New Releases by LAURIE R. KING

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal. “Deftly interlacing present and past, King offers further fascinating insights into Holmes’s family while also delivering an intriguing mystery.”—The Washington Post 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. Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ granduncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It’s an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating shade: an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern’s spin. In the same crate is 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. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets—or the threat hovering over the house? The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian—and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself. Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?

A fifty-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life—with potentially fatal consequences—in this gripping standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents—monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims? To Raquel—a woman who knows all about colorful pasts—the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate’s archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own. Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate. But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob’s brother, Fort. The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case—before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes.

Nel 1915, Sherlock Holmes è in pensione e tranquillamente impegnato nello studio delle api da miele quando una giovane donna si imbatte letteralmente in lui, nella campagna del Sussex. Quindicenne, goffa, egocentrica e recentemente orfana, la giovane Mary Russell mostra un acume tale da impressionare persino il grande detective in un confronto arguto e di raffinata intelligenza. In principio riluttante, sotto la sua tutela, questa modernissima donna del XX secolo si dimostra un’abile allieva e una compagna degna del suo genio. Nel loro primo caso, devono rintracciare la figlia rapita di un senatore americano e confrontarsi con un avversario davvero astuto: un attentatore che ha messo in allarme gli investigatori e che non si fermerà davanti a nulla per porre fine alla loro “inedita” collaborazione. Pieno di brillanti deduzioni, travestimenti e pericoli, questo primo libro di Mary Russell e Sherlock Holmes è “meravigliosamente originale e divertente... coinvolgente dall’inizio alla fine.” (Booklist). In questo romanzo, Laurie R. King presenta il primo incontro tra la quindicenne Mary Russell – la giovane protagonista americana di origine ebraica – e Sherlock Holmes, durante il quale il grande detective le svelerà gli ingegnosi misteri che si nascondono in una mente criminale.

Londra, 1926. Harris Stuyvesant, agente del Bureau of Investigation, è in missione. Una serie di attentati dinamitardi sul suolo americano, ritenuti opera di un emergente politico britannico, lo hanno lasciato con una vendetta più personale che professionale. Ma quando la sua ricerca di risposte lo porta dal misterioso funzionario Aldous Carstairs, Harris potrebbe trovarsi in guai seri. Su raccomandazione di Carstairs, Stuyvesant chiede l’aiuto di Bennett Grey, un uomo con abilità uniche. Dopo che la Grande guerra gli ha dato un’impressionante capacità d’intuire dove si cela l’inganno, Grey si è ritirato a vita privata. Ora, però, deve uscire allo scoperto per aiutare Harris a infi ltrarsi nella cerchia ricca e radicale del terrorista. Qui Stuyvesant apprende segreti nascosti, e si chiede se può fi darsi di colui che lo copre, Grey, per svelare il colpevole.

WATSON NÃO FOI O ÚNICO PARCEIRO DE SHERLOCK HOLMES... 1915. Sherlock Holmes está reformado e completamente dedicado ao estudo das abelhas quando uma adolescente tropeça literalmente nele em Sussex. Desajeitada mas muito determinada, a jovem Mary Russell impressiona o detetive com a sua inteligência, ousadia e vivacidade. Sob a tutela e proteção de Holmes, a jovem desenvolve os seus dotes para a investigação e prova estar à altura de ser parceira do detetive mais famoso do mundo. Quando ambos são chamados a Gales para ajudar a Scotland Yard a encontrar a filha de um senador americano, esta parceria é colocada à prova. Este é um caso com ligações internacionais, e as pistas apontam para o passado de Holmes, onde um vilão se move nas trevas com jogadas precisas como num jogo de xadrez. Pleno de dedução brilhante, dissimulação e perigo, este primeiro livro da parceria Mary Russell Sherlock Holmes é o início de uma série aclamada internacionalmente. Nomeado como um dos 100 melhores livros de mistério do século pela Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

A queen, a castle, a dark and ageless threat—all await Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in this chilling adventure. 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 castle is Bran: a tall, quirky, ancient structure perched on high rocks overlooking the border between Roumania and its newly regained territory of Transylvania. The castle was a gift to Queen Marie, a thank-you from her people, and she loves it as she loves her own children. The threat is . . . well, that is less clear. Shadowy figures, vague whispers, the fears of girls, dangers that may be only accidents. But this is a land of long memory and hidden corners, a land that had known Vlad the Impaler, a land from whose churchyards the shades creep. When Queen Marie calls, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are as dubious as they are reluctant. But a young girl is involved, and a beautiful queen. Surely it won’t take long to shine light on this unlikely case of what would seem to be strigoi? Or, as they are known in the West . . . vampires.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.” 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. Russell falls into easy friendship with an enthralling American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, whose golden life on the Riviera has begun to attract famous writers and artists—and some of the scoundrels linked with Monte Carlo’s underworld. The Murphy set will go on to inspire everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Pablo Picasso, but in this summer of 1925, their importance for Russell lies in one of their circle’s recent additions: the Holmeses’ former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, who hasn’t been seen since she fled England under a cloud of false murder accusations. When a beautiful young man is found dead in Mrs. Hudson’s front room, she becomes the prime suspect in yet another murder. Russell is certain of Mrs. Hudson’s innocence; Holmes is not. But the old woman’s colorful past has been a source of tension between them before, and now the dangerous players who control Monte Carlo’s gilded casinos may stop at nothing to keep the pair away from what Mrs. Hudson’s youthful history could bring to light. The Riviera is a place where treasure can be false, where love can destroy, and where life, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will discover, can be cheap—even when it is made of solid gold.

The latest entry in Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger’s popular Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery series, featuring fifteen talented authors and a multitude of new cases for Arthur Conan Doyle’s most acclaimed detective. Sherlock Holmes has not only captivated readers for more than a century and a quarter, he has fascinated writers as well. Almost immediately, the detective’s genius, mastery, and heroism became the standard by which other creators measured their creations, and the friendship between Holmes and Dr. Watson served as a brilliant model for those who followed Doyle. Not only did the Holmes tales influence the mystery genre but also tales of science-fiction, adventure, and the supernatural. It is little wonder, then, that when the renowned Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger invited their writer-friends and colleagues to be inspired by the Holmes canon, a cornucopia of stories sprang forth, with more than sixty of the greatest modern writers participating in four acclaimed anthologies. Now, King and Klinger have invited another fifteen masters to become In League with Sherlock Holmes. The contributors to the pair’s next volume, due out in December 2020, include award-winning authors of horror, thrillers, mysteries, westerns, and science-fiction, all bound together in admiration and affection for the original stories. Past tales have spanned the Victorian era, World War I, World War II, the post-war era, and contemporary America and England. They have featured familiar figures from literature and history, children, master sleuths, official police, unassuming amateurs, unlikely protagonists, even ghosts and robots. Some were new tales about Holmes and Watson; others were about people from Holmes’s world or admirers of Holmes and his methods. The resulting stories are funny, haunting, thrilling, and surprising. All are unforgettable. The new collection promises more of the same!

Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes is “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today” (Lee Child)! 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. Russell wants nothing to do with the case—but she can’t say no. To track down the vanished woman, she must use her deductive instincts and talent for subterfuge—and enlist her husband’s legendary prowess. Together, the two travel from the grim confines of Bedlam to the murky canals of Venice—only to find the shadow of Benito Mussolini darkening the fate of a city, an era, and a tormented English lady of privilege. Praise for Island of the Mad “Full of lush details and clever twists.”—Booklist “Once again validates Laurie R. King as the preeminent Holmes writer working today.”—Bookreporter “A truly memorable mystery . . . Laurie King brings her always amazing imagination to the page to enthrall readers, as only she can do.”—Suspense Magazine “Superb . . . shocking . . . Come for the mystery, stay for the sightseeing, the gibes at fascism, and the heroine’s climactic masquerade as silent film star Harold Lloyd.”—Kirkus Reviews “There’s no shortage of entertainment. . . . If you are a fan of the series, you won’t be disappointed!”—San Francisco Book Review “Well-plotted . . . This ranks as one of the better recent installments in this popular series.”—Publishers Weekly

A community comes together when threatened by someone with a thirst for revenge in this stunningly intricate, tautly plotted novel of rich psychological suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell mysteries. Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School: A day given to innocent hopes and youthful dreams. A day no one in attendance will ever forget. A year ago, Principal Linda McDonald arrived at Guadalupe determined to overturn the school’s reputation for truancy, gang violence, and neglect. One of her initiatives is Career Day—bringing together children, teachers, and community presenters in a celebration of the future. But there are some in attendance who reject McDonald’s bright vision. A principal with a secret. A husband with a murky past. A cop with too many questions. A kid under pressure to prove himself. A girl struggling to escape a mother’s history. A young basketball player with an affection for guns. Even the school janitor has a story he dare not reveal. But no one at the gathering anticipates the shocking turn of events that will transform a day of possibilities into an explosive confrontation. Tense, poignant, and brilliantly paced, Laurie R. King’s novel charts compelling characters on a collision course—a chain of interactions that locks together hidden lives, troubling secrets, and the bravest impulses of the human heart. Praise for Lockdown “A fine thriller, as timely as it is gripping.”—Booklist (starred review) “King delivers, providing both a drama-filled anatomy of the school and a chance for its community to show its best by the way it confronts the worst Career Day imaginable.”—Kirkus Reviews “Lockdown [has] the tension of a ticking time bomb.”—San Jose Mercury News “Dramatic . . . harrowing.”—Santa Cruz Sentinel “King is a strong, purposeful writer with a keen eye for detail. . . . [This book earns] its page-turner status.”—The Stranger “Keeps readers guessing to the very end.”—Charleston Currents

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes series weaves rich historical detail and provocative themes with intriguing characters and enthralling suspense. Russell and Holmes have become one of modern literature’s most beloved teams. But does this adventure end it all? Mary Russell is 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. 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. In a devastating instant, everything changes. And when the scene is discovered—a pool of blood on the floor, the smell of gunpowder in the air—the most shocking revelation of all is that the grim clues point directly to Clara Hudson. Or rather to Clarissa, the woman she was before Baker Street. The key to Russell’s sacrifice lies in Mrs. Hudson’s past. To uncover the truth, a frantic Sherlock Holmes must put aside his anguish and push deep into his housekeeper’s secrets—to a time before her disguise was assumed, before her crimes were buried away. There is death here, and murder, and trust betrayed. And nothing will ever be the same. Praise for The Murder of Mary Russell “Leaping narrative energy has always been a hallmark of this series, and it reaches something of a peak in this latest volume. . . . The lean momentum of the story never falters. . . . It’s a stunning prolonged feat of storytelling, and it succeeds in making The Murder of Mary Russell the best installment so far in an excellent series.”—The Christian Science Monitor “[A] sharp, inventive and rewarding series.”—The Seattle Times “Delightful . . . a triumph of plotting . . . Fans, always hungry to know more personal details about King’s iteration of Sherlock Holmes and his world, will get a few more delicious tidbits this time around.”—Booklist (starred review)

Collected in one volume, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary, and The Moor, featuring the retired Sherlock Holmes and his disciple Mary Russell, by New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King. A Monstrous Regiment of Women It is 1921. Mary Russell is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Her attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic. When four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot? A Letter of Mary It is 1923. Mary Russell Holmes and Sherlock Holmes are visited by an old friend, an archaeologist just returned from Palestine. She leaves in their protection an ancient, controversial manuscript. When their friend 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 Mary Russell to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. 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 The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell investigate a mystery darker and more unforgiving than the moors themselves.

Laurie R. King takes readers way back in her bestselling series with this exclusive ebook short story, as Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes embark upon the riskiest adventure of their partnership: their wedding. Includes a special preview of the highly anticipated new mystery from Laurie R. King, The Murder of Mary Russell! Though she cannot entirely discount the effects of the head injuries they were both suffering at the time, Mary Russell is delighted by Sherlock Holmes’s proposal of marriage. After all, they have become partners-in-crime, and she has recently come into her inheritance: what remains but to confirm the union with her mentor-turned-partner through a piece of paper? Russell’s pragmatic side tells her to head straight to the registry office—until Holmes surprises her with a sentimental wish to be married in the chapel of his ancestral manor. There’s just the small issue of ownership: the house is not exactly his, and he is most definitely not welcome there. Of course, such obstacles have never deterred Sherlock Holmes before, and they certainly won’t keep him from concocting an elaborate scheme to evade angry dogs and armed butlers—all in the name of wedded bliss. Praise for Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell mysteries “The most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”—Lee Child “The great marvel of King’s series is that she’s managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes’s character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart.”—The Washington Post Book World “A lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company.”—The New York Times “Erudite, fascinating . . . by all odds the most successful re-creation of the famous inhabitant of 221B Baker Street ever attempted.”—Houston Chronicle “An engaging romp guaranteed to please . . . perfectly written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”—USA Today, on Pirate King “Mesmerizing—another wonderful novel etched by the hand of a master storyteller. No reader who opens this one will be disappointed.”—Michael Connelly, on The God of the Hive “Historical fiction doesn’t get any better than this.”—The Denver Post, on The Game

The gripping debut of the Kate Martinelli mystery series won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery, generating wide critical acclaim and moving Laurie R. King into the upper tier of the genre. Now, for the first time, the first three books in this thrilling series are bundled together in one package: A Grave Talent A string of shocking murders has occurred, each victim an innocent child. Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide, must bring the murderer to justice, even if she knows it means losing everything she holds dear. To Play the Fool Kate investigates the death of a homeless man, but the main suspect only speaks in quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads her along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance. With Child (Edgar Award nominee; Orange Award nominee) Kate''s SFPD partner is getting married, and Kate agrees to take his new step-daughter during the honeymoon. Only the girl, already caught up in a missing persons case, goes missing herself.

In daring to re-imagine the life of Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic Sherlock Holmes, Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling mystery series—now celebrating its twentieth anniversary!—succeeds on the strength of its own now-beloved protagonist: Mary Russell, the young American who literally stumbles upon the great retired detective-turned-beekeeper. With the dazzling mix of suspense, period detail, and enthralling pace that is King’s hallmark, these acclaimed novels follow Russell as she rises out of her mentor’s shadow to form a long-running partnership with the always inscrutable and charismatic Holmes. Traversing such exotic locales as British-occupied Palestine, the Moroccan underworld, and the wilds of India amidst the turmoil of the early twentieth century, this convenient eBook bundle compiles eight of their most thrilling adventures: O JERUSALEM JUSTICE HALL THE GAME LOCKED ROOMS THE LANGUAGE OF BEES THE GOD OF THE HIVE PIRATE KING GARMENT OF SHADOWS Also includes the eBook short story “Beekeeping for Beginners” and an exclusive preview of the next Mary Russell mystery from Laurie R. King, Dreaming Spies! Praise for Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell mysteries “The most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.”—Lee Child “The great marvel of King’s series is that she’s managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes’s character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart.”—The Washington Post Book World “A lively adventure in the very best of intellectual company.”—The New York Times “Erudite, fascinating . . . by all odds the most successful re-creation of the famous inhabitant of 221B Baker Street ever attempted.”—Houston Chronicle “An engaging romp guaranteed to please . . . perfectly written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”—USA Today, on Pirate King “Mesmerizing—another wonderful novel etched by the hand of a master storyteller. No reader who opens this one will be disappointed.”—Michael Connelly, on The God of the Hive “Historical fiction doesn’t get any better than this.”—The Denver Post, on The Game

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SACRAMENTO BEE New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King, beloved for her acclaimed Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, consistently writes richly detailed and thoroughly suspenseful novels that bring a distant time and place to brilliant life. Now, in this thrilling new book, King leads readers into the vibrant and sensual Paris of the Jazz Age—and reveals the darkest secrets of its denizens. Paris, France: September 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, the assignment is a private investigator’s dream—he’s getting paid to prowl the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The American agent has a healthy appreciation for la vie de bohème, despite having worked for years at the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two year old from Boston who has been living in Paris, modeling and acting. Her family became alarmed when she stopped all communications, and Stuyvesant agreed to track her down. He wholly expects to find her in the arms of some up-and-coming artist, perhaps experimenting with the decadent lifestyle that is suddenly available on every rue and boulevard. As Stuyvesant follows Philippa’s trail through the expatriate community of artists and writers, he finds that she is known to many of its famous—and infamous—inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Company’s Sylvia Beach to Ernest Hemingway to the Surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp, disturbing turn. At the Grand-Guignol, murder, insanity, and sexual perversion are all staged to shocking, brutal effect: depravity as art, savage human nature on stage. Soon it becomes clear that one missing girl is a drop in the bucket. Here, amid the glittering lights of the cabarets, hides a monster whose artistic coup de grâce is to be rendered in blood. And Stuyvesant will have to descend into the darkest depths of perversion to find a killer . . . sifting through The Bones of Paris. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Laurie R. King''s Dreaming Spies. Praise for The Bones of Paris “Haunting . . . a portrait of the City of Light that glows with the fires of Hell.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch “A compelling thriller . . . complex, more than a little kinky, and absolutely fascinating.”—Booklist (starred review) “Highly entertaining . . . Laurie R. King perfectly captures [the Jazz Age] as she explores the City of Light’s avenues and alleys.”—The Denver Post “Engrossing . . . Readers who enjoy Laurie R. King’s noteworthy Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery series are in for a surprise.”—BookPage “A chilling mystery and a haunting love letter to the Paris of Hemingway’s Lost Generation.”—Library Journal

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds. 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. Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation 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 he’s learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe. With the dazzling mix of period detail and contemporary pace that is her hallmark, Laurie R. King continues the stunningly suspenseful series that Lee Child called “the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.” Praise for Garment of Shadows “As always, the relationship between Holmes and Russell is utterly understated yet traced with heat and light.”—Booklist (starred review) “[A] taut tale . . . original and intriguing . . . This tantalizing glimpse into the life and times of a rapidly evolving Arabic society has remarkable resonance for our own uncertain times.”—Publishers Weekly “Those new to the series are in for a treat.”—Bookreporter

A professional handbook from tutors at the prestigious Arvon Foundation writing course with contributions from leading crime writers.

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. Unstoppable together, Russell and Holmes will have to survive this time apart, maintaining contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes. But has the couple made a fatal mistake by separating, making themselves easier targets for the shadowy government agents sent to silence them? A hermit with a mysterious past and a beautiful young female doctor with a secret, a cruelly scarred flyer and an obsessed man of the cloth: Everyone Russell and Holmes meet could either speed their safe reunion or betray them to their enemies—in the most complex, shocking, and deeply personal case of their career.

BONUS: This eBook includes an excerpt from Laurie R. King''s Pirate King. In this crackling short story, 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 Master’s 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 protégée, and his own new lease on life, meet a sudden, tragic end. The tale of their meeting has been told from Russell’s 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.

Sent to Lisbon and Morocco, where a British studio is creating a silent film version of "The Pirates of Penzance," Mary Russell investigates a series of crimes targeting the production and confronts a high-stakes situation when actual pirates orchestrate a hostage situation.

Read the first Kate Martinelli Mystery by New York Times bestselling, Edgar award-winning novelist Laurie R. King. In Grave Talent, the unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A series of shocking murders has occurred, the victims far too innocent and defenseless. For lesbian Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who''s less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it''s a difficult case that just keeps getting harder. Then the police receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century''s greatest woman painter and a notorious felon once convicted of a heinous crime. But what really happened eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist''s dark past—even if it means losing everything she holds dear.

Celebrated author Laurie R. King dazzles mystery lovers once again in To Play the Fool, her second Kate Martinelli mystery. The story unfolds as a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco''s Golden Gate Park. When it comes to incidents like this, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken regulations. But three weeks later, after the dog''s owner gets the same fiery send-off, the SFPD knows it has a serious problem on its hands. Other than the fact that they''re dealing with a particularly grisly homicide, Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on. They have a homeless victim without a positive ID, a group of witnesses who have little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus. Kate learns that Erasmus is well-acquainted with the park''s homeless and with the rarefied atmosphere of Berkeley''s Graduate Theological Union, yet he remains an enigma to all. It''s apparent that he is by no means crazy--but he is a fool. Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only through quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads her along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance.