Sent to Lisbon and Morocco, where a British studio is creating a silent film version of "The Pirates of Penzance," Mary Russell investigates a series of crimes targeting the production and confronts a high-stakes situation when actual pirates orchestrate a hostage situation.

The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom he's learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell, suffering a temporary memory loss, searches for her"self," each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it's too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.

Maintaining tenuous contact only by means of coded messages and cryptic notes with her husband, Sherlock Holmes, and with Holmes' young granddaughter in her safekeeping, Russell will have to call on instincts she didn't know she had as the famous husband and wife sleuths are pursued by a killer immune from the sting of justice.

"A queen, a castle, a dark and ageless threat--all await Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in this chilling new adventure. The queen is Marie of Roumania: the doubly royal granddaughter to Victoria, Empress of the British Empire, and Alexander II, Tsar of Russia. A famous beauty who was married at seventeen into Roumania's young dynasty, Marie had beguiled the Paris Peace Conference into returning her adopted country's long-lost provinces, single-handedly...

INSPECTOR KATE MARTINELLI has worked the SFPD's Homicide Detail for nearly thirty years. She knows all about how a cop builds a case bit by bit to create a clear story from the scattered pieces of evidence. Until the day her fifteen-year-old daughter, Nora, happens to ask about an aunt she'd never met. Kate's kid sister died in the 1980s, a wild young woman who lost control of a car and hit a tree, end of story ... except it isn't. Because once Kate...

"The latest entry in Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger's popular Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery series, featuring fifteen talented authors and a multitude of new cases for Arthur Conan Doyle's most acclaimed detective. Sherlock Holmes has not only captivated readers for more than a century and a quarter, he has fascinated writers as well. Almost immediately, the detective's genius, mastery, and heroism became the standard by which other creators...