Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

(I received an Advance Reader Copy of Dreaming Spies from Net Galley.
Also mild spoilers.)

My love of Laurie R King's Mary Russell has been previously documented on this site here.

As I stated in my previous review, in this series, King has re-envisioned Sherlock Holmes, and Mary Russell is his partner in life and in solving crimes.  King's Sherlock is completely awesome.

Seriously, Ms. King writes the best Sherlock.
And I don't care who thinks that's blasphemous.
Best Sherlock is best.

Anyway, a new Mary Russell book, Dreaming Spies,  is coming on February 17, 2015.

Image from Amazon.com

This story is set on a cruise ship, in Japan and at Oxford.  The Russell-Holmeses do get around.

Traveling on a ship from India to America, Sherlock recognizes a man he believes to be involved with blackmail.  Russell knows well that Holmes need a good puzzle to keep himself occupied, and she wonders if his not-quite-obsession in ferreting out the blackmailer is just a means to avoid boredom.  (Russell prefers to entertain herself on-board with her reading material.)

But as hard as Mary works to convince herself that Sherlock merely needs a distraction, she can't help but notice some strange things happening on the ship--a passenger goes missing, the possessions of other passengers are being moved around, and Holmes and Russell meet an actual, real-life shinobi or ninja.

At the behest of the shinobi, they change their plans. They disembark in Japan and hitchhike, incognito, through the countryside--acquiring an appreciation and familiarity with Japanese customs. As they're mastering the art of hiding in plain sight, they're asked to help avert a national crisis. Despite their best efforts, foiling the plot costs two men they're lives.  And when they return home, the dramatic entrance of the shinobi  suggests that the case wasn't closed when they left Japan.

Dreaming Spies, like so many of the Mary Russell books, is a mystery wrapped in a travelogue.  If you haven't read one yet, start at the beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice, but, please do start. The series has all the smart detection of classic Sherlock with much better character development, and loving dedication and appreciation of world cultures.