Showing results by narrator "Jenny Sterlin" in All Categories

In the early days of 1924, Mary Russell and her husband, the inimitable Sherlock Holmes, are given an urgent task by his brother, Mycroft: find a British spy gone missing along India's northwest frontier, where men are dying and trouble is brewing. The spy's name? It is one Holmes knows from his sojourn in India long ago, and one Russell knows from a book. It is Kimball O'Hara, known to the world by the name Rudyard Kipling called him - Kim....

In nine short stories and one brand-new, never-before-heard Sherlock Holmes mystery, Laurie R. King blends her long-running brand of crime fiction with historical treats and narrative sleight of hand, starting 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.

Sherlock Holmes has received a call for help from an old friend. The Reverend Barring-Gould, noted parson and folklorist, wants Holmes to investigate some strange sightings. When Mary Russell realises where their search will take them, however, her blood runs cold. A ghostly coach and giant dog have been glimpsed on Dartmoor - the chilling landscape of the Hound of the Baskervilles.

Mary Russell, assistant and protégée of the great Sherlock Holmes, finds herself and her partner once more mired in mystery. When Mary is given a scrap of papyrus by an old archaeologist friend, she has no inkling of what it contains. Written in Greek, it could be a letter from a previously unknown apostle - who just happens to be female. However, the situation moves from being curiously exciting to chillingly perilous as the archaeologist is murdered and Mary and Sherlock's home is ransacked.

While visiting London, Mary Russell comes across a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to Margery Childe, charismatic leader of a religious sect involved in the suffrage movement. When several members of the sect's female volunteers are murdered, Mary starts to investigate - but events spiral out of control, and Mary's search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced....

It is 1857, and Reverend Geoffrey Wilson has departed England to prove the literal truth of the Bible. The expedition heads towards Tasmania, where he is convinced he will find the real Garden of Eden. But the other passengers have their own agendas. Dr Potter is developing a sinister thesis, and the ship is crewed by smugglers of contraband brandy and tobacco. As the English passengers near Peevay's land, their bizarre notions become painfully at odds with reality.

For years now, readers of the Russell Memoirs have wondered about the tantalizing mentions of Japan. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes had spent three weeks there, between India ( The Game) and San Francisco ( Locked Rooms). The time has finally come to tell that story. It is 1925, and Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive home to find...a stone. A stone with a name, which they last saw in the Tokyo garden of the future emperor of Japan.

A stunningly beautiful young woman is found strangled in London's Mudchute Park, her clothing carefully arranged to preserve her modesty. With that unusual detail in mind, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner Sergeant Gemma James suspect the crime was more than a simple assault gone awry. As they collect the strange facts surrounding her death, they discover the victim's life was a mystery even to those who knew her best.

When the great Thomas Hardy published this heart-wrenching novel, he had no idea it would be his last. But the book stirred so much controversy and protest, Hardy vowed to never write fiction again. Jude the Obscure tells the story of a stonemason, tricked into a loveless marriage, who craves a formal education and a finer existence. Separated from his wife, Jude begins a new life with his cousin, and the couple defies social convention at every turn.

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?

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.

Independent Margot de Bryun has no intention of giving a man control of her life! Although handsome rake Stephen Standish, Marquess of Fanworth, does pique her interest.... Stephen sees Margot as perfect marriage material - talented, intelligent and alluring. When a stolen family ruby is traced to the jewellery shop Margot owns, an infuriated Stephen demands she become his mistress. Except Margot's not one to be easily tamed - and, whether she be mistress or wife, sparks will certainly fly!

When William Felkirk opens his eyes, the past six months are blank. What happened? And who is this beautiful woman claiming to be his wife and caring for his broken body? Justine will do anything to protect her sister, even if that means pretending to be a stranger’s wife. But with every passing day, William unlocks her heart just a little more, and Justine knows she won’t be able to hide the truth forever....

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. 

Two women, two generations apart, both on the brink of scandal.... Phoebe shared more than her unruly dark curls with the ancestor whose portrait graced the walls of Ham House. Both had retreated from London life to Richmond's leafy beauty. Their retreat posed a challenge to Society's most notorious rakes - Viscount Ransome seemed set on making Phoebe his own. But secrets and passion were part of the fabric of Ham House and Phoebe had learnt from her rebellious ancestor.

Helene Follet hasn’t had close contact with Lord Burl Winterson since she chose to spend her life caring for his brother. Now she’s forced to live under Burl’s protection, because he has become guardian to her young son. What Helene craves is to finally find a loving home in his safe, strong arms. Neither can admit that they are still tantalised by the memory of one magical, fateful night...

Over the course of a decade together, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes have forged an indissoluble bond. But what of the other person Mary Russell has opened her heart to, Mrs Hudson? Blood on the floor, and the smell of gunshot in the air: both point directly at Clara Hudson. The key to Russell's sacrifice lies in Mrs Hudson's past, and to uncover the crime Holmes must put aside his anguish and push deep into his housekeeper's secrets.

Lady Philippa Nielson had no memory of what took place in her bedchamber in the dead of night—nor knowledge of the dangerous plot that put her life in jeopardy. But with a brief touch of his hand and one glance of his knowing gray eyes, Pippa felt a connection to the dark stranger who should have been her greatest enemy. Who was this man who seemed to understand more about her life than she did herself? Why did she respond to his most casual caresses with the most urgent and reckless of desires?

For four years, Cato, the Marquis of Granville, had been just another man—the uninteresting, somewhat intimidating husband of Phoebe's older sister. But then her sister died, and Phoebe seemed a reasonable substitute. Her forced engagement to him should have been quite a cold-blooded arrangement . . . except that one day Phoebe looked at Granville—really looked at him—and saw what she'd never seen before: he was darkly, breathtakingly attractive. Once she'd noticed, she couldn't seem to stop noticing, and suddenly Phoebe was disastrously in love.

It's bad enough that seventeen-year-old Portia Worth is taken in by her uncle, the marquis of Granville, after her father dies. As the bastard niece, Portia knows she can expect little beyond a roof over her head and a place at the table. But it truly adds insult to injury when the Granvilles' archenemy, the outlaw Rufus Decatur, hatches a scheme to abduct the marquis's daughter--only to kidnap Portia by accident. Portia, who possesses more than a streak of independence as well as a talent for resistance, does not take kindly to being abducted—mistakenly or otherwise.