The Lantern's Dance
A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
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4.6 • 139 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal.
“Deftly interlacing present and past, King offers further fascinating insights into Holmes’s family while also delivering an intriguing mystery.”—The Washington Post
After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat.
Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ granduncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It’s an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating shade: an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern’s spin.
In the same crate is an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image—the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view.
Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets—or the threat hovering over the house?
The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian—and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself.
Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
King's sprawling 18th investigation for the now-retired Holmes and his much younger wife, Russell (after Castle Shade), finds the duo heading to the French countryside to visit Holmes's adult son, Damian Adler, whose mother is American contralto Irene Adler. Upon Holmes and Russell's arrival, they discover that Damian, his fiancée, and his precocious young daughter have fled to Paris following an alarming break-in at their home. Holmes sets off to find them, leaving Russell, who has injured her ankle, to stay behind. Bored, she rummages through a recently delivered steamer trunk containing memorabilia belonging to the prolifically artistic Vernet family, including a journal in coded French, which Russell takes pains to translate into English. She deciphers a series of passages written by a girl named Lakshmi, which King alternates with Holmes and Russell's pursuit of the home invaders. Soon, the pair is tangled up in a mystery involving kidnappers, a lost inheritance, and burning family secrets. The elaborate family lore King has constructed for Holmes impresses, and she pays longtime readers dividends with a number of satisfying disclosures about the detective's past. Series fans are sure to be pleased.
Customer Reviews
Remarkable
I am mesmerized by Ms. King’s ability to write for what must be a diverse and eclectic readership. I’ve been there since the beginning and am even more intrigued with how she ever knows where she’s going when she starts a new book. The writing never fails to inspire and Russell and Holmes never fail to surprise.
Ho-hum.
I just found it tedious. It seemed to be a backstory that could have been accounted for much more quickly. And it mainly seemed designed to give King options for plotting fire work.