Mary Russell's War

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Alibi
ISBN: 0425284492
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Book Description
Laurie R. King illuminates the hidden corners of her beloved Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series in this dynamic short story collection. In nine previously published short stories 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 England’s declaration of war in 1914. As told in Mary Russell’s teenage diaries, the whip-smart girl investigates familial mysteries, tracks German spies through San Francisco, and generally delights with her extraordinary mind—until an unimaginable tragedy strikes. Here too is the case of a professor killed by a swarm of bees; Mrs. Hudson’s investigation of a string of disappearing household items—and a lifelong secret; a revealing anecdote about a character integral to The God of the Hive; the story of Mary’s beloved Uncle Jake and a monumental hand of cards; and a series of postcards in which Mary searches for her missing husband, Sherlock Holmes. Last but not least, fans will be especially thrilled by Mary’s account of her decision, at age ninety-two, to publish her memoirs—and how she concluded that Ms. King should be the one to introduce her voice to the world. 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 Murder of Mary Russell

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0804177902
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
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? Russell has come to love - and trust - the long-time housekeeper like the mother she lost so long ago.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 1429936525
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
Winner of the Nero Wolfe Award It is 1921 and Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes's brilliant apprentice, now an Oxford graduate with a degree in theology--is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Independent at last, with a passion for divinity and detective work, 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? Holmes and Russell investigate, as their partnership takes a surprising turn in A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King.

O Jerusalem

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553901354
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Book Description
At the close of the year 1918, forced to flee England's green and pleasant land, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes enter British-occupied Palestine under the auspices of Holmes' enigmatic brother, Mycroft. "Gentlemen, we are at your service." Thus Holmes greets the two travel-grimed Arab figures who receive them in the orange groves fringing the Holy Land. Whatever role could the volatile Ali and the taciturn Mahmoud play in Mycroft's design for this land the British so recently wrested from the Turks? After passing a series of tests, Holmes and Russell learn their guides are engaged in a mission for His Majesty's Government, and disguise themselves as Bedouins--Russell as the beardless youth "Amir"--to join them in a stealthy reconnaissance through the dusty countryside. A recent rash of murders seems unrelated to the growing tensions between Jew, Moslem, and Christian, yet Holmes is adamant that he must reconstruct the most recent one in the desert gully where it occurred. His singular findings will lead him and Russell through labyrinthine bazaars, verminous inns, cliff-hung monasteries--and into mortal danger. When her mentor's inquiries jeopardize his life, Russell fearlessly wields a pistol and even assays the arts of seduction to save him. Bruised and bloodied, the pair ascend to the jewellike city of Jerusalem, where they will at last meet their adversary, whose lust for savagery and power could reduce the city's most ancient and sacred place to rubble and ignite this tinderbox of a land.... Classically Holmesian yet enchantingly fresh, sinuously plotted, with colorful characters and a dazzling historic ambience, O Jerusalem sweeps readers ever onward in the thrill of the chase.

A Thread of Grace

Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588364410
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 546

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A powerfully imagined novel . . . [a] profoundly moving book that engages the heights and depths of human experience.”—Los Angeles Times It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to find safety now that the Italians have broken from Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it quickly becomes an open battleground for the Nazis, the Allies, Resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive. Tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters—a charismatic Italian Resistance leader, a priest, an Italian rabbi’s family, a disillusioned German doctor—Mary Doria Russell tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort by Italian citizens who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the final phase of World War II. A Thread of Grace puts a human face on history. Praise for A Thread of Grace “An addictive page-turner . . . [Mary Doria] Russell has an astonishing story to tell—full of action, paced like a rapid-fire thriller, in tense, vivid scenes that move with cinematic verve.”—The Washington Post Book World “Hauntingly beautiful, utterly unforgettable.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Rich . . . Based on the heroism of ordinary people, [A Thread of Grace] packs an emotional punch.”—People “[A] deeply felt and compellingly written book . . . The progress of each character’s life is marked or measured by acts of grace. . . . Russell is a smart, passionate and imaginative writer.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer “A feat of storytelling . . . an important book [that] needs to be widely read.”—Portland Oregonian “Mary Doria Russell’s fans (and aren’t we all?) will rejoice to see her new novel on the shelves. A Thread of Grace is as ambitious, beautiful, tense, and transforming as any of us could have hoped.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club “A story of love and war, A Thread of Grace speaks to the resilience and beauty of the human spirit in the midst of unimaginable horror. It is, unquestionably, a literary triumph.”—David Morrell, author of The Brotherhood of the Rose and First Blood

Dreamers of the Day

Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588366758
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
A schoolteacher still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic travels to the Middle East in this memorable and passionate novel “Marvelous . . . a stirring story of personal awakening set against the background of a crucial moment in modern history.”—The Washington Post Agnes Shanklin, a forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference convenes, she is freed for the first time from her mother’s withering influence and finds herself being wooed by a handsome, mysterious German. At the same time, Agnes—with her plainspoken American opinions—is drawn into the company of Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell, who will, in the space of a few days, redraw the world map to create the modern Middle East. As they change history, Agnes too will find her own life transformed forever. With prose as graceful and effortless as a seductive float down the Nile, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East with a story that brilliantly elucidates today’s headlines.

Locked Rooms

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553901591
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
“A truly bravura performance [with] all the magnetic appeal of the best of the original Conan Doyle novels.”—The Strand Magazine En route to San Francisco to settle her family’s estate, Mary Russell, in the company of husband Sherlock Holmes, falls prey to troubling dreams—and even more troubling behavior. In 1906, when Mary was six, the city was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake. For years Mary has insisted she lived elsewhere at the time. But Holmes knows better. Soon it is clear that whatever unpleasantness Mary wanted to forget hasn’t forgotten her. A series of mysterious deaths leads Russell and Holmes from the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic “accident” that Mary alone survived. What Russell discovers is that even a forgotten past never dies . . . and it can kill again. BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Laurie R. King's The God of the Hive and Pirate King.

Garment of Shadows

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553807994
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Waking up in Morocco with no memory of her identity, Mary Russell is enmeshed in the political and military uprisings of Europe, while Sherlock Holmes taps the assistance of T. E. Lawrence to restore Mary's memory and prevent a full-scale war that threatens countless lives.

Island of the Mad

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0804177988
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
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

The Marriage of Mary Russell

Author: Laurie R. King
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0425284484
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 70

Book Description
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