Bestseller King's so-so 17th thriller featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, picks up where 2018's Island of the Mad left off, in Venice and later the French Riviera, where Mary is on holiday by herself in 1925. She suspects Holmes is off on an inquiry he's keeping secret from her. Mary is feeling bereft because Holmes's landlady, Mrs. Hudson, whom she has come to regard as a surrogate grandmother, has abruptly disappeared. The older woman, a reformed con artist with a link to a vast missing fortune in King's revisionist portrayal, has many secrets. Mary learns that Mrs. Hudson may have even more secrets after the landlady, who reappears as a nurse maid to American socialites Gerald and Sara Murphy, is discovered holding a gun over the body of a murdered man in Monaco. Mary ends up investigating to clear Mrs. Hudson's name. Holmes plays a minor role at best when he eventually surfaces, and some Sherlockians won't care for the focus on the hidden life of Mrs. Hudson. This entry requires a high level of suspension of disbelief even for series fans. Agent: Zoe Quinton, Zoe Quinton Lit. (June)

This latest adventure starring Mary Russell, the young wife of Sherlock Holmes, takes up where Island of the Mad (2018) ended. Mary leaves Venice for a romp on the Riviera, with Sherlock to follow. It starts as fun and sun, with Mary included in Gerald and Sara Murphy's jazz-age set, but things become complicated when she discovers that Mrs. Hudson, Holmes' former housekeeper, has settled in Monte Carlo. Hudson, who, during the course of the series, has revealed unsuspected layers, does so again here, including a friendship with a legendary beauty. When a young man is found dead in Hudson's rooms, and she's arrested for murder, Mary and Holmes spring into action, soon finding themselves in the middle of an international mystery that involves high stakes both financially and politically. King's formula is well honed by now, but that doesn't make her books any less entertaining. Cleverly, she usually adds a topic readers may not think they're interested in--here it's bronze casting--and makes it fascinating. Hints of ardor between Russell and Holmes (absent in previous adventures) add a bit of frisson.