Ever since I first picked up Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE from my mom's bookshelf of mystery novels more than 20 years ago, I have eagerly followed the adventures of Mary Russell and her husband, the detective Sherlock Holmes. In fact, I confess to enjoying King's new additions to the Holmes chronicles as much as I do Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories about the famed detective. It's both fun and fascinating to see the famous detective interact with a female companion who, in many ways, is his equal, his companion in life and in detection.

In King's accounts, set primarily in the 1920s, Holmes is already a celebrity, famous for appearing in the stories of Conan Doyle --- in fact, many readers of Conan Doyle's stories are convinced that Holmes is merely a fictional creation. In fact (according to King, anyway), Holmes is still very much alive and well and enjoying the public perception that he is merely a myth, not a man.

"DREAMING SPIES represents a return to form for King, who more recently had moved away somewhat from her reliably satisfying (but hardly formulaic) approach to earlier novels about Russell and Holmes. Here we see the couple doing their best work in tandem..."

King's 12 prior Mary Russell novels have taken place over a relatively concentrated period of time and have not unfolded strictly chronologically. DREAMING SPIES fills in a much-speculated-about gap in the narration --- answering the question of what happened to the couple during their brief time in Japan, sandwiched between the events narrated in previous installments.

As Russell and Holmes embark on their trip to Japan, Russell admits to anticipating the voyage since, unlike in their other adventures, her much older and more experienced husband doesn't actually know any more about Japanese language or culture than she herself does --- which is not very much at all. That's one of the reasons why Russell soon befriends a young Japanese woman on board their ship, an American-educated lady who claims that her family business is acrobatics, but who may harbor other, darker talents.

As for Holmes, he's keeping himself busy on board ship by investigating the activities of an Englishman who, he claims, is a notorious blackmailer. Of all the crimes, Holmes has the most contempt for blackmail, so he's eager to ferret out the truth about his fellow traveler. As it turns out, there are some surprising connections between the English blackmailer and the Japanese woman --- ones that will follow Holmes and Russell from the steam baths of Kyoto to the libraries of Oxford.

DREAMING SPIES represents a return to form for King, who more recently had moved away somewhat from her reliably satisfying (but hardly formulaic) approach to earlier novels about Russell and Holmes. Here we see the couple doing their best work in tandem, rarely lapsing into romanticism but always portraying their mutual respect and love for one another. Longtime fans of the series will be the most appreciative of this new installment, which fills a gap in the chronology and brings the Holmes and Russell chronicles up to date. But DREAMING SPIES could also be a useful entry point into the series and will certainly lead new readers to want to learn more about this unusual and unforgettable couple.