The language of bees

The New York Times Bestseller.For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was a delicious anticipation.

There was even a mystery to solve the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmess beloved hives.

But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a bitter memory from her husbands past.

Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with and exonerated from murder.

Now the talented and troubled young man is enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child.

From suicides among the Standing Stones to a bizarre religious cult, from the demi-monde of the Caf Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young womans past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any shes ever faced a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.