In The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King came up with a completely original story that had Sherlock Holmes as one of its principal characters but was in no way part of the Holmes canon. The focus of that book was a young woman, Mary Russell. Now in A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Mary Russell's adventures as a student of the famous detective continue. A series of murders claims members of a strange suffrage organization's wealthy young female volunteers, and Mary, with Holmes in the background, investigates, little knowing what danger she personally faces. Laurie R. King is also the author of the Edgar Award-winning novel A Grave Talent.
Book Description
The dawn of 1921 finds Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes’s brilliant young apprentice, about to come into a considerable inheritance. Nevertheless, she still enjoys her nighttime prowls in disguise through London’s grimy streets, where one night she encounters an old friend, now a charity worker among the poor. Veronica
Beaconsfield introduces Russell to the New Temple of God, led by the enigmatic, electrifying Margery Childe. Part suffragette, part mystic, she lives quite well for a woman of God from supposedly humble origins.
Despite herself, Russell is drawn ever deeper into Childe’s circle. When Veronica has a near-fatal accident–and turns out to be the fourth bluestocking in the group to meet with misadventure after changing her will–Russell and Holmes launch a quiet investigation. But the Temple may bring the newly rich Russell far closer to heaven than she would like.…