From a New York Times –bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author, follow Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in this next "lively adventure" as they investigate an ancient letter and a puzzling murder ( The New York Times Book Review ). It is 1923. Mary Russell Holmes and her husband, the retired Sherlock Holmes, are enjoying the summer together on their Sussex estate when they are visited by an old friend, Miss Dorothy Ruskin, an archeologist just returned from Palestine. She leaves in their protection an ancient manuscript which seems to hint at the possibility that Mary Magdalene was an apostle—an artifact certain to stir up a storm of biblical proportions in the Christian establishment. When Ruskin is suddenly killed in a tragic accident, Russell and Holmes find themselves on the trail of a fiendishly clever murderer. A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King is brimming with political intrigue, theological arcana, and brilliant Holmesian deductions. Praise for A Letter of Mary "The great marvel of King's series is that she's managed to preserve the integrity of Holmes's character and yet somehow conjure up a woman astute, edgy, and compelling enough to be the partner of his mind as well as his heart. . . . superb." — The Washington Post Book World "A wonderful book, simultaneously inventive, charming, witty, and suspenseful. I loved it." —Elizabeth George "An intellectual puzzler, full of bright red herrings and dazzling asides." — Chicago Tribune