Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Locked Rooms: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
    Unavailable
    Locked Rooms: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
    Unavailable
    Locked Rooms: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
    Ebook506 pages7 hours

    Locked Rooms: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes

    By Laurie R. King

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    “A truly bravura performance [with] all the magnetic appeal of the best of the original Conan Doyle novels.”—The Strand Magazine

    En route to San Francisco to settle her family’s estate, Mary Russell, in the company of husband Sherlock Holmes, falls prey to troubling dreams—and even more troubling behavior. In 1906, when Mary was six, the city was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake. For years Mary has insisted she lived elsewhere at the time. But Holmes knows better.

    Soon it is clear that whatever unpleasantness Mary wanted to forget hasn’t forgotten her. A series of mysterious deaths leads Russell and Holmes from the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic “accident” that Mary alone survived. What Russell discovers is that even a forgotten past never dies . . . and it can kill again.

    BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Laurie R. King's The God of the Hive and Pirate King.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJun 21, 2005
    ISBN9780553901597
    Author

    Laurie R. King

    Laurie R. King is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Kate Martinelli novels and the acclaimed Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mysteries, as well as a few stand-alone novels. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first in her Mary Russell series, was nominated for an Agatha Award and was named one of the Century’s Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. A Monstrous Regiment of Women won the Nero Wolfe Award. She has degrees in theology, and besides writing she has also managed a coffee store and raised children, vegetables, and the occasional building. She lives in northern California.

    Read more from Laurie R. King

    Related to Locked Rooms

    Related ebooks

    Historical Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels

      Feb 3, 2022

      The paradox of imagined apocalypses is that they’re always more about the present than the future. Here's a list of a few haunting and evocative titles. The post Nine Haunting Postapocalyptic Novels appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      To Catch A Woozle

      Apr 1, 2020

      To Catch A Woozle
      5 min read

    • Article

      The World The Book Can Build

      Oct 13, 2021

      The World The Book Can Build
      12 min read

    • Article

      And When She Speaks: On ‘Fire Season’

      Jan 17, 2023

      Krow manages to write a novel that is both apocalyptic and optimistic. The post And When She Speaks: On ‘Fire Season’ appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Clarice Lispector’s Children’s Story Taught Me to Read Her Like An Adult

      Mar 17, 2017

      Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar was asked to write an introduction to the translated edition of Clarice Lispector’s final novel Breath of Life. Instead of a formal introduction, his refusal letter was published and said this of Lispector’s work: “Each phra

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Daniel Levin Becker

      Dec 17, 2019

      This year, I read in twos. Maybe this is always happening and I just started noticing. I also have a brain that’s unrepentantly hungry for patterns, so who knows. The post A Year in Reading: Daniel Levin Becker appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Nov 2, 2023

      I’m not sure if I can truly pinpoint the moment my new novel Once A Monster was born – but I can trace the history of some of its most important ingredients. As a boy, looking through an old illustrated book of Greek myths, and being at once captiva

      5 min read

    • Article

      Solving Riddles, Reading Poems

      Nov 28, 2017

      Solving Riddles, Reading Poems
      6 min read

    • Article

      Entry Points

      Mar 8, 2022

      WHEN FINALLY it was time for our daughter to be born and I headed out on the Green Line from Copley Square to the Brigham, I had only the one book I’d brought with me to work that morning in my backpack, Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World. I’

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Spectre Of The Past

      Jan 25, 2024

      The Spectre Of The Past
      6 min read

    • Article

      Craft Corner: The Millions Interviews Samanta Schweblin

      May 27, 2020

      All writers have something of the voyeur about us. We want to look at others in order to understand ourselves. The post Craft Corner: The Millions Interviews Samanta Schweblin appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 27, 2022

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS Although I was very happy to see my two ShukerNature books receive a positive joint review [FT411:65], I have to corr

      7 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      What We Loved This Week

      Aug 17, 2018

      What We Loved This Week
      4 min read

    • Article

      What We Loved This Week

      Aug 24, 2018

      What We Loved This Week
      5 min read

    • Article

      I Used To Be Well Read

      Jun 29, 2022

      I Used To Be Well Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      What We Loved This Week

      Jun 1, 2018

      What We Loved This Week
      5 min read

    Reviews for Locked Rooms

    4/5

    640 ratings49 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Ms. King weaves a stunning world in which Holmes is not a narcissist in the least, while somehow remaining true to the erstwhile detective many of us have come to love.
    • 5/5
      I love this book, I've read it more than once, twice, maybe even more than thrice. The author does a fantastic job of not only giving us a twisty plot, but also developing the characters even more so, beyond the previous installments of the series. I don't think there is anything I can fault in this one.
    • 4/5
      Mary Russell has faced an conquered the nightmare recurrence of her family's death and learned to cope with the guilt she feels; believing that her immature argument with her brother had distracted her father and caused the accident. But traveling to San Francisco brings new disturbing dreams and the emotions surrounding her return to her childhood home and the discovery that the woman doctor who had treated her after the accident was murdered only months after her own departure for England. Her family's two Chinese servants had also been murdered, and someone takes a shot at Mary outside the Pacific Heights mansion. Holmes sees that Mary is too emotionally involved to investigate, yet resents his attempts. While following Mary, he meets Dashiell Hammett, a tubercular ex-Pinkerton and recruits him. Eventually the mystery is solved, and Mary's conscience is cleared. The description of San Francisco in full recovery from the 1906 quake is contrasted with descriptions of the destruction and chaos of the quake and fire.
    • 5/5
      The plot is far from being "thin." Locked Rooms is a real page-turner and it is fascinating to delve into Mary Russell's hidden past, watching her puzzle out the mystery of its blank pages piece by piece, reeling from delayed shock and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as she slowly unlocks the rooms of her childhood and becomes whole. Perhaps the story draws me more strongly as a PTSD sufferer myself, but I found it richly textured and irresistable. It was quite a treat to read a more "psychological" mystery. King also finds an unusual way to solve the mystery-within-the-mystery at the end. All in all, an immensely satisfying read.
    • 5/5
      Excellent installment in the Mary Russell series. I read it years ago and remembered it a little but it was still terrific. I pciked it up to read again because of how it fits with Mary Russell's war.
    • 4/5
      While I liked learning a bit of Mary's backstory, this one didn't grab me as much as the rest of the series. It just felt too long, like the buildup was 95% of the book and then all of the action occurred in the last 5%.
    • 4/5
      Such an interesting installment in the series. I think this is my favorite since the first two books.

      To my slight disappointment, this did not actually turn out to be a locked-room mystery (a crime was committed in a room in which all the doors locked from the inside! - a trope I find particularly delicious) but was fully worthwhile regardless.

      There are several departures in this book from the style of previous Mary Russell stories. This one is told both from Mary's first-person perspective and then from a third-omniscient perspective based around Holmes' actions when Mary is not present. The preface from the "editor" explains that the third-person passages were probably also written by Mary, according to her suppositions of what happened. That particular conceit (that King is the Editor and Mary the Author) always kind of annoys me, and this no less, but I did like to see some of Holmes' perspective. It's always been slightly bothersome, in previous novels, that to find out what he's been up to, we've had to listen to him sit and recount his actions to Mary, rather than go with him as he performed him. So I applaud King for this new technique, and hope we see more of it in future installments.

      The second thing that was different in this tale was Mary's condition - weak and lost and rather incompetent in the face of her own personal horrors. It was rather sad to see her so off her game, but I suppose that made her recovery the more welcome when it came. I like, however, that she isn't infallible.

      I also really enjoyed the connection to the San Francisco events of 1906. The earthquake and fires are events I've long been fascinated by, and the perspectives provided in this tale felt well-researched and authentic. The emotional devastation of an event like that cannot be captured by news reports or broad, sweeping stories, but to see it in individual lives of people it touches gives much better perspective.

      The mystery itself was okay. I like slow-reveals and found this one to be satisfying. The idea that our heroine's past is more tragic than we already knew - that there was reason behind what was previously a senseless event in her past - is a bit cliched, and so very novel-esque, but even that brings its own satisfaction. The reasons for the murders are clear, though I'm not perfectly sure why Rosa needed to be there as a second criminal. Was Robert insufficient to act on his own? Her motivations for helping him are the murkiest bit of the tale.

      So. A delightful read.
    • 4/5
      I always enjoy the Mary Russell books. This had a good mystery and it was actually nice to see Mary as a bit more human and less perfect. I also liked seeing the POV of Holmes, revealing his affection for her.
    • 2/5
      I was disappointed in this one, which seems to be a trend with this series. I keep looking for the Mary Russell that was in earlier books. This older Mary is not the strong, interesting woman, who doesn't get led around blindly. Instead, she flounders. The book was interesting and moved briskly along, but there was something lacking.
    • 4/5

      This episode in the Mary Russell series finds Russell and Holmes in San Francisco, where Russell is to attend to business related to her parents' estate. As Russell gets closer to San Francisco, she becomes increasingly disturbed by nightmares which appear to be linked to childhood events. Once the pair arrive, they naturally become embroiled in a mystery, which is resolved with the assistance of a band of Irregulars, including young crime fiction writer and former Pinkerton's detective, Dashiell Hammett.

      There's lots to love about the series in general and this book in particular. King writes very fine prose which is a joy to read and her evocation of place and time is superb. In this novel, San Francisco in the mid-1920s and at the time of the 1906 earthquake comes vividly alive. I particularly enjoyed the setting, having visited San Francisco earlier this year. In addition, she continues to develop her central characters. In this episode, Russell shows great vulnerability, which is an interesting change, and plot developments mean that part of the narrative is from Holmes' perspective, which is an added bonus. I really like the way King makes Holmes her own creation by distancing him from Conan Doyle's Holmes within the text, while having him retain enough of the original Holmes' characteristics to be recognisable. Also, Dashiell Hammett is worked into the plot in an interesting an inventive way. References to "the thin man" to describe the tubercular Hammett made me smile.

      There are some less satisfying elements of the novel. The plot is coincidence layered with implausibility. There is, for example, no convincing reason why the culprit, who killed so many people to cover his tracks, would not have done in Russell much earlier in the piece. Also, the resolution is not exactly very exciting. Moreover, King hovers on the edge of having her characters display attitudes which appear anachronistic for the period in which the novel is set.

      In the hands of a less skilled writer, this could be fairly ordinary crime fiction. However, I don't read crime fiction for verisimilitude and I don't read this series for the plot. As long as King delivers interesting characters and a great setting in her elegant prose, I'm there. Once again, I regret that it took me so long to decide to read this series. On the other hand, it's great to still have a few more to read before I get to the stage of hanging out for the next instalment.
    • 5/5
      I loved to revisit these two characters. The added viewpoint was an interesting twist. Russell's mental fight with her past rang true, even while leading to out of character behaviour for her.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this installation in Laurie King's Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series. While I admire King's writing, and am an avid reader of these mysteries, the founding premise of this novel, based as it is on a too-convenient reversal of a basic tenet of Russell's life, gives me pause. I found Russell admirable for finding strength to live a purposeful life in the face of a great burden of guilt. This book removes that burden, which is probably good for Russell, but I found it unsatisfactory in its execution. However, once past that objection, the book has a great deal to offer. As with most of these books, King serves up a healthy portion of history mixed in with the plot, in this case the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The story fills in gaps of Russell's life, gaps that neither Russell nor the reader knew were missing. We are also treated to some charming proof of the logical Holmes' love for his young wife, as well as to Holmes' encounter with Dashiell Hammet.
    • 5/5
      This is absolutely my most favorite series ever! Every book in the series is fantastic-5 star! If you like Sherlock Holmes, you have to read this pastiche. King's is the best one I've read yet.
    • 5/5
      I believe this is book 8 in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series which Laurie R. King writes so beautifully. This is one of the first in which we start to see the world through eyes other than Russell, in this case, Holmes himself. (As a Holmes fan since the age of 12, do you think I was excited about this? I guess so!) And Laurie King does not disappoint. Russell has been knocked off her pins, more than a bit, due to a series of revelations about her past. And in this book most of it is clarified.I put in my usual warning: don't read this if you have to get to sleep in 20 minutes!If you don't know the series, start with the first: The Beekeeper's Apprentice. If you don't believe someone could write the "next Holmes stories" and do it well (neither did I), you could start with The Moor. I think you will be thrilled.
    • 3/5
      nice holmes and female detective details. typically british superior. stupid error her father makes during san francisco fire by trusting a friend leads to murder.
    • 4/5
      Another great installment; maybe not quite to the level of some of the others, but entirely respectable nonetheless. Dashiell Hammett as walk-on character was fun, too. It's still a little strange to have Holmes so far out of his London element, though, and to have Mycroft and Watson so far offstage.
    • 4/5
      This is my favorite of the series. Not only do we finally piece together some of the details of Mary Russell's pre-Holmes days, there's a nicely done departure in narration that presents part of the story from Holmes' viewpoint. We also get to meet a young and appealing Dashiell Hammett...a nice characterization of the (at the time of the novel) struggling writer.
    • 3/5
      This is the 8th novel in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series of suspense, and the only one so far that I found creepy. It may have been my state of mind when I was reading it, but I look back on this book with an unsettled feeling.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars.

      Better than the last one (with the bizarre look at colonial British India). Bringing Dash Hammett into the 'verse is a little too cute, and yet at the same time I'm very fond of him as a character. It'd be nice to see him join them for a different sort of adventure.

      Disability tag: the bad guy has severely disfiguring burn scars gained during looting in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. A minor character has disabilities from a fall that broke many bones. Hammett has TB.
    • 5/5
      I greatly enjoyed this, and decided to give this full marks. The series is basically Sherlock Holmes fanfic, with the great detective given a female romantic and professional partner. So many ways it could have gone wrong, but I never have felt King's creation Mary Russell was a Mary Sue--for all her capabilities she has had her vulnerabilities, and I think this installment is among the most personal and introspective of the books, and I loved that aspect. One thing I've enjoyed about the books so far, and this is the eighth of them, is that King keeps changing things up so they're fresh. Even the narrative technique is different in this one, consisting not only of Russell's first person narrative, but third person from other perspectives. And, as usual--and it's infectious--you can tell King has a blast with these, this one perhaps more than usual. The Moor has the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles for its basis. The Game was set in India under the British Raj and was a homage to Kipling's Kim. This one takes place in 1924 San Francisco. King is a California native and resident and she even slips an ancestor who survived the famous 1906 quake into the narrative as a character. She writes San Francisco with evident affection, and even included Dashiell Hammett, the one time Pinkerton Agent and mystery writer, as a character. There's even a playful reference to Conan Doyle, Holmes' creator... er, I mean biographer. This novel isn't quite the favorite some of the other Russell novels have been--The Beekeeper's Apprentice, A Letter of Mary and Justice Hall--but boy was this a pleasure. It was a treat in particular to get more of Holmes from his own perspective.
    • 4/5
      This is my favorite of Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes stories. We find out so much about Mary Russell's past, and what a surprise it is.
    • 5/5
      Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have finished their stay in India and are traveling to San Francisco so that Russell can visit her inherited holdings there. On the way, Russell begins to have recurring nightmares which Holmes believes have something to do with her childhood in San Francisco and the accident that killed her parents and brother when she was 14. Holmes soon finds Russell unreliable and Russell finds that everything is not as she remembered.This book is the 8th in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R King. I have enjoyed each of the books as I have read them, and each one seems better than the last. This particular book, I just could not put down. It was exciting and suspenseful every step of the way, and the way that the relationship between Russell and Holmes is portrayed is wonderful.King does such a good job of describing and letting us get to know the characters. I now feel as though Russell and Holmes are old friends. This book is unique in the Russell/Holmes series as part is written in first person from Russell's point of view and part is written in third person centering upon Holmes. Interestingly, when reading the last book, I had thought that I would like to get more from Holmes perspective, and I was pleased to see it had happened.I really enjoy King's writing style. It flows and makes me feel as though I am really there with the characters. It is easy to read, and the dialogue rings true. In my opinion there is certainly nothing wrong with this book. I highly recommend this book, however, I would not read it as the first in the series as it will not mean as much without reading at least the first book first.
    • 4/5
      After their Indian adventures, Russell and Holmes continue on eastward toward California. During the voyage Russell is wracked by three odd and disquieting dreams, the unraveling of which in San Francisco leads her to a rediscovery of suppressed childhood memories and an unexpected discovery regarding her parents' death.Despite (or perhaps because of) the strange construction of the story, alternating between Russell's first person narration and a third person account of Holmes' parallel activities, I enjoyed the book very much, and am looking forward to the newest addition to the series (Dreaming Spies) which fills in a skipped episode briefly referred to in Russell's journey from India to California.
    • 5/5
      I can't get enough of this series! I am kicking myself now that I held off on reading them because I didn't like Sherlock Holmes (after being forced to read "Hound of the Baskervilles" in grade nine).

      In this book, King changes things up again and writes in third person for the first time in this series. At first I wasn't sure but I decided that I liked it - I have no idea how close Holmes' thoughts were to the original character by Doyle, but it sounded good to me! Great story, nice incorporation of storylines from other books without making you feel like you need to reread them to catch details, and a wonderful conclusion. I hope this isn't the last of the Russell books - I must admit that I keep hoping at the end to find Russell pregnant - what would Sherlock Holmes do with a child of his own?
    • 4/5
      I surprised myself by giving this 4 stars - might get downgraded later - but I really did enjoy it. The construction of the book is so complicated (time wise as well as two voices) that she nearly lost control at times, but I enjoy very much the way she keeps all the time lines going, and mostly enables the reader to keep up. So now I have read #9 #1 and #8 and I've ordered #7 'The Game' to read next.
    • 3/5
      Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, sail to San Francisco to settle her parents' estate. While there they undercover the reason for Mary's nightmares which relate to the great earthquake and fire to solve the murders of several close friends and associates of her parents.Was a little repetitious in that the story was told from both Mary and Holmes point of view.
    • 1/5
      I found this book to border on pathetic.First the idea that Sherlock Holmes would be married is proposterous. Having him play second fiddle to a second rate detective is also absurd. If an author is going to put Holmes into a book, they need to be up to the task. While i finished the book by the time i got to the end i really had lost all interest.David Perrings
    • 5/5
      Back in her hometown of San Francisco, will Russell come to terms with the loss of her family and the gaps in her memory? Will returning to her families home, left vacant all these years help or hurt? Sherlock is slightly at sea, as dependable Russell becomes Mary the vulnerable child and Mary the willful 'flapper'. He manages to separate the two and solve the old mysteries that bedevil his wife.
    • 5/5
      I'm a big fan of this series (Mary Russell) and this was one of the best!
    • 3/5
      Mary Russell heads to San Fransisco - where she last left after the death of her entire family not long before we meet her. She's come to perhaps break her ties, but instead discovers an old mystery lying in wait for her - and what she cannot remember. A cameo, shall we say, by another narrator changes the usual first-person structure usual to the Russell books, but serves pretty well. Learning more of Russell's background is well worth the read.