Laurie R. King

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Series: Russell & Holmes
Published by: Penguin Random House
Release Date: February 2027
Pages: 288

 
A joyously mixed bag of Laurie R. King’s short fiction, both new and beloved, that explore shifting cultures, moral ambiguity, and the different forms crime can take.

The cast of Mary Russell’s world feature in five of the stories. “Ten Years On” finds Russell spending her anniversary on an unexpected case, unearthing the fate of an Indian soldier. In one brand-new story, “Dr Watson and the Resident Ghost,” Watson approaches Russell with a case he doesn’t dare take to Sherlock Holmes. Two other unpublished tales, “The Art of the Scam” and “Two Kids on a Grift,” follow Russell’s charming though criminal Uncle Jake, while in “The Customer” we find our intrepid duo in…modern Arizona?

Seven of the tales travel beyond the world of Russell and Holmes: to 1980s Papua New Guinea in “The Salt Pond,” a haunted Northern California mansion in “The House,” a small town holding big secrets in the Edgar Award–shortlisted “Paleta Man,” and even to an alternate—or possibly yet to come—world in “Hellbender,” a gritty urban fantasy where genetic engineering meets the classic gumshoe PI.

There is even a suspense tale of a very different kind, Laurie’s modern Midrash that questions the assumptions of a 3000-year-old text of sacrifice, faith, and strength.

Mary Russell’s Ghost: thirteen stories that span multiple worlds, eras, and genres.

FROM THE WORLD OF MARY RUSSELL:

Dr Watson and the Resident Ghost
The Art of the Scam
Two Kids on a Grift
Ten Years On
The Customer

TALES FROM CALIFORNIA

Paleta Man
Weaving the Dark
The Salt Pond
The Fool
The House
Cat’s Paw
Hellbender

A MODERN MIDRASH

Mila’s Tale