents, a pair of Arab cutthroats who deeply distrust them. “You are an old man and she is a girl,” they say, not unreasonably.  Over the next six weeks, mutual trust will have to be gained or it’s very likely none of them will survive. They very nearly don’t anyway. All around them is death and treachery, and as the tensions rise to the breaking point, the fate of the entire Middle East is in their hands.

It’s a good thing Russell knows how to use that knife. She’s going to need it.

An added enticement for the reader: King is brilliant in conjuring up the sights, sounds, and smells of both the city and the desert. You’ll feel like you’re walking down those streets yourself, that you’re breathing in the desert air. Great descriptive work.

Locked Rooms (2005)

“Holmes was intensely aware of the physical sensation of her arm on his. He generally was aware of her presence, that sturdy physicality wrapped around a magnificent brain and the stoutest of hearts. One flaw alone had he found in this incomparable hard diamond of a woman, an imperfection that had long puzzled him, and cost him no small amount of sleep….

“Fear had kept him silent….It had felt at times like watching a child’s block-tower continue to grow and wondering when it would topple and crash.”

It is 1924, ten years since the car crash that killed Mary Russell’s family and filled her sleep with nightmares – dreams of flying objects, a faceless man, a locked room. She knows she inadvertently caused the fatal accident, and will never get over that guilt, but what does all the rest of this mean?

They are in San Francisco now to settle her estate, but there is nothing settling about the revelations that keep coming her way. The sudden deaths of two family servants. The office break-in that causes the death of her former psychiatrist. That man in the street – was he pointing a pistol at her ?

Soon, the narrative splits into two parts, as Russell continues to delve into these mysteries, while Holmes, with the help of a most unexpected local colleague named Hammett, pursues a much deeper question: Why can Russell not see that the crash that killed her family was not an accident – but murder?

What follows is as much a psychological thriller as a murder mystery, the events of three timelines and two separate investigations colliding into a shocking finale for Russell:

“I wanted to murder him. Then and there, I wanted to gut him and leave him bleeding his life out on the street, for what he had done…..I could almost taste the glory of revenge.”

This one’s a workout, and for both Russell and Holmes, nothing will ever be the same.

Book Bonus: Kate Martinelli

There’s a reason the Martinelli books hit the crime fiction world like a bombshell. They’re intelligent, intricate, deeply felt, psychologically acute, and filled with smart, thoughtful characters just trying to do their best in a violent and often bewildering world.

Kate is a SFPD detective newly appointed to homicide, sharp, perceptive, and with all her defenses up. First of all, she’s a woman in a heavily masculine world: “She must be tough but not coarse, friendly but not obsequious, unaggressive but ready without a moment’s hesitation to hurl into a violent confrontation.” Second, she’s a lesbian, but in the first book, A Grave Talent (1993), decidedly not out: “I can’t take the risk….How long before the looks and remarks start, before I start drawing all the real hard-core shit jobs, before I’m on call and someone refuses to deal with me because I’m that lez in the department and I might have AIDS.” It isn’t until the end of Grave, when her housemate and lover Lee Cooper is shot and critically injured, with a very long recovery period ahead, that she realizes she has no choice. Everyone will know who she is.

Her boss is Al Hawkin, smart, gruff, thickset, graying, and obsessed with his work; his wife, who is now gone, “had found him dismal company.” When he’s first assigned Martinelli, he hates it – “Christ Almighty…some nut is out there killing little girls….and you assign me some Madonna in uniform who was probably writing parking tickets until last week” – but he gradually changes his tune: “She doesn’t chatter. A person can think around her. Perhaps she wouldn’t be such a burden as he’d originally thought.”

Together, they navigate cases that all too often cross the boundary between the professional and the personal. There’s Lee’s crippling in A Grave Talent . In With Child (1996), Kate takes a trip with Jules, the precocious preteen daughter of Al’s new wife, and the girl disappears, possibly taken by a serial killer. In Night Work (2000), a feminist vigilante group committing acts of revenge around the city may have taken matters way too far – and Lee’s good friend and ex-lover Roz may be one of the ones involved. In the novella Beginnings (2019), someone close to Kate asks about Kate’s kid sister, who died in a car crash, rumored a suicide, in the 1980s. Digging into it now, she finds something much darker.

Meanwhile, we follow the arc of her relationship with Lee. Kate took five months of desk duty after Lee’s crippling, and the adjustment is hard for both of them. At the end of the second book, To Play the Fool (1995), Lee, in her wheelchair, leaves to rethink everything, and in With Child , Kate is drinking heavily and angrily wrestling with the fact that Lee’s been away for months. It isn’t until Night Work that we see Lee is back – “Kate did not yet know just what her lover had become, or what their relationship would become. All she knew was that Lee still chose to be with her; the rest of it would find its way” – and in the final pages of the last book, The Art of Detection (2006), Kate is ambushed by a surprise stop at City Hall, where an even bigger surprise awaits. “Roz thought,” says a friend, “that you and Lee might like to be among the first legally married lesbians in San Francisco.” Their three-year-old daughter squeals with joy.

A happy ending all around. Oh, and that last book? It could have been titled When Worlds Collide. It centers around the murder of a Sherlock Holmes fanatic named Philip Gilbert, his fellow Sherlockians, and a hundred-year-old manuscript purportedly by Holmes himself when he was in San Francisco, about an investigation that eerily echoes the details of the murder before Martinelli now: a case within a case.

It’s a bit head-spinning, even for her. At one point late in the book, Kate says to Al: 

“ ‘I hope you’re not going to tell me Philip Gilbert was killed by a poison unknown to science.’

“He peered over the top of his reading glasses. ‘Had a bit too much of this detective story business, have we?”

“ ‘Bunch of loonies, all of them.’

“He nodded thoughtfully. ‘An attitude I always find productive.’”

Book Bonus II: Everything Else

As noted above, King is also the author of several other novels, and they’re all worthy. 

Two of them, Touchstone (2007) and The Bones of Paris (2013), take place in Europe between the wars, and feature Bennett Grey, a human lie detector psychologically shattered by the Great War, and Harris Stuyvesant, an American Bureau of Investigation agent who enlists his help (and falls in love with Grey’s sister, Sarah). The books are strong, evocative, and full of period detail. I also have a slight weakness for Paris because it includes a cameo by the real-life Black nightclub impresario Bricktop, who knew everybody who was anybody in Jazz Age Paris, and whose memoir I published in 1983. I even had the pleasure of meeting her, a tiny, 89-year-old woman living in New York City, whose parting words to me were, “Now, don’t you go sleeping in any strange beds, honey!”

There’re also these five: A Darker Place (1999) centers on a woman who infiltrates a dangerous religious cult for very personal reasons; Folly (2001) is a mystery/thriller blend about a woman building a house on a tiny island (cue King’s construction skills!) and simultaneously being stalked; Keeping Watch (2003), an offshoot of Folly , features a damaged Vietnam vet who rescues victims from abusive families, but finds his last case to be singularly dangerous; Lockdown (2017) revolves around the many lives and secrets ricocheting around a middle school’s Career Day – and the heavily armed man driving there; and Back to the Garden (2022) is a novel about a grand estate, the troubled commune that once lived there, the fifty-year-old skeleton found on its grounds, and a serial killer.

Of these, my favorite is the last one, mostly because of its central character, Raquel Laing, a SFPD cold case investigator with great detective skills and approximately zero social aptitude. In fact, that’s why she is in this unit – her mentor has assigned her to it because it’s the best way to use her abilities without ruffling feathers, and that way he can keep an eye on her. The name of that mentor? Al Hawkin, Martinelli’s old partner, now “retired” to Cold Cases! He’s obviously used to brilliant, difficult women on his beat, but Laing will certainly test him. Late in the book, she finds herself musing, “ Here’s the cliff Al told you not to go near, let’s step off it and take his reputation with us, shall we? ”

Other LRK books include Califia’s Daughter (2004), a science fiction novel published under the pseudonym Leigh Richards; several Sherlock Holmes story anthologies co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger; and a number of nonfiction works, most notably three on crime and thriller writing, two of them co-edited with Michelle Spring, and the third, the aforementioned How To Write a Mystery , with Lee Child.

(Russell being introduced around a table of Bohemian artists)

“ ‘Ronnie’s a writer. He’s going to change the face of literature in this century, taking it well past Lawrence.’

“ ‘D. H.,’ Ronnie clarified, looking smug.

“I nodded solemnly, and gave way to an unkind impulse. ‘Are you published yet?’

“ ‘The publishing world is run by Philistines and capitalists,’ he growled.”

( The Language of Bees)

(Holmes, infuriated by an article by Arthur Conan Doyle gullibly endorsing a girl’s recent “photographs” of fairies in her garden)

“ ‘I am not a man much given to violence,’ he began, calmly enough, ‘but I declare that if that man Doyle came before me today, I should be hard-pressed to avoid trouncing him.… It is difficult enough to surmount Watson’s apparently endless blather in order to have my voice heard as a scientist, but now, when people hear my name, all they will think of is that disgusting, dreamy-eyed little girl and her preposterous paper cutouts. I knew the man was limited, but I did not even suspect he was insane!’

“ ‘Oh, well, Holmes.’ I drawled into his climbing voice, ‘look on the bright side….Now the British Public will assume that Sherlock Holmes is as much a fairy tale as those photographs and will stop plaguing you. I’d say the man’s done you a great service.’ I smiled brightly.”

( A Monstrous Regiment of Women)

(Queen Marie of Roumania speaking to Russell)

“ ‘I was pleased, while in London this summer, to discover a number of new detective-story writers. A woman named Christie seems most promising – do you know her? No? She’s quite clever.’”

(Russell with the Queen’s daughter, Ileana)

“’Your mother says you like detective stories.’

‘I do. They’re so clever, people like Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown. However, I have to tell you, my heart belongs to Bulldog Drummond,’ said the future Queen.

“ ‘Good choice.’

“ ‘Though one does wish there were some girls in those stories. I tell Mother she ought to write tales where girls get into adventures, rather than fairy stories and romances, but she just says that nobody would believe them. Girls never get to have any adventures, do they?’

“ ‘Oh, you’d be surprised.’”

( Castle Shade )

Meta Bonus II: Dashiell Hammett

“Hammett’s eyes fell at last to the cigarette his fingers had made. He ran a tongue along the edge, pressed it, and as he lit a match his eyes came back to Holmes’. ‘You’re that Holmes, aren’t you? The detective?’

“ ‘I am, yes.’

“ ‘I always thought….’

“ ‘That I was a fictional character?’

“ ‘That maybe there’d been some…exaggerations.’

“Holmes laughed aloud. ‘One of the inadvertent side-effects of Watson’s florid writing style coupled with Conan Doyle’s name is that Sherlock Holmes tends to be either wildly overestimated, or the other extreme, dismissed entirely as something of a joke. It used to infuriate me – Doyle’s a dangerously gullible lunatic – but apart from the blow to my ego, it’s actually remarkably convenient.’

“ ‘You don’t say,’ Hammett responded, clearly taken aback at the idea of the flesh-and-blood man seated in his living-room being considered a piece of fiction. And no doubt wondering how he would feel, were someone to do the same to him.”

(Holmes has just been told that a band of his Irregulars has arrived)

“His face lighted with joy, and as he galloped down the corridor towards the lift he cried, ‘Come, Russell, the game’s afoot!’

“Hammett, catching up his coat and walking beside me with more decorum, looked at me askance. ‘He actually says that?”

“ ‘Only to annoy me.’”

( Locked Rooms)

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The Complete List of Mary Russell Books in Order

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The Mary Russell series is one of the most read and enjoyed detective novels. Written by author Laurie R. King, this book series has brought the most famous detective in the literary world, Sherlock Holmes, back into print.

Mary Russell is the lead of this book series. Her intellect and deduction skills can surpass Holmes’s skills. Reading about these two pairing up together is a treat to read.

There are twenty-one books in the series, including short stories. Here’s a list of all the Mary Russell books in reading order.

Table of Contents

1. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice

“The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” is a book that would be loved and enjoyed. It is appreciated not only by people who love Sherlock Holmes but any great detective novel with a strong female lead.

A great novel that works in almost every aspect, be it the writing style, the prose, the characters, and the entire plot. So what in the book should compel the readers to pick it up and start reading it?

Sherlock Holmes’s days of adventures have long gone. He is now retired and spends most of his time in the peaceful company of his bees. He never imagined he would find anyone who could match his intellect and deduction skills.

That was until he met Mary Sue Russell, a fifteen-year-old girl with intellect that rivals the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Holmes takes a liking to the girl and takes her as his pupil.

What leads next is an excellent string of mysteries, plot twists, and an adversary that tests the partnership of the teacher and the pupil.

Overall a great book, but we have one complaint. The way author Laurie R. King treated Watson was a bit unfair. He went from being an influential partner whose intellect helped and saved Holmes many times to just being a buffoon fit for comedic relief.

2. A Monstrous Regiment of Women

The second book develops the characters and introduces a plot with a much better and more gripping mystery than what was offered in the previous book.

“A Monstrous Regiment of Women” is about Mary Russell, who is about to reach adulthood and get into much more complex issues. So what is the story about?

Mary meets Margery Childe, and she is fascinated to see what she has to share about her lifestyle. She leads “The New Temple of God” with feminist members leaning towards Christianity.

Things take a sinister turn when four members are murdered, and no one knows who is behind the murders or what is the murderer’s motives. Mary takes the task of investigating the murders and finding out what is going on.

3. A Letter of Mary

With the third book in the series, the writing and the plot are getting even better. “A Letter of Mary” brings new angles and relationships, and it depends on the readers whether they like it or not.

When it comes to the plot of the book, there is nothing to complain about. Holmes and Mary meet an old archaeologist who brings a gift that could turn things upside down in the literary world. A papyrus believed to have been written by Mary Magdalene, the saint who saw Jesus’s Cruicification.

But right after this, the archaeologist dies in a very suspicious accident. Holmes and Mary set out to find out more about this accident and find out what is going on.

4. The Moor

The fourth book in the series, “The Moor,” will be a nostalgic treat for fans of Sherlock Holmes as it brings the elements of the ever-famous book “Hounds of Baskerville” back. A detective story with elements of horror and the supernatural is always an exciting read.

Sherlock Holmes summons Marry, now his partner in solving crimes and partner in life, to help solve a case that has baffled his mind. People living in Dartmoor have seen sights of a ghastly coach made of bones carrying a mysterious woman, long dead.

This woman was accused of murdering her husband, along with a hound with just one eye that glows. Read this brilliant book guaranteed to get you excited and nostalgic simultaneously.

5. O Jerusalem

“O Jerusalem,” the fifth book in the Mary Russell series, will bring readers a level of excitement they have never felt in the previous books in this series. The plot of this book has been crafted brilliantly; it is the highlight of this book.

That does not mean that the characters, the world-building, and other aspects of the books are weak in any sense. The world-building in this book has been done brilliantly.

Holmes and Russell travel to Palestine and solve some enigmatic murder mysteries .

We do not want to give away too much of the plot. The best thing would be to pick this book and start reading.

6. Justice Hall

“Justice Hall” is the sixth novel in the series, and it again works wonderfully to capture readers’ attention. The fluid style in which King writes the prose and the detailed descriptions she gives that form the images in the readers’ minds is the main highlight of the story.

7. The Game

“The Game” brings the detective duo to the mystical and mysterious land of India. Their reason for visiting? To find a missing spy who once was a close friend of Holmes. Kimble O’Hara was in something called “The Great Game” of espionage and has gone missing without any trace.

Holmes and Russell set out to discover where the missing spy is and who is responsible for his disappearance.

8. Locked Rooms

“Locked Rooms” is the perfect title for the eighth book in the series. The entire Mary Russell series has primarily focused on solving mysteries, crimes, and other enigmas. This book takes a different turn.

“Locked Rooms” explores the psyche and past of Mary Russell and what happened to her in her childhood. Things start to take a convoluted turn when crimes from the past erupt, and Holmes must find more about it to find a resolution.

9. The Language of Bees

After returning home from a long trip, Holmes and Mary are devastated after discovering that one of the colonies of Holmes’s beloved bees has disappeared. But as the story continues, things start to take an even more perplexing and sinister turn.

Damian Alder, Sherlock’s son, comes to them as he needs help finding his missing wife and son. But it is just one of the many mysteries Mary meets in this book. Things turn sinister when a murderer is on the loose, and her life could be in danger.

10. The God of the Hive

“The God of the Hive” ups the excitement and thrill and takes the dangers to another level. A dangerous murderer is on the hunt, looking for Holmes and Mary. It seems that nothing can stop this killer .

Things get even more dangerous when Mary and Holmes are separated, making them an easier target. This nail-biting story is all about solving crimes, saving lives, and an enthralling mystery that will keep you hooked on the novel.

11. Beekeeping for Beginners

“Beekeeping for Beginners” is not a full-fledged novel but more of a short story that tells how Sherlock Holmes met his future wife, Mary Russell. While readers are already aware of their meeting, this short story gets into more detail.

A fun short story that readers would love as this story is told from the point of view of Russell.

12. Pirate King

Pirate King is one of the most polarizing books in the series. Either you are going to love this book for the complicated plot, or you are going to hate it for the same reason.

Some people have loved the book for the intricate plot that spans various places, situations, and characters. There are so many things happening, and fans of the series will feel a slight tonal shift.

Pick the book and find out whether you love this book, hate it, or if it feels just the same as the previous ones.

13. Garment of Shadows

“Garment of Shadows” offers an excellent espionage mystery that develops well with proper structure. The characters are brilliant as well, and the development of Mary Russell and Holmes goes well too.

But what lacks here is a good murder mystery. If you are one of those people who just want to read a good old-fashioned murder mystery, you will feel disappointed. There is a lack of excitement in this book which is difficult to explain.

14. Dreaming Spies

Russell and Sherlock have been around the world, from the oriental lands of India to the bustling city of San Francisco. But this book takes the detective sleuths and readers to the country they have wanted to visit; Japan.

Holmes and Russell receive a small decorative stone with something written on it. This event sends the duo to the beautiful lands of Japan, and the world-building done by the King is excellent.

15. The Marriage of Mary Russell

Another short story that is perfect for the series fans, “The Marriage of Mary Russell,” is a detailed account of the marriage of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell.

From the proposal to the ceremony, fans of the series would love to read the entire saga of Holmes and Russell getting married.

16. The Murder of Mary Russell

One of the most enjoyed books in the series, “The Murder of Mary Russell,” has exactly what the title says; the murder of Sherlock Holmes’s beloved wife. But there is more to the plot than what the title says.

Mrs. Hudson is also involved in the story, and exploring the past of Mrs. Hudson holds the key to solving the reason behind the murder of Mary Russell.

17. Mary Russell’s War

“Mary Russell’s War” is a collection of nine short stories that tell the crime-solving tales of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. A quick and enjoyable read with the right amount of suspense and thrill.

18. Island of the Mad

Readers waiting for a great murder mystery in the series can rejoice as “Island of Mad” is what they need. A great murder mystery with a complicated and enjoyable plot.

19. Riviera Gold

The penultimate book to the series, “Riviera Gold,” offers a great mix of mystery, world-building, and storytelling. King’s writing style and the way she crafts the prose will make you invested in the book even more deeply.

20. Castle Shade

The last book in the series as of now, “Castle Shade,” is one of the most intriguing and most complexly crafted stories in the entire series. There is tension on every page of this book, and it is a treat to read about how the combined intellect of Russell and Holmes tackle the challenges.

So that was the list of all the books in the Mary Russell series. Pick the books and start reading if you want to start a great detective novel. What could be better than the Sherlock Holmes stories? Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell stories!

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Laurie R. King Is Still on the Case

The latest entry in laurie r. king’s mary russell series mines new corners of sherlockian lore and offers glimpses into the author’s own life.

Laurie R. King never meant to be a mystery writer. Growing up, the 71-year-old California native immersed herself in stacks of science fiction; she assumed that if she ever got a literary career off the ground, that’s what she’d write. Halfway through a draft of her first sci-fi novel in the mid-1980s, however, she hit a wall.

“I realized something as open-ended as sci-fi gave me nothing to build on,” King recalls on a Zoom call from her home in Santa Cruz. “It wasn’t until I rewrote it as a sort of mystery that I knew I could finish the book.”

Mysteries, King says, echoing legions of genre writers and fans, provide a satisfying structure. They promise writers a sandbox of familiar, endlessly remixable tropes, and the opportunity to write about “anything at all” so long as it “works as a story.” Plus, mysteries offer inherent heft: “Even a cozy is about death. If you honor that part of the story, it gives a dimension to the tale that you don’t get if you’re just talking about family drama, or a divorce, or straight-up science fiction.”

In the decades since the mystery genre got King out of a jam, the author has become widely known for her Mary Russell series, which focuses on a young feminist who meets—and eventually marries—Sherlock Holmes in the years after WWI. Russell first appeared in 1994’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice , and in February, her adventures will continue with The Lantern’s Dance (Bantam), the series’ 18 th installment, which marks its 30th anniversary.

The Lantern’s Dance is a bit of a form-breaker for the Russell novels. As always, there’s a mystery to be solved, but the details of the case cut uncommonly close to the private lives of King’s characters. The novel opens with Russell and Holmes arriving in rural France to link up with Holmes’s son, avant-garde artist Damian Adler. (In King’s telling, Holmes has a son with American contralto Irene Adler, who appeared in the 1891 Arthur Conan Doyle story “A Scandal in Bohemia.”)

When Russell and Holmes arrive at Damian’s house, he, his fiancée, and his precocious daughter have all fled to Paris. According to the housekeepers, there was a violent break-in and the intruder left behind a machete. This would be cause for alarm in and of itself, but to make matters worse, a pair of men have been looking for Damian ever since he received chests containing knickknacks from his late great-uncle, the artist Horace Vernet.

From there, Russell and Holmes split up, and so does the narrative. Holmes heads to Paris to fetch his son’s family and ensure the men don’t catch them. Russell, battling a knee injury, stays behind to rifle through the Vernet chests. Among objects of various import (including a zoetrope that gives the book its title), she discovers the coded diary of a young woman named Lakshmi, who was plucked from her home in France to live with an Indian man nearly a century ago. As Russell deciphers Lakshmi’s musings, Holmes helps Damian try to pin down his pursuers, and everything builds to the reveal of explosive family secrets.

Those secrets make up the meat of the The Lantern’s Dance , offering a rare glimpse into the personal history of Holmes, a cultural figure who can seem at once overexposed and underexamined. “One thing that’s fascinating about Arthur Conan Doyle’s work is that he leaves you with a feeling that you know these characters intimately,” King says, “but when you go to actually write down their backstory, you realize that he has not bothered with any details at all.” Her initial aim with the Russell series wasn’t to fill in those gaps—Holmes is a secondary character for the first several entries—but over time, she has allowed herself to engage more fully in what she deems “Sherlockian studies,” even as she remains firm that the books are not Holmes pastiches.

One fertile thread, King says, has been imagining how Holmes might have navigated an England irrevocably transformed by the first world war. Doyle wrote the final Holmes stories in the 1920s, but the chronology never places the detective’s adventures later than the brink of WWI. “I thought that was selling the character short,” King says. “If you have a person like that, whose whole life has been about creatively meeting his challenges, he would not simply say, ‘Oh, things are just too different now, I’m going to retire.’ ”

Instead, he might encounter someone like young Russell, who shares many of his strengths as a detective but also challenges his stoicism and ideas about gender, in a manner not dissimilar from the ways modernists rankled Victorians and Edwardians. As a result, Holmes might grow, fall in love, travel the world, and—as it goes in The Lantern’s Dance —open up about his past.

Such thought experiments have kept King writing about Russell and Holmes for the past 30 years—something she stresses was never the plan. “I know that there are organized writers out there who plan series arcs, but I am not one of those writers,” she says, laughing. Instead, when her publisher tasked her with following up the success of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice , King kept the wind in her sails primarily by juggling other standalones and series, including her novels featuring lesbian San Francisco detective Kate Martinelli, and sending Russell and Holmes all over the globe. As a rule, King only writes about places she’s been—and it’s here that the distance between the author and her characters starts to shrink.

While King insists that Russell is not “her in disguise,” both studied theology, both wear their hair in a crown atop their head, and both married older men with whom they traveled the world. When King was in her mid-20s, she married 55-year-old Noel Quinton King, her former professor whose Anglo-Indian roots shed light on the Lakshmi character in The Lantern’s Dance . Before Noel’s death in 2009, the pair embarked on a series of overseas adventures. While King chose certain Russell settings as excuses to take vacations (for example, 2015’s Dreaming Spies , set in Japan), for the most part, the author is memorializing her own travels with her late husband when Russell and Holmes solve a murder on the Côte d’Azur, or travel to Jerusalem at the request of Holmes’s brother, Mycroft.

When faced with the breadth and success of the Russell series, King responds more with gracious bewilderment than ego. “People have decided to pursue a degree at Oxford because they like Mary Russell,” she says. “Somebody wrote to tell me she’d been clean and sober for a year because of a scene that I’d written. Nobody goes into writing saying, ‘I’m going to write a book that people want to read to their dying mother.’ It’s just an extraordinary privilege to be allowed into people’s lives this way.”

Perhaps it’s because, through the hazy filters of genre convention and Arthur Conan Doyle, she’s been allowing readers into her own life all along.

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"Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar."  Machado

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Santa Cruz author to celebrate 30th anniversary of first Mary Russell novel

S ANTA CRUZ — This year will mark 137 years since Sherlock Holmes made his debut in the pages of Beeton’s Christmas Annual with the publishing of the story “A Study in Scarlet.” Since then, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic, talented sleuth has been the subject of countless books, movies, stage shows and radio and television shows.

Since Doyle’s death, other authors have had opportunities to explore the character, including Santa Cruz’s very own Laurie King, who has paired Holmes with another skilled detective: Mary Russell. Russell will also be marking a milestone in 2024 with the 30th anniversary of her debut novel, “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice,” which King will be observing through not one but two events: One at Bookshop Santa Cruz and another at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.

These events will also coincide with the release of the newest Mary Russell novel, “The Lantern’s Dance.”

King said she is thrilled about the book and the Mary Russell series’ longevity.

“It’s surprising, it’s amazing, it’s humbling as to how much it affects people’s lives,” she said. “There’s an entire community of friends of Russell out there who come together and are brought together from the power of storytelling. I find it amazing and energizing at the same time.”

King grew up an avid reader but only decided to pursue writing as an adult.

“I didn’t really realize until I hit my 30s that actual human beings wrote those books,” she said. “It wasn’t until I hit my 30s and my kids went off to school that I thought maybe I could tell a story, and I was very fortunate in that the stories that I told were bought by a publisher.”

King published her first novel, “A Grave Talent,” in 1993 as the first installment of her Kate Martinelli series, which won an Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel. Around the same time, King had been thinking about the character of Holmes, possibly after catching an airing of the ’80s Granada Television series starring Jeremy Brett. She had an epiphany about Holmes, namely that his crime-solving methods were not that brilliant.

“It’s just sort of stuff that, if a woman thought of, it would be dismissed as women’s intuition,” she said. “So I thought I would put Holmes next to a person who resembles him and see who came out in the contest best.”

Thus, the character of Mary Russell was born, a bright and studious teenage orphan who stumbles across Holmes during a hike in Sussex Downs, where the famous detective has retired and lives his life tending to bees, in keeping with the canon established by Doyle. The two become friends, with Holmes propelled back into mystery solving with Russell as his apprentice, which becomes further elevated as they try to solve the kidnapping of an American senator’s daughter.

These events are the premise of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice,” in which King brings Holmes back into action during World War I, around the same time Doyle had canonically retired the character. One idea she had used was Holmes spending his time maintaining a colony of bees in his retirement.

“I used bees in ‘The Beekeeper’s Apprentice’ and a couple of other books as a sort of paradigm for the human interactions,” she said.

The book was a success being nominated for an Agatha Award for best novel and receiving a Notable Young Adult Book award and Outstanding Book for the College Bound from the American Library Association. It was also adapted into a four-part BBC radio drama starring Monica Dolan as Russell and James Fox as Holmes.

“The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” would also kick off a new series starring Russell and Holmes, which is now up to its 22nd entry. The duo have solved mysteries all over, including the Middle East, Southern Europe, Japan, Morocco, the United States and more.

King said the pair’s constant travels allow her to continually come up with new ideas for the series.

“They’ve moved all over, and that creates changing politics, changing social setups, changing problems for them one each case and allows me to move them to a new setting and set of challenges,” she said.

The newest Mary Russell book, “The Lantern’s Dance,” sees Russell — now in her 20s — married to Holmes and traveling with him to France to visit his son where they learn more about Holmes’ past, particularly his connection to the Vernet family, a family of French painters whose relation to Holmes had been established by Doyle in “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.”

“This is an explanation of how that might have worked,” said King.

To commemorate both the release of “The Lantern’s Dance” and the 30th anniversary of “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice,” Bookshop Santa Cruz will host an author event with King on Feb. 16. The event will feature a Q&A, discussion about “The Lantern’s Dance” and a reading of some passages from the book.

This event will serve as a prelude to the next day, where King will take part in the first of four nationwide Russell and Holmes Days at the Museum of Art & History. The all-day event will feature a beekeeping demonstration and live honey tasting hosted by professional Santa Cruz beekeeper Emily Bonder, a lock-picking exercise hosted by Matt Burrough, a discussion with King and “New Annotated Sherlock Holmes” editor Leslie Klinger, a beekeeper bingo game with prizes, a cream tea lunch catered by Busy Bees Cafe and more.

Similar events are also planned later this year in Seattle, Nashville and Bethesda, Maryland, to coincide with crime fiction conferences in those cities.

King sees such events as community-building exercises.

“The Russell community is a very active, vibrant group of people,” she said. “Bringing them together in these ways is going to be a great pleasure for everyone.”

The Bookshop Santa Cruz event is at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 at 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. People can register in advance at BookshopSantaCruz.Com . Russell and Holmes Day is 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Museum of Art & History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. The cost to attend is $220 and proceeds will be donated to the Bookshop Santa Cruz reading charity. The museum will otherwise be closed that day. For information, go to Laurierking.com/russell-holmes-days/ .

19th Century

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21st Century

The Sparrow

Children of God

The Official Site of

Mary Doria Russell

Widely praised for meticulous research, fine prose, and the compelling narrative drive of her stories, Mary Doria Russell is the award-winning author of seven bestselling novels, including the science fiction classics  The Sparrow  and  Children of God ; the World War II thriller,  A Thread of Grace ; and a political romance set in 1921 Cairo called  Dreamers of the Day . With her novels  Doc  and  Epitaph , Russell has redefined two towering figures of the American West: the lawman Wyatt Earp and the dental surgeon Doc Holliday. Her latest novel,  The Women of the Copper Country,  tells the story of the young union organizer Annie Clements, who was once known as America’s Joan of Arc. Mary holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan and taught anatomy at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry. She and Don Russell have been happily married for an unusually high percentage of the years since 1970. They live in Cleveland, Ohio.

Interviews with Mary Doria Russell

Kat Howard interviews Mary about The Sparrow and Doc, in Lightspeed Ezine

Bookslut’s interview with Mary about her first three novels

A successful routine for writer Mary Doria Russell

Crain’s Cleveland Women: Profile of Mary Doria Russell

Audio Interviews

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Mary is now an Author Emeritus, but she will occasionally publish a new entry if something exciting happens.

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