The Beekeeper's Apprentice: Or, On the Segregation of the Queen

An Agatha Award Best Novel Nominee • Named One of the Century's Best 100Mysteries 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).

Praise for Laurie R. King and The Beekeeper's Apprentice :

"If there is a new P.D. James . . . I would put my money on Laurie King" — The Boston Globe

"Rousing . . . Riveting . . .Suspenseful." — Chicago Sun-Times

"King's novel is civilized, ingenious and engrossing. Best of all, it has heart." — Times Literary Review

"As every good mystery reader knows . . . Laurie King is the most interesting writer to emerge on the American crime fiction front in recent years. Intelligent, humane, gifted with both talent and insight, she is an unalloyed pleasure to read." —Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News

"Wonderfully original and entertaining . . . absorbing from beginning to end." — Booklist