Description

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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.

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?

About the Author

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Laurie R. King is the award-winning, bestselling author of seventeen previous Mary Russell mysteries, a new series featuring SFPD cold-case inspector Raquel Laing, the contemporary Kate Martinelli series, the historical Stuyvesant & Grey stories, and five acclaimed standalone novels. She lives in Northern California, where she is at work on her next Mary Russell mystery.

Praise For…

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Praise for The Lantern's Dance

“The elaborate family lore King has constructed for Holmes impresses, and she pays longtime readers dividends with a number of satisfying disclosures about the detective’s past. Series fans are sure to be pleased.”—Publishers Weekly

“Mary Russell solves the 100+ year old puzzle of Sherlock Holmes’s ancestry in Laurie R. King’s masterful The Lantern’s Dance. King’s brilliant tale of a legacy of racism and sexism will seem all-too-familiar to contemporary readers. Huzzah!”—Leslie S. Klinger, editor, New Annotated Sherlock Holmes


Praise for Castle Shade

“Highly recommend for historical mystery fans who have followed the series, as well as readers looking for historical heroines with agency such as Maisie Dobbs, Bess Crawford, or Phryne Fisher.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Each book in the Russell and Holmes series is a treat. . . . The novels are extremely atmospheric. . . . Kudos to Laurie King for keeping the legend [of Sherlock Holmes] alive with such entertaining novels, and Mary Russell keeping him on his toes.”—Mystery & Suspense Magazine


Praise for Riviera Gold

“The definition of binge-able . . . a bright and shiny Côte d’Azur distraction.”—Los Angeles Times

“Extends the prolific [and] superior series . . . [Holmes and Russell] continue to have ripping adventures.”—The Seattle Times

“A refreshing summer breeze of a mystery novel that is so cool you can practically hear the jazz dripping right off its pages.”—Bookreporter