Laurie King continues Conan Doyle´s stories about Sherlock Holmes, adding the originally missing female touch. She writes in a subtle, gentle way, quite old-fashioned, which makes pleasant reading from the beginning.

A 15-year-old American girl living in an English village with her aunt meets the great Holmes, who lives nearby as a beekeeper and eccentric, still cared for by Mrs Hudson. He recognises a similar, brilliant mind in young Mary and condecends to teach her, whenever she is home from school. She is trained to solve simple riddles, then simple cases. Together they set out to find a kidnapped girl, and it´s Mary´s masterpiece, when she manages to free the girl on her own. But that was only the starter. Mary goes to university in Oxford and there the real mystery develops involving all the familiar characters round Holmes, like Dr. Watson and Holmes´ brother Mycroft.

Although the plot is a bit far-fetched, you feel rather sad, when the story ends. It´s such good reading that you have to get the next volume of the series.