Dreaming Spies by Laurie R King is a Sherlock Holmes mystery featuring his wife Mary Russell. Mary explains the story like this: “The entire case was about books…I reflected. Bashō’s poems, the Bard’s plays, a countess’s empty Bible.” While the mystery ends with a Watson-like explanation of the complex plot, much of the story is a 1924 travelogue of a steamer trip Bombay to Kobe and a visit to Japan. Well over half the book is gone before the mystery is revealed.
Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes’ wife, takes the place of Watson as narrator, but also plays a very active role in the narrative, doing her own independent investigations. The third detective is Haruki Sato. She is a member of an ancient family of shinobi (ninja) dedicated to the protection of the emperor. In addition to her ninja training, she went to school at NYU.
The antagonists are Lord James Darley, his younger second wife Lady Charlotte Darley, and his reprobate son Viscount Tommy Darley. All the Darleys have questionable reputations, but nothing specific has been proven.
Much of the plot revolves around an illustrated book of Matsuo Bashō’s haiku—Bashō being the master and inventor of haiku.
As fitting for a Sherlock Holmes novel featuring rare books, the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford University is prominently featured.
If you imagine you’d like both a historical visit to rural Japan and a Sherlock Holmes mystery, I’d recommend this book, as both parts are well written and interesting.
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