The Twentieth-Anniversary Edition of the First Novel of the Acclaimed Mary Russell Series by Edgar Award–Winning Author Laurie R. King. An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee • Named One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past. Full of brilliant deduction, disguises, and danger, The Beekeeper's Apprentice , the first book of the Mary Russell–Sherlock Holmes mysteries, is "remarkably beguiling" ( The Boston Globe ). “King has stepped onto the sacred literary preserve of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, poached Holmes, and brilliantly brought him to life again.” ― The Washington Post Book World “A fascinating and often moving account of a friendship so unusual and so compelling that one almost accepts it as being historically real.” ― The Denver Post “Enchanting... The Beekeeper's Apprentice is real Laurie R. King, not faux Conan Doyle, and for my money, it's better than the original.” ― San Jose Mercury News “Rousing...Riveting...Suspenseful.” ― Chicago Sun-Times In 1915, long since retired from his crime-fighting days, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybees on the Sussex Downs. Never did the Victorian detective think to meet an intellect matching his own-until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a young twentieth-century lady whose mental acuity is equaled only by her penchant for deduction, disguises, and danger. Under Holmes's reluctant tutelage, Russell embarks on a case involving a landowner's mysterious fever and the kidnapping of an American senator's daughter in the wilds of Wales. Then a near-fatal bomb on her doorstep-and another on Holmes's-sends the two sleuths on the trail of a murderer who scatters bizarre clues and seems utterly without motive. The villain's objective, however, is quite unequivocal: to end Russell and Holmes's partnership-and then their lives. Laurie R. King has twenty-three novels in print, most of them crime novels, that include the wildly popular Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series (The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Garment of Shadows.). Her novels have won the Edgar, Creasey, Wolfe, Lambda, and Macavity awards, been shortlisted for The Orange and other prizes, and appear regularly on the New York Times bestseller list. Laurie R. King has twenty-three novels in print, most of them crime novels, that include the wildly popular Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series (The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Garment of Shadows). Her novels have won the Edgar, Creasey, Wolfe, Lambda, and Macavity awards, and appear regularly on the New York Times bestseller list. The Beekeeper's Apprentice Or, On the Segregation of the Queen By Laurie R. King Picador Copyright © 1994 Laurie R. King All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-05570-5 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Introduction, Editor's Preface, Prelude, Book One: Apprenticeship, 1. Two Shabby Figures, 2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, 3. Mistress of the Hounds, 4. A Case of My Own, Book Two: Internship, 5. The Vagrant Gipsy Life, 6. A Child Gone from Her Bed, 7. Words with Miss Simpson, Book Three: Partnership, 8. We Have a Case, 9. The Game, Afoot, 10. The Problem of the Empty House, 11. Another Problem: The Mutilated Four-Wheeler, 12. Flight, Excursus: A Gathering of Strength, 13. Umbilicus Mundi, Book Four: Mastery, 14. The Act Begins, 15. Separation Trial, 16. The Daughter of the Voice, 17. Forces Joined, 18. Battle Royal, Postlude: Putting off the Armour, 19. Return Home, By Laurie R. King, About the Author, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 Two Shabby Figures The discovery of a sign of true intellect outside ourselves procures us something of the emotion Robinson Crusoe felt when he saw the imprint of a human foot on the sandy beach of his island. I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defence I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongst the sheep (which tended to move out of my way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness), I had never before stepped on a person. It was a cool, sun