In a case that will push their relationship to the breaking point, Mary Russell must help reverse the greatest failure of her legendary husband’s storied past—a painful and personal defeat that still has the power to sting…this time fatally.

For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives.

But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

When it comes to communal behavior, Russell has often observed that there are many kinds of madness. And before this case yields its shattering solution, she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to a bizarre religious cult, from the demimonde of the Café Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

勞拉.金（Laurie R. King），齣生於1952年，美國著名推理小說傢，著作數十部，部部登上暢銷書排行榜，其中“瑪麗.羅素與大偵探福爾摩斯”係列令其聲名遠播。

迄今她已獲得或提名瞭幾乎全部推理界的奬項，堪稱阿加莎.剋裏斯蒂之後的女性推理小說傢*一人。這些奬項包括美國偵探作傢協會頒發的全世界偵探小說*權*奬項埃德加.愛倫.坡奬，美國國傢懸疑作品協會頒發的美國*著名推理小說奬項阿加莎奬，英國*重要的文學奬項之一橘子奬，以及尼祿.沃爾夫奬、剋利西奬、麥剋維蒂奬、巴利奬等等。