The Language Of Bees
by Laurie R. King
Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, return to their Sussex cottage after an adventurous and exhausting year abroad. They find Mrs. Hudson, of course, but also an unexpected visitor: the brilliant and troubled surrealist painter Damian Adler, son of the late Irene Adler whom Holmes once knew. This diverting volume is, I think, the first half of a longer work. Though it leaves much unresolved and many loose ends untied, it’s a fine way to spend a few evenings.