A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Winner of the Nero Award: the “remarkable . . . delightful” series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes continues (San Francisco Chronicle).

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.

“As audacious as it is entertaining and moving . . . What gives Laurie R. King's books such a rich and original texture is the character of Mary—totally believable in her own right . . . with a restless intellect and a great store of moral and physical courage.” —Chicago Tribune

“Beguiling . . . tantalizing.” —The Boston Globe