In 1915, long since retired from his observations of criminal humanity, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. Never did he think to meet an intellect to match his own–until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a very modern fifteen-year-old whose mental acuity is equaled only by her audacity, tenacity, and penchant for trousers and cloth caps.

Under Holmes’s tutelage, Russell hones her talent for deduction, disguises, and danger: in the chilling case of a landowner’s mysterious fever and in a kidnapping in the wilds of Wales. But her ultimate challenge is yet to come. Soon the two sleuths are on the trail of a murderer whose machinations scatter meaningless clues…but whose objective is quite unequivocal: to end Russell and Holmes’s partnership–and their lives.

劳拉·金（Laurie R. King），出生于1952年，美国著名推理小说家，著作数十部，部部登上畅销书排行榜，其中“玛丽·罗素与大侦探福尔摩斯”系列令其声名远播。

迄今她已获得并提名了几乎全部推理界的奖项，堪称阿加莎·克里斯蒂之后的女性推理小说家。这些奖项包括美国侦探作家协会颁发的全世界侦探小说奖项埃德加·爱伦·坡奖，美国国家悬疑作品协会颁发的美国著名推理小说奖项阿加莎奖，英国重要的文学奖项之一橘子奖，以及尼禄·沃尔夫奖、克利西奖、麦克维蒂奖、巴利奖等等。

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