Part of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, book 18
First published 2024
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive in the French countryside expecting a peaceful visit with Holmes' son Damian Adler, a renowned artist. Instead they find an empty house and signs that Damian's family has fled from some unknown danger. Holmes races after his son while Russell, hampered by a recent injury, remains to investigate. In Damian's studio she uncovers four crates filled with artifacts belonging to Holmes' grand-uncle, artist Horace Vernet. Among the collection sits a tarnished silver lamp that functions as an elaborate zoetrope, its spinning images creating moving pictures. Alongside it lies a journal written in complex code. Russell begins the painstaking work of deciphering the cryptograph, discovering that each coded entry centers on an image. The first reveals a child being taken by an abductor, watching her mother disappear. As Russell unravels more entries, the mystery deepens. The past seems to be reaching into the present, threatening Damian and possibly Holmes himself.
Genres: art, 20th-century, adventure, crime, detective, 21st-century, 19th-century, art-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, mystery, suspense
Setting: France, French Countryside
Period: 19th-Century, 20th-Century, 21st-Century
300 pages · Hardcover · Bantam