LAURIE R. KING

Paris, 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, his current assignment is a private investigators dream - hes getting paid to trawl the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two-year-old from Boston, whose family have become alarmed at her lack of communication. As Stuyvesant follows Philippas trail through Paris, he finds that she is known to many of its famous - and infamous - inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Companys Sylvia Beach to the surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp and disturbing turn.

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.

Only hours after Holmes and Russell return from solving one riddle on the moor, another knocks on their front door.literally. Its a mystery that begins during the Great War, when Gabriel Hughenfort died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. But its 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."

At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England, Sherlock Holmes and his nineteen-year-old apprentice Mary Russell enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmess enigmatic brother, Mycroft. Amid the exotic bazaars and verminous hovels, they encounter a rash of unsolved murders and an adversary whose lust for power could ignite a tinderbox of hostilities just waiting for a spark...

A queen, a castle, a dark and ageless threat - all await Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in this chilling adventure. Queen Marie of Roumania, granddaughter to both Victoria, Empress of the British Empire, and Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, is in need of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes services. The Queen, a famous beauty who has transformed Roumania from a quiet backwater into a significant force, invites the pair to Bran castle, the ancient fortress that sits on the border with the newly regained territory of Transylvania. The threat the Queen fears is dubious: shadowy figures, vague whispers, dangers that may only be accidents. But a young girl is involved. So, putting aside their doubts, Russell and Holmes set out to investigate the mystery in a land of long memory and hidden corners, from whose churchyards the shades creep.

London, 1926. Harris Stuyvesant, agent of the US Bureau of Investigation, is on a mission. A series of bomb attacks on American soil, thought to be the work of an up-and-coming British politician, have left him with a vendetta more personal than professional. But when his search for answers leads him to government official Aldous Carstairs, the US agent may find himself in over his head. At Carstairs recommendation, Stuyvesant enlists the help of Bennett Grey, a man with unique abilities. After the Great War left him with an excruciating sensitivity to human deceit, Grey has withdrawn from the world. Now, however, he must help the American insert himself into the terrorists rich and radical social circle. Here Stuyvesant uncovers hidden secrets, a horrifying conspiracy, and wonders if he can trust his touchstone, Grey, to reveal the most dangerous player of all . . .

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 hive-like 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. Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim-who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman. The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom hes learned has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before its too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.

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 prot g e 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.

June, 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are enjoying a well-needed relaxing summer evening in their home on the Sussex Downs. However, Russell soon receives a desperate telephone call from an old friend. Veronicas aunt, Lady Vivian Beaconsfield, has disappeared following a supervised outing from Bethlem Royal Hospital. With Russell herself feeling less than balanced, the last thing she wants to deal with is the mad### however, she agrees to investigate. Having spent most of her adult life in and out of one asylum after another, Lady Beaconsfield at last seemed to be adjusting to her confinement at Bethlem. So why did she disappear? And why is there no trace of the nurse who accompanied her? In their search for the missing women, Russell and Holmes follow the trail from the cold, harsh wards of the hospital through to the ethereal beauty of Venice. Caught up in decadent soirees, the rising tide of fascism and the myth of a haunted madhouse, the pair will discover that there are secrets hidden in the lagoon and nothing is quite as it seems.

Its summertime on the Riviera, where the Jazz Age is busily reinventing the holiday delights of warm days on golden sand and cool nights on terraces and dance floors. Just up the coast lies a more traditional pleasure ground: Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and hidden away. So when Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes happen across the C te dAzur in this summer of 1925, they find themselves pulled between the young and the old, hot sun and cool jazz, new friendships and old loyalties, childlike pleasures and very grownup sins...

In nine short stories, seven of which have never previously been available in print, and one brand new, never-before-seen Sherlock Holmes mystery - available together for the first time - Laurie R. King blends her long-running brand of crime fiction with historical treats and narrative sleight of hand. At the heart of the collection is a prequel novella that begins with Englands declaration of war in 1914. As told in Mary Russells teenage diaries, the whipsmart girl investigates familial mysteries, tracks German spies through San Francisco, and generally delights with her extraordinary mind - until an unimaginable tragedy strikes.

It began as a problem in one of Holmes beloved beehives, led to a murderous cult, and ended - or so theyd hoped - with a daring escape from a sacrificial altar. Instead, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have stirred the wrath and the limitless resources of those theyve thwarted. Now they are separated and on the run, wanted by the police, and pursued across the Continent by a ruthless enemy with powerful connections.

In this crackling novella, New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King reveals an unforgettable new twist in the adventure that led supersleuth Sherlock Holmes to discover his first (and finest) apprentice, Mary Russell. Sherlock Holmes is fending off a particularly dark mood as he roams the Sussex Downs, in search of wild bees. The Great War may be raging across the Channel, but on the Downs, the great detective nears terminal melancholia - only to be saved by an encounter with headstrong, yellow-haired young Mary Russell, who soon becomes the Masters apprentice not only in beekeeping but in detection. Holmes instantly spots her remarkable ability, but his sharp eyes also see troubling problems. Why is this wealthy orphan who lives with her aunt so shabbily dressed? Why is she so prone to illness and accident? Is she herself the center of a mystery? These are questions that the great detective must answer quickly lest his protegee, and his own new lease on life, meet a sudden, tragic end. The tale of their meeting has been told from Russells point of view, but even those who have never met the famed Russell-Holmes pair will read this tale with delight - and, as its climax builds, with breathless excitement.

1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive home to find a stone. The stone is inscribed with the same name that they last saw in the Tokyo garden of the future emperor of Japan. It is the first indication that the investigation they did for him a year ago might not be as complete as they had thought. In Japan there were spies### in Oxford there are dreams. In both places, there is a small, dark-haired woman, and danger . . .

Deftly interlacing present and past, King offers further fascinating insights into Holmess family while also delivering an intriguing mystery- Washington PostSeptember, 1925. After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family in the French countryside. But when they arrive at Damians house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat.In the ominously empty house, Russell discovers several crates packed with memorabilia related to the artist Horace Vernet, including an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph.The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. Could there be things about Holmes own history that even the master detective does not perceive?

When Mary Russell returns with her husband, the renowned Sherlock Holmes, home from abroad, her plans for peace and tranquillity are soon thwarted with the arrival of enigmatic painter Damian Adler. Adler, searching for his missing wife and child, leads them on a dangerous journey for answers. As the dynamics between right and wrong shift, Russell soon finds that the power of the sting can be more treacherous than she ever imagined.

It is 1921 and Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmess 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. Russells 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?

Mary Russell is well used to dark secrets - her own, and those of her famous partner and husband, Sherlock Holmes. Trust is a thing slowly given, but over the course of a decade together, the two have forged an indissoluble bond. But what of the other person Mary Russell has opened her heart to, that third member of the Holmes household: Mrs Hudson? Blood on the floor, a token on the mantelpiece, the smell of gunshot in the air: all point directly at Clara Hudson - or rather, at Clarissa, the woman she was before Baker Street. The key to Russells sacrifice lies in Mrs Hudsons past, and to uncover the crime, a frantic Sherlock Holmes must put aside his anguish and push deep into his housekeepers secrets, to a time before her disguise was assumed, before her crimes were buried away. There is death here, and murder, and trust betrayed.

The latest adventure for the intrepid Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes takes readers into the frenetic world of silent films, where the pirates are real and the shooting isnt all done with cameras. In Englands young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate the criminal activities that surround Fflyttes popular movie studio. So Russell is traveling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. But as movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

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.