The Lantern's Dance - A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes

Informationen zum Autor Laurie R. King Klappentext "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 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' grand-uncle, 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 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?"-- Leseprobe Chapter One “Let me help,” he said. “I can manage.” “Russell, I’ll get the—” “I’m fine, Holmes,” I snapped. I was not fine. And when it came to admitting that an infirmity might require some help, I was proving nearly as cantankerous as Sherlock Holmes himself could be. “I can—” “Holmes, just pay the ruddy driver, I’ll send someone out for the bags.” Assuming they hadn’t changed their minds as to the invitation. Or gone off to the South of France for the month. “Watch the—” “I see it!” And nearly tripped over it, one crutch-leg sliding into an ill-fitting stone on the walk. But he let me get on with my halting progress, stumping along the walk-way towards the brightly painted door while the taxi-driver undid the rope strapping our trunks and valises in place. We’d expected to be met when we got off at the station in nearby Délieux. And though the absence of a car might have been a message of sorts—that antipathy had returned, that we should simply continue on to Paris—we had been invited, we had accepted, and we had cabled ahead with our information. And even if the absence of greeting at the station had been due merely to the chronic forgetfulness of an artist, one would have thought that Damian’s doctor fiancée, who had impressed even Holmes as being marvellously competent, would remember the arrival of her soon-to-be in-laws. (Stepmother-in-law? Me?) I reached the end of the pathway without mishap, negotiated my way up the two low steps, settled my balance so I could reach out for the bell—then stopped, abruptly, three feet from the front door. After a moment, leaving the crutches tucked under my aching arms, I unfurled my fingers from the grips and raised them, hands outstretched. Resentments, unsettled scores, and long-standing acrimony were one thing. What I had not anticipated was being met by the sound of a break-action shotgun snapping into place behind me. Chapter Two I stood utterly still. So did the person with the shotgun. The voices from the lane concluded their business. A car door sl...

Product details

• Authors: Laurie R King, Laurie R. King
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.02.2024
• EAN: 9780593496596
• ISBN: 978-0-593-49659-6
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 241 mm x 28 mm
• Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense