Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, appears to be imprisoned somewhere in London. There is an arrest warrant out for Damian, who they believe has murdered his wife. Holmes meanwhile has the injured and traumatized Damian to care for – on the run from Scotland Yard. But Robert cares for them well and Mary comes to trust him completely, as she must in order to protect Estelle. Mary knows that Robert’s has his own story is another mystery - about how he came to live in the woods, so apart from society. Mary Russell is assisted by Robert Goodman, a man who finds her in the woods and takes her into his home. Russell in England and Holmes on the continent. Russell and Holmes are separated for most of this novel, Russell caring for Estelle while Holmes cares for Damian. They are on the run from a very bad man who in the previous novel murdered Estelle’s mother and is now searching for the child and her father, Damian. A child she met only 2 hours earlier, Estelle Adler, the grand-daughter of Sherlock Holmes. It is August 1924 and Mary Russell is struggling, carrying a child through the forest. The latest installment in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series has the reader hit the ground running – as if it were simply the next chapter in the previous book in the series, The Language of Bees. There are some mystery novels that, although written in a series, do not need to be read in order.

With Child by Laurie R. King