The Language of Bees

About “The Language of Bees”

In a 2009 novel by Laurie R. King, Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, return to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad. Their homecoming is disrupted when a hive of bees disappears, leading to a mystery. They are soon drawn into a case involving Damian Adler, a painter who was previously charged with murder but later exonerated. Adler asks for their help in finding his missing wife and child. As Russell investigates, she encounters various forms of madness, including suicides at Stonehenge, a religious cult, and the dark past of a young woman in Shanghai. The case leads her to a dangerous killer, and she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of Holmes's past.