Part of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, book 4
First published 1998
Mary Russell receives an urgent summons from her husband Sherlock Holmes to leave her Oxford studies behind. The Reverend Baring-Gould has contacted Holmes about disturbing events on Dartmoor, the same treacherous landscape where Holmes once tracked a legendary hound. This time, locals report seeing a phantom coach racing across the moor at night, driven by a ghostly noblewoman and accompanied by spectral dogs. An unexplained death adds urgency to the mystery. Russell and Holmes venture onto the forbidding terrain, where ancient legends seem to come alive in the mist. As Russell takes the lead in the investigation, she discovers that the supernatural sightings mask a very real conspiracy. The truth behind the phantom coach involves more wild emotion and frightening suspense than any ghost story. Russell must navigate both the physical dangers of the moor and the complex human motivations driving the deception.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, fantasy, detective, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, supernatural
Setting: Dartmoor, Oxford, United Kingdom
Period: 19th-century
307 pages · Hardcover · St. Martins Press