An intelligent and beautifully written mystery featuring a retired Sherlock Holmes, who meets his match in precocious fifteen-year-old orphan Mary Russell. Russell impresses the legendary Holmes with her intellect and sharp tongue, and Holmes takes her under his wing. The pair set out across England to solve a series of mysteries, getting along at times like oil and water, at others like two cantankerous peas in a pod. King captures the acuity and fastidiousness of Conan Doyle’s original Holmes, and creates a very likable character in Mary Russell. This the first (and my favorite) in an ongoing Russell/Holmes series.