

Rather than being another Dr Watson, Mary soon becomes as skilled an investigator as Holmes, so in fact she is the equivalent of a young female 20th century Sherlock Holmes. He states that Conan Doyle (who is Dr Watson’s literary agent in this version of the world) “thought to make me more dignified by exaggerating my age.” Since Mary is 15 at this date, there is a difference of 39 years between them. Holmes’ age: In “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice”, Holmes gives his age as 54, when he meets Mary in 1915. Some of his cases are assignments from his brother Mycroft, who is an important administrator in the civil service. Sherlock Holmes always addresses Mary as “Russell” (and she keeps her maiden name after they marry), and she always addresses him as “Holmes”.Īlthough Holmes has retired, from time to time he still does detective work. He often appears in the stories to assist Holmes and Mary. At the time of the Mary Russell stories, Billy has grown to adulthood, has a family, and runs an enquiry agency, employing some of the former Baker Street Irregulars.

As is made clear in “The Murder of Mary Russell”, Ms King has combined Conan Doyle’s characters Billy the page (who appears in some of Conan Doyle’s stories to announce visitors to Holmes at 221B Baker St) and Wiggins, the head of the Baker Street Irregulars (those street urchins who run errands for Holmes). Lestrade in Conan Doyle’s series.Īnd then there is Billy Mudd.


There is an Inspector John Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, in the “Mary Russell” series: he is the son of Inspector G. A few other characters from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories also appear in the “Mary Russell” series, particularly Dr John H Watson, Mycroft Holmes, and Mrs Hudson. Sherlock Holmes, of course, is a character in stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. This series describes the life and adventures of a young woman, Mary Russell, who meets Sherlock Holmes after he has retired to Sussex, and becomes his apprentice in detection, then his partner, and finally marries him at the end of the second book.
