A Monstrous Regiment of Women - Laurie R. King [0]
Laurie R. King
MARY RUSSELL-SHERLOCK HOLMES 02
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A 3S digital back-up edition 1.0
click for scan notes and proofing history
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Contents
Editor’s Preface
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|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|
Postscript
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St. Martin’s Press - New York
Previous books by Laurie R. King
Also about Mary Russell
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
and about Kate Martinelli
To Play the Fool
A Grave Talent
A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN. Copyright © 1995 by Laurie R. King. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
King, Laurie R.
A monstrous regiment of women / Laurie R. King
p. cm.
“A Thomas Dunne book.”
ISBN 0-312-13565-3
1. Holmes, Sherlock (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women detectives—England—London—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.I4813M66 1995
813'.54—dc20 95-21088
CIP
First edition: September 1995
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for Zoe
τό φω̃ς των άνθρώπων
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
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The story between these covers is the second I have resuscitated from the bottom of a tin trunk that I received anonymously some years ago. In my editor’s introduction to the first, which was given the name The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, I admitted that I had no idea why I had been the recipient of the trunk and its contents. They ranged in value from an emerald necklace to a small worn photograph of a thin, tired-looking young man in a WWI army uniform.
There were other intriguing objects as well: The coin with a hole drilled through it, for example, heavily worn on one side and scratched with the name IAN on the other, must surely tell a story; so, too, the ragged shoelace, carefully wound and knotted, and the short stub of a beeswax candle. But the most amazing thing, even for someone like myself who is no particular Sherlock Holmes scholar, are the manuscripts. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice told of the early days of a partnership heretofore unknown to the world: that of young Mary Russell and the middle-aged and long-retired Sherlock Holmes.
These literally are manuscripts, handwritten on various kinds of paper. Some of them were easy enough to decipher, but others, two of them in particular, were damned hard work. This present story was the worst. It looked as if it had been rewritten a dozen or more times, with parts of pages torn away, scraps of others inserted, heavy cross-hatching defying all attempts at bringing out the deleted text. This was not, I think, an easy book for Ms. Russell to write.
As I said, I have no idea why this collection was sent to me. I believe, however, that the sender, if not the author herself, may still be alive. Among the letters generated by the publication of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice was an odd and much-travelled postcard, mailed in Utrecht. It was an old card, with a sepia photograph of a stone bridge over a river, a long flat boat with a man standing at one end holding a pole and a woman in Edwardian dress sitting at the other, and three swans. The back was printed with the caption, FOLLY BRIDGE, OXFORD. Written on it, in handwriting similar to that of the manuscripts, was my name and address, and beside that the phrase, “More to follow.” I certainly hope so.
—Laurie R. King
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For who can deny that it is repugnant to nature that the blind shall be appointed to lead and conduct such as do see, that the weak, the sick and the impotent shall nourish and keep the whole and the strong, and, finally, that the foolish, mad, and frenetic shall govern the discrete and give counsel to such as be sober of mind? And such be all women compared to man in bearing of authority.
—John Knox (1505-1572)
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous