Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

 

Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, have been working a case in India for many weeks.  Their next stop will be California but they decide to break the trip with a stay in Japan where neither of them have ever been.  They board a cruise ship for a trip that will take many weeks.  That makes those riding with them very important.  They are thrilled to meet Haruki Sato, a young Japanese woman returning home who agrees to teach them the language and customs of Japan while on the trip.  They are less pleased to see another group of travelers.  Lord Darcy is a figure from Holmes' past and a blackmailer working in the upper reaches of society.  Holmes despises blackmailers and is determined to keep an eye on Darcy, his new wife and his grown son while on the trip.

The couple is shocked when an evening stroll on the ship reveals Haruki balancing far above on a line and more shocked when she confides in them that she is a ninja, the class of warrior below samurai.  She serves the Emperor and more commonly, his son who is Emperor in all but name as the presiding Emperor is in quite bad health.  

When Holmes and Russell reach Japan, Haruki travels with them, introducing them to Japanese baths, food, architecture and inns.  In one of these, they meet the young soon to be Emperor and he requests their help.  Several years before he gave a book to the English king to show appreciation for his hosting.  He learns later that it is a priceless treasure that should never have left Japan and contains a secret document that is critically important.  He is now being blackmailed by Lord Darcy to get the book back.  Russell and Holmes agree to help but the book is lost along with Lord Darcy's life in the blackmail attempt.

Two years later, Russell returns home one night to find Haruki in her kitchen bleeding profusely.  She is in England to try again to retrieve the book and now the blackmail amount is four times as much.  Can she and the Holmes/Russell couple succeed where they failed before?

This is the thirteenth novel in this series and it won the Agatha Award for Best Historical Fiction.  Readers will enjoy reading more about the relationship between the couple as well as their working lives and will learn much about Japan in the 1920's.  This has been a successful series for King and she plans to continue writing novels in it.  This book is recommended for Holmes fans and readers who enjoy historical mysteries.