The third novel in Laurie King's riveting and intelligent series featuring Sherlock Holmes and his partner in sleuthing, Mary Russell.
It is August 1923 and all is quiet in the Holmes household in Sussex. Mary Russell works on academic research while Sherlock Holmes conducts malodorous chemistry experiments. But the peace comes crashing down when a figure from Mary's past enters their lives: Dorothy Ruskin, an amateur archaeologist recently returned from the Holy Land, pays the couple a visit, bringing with her a gift - a charming inlaid box containing a tattered roll of stained papyrus.
The evening following their meeting, Miss Ruskin dies in a traffic accident that Holmes and Mary soon prove was murder. But what was the motivation? Was it the inlaid box holding the manuscript? Or the woman's involvement in the volatile politics of the Holy Land? Or could it have been the scroll itself, a deeply troubling letter apparently written by Mary Magdalene that contains a biblical bombshell . . .
Perfectly combining the elements of crime and historical detail, 'A Letter of Mary' is a fascinating and beautifully observed novel from the award-winning Laurie King.
