tamaranth | 2025/076: Knave of Diamonds

2025/076: Knave of Diamonds — Laurie R King

I'd planned this. (I plan everything, so you can bet I'd worked on how to do this.) (Not, mind you, that I'd entirely decided just how much to tell her.) (And about whom.) [loc. 602]

I was an avid reader of Laurie R King's Mary Russell books (in which an elderly Sherlock Holmes marries a young woman of considerable talents) -- my enthusiasm waned around Pirate King, and though I've read and enjoyed several novels in the series since then, there are definitely others I've missed. No matter! This, the nineteenth novel in the series, more or less stands alone (though there are clear and rather intriguing references to earlier books) and I found it engaging and fun, though (again) Russell and Holmes are separated for a good part of the novel.

The year is 1926. Mary has just returned from a wedding in France (cue a lot of namedropping: Hemingway, 'Scotty' Fitzgerald, Picasso...) when she's visited by her long-lost Uncle Jake, who she hasn't seen since before her parents died. Uncle Jake is a confidence trickster, a joker and a thief: and it turns out he has a story to tell about the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels back in 1907. Trouble is, Sherlock Holmes investigated that theft, and Jake has no desire whatsoever to encounter him. Luckily, Holmes is in London visiting his brother Mycroft -- so Jake and Mary head for Ireland, where there are safes to be cracked, old ladies who are tougher than they look, Irish wolfhounds, coverups at the highest levels, Ernest Shackleton's brother Frank, and several reunions.

Great fun, though the accounts of zig-zagging across the Irish Sea and placing faith in railway timetables were perhaps too evocative, and actually quite stressful! The story is told by three narrators: delightful though parenthetical Uncle Jake (who's almost certainly gay) and Mary Russell in first person, Holmes in third. There is period-accurate but open-minded discussion of 'homosexual rings': the author adds, in her afterword, 'one can only hope that the repercussions of being outed will continue to lose their power to destroy'. And between and around the excitement and adventure, there is character growth and reconciliation, as well as some delightful dialogue.

Yet again, this is a novel 'anglicised' by changing 'ize' to 'ise' and to hell with the consequences. (Sise, seise...) Publishers, please do a spell-check as well as a global replace!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 10th June 2025.